Surround Sound not working on Mac Pro (Early 2008)!

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Level 4

2,342 points

Surround Sound not working on Mac Pro (Early 2008)!

I'm writing this as my last ditch attempt to solve my problem.

Recently I bought a 5.1 Onkyo AV Receiver, model HT-R558 as for the audio output of my machine.

I have connected the device components, however when connected to my Mac using a TOSLINK cable, all i recieve is stereo sound through the front left, center, and front right speakers. - The rear speakers give no output, and the subwoofer only works in iTunes.

As far as I was aware the process was as follows:

Mac Pro with output set to Digital Out connected to the digital out port --> Optical/Toslink Cable --> connected to receiver (Onkyo HT-R558 through optical in on receiver.

I have followed several Knowledge Base articles with no success.

Is the Mac Pro actually capable of 5.1 sound output, or is it an added non-working feature?

I have tried a system utility called Perian, but no luck, also i have found articles saying this can be fixed with Terminal, no luck either.

If anyone has any advice on correctly connecting surround sound to my Mac I would be extremely grateful! I only hope there is something I have overlooked.

At the moment i am running the system using Pro Logic II, though it feels like a let down.

Mac Pro (Early 2008), Mac OS X (10.6.8)

Posted on Dec 3, 2012 8:53 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

Martin Pace

Level 5

5,115 points

Dec 4, 2012 12:57 PM in response to Peter Miller

Is the source file you are trying to play a surround sound file?

To my knowledge only iTunes and DVD Player will output surround sound encoded files.

Edit: The linked article is for OS X 10.7.X (Lion) and later. Under 10.6.8 the article may only work with DVD Player, I don't know if it will work with iTunes.

Message was edited by: Martin Pace

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Answer 2

Peter Miller Author

Level 4

2,342 points

Dec 4, 2012 3:13 PM in response to Martin Pace

I found the problem, the digital out on my Mac Pro is only capable of outputting stereo, this appears to be an OS X 10.6.8 issue that would need to be addressed via a supplemental update.

I know DVD Player can output 5.1 when set up correctly, so can iTunes movies; unfortunately this appears to be a problem that only has few solutions.

1. Downgrade OS X to a version prior to 10.6.8 (however doing this causes incompatibility with my iOS devices.)

2. Add a PCI Express compatible sound card, or use an external card (requires additional hardware purchases.)

3. Use only stereo capable units with the machine (as anything with higher speaker configurations requires use of Pro Logic II from the receiver/amplifier; not to mention sounds terrible.)

Until, or if this is ever fixed I will stay with option 2, as it doesn't require use of additional software just to use audio, allows me to use the respective amplifier fully, and also sounds better.

Thank you for your advice, I just have to remember to be a little more careful when choosing audio products for use with Mac it seems.

I am closing this question.

Regards,

Peter.

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Answer 3

Apr 25, 2015 1:00 AM in response to Peter Miller

A few years later and 10.6.8 has been and gone, now with 10.9.5 or the cartoonish Yosemite do you get the surround matrix sent downy he optical digital out to the surround receiver?

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