Selecting it on the screen was easier than plugging and upluging.

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Level 1

8 points

Selecting it on the screen was easier than plugging and upluging.

why not have both options available, , why take this selective option away, it was nice to select which sound source I wanted to use. Selecting it on the screen was easier than plugging and unplugging. I used the audio out to supply my amplifier sound from my mini. now when I want to hear sound from my mini, when I am watching a movie, in order to have the sound through my stereo I need to unplug the cable out of my mini. otherwise when i go back to HDMI i have no sound, utill i unplug it. Why?

Mac mini (Mid 2010), Mac OS X (10.7.3)

Posted on Mar 28, 2012 5:10 AM

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Answer 1

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larry meucci Author

Level 1

8 points

Mar 28, 2012 6:14 AM in response to larry meucci

I was trying to edit this post to make it more clear and was unable to do so I will start again.

The issue happened after I update to Lion on my Mac Mini.

Before, the upgrade, I had an HDMI cable plugged into my Mini and a audio plug plugged in. The HDMI supply's video and audio to my HDTV from my mini. So when I am watching TV through my Mini, I have sound from the speakers in the TV. I could also go to setting on my Mini and control the source directly from the screen, if I wanted to use my stereo amplifier for my sound not the TV speakers, I could do this also by going to my on screen setting and adjusting the source of the output.

Now after the "upgrade" in order to have sound come out of my TV speakers via the HDMI I need to unplug the audio cable from the back of the Mini. because the settings are no longer functional from the screen. the setting are over ridden by the audio cable being plugged in the back of the mini as to which source the operating system is picking.

So now I am stuck plugging and unplugging the audio cable to redirect the sound source.

I understand that the designers were trying to get into line with the functionality of the output on the audio plug on the Mini, but why not have it so one can select which way they would like it.

If you could delete my previous post on this tread that would be helpful.

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Answer 2

Mar 28, 2012 7:39 AM in response to larry meucci

I'm suprised that you were able to do that on your Mini

in the first place. On my 2010 Mini and my 2011 Mini Server,

anythime I plugged anything into the audio out jack, it overrides

any other output and is the only one selectable. This was

even true on my old 2009 iMac. The headphone/line out

would override all.

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Answer 3

larry meucci Author

Level 1

8 points

Mar 28, 2012 10:38 AM in response to woodmeister50

Yes I was able and so were many other users,

See Post

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3770586

After upgrading to lion, cant select HDMI sound setting

You must have had Lion on all your Mini's, that why you never saw the good side,.

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Answer 4

XFox

Level 2

166 points

Jan 9, 2013 1:15 PM in response to larry meucci

Ignore me if you already know it but it seems that m1r3k found a very good workaround, at least for the Mid 2010 Mac mini models (that I'm using right now). I don't know if it works also with more recent Mac mini models.

Re: After upgrading to lion, cant select HDMI sound setting

Open Audio MIDI Setup.app in /Applications/Utility, click the + (plus) button in the bottom left corner of the window and choose "Create Multi-Output Device". In the new device settings tick the HDMI "Use" checkbox and you're done. Simply go to the usual System Preferences Audio panel and choose the newly created device, without the need to unplug the audio cable from the back of the Mac mini. You can also name the new audio device as you want.

NOTE:

This is only a workaround for a deliberate choice made by Apple on OS X Lion 10.7.2 and beyond:

Mac mini: About HDMI audio and headphones

Please let Apple know (here or here) how this has made things unnecessary awkward for users and needs to be fixed (these forums don't count, they are not read by Apple's employees)!

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