stereo only from optical output

[RoxStrongo]

hi guys, i have a quad g5 and have recently hooked it up to a 5.1 surround sound amp via the optical cable. i have so far been unable to get anything other than stereo output from it though. the amp supports up to 96khz and there is definitely nothing wrong with that as ps3 works fine with it. when i open up audio midi setup though and go to configure speakers all the surround sound options are greyed out. any ideas would be much appreciated.

 

[Cave Man]

What is your video source and is your receiver capable of Dolby Digital and/or DTS?

 

[RoxStrongo]

What is your video source and is your receiver capable of Dolby Digital and/or DTS?

not too sure what you mean by video source? are you talking about the type of media or the graphics card? the receiver is capable of both dts and dolby digital.

 

[Cave Man]

not too sure what you mean by video source? are you talking about the type of media or the graphics card?

Yes, media; DVD, MPEG4, MKV, etc. I assume they have AC-3 audio tracks?

the receiver is capable of both dts and dolby digital.

And it has an optical input?

 

[RoxStrongo]

Yes, media; DVD, MPEG4, MKV, etc. I assume they have AC-3 audio tracks?



And it has an optical input?

iv tried all sorts of media, with dvd being the main one to guarantee a 5.1 track. and yes the amp has optical inputs. it's already hooked up. i get stereo out of it fine and it even goes up to 96khz pcm stereo but even at 48khz i am unable to select a multiple speaker configuration from the audio midi setup utility.

 

[Cave Man]

OK, try this.

1. Launch DVD Player app without having a DVD inserted or open.
2. Make sure your receiver is on and set to accept optical input from the channel connected to your Mac by optical cable. On my Onkyos, this has to be set for each input source. Not sure how yours is.
3. There's a setting in DVD Player that provides digital audio output and it's only available if you have an optical input (as described in 2). I'm at work, so I cannot tell you precisely where it is, but I recall it's under Preferences -> Disc Setup.

I'm pretty certain that your receiver must be on and accepting optical input when you do this with DVD Player app because your mac parses it. You only need to do this once - it will activate every time you launch DVD Player app until you disable it. You can also choose DVD Player Help from the Help menu of DVD Player app. Type 'audio' in the search box to see if that finds anything. Also, I've only done this with Dolby Digital 5.1 and not DTS 5.1, so ymmv.