How do I get 5.1 optical out (DVD Player) into Apogee Ensemble?

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How do I get 5.1 optical out (DVD Player) into Apogee Ensemble?

This should be the simplest thing to do.

I've set the DVD Player prefs to Digital Audio out.

Plugged an optical cable from the out of the Mac Pro to the in of the Apogee Ensemble.

Opened Audio and Midi prefs and tried various logical settings. Opened Maestro and done the same there. Tried changing the clock to optical - nothing (but flashing light on Apogee).

It works fine in stereo through the Apogee connected just by firewire, but it's not what I had in mind...

Any help from someone who knows the Ensemble would be gratefully received.

Mac Pro Nehalem 2.26 & MacBook Pro dual 2.33, Mac OS X (10.5.8), Logic 9 Apogee Ensemble Pro Tools 8 Digidesign 003 Rack Loads of Virtual Instruments

Posted on Sep 25, 2009 10:12 AM

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Answer 1

kmac1036

Level 4

2,370 points

Sep 25, 2009 1:29 PM in response to dru0013

I would try to go into the Mac Pro directly from the DVD player. not sure that you can input 5.1 over firewire.

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Answer 2

dru0013 Author

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Sep 25, 2009 2:19 PM in response to kmac1036

Just in case it's not clear, I'm using a piece of Apple software called DVD Player on the Mac Pro!

I want to get the multi channel audio out of the Mac pro into the Ensemble.

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Answer 3

cigame2

Level 3

548 points

Sep 25, 2009 3:33 PM in response to dru0013

When you use the digital out from DVD Player, the signal is encoded. You have to feed a Dolby or DTS decoder to get the separate channels. Or you might try to use software to convert the decoded ac3 tracks into 6 channel AAC.
Tell exactly what you want.
Either way, as far as I know the Ensemble has no Dolby decoder built in.

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Answer 4

dru0013 Author

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Sep 27, 2009 11:01 AM in response to cigame2

Thanks for the replies, I'm sorry it's not clearer from the title (blame my assumptions and Apple's unimaginative naming of their software) - so once more, hopefully more clearly:

There is no external DVD player involved. I'm putting a DVD disk into the Mac Pro and playing it from the Apple software called DVD Player, which is supposed to support 5.1 output via the optical out of the Mac Pro.

All I want to know is how to set up the Apogee Ensemble to accept this optical signal. It should be really easy, but I can't get it to work.

Thanks.

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Answer 5

kmac1036

Level 4

2,370 points

Sep 28, 2009 7:43 AM in response to dru0013

Cig is right, I'm not seeing anything about your device that states it's 5.1 or DTS certified... also, if you are trying to use a commercial DVD, then you might also be running into DRM issues...

I think you are still leaving out part of your workflow here. I'm Understanding this: DVD Movie > DVD player.app > Digital Optical Audio > Apogee Ensemble > to what????

It should be: Stand alone DVD player > Digital Audio > Mac Pro > Sound App.

Yes, you can output with the Ensemble, but to what? this is meant more as a device to input audio, not to act as a reciever.

contact Apogee for confirmation on this if you like. there are other ways to playback the audio or inport the audio, so long as you own the copyrights, of course 😉

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Answer 6

dru0013 Author

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Sep 28, 2009 8:26 AM in response to kmac1036

OMG!!!

I've got a set of Adam powered monitors connected to the Apogee Ensemble, so I can, like, hear the audio coming out of it...

Seriously guys, I'm sure you're trying to help, but can I just have replies from people who know how to get the multi channel optical out from the mac into the optical in of the Ensemble? That's all I'm trying to do.

Thanks.

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Answer 7

kmac1036

Level 4

2,370 points

Sep 28, 2009 8:36 AM in response to dru0013

YOU NEED A DECODER FOR THE SIGNAL!!!! Why do you have to go thru the Apogee?

Get a receiver that can handle it, or output 2.1 stereo.

Message was edited by: kmac1036

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Answer 8

dru0013 Author

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Sep 28, 2009 9:23 AM in response to kmac1036

Really, ****, that's annoying. So the Optical output is Dolby Digital or DTS, not ADAT?

The reason I don't want to get a receiver is that I'm a composer and I want to listen to films on the same speakers I compose on, so I can compare mixes and balances. I can actually do this via the analogue outs of my DVD player, but the sync is out with the picture, as there are delays caused by the HDMI picture signal being decoded at the screen end.

I've been looking into ways of doing this with my Digidesign setup, but I found I needed decoding software for that (Neyrinck). I guess the same is true with the Ensemble...

Bummer. It's £700 for the plugin...

Thanks for your help.

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Answer 9

dru0013 Author

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Sep 28, 2009 9:24 AM in response to dru0013

Wow, that was a really inoffensive expletive they censored there!

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Answer 10

kmac1036

Level 4

2,370 points

Sep 29, 2009 8:41 AM in response to dru0013

FYI primer on DTS: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DTS_(sound_system)

yeah, unless you set for 2 ch output then you might be SOL on this...

dumb question: your speaker setup is 5.1, correct?

it's terrible that it cost so much to work with this stuff.

& yes, the D word is censord :-p

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Answer 11

dru0013 Author

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Sep 30, 2009 12:28 AM in response to kmac1036

Thanks kmac1036, yes I've got 5.1 Adam monitoring.

It seems clear that I either have to buy a very expensive plugin (which I don't need for anything else), or stop using the HDMI to the screen, as that's the thing that's causing the delay.

As monitoring the sound on my Adams is more important than picture quality, that seems like the best solution. Back to scart it is... (and analogue out from my Yamaha DVD player)

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Answer 12

nicfox

Level 1

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Nov 8, 2009 3:06 AM in response to dru0013

I don't know if this will be any help at all in your case, but you can try setting the Apple DVD application to use System Sound Output rather than the Digital Out option. If I use Digital Out the sound my audio interface receives is scrambled, but if I set it to System Sound Output the audio signal is good.

Just go to DVD Player > Preferences > Disc Setup > Audio output > System Sound Output.

The OP already knows how to find this setting, but I'm just writing it out in full for anyone else who may be having trouble with the audio output from the Apple DVD Player app.

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Answer 13

Dec 19, 2009 12:01 AM in response to dru0013

The optical output will contain a dolby digital or DTS encoded bitstream. This has to be decoded on the recieving end.

The VLC Player can output discrete channels (it has a reverse-engineered compatible software based decoder built in):
http://www.videolan.org/vlc/download-macosx.html

you'll need a directly attached multichannel audio interface.

The mac optical out is SPDIF only - it can't do ADAT.

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