No Hdmi volume control

HDMI is a digital interface, when sound is sent over it the sound is therefore also digital. To change the volume of a digital signal means completely altering the digital signal. Apple appear to take the view that the end-point device i.e. the device actually outputting the sound should be responsible for volume control.

If your HDMI goes to an AV Receiver and the AV Receiver has the speakers plugged in to it, then the AV Receiver is responsible for converting it back to analogue (for sound is an analogue waveform) and therefore the AV Receiver should be also responsible for doing the volume control. It would be able to do this in the analogue form rather than the digital form since it will already have had to convert it back to analogue to play through the (analogue) speakers.

The same would apply to a TV with built-in speakers.

Now what is annoying is that even with the above there would still be a way for the Mac to send the volume control to the end device using a standard called CEC (Consumer Electronics Control). This allows sending such commands via the HDMI interface to be processed by e.g. the AV Receiver. The Mac would then be telling the AV Receiver to increase or decrease the volume, this would still mean the digital signal is unchanged and the AV Receiver still gets to do it in the analogue realm.

Unfortunately it is my understanding that Apple do not support the CEC standard although I have seen some people claim it 'works for them'.

For what its worth there is a USB gadget that can 'insert' CEC commands in to the HDMI signal, the computer would send the commands via USB to this gadget and the gadget then inserts the signal in to the HDMI signal. However the software your using has to support this gadget. I believe XBMC for Mac does so but iTunes etc. would not.

See http://www.pulse-eight.com/store/products/104-usb-hdmi-cec-adapter.aspx

I would guess any software like AudioSwitcher is converting the sound to analogue, altering the volume, and then if needed converting the sound back to digital to send over the HDMI, and then the AV Receiver (or TV) will have to convert it back to analogue again. As you can imagine this would make a small loss of quality and possible audio delays due to the repeated conversion. This is why I believe Apple don't do it at the Mac end. Although an AV Receiver generally also has the ability to set an offset to compensate for audio delays (TVs don't).

Again nothing would prevent Apple supporting CEC which does not have this problem.

There is an interesting workaround available using the Midi Interface and two little tools.

Described here: http://lifehacker.com/how-to-enable-mac-volume-control-for-hdmi-or-displaypor-17 93607216

Solution: Sound Output will be sent to a virtual Sound Interface (I.e: Releases · mattingalls/Soundflower · GitHub) which then pipes it to the HDMI (Releases · mLupine/SoundflowerBed · GitHub).

Works for me on 10.12.6 (Mac OS Sierra).

GitHub - RSully/mac-cec-volume: App that translates OS X volume events to HDMI control commands. Requires libCEC compati… It would appear some open source is finally addressing the issue. Since I don't use HDMI volume on my Mac, I could not say for certain if it works or not. But at least someone is working on it.

_Matej wrote:

...My audio needs are simple, mainly including Netflix and YouTube. ...

Most apps, Flash Player plugin, Silverlight Plugin, and HTML5 sourced

videos have means of adjusting audio levels within the players themselves,

without any regard for the hardware that is being used. From a You Tube

video:

THANK YOU! It is NOT hard for them to have set it up. This is disgraceful, and I will pursue action on this. I was told that it could do it, and that was a lie. I was also told that it work that with AUDIO INTERFACES like my STEINBERG for music. The thing is, is that this is an INDUSTRY STANDARD EQUIPMENT! I am not going ask you twice. If you don't set this up right I am filling A LAW SUIT! GOT IT! Even you gotta spend money to replace my system, get it done!

Lol.

Apple is being unreasonable here. Do they realize that people do not alwayshave full control over volume? It is easy when you connect a Macbook to a home TV or a 24" monitor, but not so when you need to connect to a screen in aconference room which happen to have an audio output. It can be distracting to hear the sound of incoming emails or some other notifications. And you can not simply mute the sound.

biggdaddymiller wrote:

THANK YOU! It is NOT hard for them to have set it up. This is disgraceful, and I will pursue action on this. I was told that it could do it, and that was a lie. I was also told that it work that with AUDIO INTERFACES like my STEINBERG for music. The thing is, is that this is an INDUSTRY STANDARD EQUIPMENT! I am not going ask you twice. If you don't set this up right I am filling A LAW SUIT! GOT IT! Even you gotta spend money to replace my system, get it done!

You realise that you're not talking to Apple here, just other Apple users, like you, or maybe not exactly like you but similar.

