MBP audio line out?

Question

MBP audio line out?

If I hook my MBP to my external speakers via mini cable connected to the headphone/line out port the volume control on the MBP is still enabled. Is there a way to set the output to line out only? I have a volume control on my speakers, so having two just makes it odd. I always thought line out was a fixed level signal.

MacBook Pro 17" 2.16ghz Core Duo, 2gigs RAM, 120gig HDD, Mac OS X (10.5.2)

Posted on Feb 20, 2008 12:23 PM

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Answer 1

Feb 20, 2008 12:52 PM in response to AuroraProject

The headphone/line-out port is a combination analog and digital output. If you plug in an analog connector, like your speakers, that's the same as headphones. For line-out, you need to plug in a digital audio connection (e.g. a Toslink cable) - in that case, the volume controls are deactivated (and pressing the F3-F5 keys just gives the prohibitory sign).

Note that many users have had issues with this, where the headphone port gets stuck in the digital out mode (you can see a red light when you look in there). Search the forums for "red light audio out" to see what I mean.

Hope this helps...

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Answer 2

Feb 20, 2008 12:59 PM in response to neuroanatomist

Thanks. My speakers lack a digital input, so I guess I'll just set the speaker volume high and use the MBP volume control as the main.

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