Mac Mini 2011 Digital Audio Output with HDMI Video?

I have been using a MDP to DVI adapter on my 2011 MacMini to connect to my TV.

I just installed a Marantz preamp which has HDMI inputs. I use a MDP to HDMI adapter to connect the MacMini to the Marantz. I use an HDMI to HDMI cable to connect the Marantz to the TV. I also use a toslink cable from the MacMini to the Marantz for audio.

I had to designate the input on the Marantz to use the HDMI for video and the toslink for audio. Everything works fine.

I tried other connections, like HDMI on Mini to HDMI on Marantz and found that while EyeTV and VLC worked fine, MplayerX gave no audio.

In my current setup I choose digitial out on EyeTV, and digital out (encoded) on VLC.

I think that is the same issue:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3267201?start=30&tstart=0

Just found this thread here. Very interesting, but has anyone fixed without workarround with different cables?

In my case its a Samsung TV LE40C650 and all comes out is Stereo. With my windows box everything works fine. Very strange, would there be a bugfix from apple? I just bougt the mac mini to use it as a media PC and now i lost my 5.1 Sound?!? Very sad.

Is there a possibility to get help from apple? Im totaly new in the mac world), and everything looks really nice, but without sound the mini goes to ebay 😉

Greetz,

Doc

I have a similar setup and can't get to work since I started using HDMI out for video. Before with DVI used to work just fine, video out via DVI and audio via optical. The weird part is that some apps like VLC, work just fine, but the rest doesn't... Using a mini display/thunderbolt to HDMI didn't help, the Mini still recognizes the TV as connected via HDMI

Have you looked in the Audio Midi Setup utility? There may be a setting there that can help?

If you connect hdmi to the mdp and then to the receiver it will send both audio (digital) and video to the receiver. Output from hdmi on the receiver to the hdmi on the tv will send both audio and video to the tv. If you connect the optical audio out on the mini to optical audio in on the receiver it will send optical audio to the receiver, but the default audio on the receiver will be the hdmi audio. You should be able to adjust the receiver settings to have it select the optical audio from the mini and mix with the hdmi video from the mini.

This doesn't work with the hdmi out port on the mini. You must use the mdp to hdmi adapter.

My setup with MacMini 2011, Marantz AV8801, and Samsung tv works fine except for certain situations:

If I run VLC or MPlayerX on the mini, the program starts fine for about 30 seconds and then switches to AirPlay, whether or not anything is playing on an IOS device. I need to manually switch back to the mini input once or twice before it remains on the mini input. If I play from EyeTV this does not happen. It is probably due to a bug in EyeTV. It is picking up the AirPlay input from ethernet connected to both the mini and the Marantz.

error

Message was edited by: Swiggen

Posted in wrong thread.

That helped, thanks

Ok Seriously!

You dont' know how long I searched for an answer. I had pretty much given up until I read your post. Thank you so much!

I don't know how old you are. Do you remember VHS vs. Betamax? More recently BluRay vs. HD DVD? Somehow there always seems to be two or more standards. This is kind of the problem with Dolby Digital. Some software/hardware supports Left/Center/Right and other software/hardware supports Left/Right/Center. Fortunately most software and hardware can now auto-detect the correct configuration using the meta-data or even by guessing (since it knows Left and Right are going to look similar and center isn't). So if you're having a problem getting the correct audio from each speaker, it's probably because something isn't auto-detecting. In some cases you can even map these settings yourself in the prefs.

I got sick or all the might work cures, and my receiver has some kind of cool DSP Programming features (Yamaha RX-V573) so I run VLC through my HDMI output and rely on a faily decent decoding scheme. I have my HDMI out set for encoded output, but all the magic was still happening at the receiver. I gave up and bought an external audio encoder and now all is good.

The lesson is clear, my XBox (360S, 250 GB) does Dolby Digital, my Mac Mini (Late 2012 running 10.9.3) really doesn't do it, but with the aid of a $50 box from SoundBlaster, all is good. I buy my digital media from Amazon, so it's completley portable and all is good. My mini is really a storeage device until Apple makes a real commitment to making this machine a capable media server.

I gave up on iTunes movies a while ago, 1080P is nice, but the PCM stuff is not so nice. Apple has to go with the flow. I like having a working Unix desktop, I really do. Apple hardware is nice, but the wall has to come down, or in the alternative, Apple has to provide a sound chip on board.

I can take my HDMI output from 8.1 encoded (according to the Apple Midi ) and synthesize some nice DSP programs with my receiver, but I rely on my Xbox and the SoundBlaster hooked up to my mac mini for DTS and DD. Apple still thinks we're all on the computer speaker model.

There is stuff Apple does not take seriously, kind of ironic as a large part of my mini's duties centered around entertainment. Apple just does not take this seriously yet.