No sound over Mini DisplayPort to HDMI Adapter

Have you tried connecting the cable between the PC and TV and then looking at System Preferences > Display ?

There will be 3 tabs on that window, I think you need to be on the Display tab and it should show your TV. If it doesn't then check the box in the bottom right hand of the window that says "Detect Displays". Once it has detected the display then you can set the other HDMI details in the midi sound app as described above.

Hope this helps.

Thank you for your promt reply!

I think you misunderstood the question however. What I meant was my TV displays my Macbook Pro perfectly fine. There is no sound however. I'll quantify it so we can all refer back easily:

1. TV displays Macbook fine

2. No sound however

3. TV is displayed as an output for Display under Macbook

4. TV is NOT displayed as an output for Sound under Macbook

Hope that clarified it. If not, in short... I get no sound and the HDMI is not an option on output on either Midi Utility or Sound under System Preferences.

Thank you. 🙂

Hmm I'm assuming that your MBP is a newish model made after 2010 in which case you will need to take it into an Apple store / Apple authorised repair shop or if still under Applecare try telephone support.

If it is pre 2010 then it will NEVER work as Apple didn't build HDMI audio support into those models. To get sound from those models into your TV you will have to use a 3.5mm jack to phono (red and white connectors) and plug that into your laptop headphone socket with the red and white phono connectors into your TV.

Madness I know since audio is carried natively by mini displayport but Apple figured no one would want to use it this way.

Frankly Apple made this way too complicated even for models that do support this. Not one of their better implementations to be sure.

As far as I know, I think it might be my MiniDP to HDMI cable. Thanks so much for the help!

It's relieving and frankly annoying to learn that this complete PITA of an issue is because Apple engineers decided not to assume people wanted the audio to come out on the TV as well as the video. I feel like a jack@ss, but really? It automatically detects and switches the video output to the TV, but the user has to tell it to push the audio out too, AFTER you connect the HDMI cable?

Works like a champ and SOUNDS great - on my 2006 Sharp Aquos HDMI connection even!

Thank you for providing the solution, Slug.

Verrrry Interesting for several reasons.

I have been using the Moshi adapter on my MBP to connect to my approximately 2006 Sharp Aquos too.

But I cannot get the sound to come out. You seem to have done this. So, Im interested.

I also connect my MBP to a more recent Toshiba with no problem, but when I connect to the Sharp... no sound. My solution was to use the optical output but wjy should I need to????

My MPB is recent enough early 2011 to support audio in the HDMI (earlier version didn't!).

So what is your secret. I have called the nice Apple hardware people ant they say the problem is in the TV. This amy be true since the Sharp has a very early HDMI 1.1 (I think).

But you have had success.

Any suggestions? Remember I can et the HDMI to deliver audio to the Toshiba but not the sharp.

BTW my wife's HP with HDMI works with both video and audi on the sharp. Go figure.

Grateful for any help, .

Barry

Well, hope this helps - it's a Sept 2010 MBP running 10.6.8. I bought a "recent" HDMI video port cable, meaning, in the last 3-5 months. FWIW I had bought a different HDMI cable about a year ago but haven't re-tested the older cable.

I had to connect the cable to obviously an HDMI port (I happened to use INPUT4 this time, on the lower right front of the Aquos);

because the TV was on when I connected it, when I reopened System Preferences and hit Sound, SHARP HDMI magically appeared in the choice list under the center Audio tab.

I selected it there (below it said "no output controls available for this device", just means TV volume rules)

I switched the Aquos' input to Input4, it chatted ;-) with the Mac and duplicated the display out to the TV after a flash

Played a youtube video and lo and behold, high quality sound.

The Aquos is a "late" 2006 model (Q4 06).

On the Aquos' menu, under Option, check HDMI Setup - mine is set to Auto so it auto-detects HDMI input...

that's the only obvious thing I see in the Aquos menu... the Audio settings are default...

MJW

OK thanks.

I likely have not tried it since lion came out.

I'll try it again.

Barry

This worked perfectly for me! Thank you SlugBlanket for such a detailed response to this problem. I was able to get the sound to come out of my TV using your steps!

Worked for me too. This has truly made my day, thanks Slug!!

I've discovered that, under Lion, the problem is a defect in the OS.

I have my MBP hooked up to a Denon receiver through a DP-to-HDMI adapter. Under the System Prefs / Sound settings for Output, the Denon receiver is shown as an output device and I've selected it. But no sound is delivered to the receiver.

The bug is that "mirror displays" has to be selected under Displays in System Prefs.

You already selected the HDMI as the audio output, and it's not working; that's defective. But even worse is the fact that "mirror displays" isn't a valid workaround, because the resolution of your TV and computer won't match. Therefore there's no way to watch a movie full-screen on your TV while hearing the audio.

What a ridiculous bug.

Thanks for your help as I was about to return the cable I'd bought thinking it was incorrect and/or faulty 🙂

The bug is even worse: Even if you turn mirroring on, you still won't get sound if the secondary monitor is set to some resolutions. For example, the OS detected that my secondary monitor's native resolution is 1920x1200. But with the resolution set that way, there was no sound.

But if I manually changed the resolution to "1080p", the sound suddenly started being delivered.

This is clearly an absolute mess.

I just got it to work using the Rocketfish miniDVI to HDMI converter (I bought at BestBuy and they match the Amazon price if you want a nice cheap option) and my Sony TV showed up in the shound options. Not sure if that helps much but it may be the device you are using as opposed to MacBook.

i myself went through a lot of headaches and google research, wondering why my MBP had no audio through the MDP while my brothers did. Especially when we got it around the same time. After a bunch of surfing on the web i came up with this list. Before doing random trouble shootings and buying a bunch of different adapters, first check the model of the product.

If you don't know the specific model go to "about this mac" then click the "more info" look under "Model Identifier (you should be in Hardware Overview)"

Here's the list of laptop models that support audio pass-through via MDP

MacBook Air 11" Model 3,1

MacBook Air 11" Model 4,1

MacBook Air 11" Model 5,1

MacBook Air 13" Model 3,2

MacBook Air 13" Model 4,2

MacBook Air 13" Model 5,2

MacBook 13" Model 7,1

MacBook Pro 13" Model 7,1

MacBook Pro 13" Model 8,1

MacBook Pro 13" Model 9,2

MacBook Pro 15" Model 6,2

MacBook Pro 15" Model 8,2

MacBook Pro 15" Model 9,1

MacBook Pro 15" Model 10,1

MacBook Pro 17" Model 6,1

MacBook Pro 17" Model 8,3

If you do not see your model, you might be out of luck. Hope this helps out people on this thread.