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Optical audio out port
- Thread starter Bierzeit
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There is no toslink audio port on the iMac.
There is a combined port that accepts Apple's cable but both ends are not toslink or square.
There is a combined port that accepts Apple's cable but both ends are not toslink or square.
On the back is a 3.5 audio out jack. It is a dual jack that accepts a 3.5 headphone jack -or- a Female to Toslink Mini Male Adapter to which an optical toslink cable goes in. When inserting this adapter, the audio panel supposed to change to 'digital out'. Can't get the optical output to reflect the insertion of the adapter.
There are two adapters that look like that. One is not digital ( optical ) on the Mac side.
You may have the wrong cable.
You may have the wrong cable.
The adapter looks like this:
http://www.russandrews.com/product-Toslink-Adaptor-5714.htm
An optical cable goes into this, and the cable itself works on another device. So the cable itself is fine. When plugging this adapter into the port, it changes to 'headphones' in the audio panel -instead- of 'digital out'. I have researched this problem; there are hundreds of posts describing an opposite problem with their imac: the red light won't go out. On mine the red light won't come on.
http://www.russandrews.com/product-Toslink-Adaptor-5714.htm
An optical cable goes into this, and the cable itself works on another device. So the cable itself is fine. When plugging this adapter into the port, it changes to 'headphones' in the audio panel -instead- of 'digital out'. I have researched this problem; there are hundreds of posts describing an opposite problem with their imac: the red light won't go out. On mine the red light won't come on.
Have you tried using an optical cable with 3.5mm Toslink mini on one end and standard Toslink on the other instead of using an adapter? I have found on my sound system that adapters sometimes just don't work. I was told by a sound system shop that the light degrades through switchboxes and adapters.
Like this: http://www.overstock.com/Obiz/Digit...TosLink-Cable/5160813/product.html?cid=207675
That one is 12 feet but you can all different lengths
That one is 12 feet but you can all different lengths
No, I have not tried an optical cable with 3.5mm Toslink mini on one end and standard Toslink on the other, however, the adapter is just a 3.5mm plug and should activate the optical switch inside the port (and change the audio panel to 'digital out'). When inserted, the optical light should come on and shine through this adapter. I've gone into midi setup settings also to no avail. I'm wondering if there is a software setting to be tweaked in terminal or elsewhere. I guess I could try putting this adapter into another mac to test it. If the adapter (the second one I tried btw), activates the red light on the other mac, then the problem lies with my mac. I hope the optical circuit is not dead, if that's a possibility.
I agree with OP, that adapter should work just fine with regular TOSLINK (Optical) cable. Plug the adapter to iMac headphone jack, it should activate the red light, and all you gotta do is connect it using regular TOSLINK. Nothing wrong with that. You've done it quite right although a direct mini TOSLINK to TOSLINK cable would also work.
I suggest you set Sound Preferences on OSX? Set it to Optical digital output. Have you tried that?
I suggest you set Sound Preferences on OSX? Set it to Optical digital output. Have you tried that?
You get different options to me. If I insert a headphone jack it changes to "headphones" and the speaker option disappears. If I insert an mini Toslink this is what I get:
That's just it; there is no 'digital out' under 'choose a device for sound output' to select wether or not the adapter is plugged in or not, ie; 'digital out' should display instead of 'headphone' when plugging it in; it does not; it reverts back to 'headphone' when I plug in the adapter.
But the red light does activated, right?
And you connect the other end of TOSLINK to audio receiver, right? What's the receiver display reports? PCM input or something?
Hmm if you have Windows installed you can try and look if your S/P-DIF works okay under BootCamp. If it's no avail maybe it's the hardware problem I'm afraid.
The red light doesn't activate. The other end is in the receiver, it says 'no signal', so that would suggest no optical coming out of the audio port. I don't have Windows installed. Do you know if there is another utility to check to see if the optical part of the port is working? I did run the OSX hardware diagnostics, said all is fine.
Sorry, no idea how to test/diagnose optical port using Terminal or something like that. The red light is the only indicator that digital out might work.
However, you could also check if System Profiler detect it in your system. Doesn't make it miraculously works though, but it shows your system acknowlegde S/P DIF just fine.