If you would like to threaten Apple try this link: Apple.com/Feedback

If you use the HDMI output for sound you can only control the volume via the device.

On the Del can you connect another sound input and still use the HDMI input for video? If so connect the input to the Minis audio out and select the output in the Mini Preferences.

I've discovered a solution.

Yes these is an app you can buy. I just searched "volume control" and it gave me a list of these volume control apps. some are pricey but I'm going with the .99 cent one called AudioSwitcher (one word). It has great reviews, and super cheap. I have a problem where I sometimes need to plug my head phones in and when the plug is in the back I don't like to reach back there. So I'd like to just have my headphones plugged in and just toggle through the different sound output options. My computer is also plugged into my TV as well. When every I'm listening through my TV it won't let me control the volume so that gets annoying as well.

Good luck.

THANK YOU! It is NOT hard for them to have set it up. This is disgraceful, and I will pursue action on this. I was told that it could do it, and that was a lie. I was also told that it work that with AUDIO INTERFACES like my STEINBERG for music. The thing is, is that this is an INDUSTRY STANDARD EQUIPMENT! I am not going ask you twice. If you don't set this up right I am filling A LAW SUIT! GOT IT! Even you gotta spend money to replace my system, get it done!

As a brand new Mac owner and OS X user, this was the first issue I noticed immediately after setup. Initially I assumed I was just not proficient with the OS yet, until I searched online for a solution and discovered discussions such as this one, and learned that OS X simply does not support output volume control for HDMI devices through the menu bar.

I was astonished to learn that such a basic function is missing, as for the past ten years I have grown fond of monitors with built-in speakers because I prefer not cluttering up my desk with speakers and wires. My audio needs are simple, mainly including Netflix and YouTube. All the versions of Windows I have used allowed for HDMI volume control without issue, even the terrible Vista, and I have come to appreciate adjusting the volume from the system tray as the most convenient way of sound control for my needs.

Please do not get me wrong, I do like everything else about OS X so far. I am mainly just curious if it is an intentional design choice, and if so, what the reasoning behind it is, or if for some reason it is not possible to implement due to the Mac's hardware, though that would make even less sense, especially after it has been around for several generations.

Found a solution and it works on my MBPr mid 2012 with Sierra. I search and searched for days and this works as of this morning.

https://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/app-ddcctl-control-hdmi-display-audio-volume. 154588/

As a side note:

1. You have to change your F11 option for this to work. Untick the option for going to desktop in your keyboard shortcuts for volume down to work

2. I have been troubleshooting this with a few other things and HDMI audio only works, for me anyway, if the lid is open. If you close it, it will use internal or get no sound. This has nothing to do with the above link, this is a separate issue. For now, I just turn down the brightness till the screen is off. Using my MBPr with on a HP 34 AIO Curved and it is GLORIOUS!!

I found 2 solutions to this problem.

1. install windows 10 in bootcamp and you can control your output just like you did on your dell. 😉

2. follow instructions here: http://lifehacker.com/how-to-enable-mac-volume-control-for-hdmi-or-displaypor-17 93607216

It works but you can here the quality of the output degrade as you output through soundflower.

To bring this article up to date.

To change the volume of the HDMI connection within the Mac requires either first converting the sound to analogue, modifying it, and then converting it back to digital, or it requires the Mac to support the CEC aka Consumer Electronics Control standard as mentioned in my previous reply. Supporting CEC requires built-in hardware support for this standard which no current Mac has. CEC allows the computer in this case to send a signal down the HDMI cable to e.g. the TV telling the TV to alter its volume.

Apple have historically taken the point of view that the Mac should not use the software route of converting to analogue, modifying it and then converting it back because this obviously alters the original digital signal which impacts quality, causes delay and the delays could result in the audio and video getting out of sync. Apple have therefore left it to the output device e.g. TV to be responsible for controlling the volume. I personally agree with Apple about not doing it in software but I do think that by now that Apple should have added CEC support which the AppleTV 4 does support.

However again as per my previous reply there is a gadget you can get which can 'insert' CEC commands in to the HDMI signal. See https://www.pulse-eight.com/p/104/usb-hdmi-cec-adapter

What is new since my previous reply is that originally the above adapter was only supported by Plex and KodiTV on the Mac. Since then someone has written a more generic tool for the Mac which in theory allows general control of the volume via CEC with any program. See http://couch-slouch.com/ you still need the Pulse-Eight adapter.