Mac Mini 2011 Digital Audio Output with HDMI Video?

I feel your pain. Imay have a little light to shed but a question as well. I have a LCD, cd player, blu ray, cable box all plugged into a Denon receiver. I also have a laptop plugged into the Denon via an HRT music streamer from laptop USB. This works absolutely perfectly for playing iTunes or anything over the 5.1. As well as all other audio needs. However, when I plug the laptop into the tv HDMI port, the video will play fine - But the audio comes out of the tv speakers! Which is wrong. I am about to dump the toshiba laptop as a media server and buy a new Mac mini for that purpose but looking at this site thought I'd mention the HRT and try and figure out why the audio ain't going where it's supposed to. Thanks

Thanks a good idea... I'll be needing to use two monitors however, does the mini-dvi (thunderbolt on the new ones) support dual monitors by itself? What adapter might be needed? Cant beleive a offical Apple answer hasnt been forthcoming........

Wow...... So just to confirm, Soundflower will route full Dolby or DTS signal through Optical when video is displayed over HDMI? Is it capable of sending audio over both HDMI AND optical at the same time?

Not sure about Dolby or DTS....but what it does is take over the Mac sound source selection. When I went from an older C2D Mac mini, to this 2011 I had audio out to my Reciever and HDMI to the TV. When both were plugged in, only HDMI was an available option. I found Soundflower with Soundflowerbox and it solved the issue. I just started using optical out to a DAC and still use HDMI to the TV.....With Soundflower I can choose where the audio goes. Soundflower is bassically what Apple should of added to Lion. Soundflower was designed to send out internally to other programs, for edit etc. Soundflowerbox is an add on that allows you to send audio to different audio devices....

Don't know if it helps anyone but I have resolved the problem for iTunes output at least... In the iTunes CONTROLS menu there is the option to switch to surround sound - default is stereo. I selected surround and my receiver recognised Dolby output where previously it only saw stereo. Rear speakers leapt into action too.

Great news! After much hard work My Mac mini is sending true 5.1 to my reciever through just the HDMI cable! Okay so here's my list of gear.

MAC MINI 2011 2.5 i5 8gb ram

Using a quality audioquest hdmi I have connected my Mac mini to my Denon 1712 Reciever. I have connected this hdmi cable into hdmi port entitled game 2. I have connect my reciever to my tv with a monster 1000 hdx thx certified hdmi cable. It has a transmission sped of 17 gb or so...meaning it can handle transmitting 3d...if only I had a 3d tv.

Okay so that's the gear. Now onto the changes in audio midi. Open audio midi and Simply change it to 48000 hz and to 2 channel 16 bit integer. That's all I did and now it works. Before I had it set to 8 channel 24 bit and when I pulled up my surround sound options I could pretty much only get multi channel stereo. Now I can get several Dolby choices.

The voices are coming out of the center speaker and all the action is coming out of the other speakers....so in other words 5.1 surround sound has been achieved on my Mac mini 2011 which has Lion on it.

I have tested this with iTunes and Netflix. Both are in 5.1 and sound great. In iTunes I have tested both music and digital copies of movies. Both worked flawlessly.

Rejoice Mac mini owners 5.1 surround is now possible over your Mac mini 2011 edition with just an hdmi cable to your reciever. You can throw away that toslink cable becuase now you don't need it!

I hope this works for you. Remember not all hdmi cables and the same holds true for your reciever. If it does not work consider getting either audioquest or monster....everything else is junk.

Very strange.

I just went out and bought a new Mac mini 2011 because my Macbook finally gave up the ghost. So I set it up at home expecting the worst regarding the sound after reading this forum usuing HDMI to the TV (via the amp)... The option to select the Optical out is there clear as day!! Works perfectly, my amp received the DTS/Dolby no problem....

As a second little treat, the Mac also throws the DTS/Dolby signal through the HDMI to the amp as well, so the optical out can be retired completely.

Have the people on this forum just got faulty models or has Apple fixed it?

Yep.

I'm looking at my sound options now, I can choose audio over Toslink, the HDMI port and even through the Mini-Display port (I've got two monitors). Wish I could upload a screen shot...

In terms of getting the dolby/DTS signal to the amp, I use VLC for all my video, and that'll throw the signal over any of the sound options.

I actually spoke to Apple support before I bought the Mac, they said they'd never heard of the issue. It was suggested that people may of had faulty hardware, which was causing the issue, or Apple have recently released a patch and kept it quiet. Dont know.

What I do know is that my set up makes this forum completely redundant...

Just to throw this in, my Mac mini 2011 is connected solely by HDMI to a Yamaha RX-V771 and nothing else. By default I could only get 2 channel stereo from iTunes. However, in Audio Midi Setup, HDMI I changed the sound to 44.1KHz 8ch 24 bit integer and the amp is now being fed correctly it would seem. No need for a separate digital optical cable.

