Mac Pro early 2009, Radeon HD 5870, No HDMI Audio under Snow Leopard

Question

Mac Pro early 2009, Radeon HD 5870, No HDMI Audio under Snow Leopard

Hey,

did any one have any luck getting HDMI Audio to work with the Radeon HD 5870 Graphics Upgrade Kit on an older Mac Pro?

I'm using a Mac Pro early 2009 (MacPro4,1) 8-core 16GB running Snow Leopard 10.6.6 64-Bit kernel and tried to connect the HD 5870 via Hama Mini-DP to HDMI to either an Eizo HD2441W LCD or Yamaha RX-V765 Receiver with connected Panasonic PT-AE4000 Projector.

After I installed the card, HDMI audio worked once, and I had an entry Panasonic AE-4000 under audio devices in system settings. But now no matter what I try, no HDMI audio is listed from either system settings or system profiler.

I tried a fresh Install to an empty USB drive with 10.6.0 -> 10.6.4, 10.6.5. 10.6.6 and could not get HDMI audio to show up once. I tried resetting SMC and PRAM/NVRAM to no avail.

The same adapter is working fine under Windows 7 x64 using Bootcamp on my Mac Pro aswell as under Snow Leopard 10.6.6 64-Bit on my Mac Book Pro 17" 2010.

*Does anyone have HDMI audio working with a non-2010 Mac Pro and what brand/model of Mini-DP to HDMI adapter are you using?*

Mac Pro 2009, Macbook Pro 17" 2010, Mac OS X (10.6.6)

Posted on Jan 30, 2011 1:42 PM

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Answer 1

docks1

Level 1

0 points

Jan 31, 2011 3:29 PM in response to Felix Buenemann

can't help ya out but will offer this info - the Audio Midi Setup function for digital audio 5.1 surround speakers has been "greyed out" and unusable for 6 months - good luck

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Answer 2

Feb 1, 2011 2:50 AM in response to docks1

I've ordered a Moshi Mini-DP to HDMI adapter and I'll see if it works. According to their homepage it works with the 2009 Mac Pro and Radeon HD 5870.

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Answer 3

Feb 1, 2011 11:18 AM in response to Felix Buenemann

Well, got the Moshi adapter, still no HDMI audio ... on further inspection, the Moshi page only list the Mid 2010 Mac Pro, still this makes no sense, as the audio codec is built into the GPU.

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Answer 4

Feb 1, 2011 12:16 PM in response to Felix Buenemann

Digged some more into the Apple support pages, according to http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4241 the 2009 Mac pro with Graphics Upgrade Kit and the Moshi adapter should support HDMI audio.

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Answer 5

docks1

Level 1

0 points

Feb 2, 2011 6:17 AM in response to Felix Buenemann

hi, you may want to check out the apple tv support forums as that is about the only native hdmi interface as well as the new mac mini has hdmi natively and i think they both have been giving users trouble /w/ audio and you may find info on a setting on your reciever/amplifier to help you with

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Answer 6

Feb 2, 2011 1:25 PM in response to docks1

Both of those devices are based on Nvidia GPUs, just like my 2010 MacBook Pro, which has zero problems with HDMI audio. I'd be more interested in input from other ATI users.

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Answer 7

Feb 6, 2011 8:11 AM in response to Felix Buenemann

I have opened a bug report with apple under bug id #8964313 let's see what comes out of it.

The problem seems to be, that no driver gets loaded for the hdmi audio codec (vendor id 1002, pci id aa50), as can be seen from system profilers' pci devices page.

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Answer 8

toddat

Level 1

13 points

Feb 12, 2011 10:52 AM in response to Felix Buenemann

Did you get a resolution to your problem? I too have an early 2009 Mac Pro with a new 5870 installed and get no HDMI/DP audio listed in system profiler.

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Answer 9

Feb 12, 2011 11:07 AM in response to toddat

No, I've still no solution and I suspect the problem is, that no audio driver gets loaded for the HDMI audio codec as can be seen under system profiler -> pci devices. The device with vendor id 1002 (ATI) device id 0xaa55 (Cypress HDMI Audio) shows: no kext loaded.

I've opened a bug report with apple under bug id 8964313, but it's still in state open.

Do you also have bootcamp on your mac?

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Answer 10

toddat

Level 1

13 points

Feb 14, 2011 5:15 PM in response to Felix Buenemann

Works perfect in bootcamp Win7-64, 8 channels of audio but I want to use it in OSX for Plex.

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Answer 11

Feb 15, 2011 1:17 AM in response to toddat

Yes, I was just verifying you were experiencing the same problem.

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Answer 12

Bosonbob

Level 1

0 points

Mar 21, 2011 8:09 PM in response to Felix Buenemann

Felix,
I have the same hardware (2009 Macpro, Apple Radeon HD 5870, Moshi MDP to HDMI adapter) and also have no audio via the adapter, even after updating to 10.6.7 an hour ago. I do get 7.1 multichannel when I Boot Camp into Win7 64 bit on this system.

I was wondering if you have gotten a response from Apple yet.

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Answer 13

Dec 2, 2011 7:19 AM in response to Felix Buenemann

Any response yet?

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Answer 14

otsoni

Level 1

0 points

Jan 6, 2012 6:45 AM in response to Felix Buenemann

Any news about that?

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Answer 15

Feb 10, 2012 2:47 PM in response to Felix Buenemann

Any response yet? I have an early 2009 and bought the 5870 upgrade kit. After spending this kind of money and it working flawlessly in bootcamp, I had better be able to do this in OS X, because I know they don't expect me to go out and purchase a new Mac Pro just for this feature...

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