itunes 10 does not deliver 5.1 surround sound to my Bose companion 5 speakers

iTunes music does not support surround sound, iTunes movies do. To get true surround sound you need 5 speakers. The bose companion 5 just replicates surround sound, which could be your problem in iTunes. Try going to

Applications > Utilities > Audio MIDI Setup. On the left side of the window select your speakers. On the right side it then should say "Source: (your speakers)"

- Click the "Configure Speakers..." button in the bottom right of the window. Click the "Multichannel" tab. Then select "5.1 Surround" from the pull down menu. Click on each speaker to provide a test tone to make sure each is connect properly. Then click on "Apply"

**If you are unable to click on the "Multichannel" tab then you can't actually output 5.1 Surround Sound, which is probably why iTunes won't output surround sound..

Hope this helps!

I just have the same problem with iTunes and the Bose Companion 5 :-(

Audio-Midi-Setup is configured corretly and other mediaplayers play the audio in 5.1.

Only iTunes does't get it...

Do you have one more tipp?!

Thanks

I'm not quite sure then, if everything is configured correctly then maybe iTunes only will output 5.1 surround sound to a true 5.1 Ch. surround sound system. I'll look into it and see if iTunes will play surround sound for my Sony 5.1 Ch. System.

Are there any new tipps or ideas?

Thanks …

Hey guys,

why won't anybody help me??

Please!

Thx

This may help:

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4072

but to get surround sound out of a two-channel stero system you would normally use a Haffler circuit:

http://sound.westhost.com/project18.htm

Hi and thanks!!

But isn't the Bose-system built as 5.1 system. Cause it is shown in "Audio-Midi-Setup" as 5.1 Surround and VLC plays DD 5.1 correctly...

I can't believe nobody is facing the same problem 😮

Hello aburger,

What model of Mac are you using?

What model of Bose system are you using?

How does the Bose system connect to your Mac? (USB? Mini-TOSLINK? Something else?)

What is the video you're trying to play in iTunes, and where did you get it from?

When you play this video in iTunes and you click on the little speech bubble icon in the player, what options appear in the menu? Are any grayed out?

Hi Will,

MacBook Pro 15'' Mid 2010 with Lion 10.7.3

Bose Companion 5 connected via USB.

Video: for example a video from iTunes-Store "My big fat greek summer" (iTunes christmas gift from 2010).

Clicking on the Speech bubble shows: DolbyDigital grayed out, Stereo is working.

If I connect the Mac via HDMI (DisplayPort) to a DENON-Amplifier DolbyDigital in the same movie works...

Do you have any tipps? I'm looking forward to hear them ;-)

Thanks!

Hi

I have same issue. I have new mini mac, HDMI into 5.1 phillps surround sound, all speakers work and in audit set up i can test all 5 speaks and hear the, i just cant listen to anything via my mac on the 5.1 speakers

can anyone help?

Thakns

Found this thread after googleing this very problem.

I also have the same issue. iTunes refuses to acknowledge that the Bose Companion 5's can handle 5.1.

VLC on the other hand lets me swap between stereo and 5.1 without issue (and yes you can hear a difference as the sound swaps between stereo and 5.1).

I've found the Audio Midi Setup program and set that up to have multi channel - each of the test tones from each speaker works as expected.

The only worrying thing I've seen so far is the link that Klaus found to an apple kb article that, in summary, states that 5.1 is ONLY available through an optical cable (i.e. NOT on USB Digital). Seems a bit limp.

Anyways - hope they fix it!

Cheers

Wayne.

My Mac is an iMac with 10.8.2 Mountain Lion installed.

As a little update to my original post. I've purchased a little jack to TOS optical plug for the back of the iMac off of ebay (99p if anyone is looking). This thing plugs into your headphone socket on the mac and normally lets you send a digital out to an optical in on a reciever. Anyways, I thought I would purchace one to see what would happen.

No joy, typically though iTunes will now let me select surround as an output destination but, I guess as expected, puts the audio to the now optical port (you can see the red 'light' winking with sound.

Hopefully someone at Apple may read this and allow iTunes to send out to a USB surround system.

Cheers

Wayne.

oh - and this is also with iTunes 11 now!

Hi,

Thanks for your Update!

It'is indeed very sad that iTunes doesn't allow 5.1 to be transmitted via USB!

If I connect my MBP via HDMI to a Denon-Receiver iTunes plays 5.1.

Same Movie, MBP connected via USB to the BOSE speakers: stereo 😟

Like you, i'm hoping Apple will change this behaviour soon!

Maybe it helps if we write a bugreport:

https://bugreport.apple.com/cgi-bin/WebObjects/RadarWeb.woa/wa/signIn

Edit: I'm temporarly not able to log into the bugreport homepage😕

An error has occurred. Please report the error to Apple Inc. by emailing the error detail to devbugs@apple.com.

Cheers!

try this.. open iTunes and look in top left for the edit tab..open it and go to preferences and once there go to playback and change it to direct sound..then close iTunes....open windows sound settings and right click on the speaker/headphones tab..go to properties and then enhancements tab..scroll down enhancements till you see SPEAKER FILL and check that box..close everything up restart iTunes and enjoy your 5.1 sound .....cheers