Cannot get Mac Mini M1 to do digital audio passthrough

Question

Level 1

21 points

Cannot get Mac Mini M1 to do digital audio passthrough

Hi:

I have a newish Mini M1, and I'm using the HDMI to hook up to a surround sound receiver. However, when presented with media known to have a digital audio track, it's doing a 2-channel mixdown and relaying PCM instead of the original audio stream.

I can't find a way to get the Mini to behave how I want. I have a Linux box with an S/PDIF output which works fine for this purpose. I'm having a hard time believing I'm regressing going to a Mac.

Thanks,

-Clint

Posted on May 20, 2021 12:52 AM

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Answer 1

May 20, 2021 11:10 AM in response to Clint Olsen

Clint Olsen wrote:

I don't need to use a separate S/PDIF output. There's a perfectly fine digital output via HDMI. Apple has chosen to cripple it for whatever reason.

It is not unusual for Apple to not fully support their

hardware capabilities. FWIW, it seems they only support

the capabilities of what ever the iTunes Store will deliver.

Anyway from the M1 MacMini spec:

Audio

Built-in speaker
3.5 mm headphone jack
HDMI 2.0 port supports multichannel audio output

Of course Apple does not elaborate on what multichannel

formats are supported (of course the iTunes Store media

formats are supported).

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Answer 2

Clint Olsen Author

Level 1

21 points

May 20, 2021 10:37 AM in response to hcsitas

I already have my collection of DVD and Blu-Ray ripped and stored on my NAS, and I'm not interested in buying these titles yet again on another streaming service.

I guess the Mini is no longer a viable solution for a HTPC. If I had known this I would never have purchased the device in the first place. Of course trying to get an answer to such a question ahead of time is pretty much impossible.

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Answer 3

hcsitas

Level 6

11,264 points

May 20, 2021 10:45 AM in response to Clint Olsen

Sorry to hear about your disappointment nonetheless be aware that Apple TV/4K does not force streaming on users nor is the Apple Music App required to play your collection. You can fetch and play your entire library using a 3rd party file manager such as File Explorer (which comes with its own player).

Cheers

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Answer 4

den.thed

Level 9

76,888 points

May 20, 2021 10:53 AM in response to Clint Olsen

All new Mac’s (including the Mac Mini) that were built after 2017, no longer support Optical Digital output from their headphone port.

If you need Optical Digital output, you will need to get and use a USB to S/PDIF adapter or DAC.

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Answer 5

Clint Olsen Author

Level 1

21 points

May 20, 2021 1:10 PM in response to woodmeister50

Yes, the details there are sorely lacking. The Audio Midi Setup has a bunch of ghosted entries for many "Encoded" formats at various bitrates, but it's not clear to me how those become available or how well they work. They are 2-channel anyway, and that's obviously wrong.

There are multi-channel options, too. Those unfortunately mean the Mac is (probably) attempting at doing some sort of en/decode, and this is devoid of any auto-detect for what the audio format is. It's also audibly inferior to just passing the audio format directly. I A/B'd it against my old Linux HTPC running Kodi and have audio passthrough enabled on that.

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