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Level 1

0 points

Loud Static with 5.1 surround audio in iTunes

Hello,

I'm using a Griffin FireWave firewire audio device with a Logitec analog 5.1 speaker system. I've gotten great surround sound in other applications (QuickTime, WoW, etc...), but when I try to turn on 5.1 audio on a HD TV show in iTunes, I get a very loud, harsh static noise, and nothing else. If I open the file in QuickTime and turn off the stereo audio channel and turn on the 5.1 channel, I get nothing. Silence.

I just recently bought this brand-new 24" iMac (it's awesome, by the way). My old 20" white iMac had the same problem. I'd had other problems with iTunes on that computer (such as not being able to burn CDs from iTunes) so I figured, brand new computer, skip the Migration Assistant, just transfer over files, might fix the problem. No such luck. Of course, it fixed the CD burning problem, still no 5.1 in iTunes.

Contacting Griffin tech support seemed futile, as they no longer make FireWaves, and their software driver hasn't been updated in forever... support page is pretty, "make sure your speakers are plugged in"... and it seems like the company is steering in another direction.
The FireWave itself is very simple. Not many options, not very hard to understand. It does the job, though. 5.1 has been very nice with the FireWave in all other respects. Audio/MIDI Setup works fine with the speaker test. Great sound. Easy to use. HD Apple movie trailers sound fantastic! And I've yet to see ANY other options for connecting 5.1 analog speakers to an iMac.

If anyone else has had this problem, it'd be good to hear it, because searching the forums, I haven't seen any other posts about this. I'd love to know that I'm not alone.
If anyone can help me find a solution, that'd be amazing. I'm a pretty avid user... I had a Mac SE... I used ResEdit! I've been at this a while! This problem has me totally stumped.

Alternatively, if anyone knows of another solution for getting real 5.1 audio using analog speakers on an iMac, please let me know.
I love this speaker system! I don't want to have to replace it!

Thanks for any input,

-G.

24" iMac, Mac OS X (10.5.7)

Posted on Jul 12, 2009 3:35 PM

39 replies

Nov 6, 2009 8:02 AM in response to LeToti

I'm curious as to how you could even adjust the volume bar - isn't it ghosted out when you plug in an optical cable?

Luloh

Level 1

4 points

Nov 6, 2009 8:13 AM in response to swordswinger710

Fix did not work for me either. Completely frustrated.

Luloh

Level 1

4 points

Nov 6, 2009 2:34 PM in response to Luloh

All of a sudden it fixed itself. I had just downloaded the TV show "Castle" and for the heck of it tried the surround again. I now get the noise for a half a second and then the 5.1 sound comes on. I have no idea why?

Nov 6, 2009 4:55 PM in response to MichKor

The volume which needs to be at Max is the iTunes volume, not the system volume - yes, the system volume is unadjustable and greyed out with the Toslink.

Nov 7, 2009 6:29 AM in response to Dave Hawkins1

Well, what do you know - moving the iTunes volume slider all the way to the right gave me 5.1 Surround Sound! I had to switch some of the movies that were set to Surround back to Stereo, and then to Surround again in order for it to work, but work it does - for now.

So maybe I will buy "Up" off iTunes on Tuesday... thanks for the help, guys.

Nov 10, 2009 2:24 AM in response to swordswinger710

This is fantastic! I really thought it wont work. But it did.
Turned off Equalizer, Ste Volume to Max and TATA. 5.1. Sound is back again.

I am so happy. Thanks for the hint :-D

MichKor

Level 1

64 points

Nov 10, 2009 4:35 AM in response to EastEndGuy

FWIW, didn't work for me. As I mentioned before somewhere - its weird. X-Men Wolverine digital copy plays in 5.1, but movies I extracted via handbrake only play as dolby pro-logic. I wonder if there is a setting I may be getting wrong in Handbrake. I know I am including the AC3 DD soundtrack on extraction, AND under VLC I do get the 5.1 soundtrack to play.... Sounds like Apple to me.

