Dolby Surround and Front Row

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Level 1

23 points

Dolby Surround and Front Row

If I set the DVD Player preferences to digital output" instead of "System Sound" I can get full surround sound through the home theatre set-up plugged in by optical connection. But when I play the same DVD using Front Row, I just get stereo. Is there any way to make Front Row deliver surround sound as well? I assumed that it used the same DVD player and settings, but maybe not...

bestest,
M.

FP iMac, 700Mhz

Posted on Dec 16, 2007 11:49 AM

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Answer 1

Dec 17, 2007 10:48 AM in response to Matt Bacon1

Which model Mac do you have? Which version of Mac OS X do you have? What kind of connection are you using to the stereo? Your profile indicates "FP iMac, 700Mhz" but Front Row in Mac OS X 10.4 is not supported on this model. Also, Mac OS X 10.5 is not supported on 700MHz G4 Macs...

-Doug

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Answer 2

Matt Bacon1 Author

Level 1

23 points

Dec 18, 2007 1:35 AM in response to Douglas McLaughlin

Apologies... I keep trying to change my profile, and it never seems to "stick"!

Its an Intel 24" iMac, running 10.5.1

The surround sound is a Sony home theatre set up, with an integrated woofer/amp and five satellites.

I have connected it using the optical connection (inside headphone socket on iMac) and alternatively using USB. The USB level is much lower, and I can't get the surround at all, so I'm now using only the optical.

If I set the DVD player preferences to "digital output" rather than "System sound", then I get surround sound out of the home theatre setup, but only when playing directly in DVD Player. If I use Front Row, then it reverts to regular stereo, using the woofer the two L and R speakers.

It surprises me, because I assumed Front Row was just a "menu" and used the various media player apps to actually playback the content. It's as if some Front Row setting was overriding the DVD player preferences. The first thing I'll try when I get back home to the computer is trashing the Front Row plist file, after checking that DVD Player is still set to digital output...

bestest,
M.

Message was edited by: Matt Bacon1

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Answer 3

Dec 18, 2007 12:18 PM in response to Matt Bacon1

It surprises me, because I assumed Front Row was just a "menu" and used the various media player apps to actually playback the content.

This did used to be the case. Front Row in Mac OS X 10.4 used iTunes to play music in the background and iPhoto to play pictures in the background. Front Row before version 1.3 did open the DVD Player application in the background but after it played directly in Front Row. For DVDs in Front Row after version 1.3, changing the DVD Player application's preferences did change the audio connection even though the DVD Player wasn't being accessed.

However, Front Row in Mac OS X 10.5 seems to do everything on its own. The applications are not opened in the background. Unless someone else can chime in, I'll try playing a DVD with the digital optical audio connection on my MacBook (my iMac which usually is my home theater Mac and is connected to my stereo with the digital optical audio cable still has 10.4) with 10.5. I haven't tried that yet myself, but I don't remember anyone else here bringing up this issue.

-Doug

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Answer 4

Matt Bacon1 Author

Level 1

23 points

Dec 20, 2007 6:31 AM in response to Douglas McLaughlin

OK, I'm not quite ready to hit the "solved" button on this one yet, but...

This morning I tried making sure that the DVD player was set to "digital output", and then dragged the com.apple.frontrow.plist file to the trash. When I ran DVD Player, I had surround sound. Then I ran Front Row, played the DVD, and I had surround sound again. So it CAN be done. The final hurdle is to check that DVD Player remembers that setting when the Home Theatre set up has been unplugged and plugged back in (there are times when it's overkill when you're sitting right next to the computer, and I want my regular built-in speakers back), and when the Home Theatre has been turned off and back on again, and finally that Front Row remembers as well. In an ideal world I wouldn't have to trash the plist file every time I activate the Home Theatre set-up...

But definite progress...

bestest,
M.

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Answer 5

Jan 10, 2008 12:27 PM in response to Matt Bacon1

Hello,

I hope that this is not too off-topic, but your thread really interests me. I have been hoping to find a way to get surround-sound audio through front row via optical audio. Specifically, do you know if a video file (ie, a DVD rip encoded with 6 discreet channels of audio, as can be done with handbrake) will play as surround sound in front row? I would like to create a DVD library on my theater mac, but was wondering what the best way to get 5.1 audio would be. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

thanks, mike.

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Answer 6

cdmac2

Level 1

0 points

Feb 2, 2008 12:10 PM in response to Matt Bacon1

Just wanted to report my experience with this issue. DVDs with 5.1 multichannel audio would play in surround using the Leopard DVD Player, but when played from Front Row I was getting stereo sound only. As others suggested, I manually changed the audio output preference in DVD Player to "Digital Out" instead of "System Default" but that still left me with stereo sound in Front Row -- until I rebooted on a hunch. I wanted to make sure others know a reboot may be required after changing DVD Player audio preferences in order for them to take effect in Front Row.

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