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no volume control for monitor?

Got a brandnew Mac mini (2.6 GHz) and connect via HDMI to an ASUS MX279H monitor. Sound is clearly transferred via HDMI, but can control volume only via monitor keys, wireless keyboard volumen controls a greyed-out. Tried also to use the head-phone output jack and change the sound controls, does not work. Any ideas ? Do I need to change the output to HDMI-to-VGA plus head-phone jack connection ? Thnx for any help.

Mac mini, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.3)

Posted on May 6, 2013 1:41 PM

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16 replies

Mar 4, 2017 12:20 AM in response to wil@4319

The thing that actually sets the volume is the amplifier, which is after signal has been converted from digital to analog. In this case your monitor. USB allows for volume control to be passed to the device at the end of the chain. HDMI possibly too via CEC, but you need everything in HDMI chain to talk CEC. I'm not sure if DisplayPort allows for volume control.


In theory, there's no technical reason why volume control commands could not be sent along digital path as long as volume control on the analog side is "soft" (e.g. via on-screen controls on monitor, up/down buttons, or fly-by-wire knob). This is effectively no different than using good old IR remote to do the same thing. If the volume control on the analog side is "hard-wired" (e.g. you directly turn good old potentiometer to adjust the volume), you are out of luck (and generally, such devices can't have good old IR remote control either).


That is in theory. In practice things can and do go horribly wrong sometime. I've a pair of Dell USB speakers attached to my monitor. Volume control is, of course, enabled. Except when I set it to "one bar" using keyboard, it's way too low. When I set it to "two bars" it's ridiculously loud. "Three bars" and the windows are rattling. I never dared to set it to "four bars".


I also have NuForce uDAC-2. Which is USB device. With hard-wired volume knob. My Mac really shouldn't allow me to control volume on that thing via keyboard. But it does!? With expectedly horrible results.


The software that attempts to "fix" this by messing with digital audio data before sending it on its way is generally horrible idea. It degrades audio quality. And you have effectively "double" volume control. It's especially horrible if you dial volume down on the digital (source) side, then attempt to dial it up on the analog side. Just say no to such applications, no matter how convenient and "problem solving" they look like.

May 9, 2013 5:41 AM in response to wil@4319

Below is the main text of an enhancement request I logged with Apple relating to this subject. It explains why you cannot currently do this, a possible workaround, but ultimately only Apple can address this fully.



When a Mac with a built-in HDMI interface is connected to a HDMI display e.g. a TV, it is possible indeed usual for the sound output to be also automatically sent over the HDMI connection to the TV speakers. This works fine.


However, in this configuration the on-screen volume control on the Mac is disabled and the Mac has no way itself to control the volume level. The volume level can be controlled on the TV. As this stands, this could be considered normal correct behavior. However this does confuse users and I would argue is a less than ideal user experience since there is a way to provide this capability.


It is possible to send commands like controlling the volume level via the same HDMI connection as the video and audio signals using CEC (Consumer Electronics Control). In fact you can buy a USB/HDMI adapter which can 'insert' these CEC commands after receiving them via USB. See http://www.pulse-eight.com/store/products/104-usb-hdmi-cec-adapter.aspx


With this adapter the Mac (or other platform) computer sends a volume change signal out via USB and this device then converts it and inserts it in to the HDMI signal.


This device is only necessary because (in this case) the Mac itself is not doing this itself. My request is therefore that Apple add built-in support for this feature so that the Mac as standard can send volume control signals over the built-in HDMI interface. Ideally this should if possible be extended to include Macs with Displayport to HDMI adapters but certainly as a minimum cover Macs with built-in HDMI. From the user experience point of view the on-screen volume control should then be enabled and no longer greyed out and changes sent using CEC via the HDMI.

May 10, 2013 1:54 PM in response to Markus1379

Nice workaround. I wonder if it would be possible with 5.1 sound as well.


For what its worth, another workaround would be to use a souped up remote control like the Logitech Harmony which can control multiple devices. It would direct volume commands to the TV/Display and playback commands to the Mac.


If anybody else however is interested in Apple fixing this properly by adding CEC support, then please post your own feedback to Apple either http://www.apple.com/feedback/macosx.html or if you have an account http://bugreporter.apple.com as an enhancement request.

Apr 8, 2014 6:19 AM in response to wil@4319

I had a 4-year-old iMac connected to my ASUS monitor. My operating system was OS X 10.9.2 and I could adjust the sound volume on a new ASUS monitor from my iMac with no problem. Unfortunately, I just purchased a MacBook Pro and am now using the 6-month-old ASUS monitor with it -- and have no control of the volume from my MacBook Pro. Any new ideas? I see that this string of ideas is now almost a year old.

no volume control for monitor?

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