For those where it works: are the movies/shows purchased from Apple, or home extracts? This might answer a question for all of us on where the problem lies. Thanks.

Nov 10, 2009 4:51 AM in response to MichKor

Yes, it works with tv-shows I bought on iTunes. Funnily as soon as I reduce the volume the static comes back. Never used handbrake so I cant tell.

Message was edited by: EastEndGuy

Nov 12, 2009 6:25 AM in response to swordswinger710

I'm not sure how I got mine working but I played around with it randomly playing videos in my collection. If I open iTunes and play "Up" in 5.1 I get the static but if I open iTunes, play a non-5.1 video THEN play a 5.1 video (in this case Up) it works.

This is with equalizer off but sound enhance ON - I'm just happy its working! Buggy or not its great to finally enjoy these movies with DD optical out 🙂

MichKor

Level 1

64 points

Nov 18, 2009 5:57 AM in response to EastEndGuy

Well the suspicion about Apple is over for me. I just downloaded the digital copy of Start Trek and behold - it plays in 5.1 DD. (Side note: volume issue is correct, if it is not maxed, static.)

This confirms my belief that there is something going on with Apple and home extracted dvd movies. I own over 1200 movies, and would like to have some of those available in iTunes, and use Handbrake to extract them. Nome of those play 5.1 in iTunes.

To anyone on the latest iTunes using Handbrake: have you got your movies to play in 5.1 DD, and if so, how???

Nov 28, 2009 9:01 PM in response to {G}

I can confirm that this does now work with the FireWave. Along with maxing the iTunes volume, the device must be set to 2ch-24bit in Audo MIDI Setup (screen-shot below). You may notice that the red light is on now. I can't explain it, but this does not change the normal sound behavior (DVD Player digital audio is unaffected). Make sure FireWave is the default sound device before starting the movie. When "surround sound" is selected for the movie being played, each speaker will output an independent channel. When starting a movie, the speakers tend to pop (once) so it might be good idea to turn down the volume on the first attempt.

The next trick is to get surround output from Front Row, any suggestions?

http://homepage.mac.com/albertdefusco/firewave/firewave.png

Dec 12, 2009 8:11 AM in response to {G}

Hello,
I am having a similar problem. I have bought Star Trek (HD) through the iTunes store and the stereo option works just fine. When I switch over to surround sound I get not sound at all and my video still plays. This is on both of my computers- the MacBookPro and my Windows Machine running windows xp service pack 3. I have tried the fixes listed above but nothing seems to be working.

With my windows machine, I have a sound card- sound blaster audigy 2 ZS and it is hooked up to a surround sound system sold by Creative. My surround sound movies can play just fine when I have a surround sound DVD in the DVD drive, but iTunes will not play Star Trek in surround sound. Does anyone have any suggestions to get this movie working on this system?

BSteely

Level 5

7,643 points

Dec 22, 2009 4:38 AM in response to {G}

Elsewhere in this thread, DaveM777 says: "...if I buy a brand new HD movie from the iTunes store and select the surround track iTunes 9 will play ..." and also, "if I select the stereo track on HD movie from iTunes..."

Also, poster Capn' GoodNight says, "Purchase of Snow Leopard did not change my ability to select surround from ITunes with success."

Question: Can someone explain to me where in iTunes you can "select" surround vs. stereo for an iTMS HD movie purchase? I don't see that option anywhere.

MichKor

Level 1

64 points

Dec 22, 2009 6:24 AM in response to BSteely

The option to select the audio channel is under "Controls"

I still think there is something going on. I cannot get a Handbrake extracted dvd to play 5.1.....

Has anyone gotten that to work with iTunes 9.x????

Dec 23, 2009 5:09 PM in response to {G}

Would anyone be able to contact anyone at Apple to see if there is a solution? Can someone provide a link to contact Apple on this matter as well?

Loud Static with 5.1 surround audio in iTunes