Ive had my Mini 2011 i5 + Lion since Sept.

Have tried many so called solutions to get digital audio to my Logitech z5500 with no luck what so ever.

My setup is like so.

Mini >> (HDMI) >> Samsung LED TV >> (Toslink) >> z5500

Ok the above setup works. but my TV only outputs DTS 2.0 (2 Ch Stereo) i require the full potential of 5.1.

my Required Setup would be.

Mini >> (HDMI) >> Samsung LED TV (VIDEO)

Mini >> (Toslink) >> z5500 (5.1 Audio)

If i select Optical out for sound pref = Nothing!

Midi prefs. no matter what combination of settings i choose my z5500 says "No digital Data" also on speaker setup i can only choose 2 CH Stereo. Everything else is greyed out. If i choose Digital Encoded audio. sound pref auto changes teh audio back to HDM on its own.

Tried with many of different cables. i have a strong red digital light coming from the mini. tried numerous re installs of lion.

WHY IS THIS SO DIFFICULT!!!

anyone having similar problems or no of a dead certain solution?

thanks for your time all. happy new Year too.

James.

James,

I believe your tv is the problem here. Your tv must be able to either encode or pass along the 5.1 signal to your speakers. If the signal it receives is 5.1 and it cannot handle that then I believe it recodes it to stereo. The Mac may be reflecting this issue when it comes to your options in the audio midi because it has ascertained from the tv that it ( the tv) is in fact the problem...in the sense that it cannot pass along the signal.

So this having been said how old is your tv and what is the part number?

This is an important question.... Have you called the tv manufacturer and asked whether the tv can transmit or pass along 5.1 audio from a connected device?

After you call the tv manufacturer and if they prove it's not their device that is the issue I would recommend you get a reciever and qualily speakers. If you are serious about the highest audio experience get a reciever and hook your Mac mini into it. That is my setup and its quite nice. I have one remote to control both my tv and reciever. The beuaty of the set up is I don't need my tv on to listen to music. Your current set up requires the tv on right? If you want an easier setup do as I suggest.

Hope that helps.

To Evostar

Pretty much all modern TVs will downmix any surround sound input from HDMI to 2.0 channel output via toslink. This is supposedly to combat piracy (I have no idea how it would combat piracy), but that's how things are and I soubt you will find a TV that will not do that.

Now my sad story.

Just got a new Mac Mini (the cheapest model with integrated Intel graphics) connected to my receiver via HDMI.

Issues: multi channel sound support is...ugh.

When I go to Audio Midi stetup utility and set for 8 channel sound, all is fine until you start playing MKVs with surround sound, then the fun really starts.

On a lot of them the channels are all mixed up - center channels comes out of left surround, right channel comes out of right back surround, left channel comes out of right channel. Happens with Mplayerx or VLC when you play MKVs with multi-channel DD, DTS, AAC or FLAC, or when you try to play a DVD ISO with VLC. Checked the Videolan forums and it seems the channel switch bug showed up after the latest Lion update, no one there has a clue as to what the exact cause is right now.

If you set to 2 channel sound then MplayerX plays some MKVs with DD ok, DTS is flaky. VLC plays everything including DVD ISOs in stereo.

iTunes movies play fine with either setting.

So basically the usual HTPC story - have to chant prayers and burn incense.

Hm, I think that it also makes a difference whether you have an Intel video card or a Radeon.

In my case Audio Midi seems irrelevant for iTunes, it seems to override whatever setting you put there and it will output proper sound.

Basically the problem with OSX is that it still can _reliably_ only handle plain vanilla DD5.1 or vanilla DTS (then again, makes sense since this is what Apple sells through iTunes - 720p movies with plain DD5.1). It does not seem to handle well multi channel FLAC or AAC and even MKVs with DTS seem to be spotty.

One bizarre thing that I noticed that if you play some files in different audio players - I have VLC, Mplayerx and Mplayer OSX Extended - one of them eventually changes your Audio Midi settings without you doing anything. I had 8 channel 24 bit changed to 2 channel 16-bit without me doing anything.

If you want DTS-MA or True HD then your only option is Bootcamp 🙂

I have a 2011 Mini with Radeon. I can play MKV DD5.1, DTS, LosslessDTS using VLC. TrueHD switches to DPL. Midi is 48k 2ch/24-bit. MPlayerX does MKV with DD5.1, DTS, but not LosslessDTS nor TrueHD. Neither can do LPCM.

My 2009 Mini does all of the above with a Radeon. My 2009 MBP does all of the above with either NVidia card. VLC also plays direct QAM/ATSC feeds from HDHomerun in DD5.1. All Macs set up with HDMI for video and Toslink for audio, running Lion. My cables are all Monoprice, nothing fancy.