Mac Mini M2 not outputting surround sound via HDMI

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Level 1

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Mac Mini M2 not outputting surround sound via HDMI

Hi all. I help at a local volunteer run cinema. We play satellite broadcasts and blurays mostly. It's a complex setup with duty and backup satellite receivers and bluray players. Video is controlled by an HDMI switch to the main projector and local tv monitor. For audio, each device supplies surround sound from a digital output via an audio switch to an equaliser and then to the surround amps. All is working well.

Now we want to add the option play downloaded media from our Apple Mac Mini 2023 - M2. I have tried all sorts of different combinations but only ever seem to get two channel stereo. The HDMI switch has the capability to split off the audio and pass it to an optical output which we use to get surround sound from one of the satellite receivers, so we know that works. But if I try to get surround sound from the Mac this way, no joy. I've tried various ways of connecting to the HDMI feed. I've tried audio splitters, all to no avail. I suspect that the Mac sees past the HDMI switch to the projector, etc, and thinks they're only stereo. I use Audio Midi Setup for testing.

Maybe, if I could find an external sound card so that I could move the sound away from the video and pass it straight to the sound switch, that would help. But I can't find anything.

Any ideas anyone?

Posted on Sep 2, 2026 2:07 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

MartinR

Level 7

26,436 points

Sep 2, 2026 6:27 PM in response to filbert42

It's not easy and it's often not straightforward. Here is the basic method to get 5.1 surround sound with the Mini.

Connect the HDMI-out from the Mini to your target device's HDMI-in port.
Go to System Settings > Sound > Output and select the HDMI out
Go to Utilities > Audio Midi Setup and select your output (HDMI device).
- Then click Configure Speakers, then Multichannel, then 5.1 Surround.
You should then be able to select each speaker and get a test tone for each.
When all appears to work, click Apply.

For reference, see Set up external speakers for stereo or surround sound in Audio MIDI Setup on Mac - Apple Support

Note that even when you go through all of this,

Some browsers don't support 5.1 at all; some need 3rd party plugins; and there may be browser preference settings that need to be adjusted. You may just have to experiment with them.
The source also needs to be 5.1, which may vary from title to title. Also, many streaming services restrict audio to 2-ch. stereo when played via a browser. And some streaming services enable 5.1 only via their dedicated app.
If you are using the Apple TV app on a Mac you probably also need to set HDMI Passthrough in the Apple TV app's playback settings.

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Answer 2

Sep 2, 2026 2:33 AM in response to filbert42

if you can get a media player software to play the files with a HDMI dedicated setting, then you can change it to use 5.1

see if you can manually change to surround 5.1 or what format you want to use

you may need to specify that it indeed uses surround as it would be seeing only 2 generic stereo systems

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