Dolby Digital Surround Sound on Mac?

Question

Dolby Digital Surround Sound on Mac?

I've been looking into getting a gaming headset for a while now. I am looking into the razor chimaera 5.1 wireless with dolby digital surround sound. I was going to connect the wireless base station/receiver to my mid 2011 21.5 inch iMac via an optical connection (using one of those cheap converters on amazon) because I know that the standard 3.5 audio jack only exports stereo sound. If I did that with this headset (or with any other 7.1 or 5.1 surround sound headset), would I be able to play games, watch movies, and listen to music (iTunes) in dolby digital surround sound? I have heard that mac os doesn't support dolby digital surround sound. Since it doesn't, is there a way to get surround sound to work on mac os with a surround sound headset? Also I will be using it to play some games such as skyrim in windows 7 via bootcamp. windows 7 supports dolby digital surround sound right? Any help would be appreciated, I am no audio expert.

iMac (21.5-inch Mid 2011), Mac OS X (10.7.2), Intel Core i7

Posted on Jan 15, 2012 5:27 PM

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Answer 1

parker612

Level 4

1,227 points

Jan 16, 2012 9:02 PM in response to walani4414@aol.com

Where did you read that Mac OS doesn't support dolby digital surround sound? Both my Macs (late 2009 iMac and late 2011 Macbook Pro) actually support up to 8 channel audio through either the Mini Displayport or headphone jack. If you have a headset that supports true 5.1 or 7.1 ch. surround sound then you shouldn't have a problem getting surround sound from your Mac

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Answer 2

HimG

Level 1

0 points

Jul 1, 2012 3:47 PM in response to parker612

Sry, your comment is 5 month old, but i have to ask you some thing too:

What headset do you use for the surround sound? I read EVERYWERE that headsets can just output games / music in stereo... for example the logitech g35...

Hope you can help me 😉

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Answer 3

Jun 17, 2015 2:40 PM in response to HimG

Just connect my TOSLink connection to the Turtle Beach Ear Force DSS.

The product uses the Dolby Headphone, to simulate a 5.1 to 7.1 sound, with any stereo headphones.

Here's a link for the module I got from eBay, as it had discontinued, but an updated version 2 model is currently available.

http://www.turtlebeach.com/product-detail/accessories-legacy/ear-force-dss/239

It is designed for Gamers.
Here some information on Dolby Headphone:

http://www.dolby.com/us/en/technologies/dolby-headphone.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolby_Headphone

Also Set up iTunes and your DVD Player for digital surround sound - Apple Support

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