Conflict with Thunderbolt/Mini DisplayPort and Sony Bravia Sync
I'm UK-based and I've just bought a new iMac and it's thrown up a bizarre conflict/compatibility problem with my TV.
My 2007 iMac was hooked up to an HDMI input on my Sony Bravia TV (KDL-40Z4500) and used it as a 'second' display, mainly so I could watch the BBC iPlayer and other video, plus iTunes/Front Row. It was connected with a "Mini DVI to HDMI female & DVI-D female Splitter" adapter - using HDMI to get to the TV and a standard 3.5 audio jack to connect the audio (headphone out on the iMac to an input on the TV.
Aside from plugging and unplugging the audio, it worked a treat.
This week I set up my new iMac, which of course doesn't have a Mini DVI port. So the old adapter is no good, and I have now bought two new ones - Thunderbolt (actually Mini DisplayPort) to HDMI - and tried them both. And they both create the same problem.
The picture reaches the TV and can be watched. That much is fine. I no longer have to mess about with an audio jack, either - just change the Audio Out setting in the Volume menu bar option.
But: as soon as the connection is made - iMac to TV via Thunderbolt/HDMI - a conflict occurs with the TV set-up. I have a Sony Home Theatre System for surround sound - HT-IS100 - which is connected to both a DVD recorder and Blue-ray player. (Again, both Sony.) With all these devices being the same brand I can use Bravia Sync. The main benefit being that when I press play on a player, of change a TV channel, both the screen and the system audio switch to that device. No messing around with the remote changing the inputs on both each time you switch.
That is, until you plug in the Mac connection.
This never happened with the old set-up, the old Mac, but now when the connection is made the TV 'forgets' the surround system. The Bravia Sync for it is cancelled and playing anything requires a manual change of channel. (For picture only. The Surround system DOES change over to the playing DVD, say; but the picture doesn't. Though when I change TV channel it doesn't communicate that change to the theatre system, so the picture changes but the sound stays wherever it was.)
According to the menus on the Bravia, it can no longer 'see' the surround system - it only sees the Blu-ray and DVD devices (which are only connected THROUGH that system - all into the theatre device and then back to the TV). The first thing to happen is that the TV switches back to internal sound, its built-in speakers; to get surround back I have to go into the menus and manually change it back.
What seems to be happening is that the connection to the Mac is bringing data to the TV that is overriding the Bravia Sync system's awareness of its home theatre connection. I have to disconnect the Mac HDMI and switch off/on to get the TV and system back to normal. (That's with the second adapter. With the first, the change was permanent enough that I had to do a factory reset each time!)
Given that the TV system is unchanged, and there's no setting anywhere to 'ignore/override' or any other such thing that I can see, I'm pretty sure this comes down to something on the iMac/Thunderbolt/Mini DisplayPort adapter side. The obvious thought, to me at least, being that the inclusion of sound in this set-up, via the HDMI, might be relevant.
As a side note: It's impossible to change the display settings - including sound output - until the second screen is connected to the Mac. This makes total sense, but means I can't change any audio out settings until the connection is made...by which time the Bravia Sync is already 'broken'. Though there isn't much to change, so far as I can see when I am hooked up, that would affect the issue.
I know this is a messy, cross-system problem, but any advice/solutions would be hugely appreciated.
iMac, Mac OS X (10.6.7)
