ADvice on mac mini HDMI

**telemu** · April 5th, 2009, 02:08 PM

Hi all,

I've ordered a mac mini and a DVI to hdmi cable. All's well with that until... I remembered DVI doesn't carry sound... and felt stupid as hell.

Most TVs dont accept sound from an outer source while on hdmi, so what do you guys think is the best way to go?

How do you guys connect your mac minis to the TV? I really wanted to have a good picture quality, and have a sound system hooked up to my TV sound out.

Thanks in advance for the advice.

**eshapin** · April 5th, 2009, 09:30 PM

I took the external speakers that had been packaged with an older PC and attached them to the speaker jack of the Mac mini; work's just fine.

Note: Above arrangement won't provide surround sound, but neither will the built-in TV speakers that you were expecting to use, so you should be ok.

**Djelibeybi** · April 6th, 2009, 12:51 AM

Don't worry about Mac Mini to TV -- just plug a 3.5mm to TOSLINK optical cable from the Mini direct to your sound system. That's what I do with my Mini HTPC.

**telemu** · April 6th, 2009, 04:43 AM

Originally Posted by Djelibeybi

Don't worry about Mac Mini to TV -- just plug a 3.5mm to TOSLINK optical cable from the Mini direct to your sound system. That's what I do with my Mini HTPC.

I can always do that, sure, even with a mini-jack to RCA cable, my problem is I have several sources connected to my tv (cable box, xbox, and mac mini as a media with boxee) and the only way I can have all the audio going to my sound system is thru the audio out from the TV, using the TV as a switch.

I guess there is no easy and perfect solution for this problem, I could buy a A/V professional rack mounted Switch, but I dont want to spend that kind of money...

I could also get a cable that has 4x female RCA inputs that converge into 2 RCA male outputs, to connect my mac mini and my TV output to my sound sys.

That might be the cheapest (although not so good) solution...

Damned reality keeps interfering.... mumble grumble rumble....

**poprock** · April 6th, 2009, 05:22 AM

You can buy boxes to combine DVI video and optical audio outputs into a single HDMI connection, but they are pretty expensive. Here’s one.

**Kiggold** · April 6th, 2009, 01:14 PM

my boxee computer is connected to my tv via DVI-HDMI cable. On my TV I have 2 HDMI inputs, and one of those inputs let me plug in a Red White audio cable for audio. so I have a Y cable that outputs audio to my TV. Since that sounded very confusing, ill show you a digram:

Its not the greatest drawing but it gets the point across

**mattopia** · April 7th, 2009, 04:44 PM

My previous TV would strip AC-3 if it was "in the middle", my receiver would only get pro logic or 2ch from an hdmi source passed through my TV. My newer TV might fix this, but I got in the habit of switching audio and video separately for the most part.

I highly recommend one of the lower end Harmony remotes. They are fairly cheap these days, and you can have it set inputs based on tasks (Watch TV, Watch Movie, etc). I then switch audio (and component video sources) through my receiver, and HDMI video sources through the TV. It's complicated but it nets me a total of 5 component and 3 HDMI inputs, and wouldn't you know I use every damn one of them.