Analog audio to optical connection

I am trying to connect an analog Bose Cinemate home theater system to my new HDTV. The TV does not have an analog audio in, only a SPDIF (optical) in connection. Is there a way to convert the analog to the optical connection? I was told there is a converter for that, but I have not found one. Thanks for your help.

You should be looking for outputs on your TV, not inputs, as all TVs have analog inputs.
Please post the make and model of your TV set.
Disclosure: Former BBY employee.

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Is analog audio and optical audio on the same path

My audio out- mini jacks have stopped working, front and back.
NO audio comes out of either of them.
Audio does come out of the small internal speaker.
I am an editor and NEED sound.
SO if audio is gone on the mini jacks, does that mean the audio will be gone on the optical side?
System preferences don't have any settings to change for optical out (snow leopard)
Anyone think it could be software and reinstall of operating system might help?
already did PRAM reset and the unplug for 15 seconds(SMC) thing, NO effect.
This just happened one day to the next.

One experiment -- In your /Library/Prefererences (global Library, not the one in your home directory) is a folder called Audio. Within there are two plists:
com.apple.audio.SystemSettings.plist
com.apple.audio.DeviceSettings.plist
Temporarily remove these, i.e., drag them on to your desktop. Then reboot and set you Sound system preferences. I am not sure this is going to work and I believe these two plists will be recreated in the Audio folder. If not, put the two original plists back into the Audio folder that you moved to your desktop.

What is the audio in/optical audio port for ?

I scan thru my iMac manual & found that I have not use my audio in/optical audio port.
What is that port for ?
Can I connect a mic to it & do a voice over in FCE ? If yes, then is this a better method or using a USB mic is better ?
Thnaks

MartinR wrote:
The audio-in port supports both analog audio input & optical digital input. It can be used with almost any audio source including microphones, tape decks, cd players, dvd players, mixers, etc. including mic level and line level sources. The quality of the audio will be dependent on the quality of your audio source. It is neither better nor worse than a USB based audio source per se.
Yes, you can connect a microphone to the audio-in port. The quality of the audio will be dependent on the quality of your mic. If you have a good mic the results should be as good through the audio-in port as it would be via USB provided your USB device is capable of producing good audio.
Thanks Martin for the answers !!
Really appreciate it, thanks

My apple TV optical connection is not working with optical to analog adapter after the update to 6.0.

When i bought the apple tv, i could listen to my iPhone's music on my home's audio system, which was connected to the apple tv through a digital to analog audio converter. It was working until the apple tv upgrade to 6.0. I tried connecting the apple tv directly to another amplifier with optical input and it worked fine, i tried the converter on the play station and it worked as well. I switched the DD on the apple tv settings from Auto to on and the problem remains. Any ideas?

Welcome to the Apple Community.
Try switching Dolby digital to off.

Optical Audio - Analog Audio Adapter?

I have been thinking for a while about buying an Apple TV.
One of the main reasons I want an Apple TV is for streaming music through the Apple TV into my stereo system WITHOUT having the TV turned on.
So this means I need to use the Optical Audio port to go straight into the stereo.
I have a Kenwood XD-551 stereo system which is reasonably old and only has Analog Audio input. That means I can't connect an Apple TV to the stereo using an optical audio cable. Is there an adapter I can buy that connects Optical Audio to Analog Audio?
I know I can stream music to the speakers through an AirPort Express (I have a 3.5mm to Analog cable), but I want an Apple TV also to stream HD Movies and TV Shows from iTunes, as well as AirPlay Mirroring from my iPod Touch.
My current set up:
TV --- 3.5mm jack to Analog Audio Input --- Stereo
My intended setup:
Apple TV --- HDMI --- TV
Apple TV --- Optical Audio to Analog Audio Input --- Stereo
I REALLY NEED A SOLUTION TO THIS OR ELSE I MAY NOT END UP BUYING AN APPLE TV

I am also looking for a exactly a similar setup.
streaming music through the Apple TV into my stereo system WITHOUT having the TV turned on
@alexei Ok, so this solution works with you. just to understand the setup,
you connected the apple tv's 'optical digital-audio port' to a DAC using which kind of cable ? links from amazon or other websites will be very useful.
Output from this DAC, you connected to the speaker via 3.5mm jack, correct? again a cable name (both ends) will be extreemly helpful.
With this when you airplayed music on 'apple tv' via itunes just the audio played on your speaker, correct? assuming your TV turned off during the music play.
And when you airplayed video/movies on 'apple tv' it automatically played on your TV.
Just wanted to know, you see only one airplay configured on your iphone/ipad correct ?
If this exact setup works with you..then bingo..I can go ahead buy all those stuff. If you have a different set-up with which you play music and video sepeartely using apple tv then please do share..
Your answers to these quesions will help me to decide if I need to buy Apple TV for music(which is equally important) and watching movies. And the invetsment dosent stop there..therz DAC and cables.
Thanks!
PS: I know I can stream music to the speakers through an AirPort Express, but want to go for apple tv.

Can I use the optical digital audio cable to connect INSTEAD of the hdmi? My tv only has 2 hdmi ports, and they're both taken

Can I use the optical digital audio cable to connect INSTEAD of the hdmi? My tv only has 2 hdmi ports, and they're both taken

I'm afraid that's very misleading and inaccurate.
Firstly an adapter won't work, it would need to be a converter and then if it's a compliant converter it won't let you watch HDCP protected content such as that from netflix or from the iTunes Store.
Secondly, whilst I'm not going to debate whether component or HDMI is better, component is certainly not better if it's been converted from an HDMI signal. You can't make anything better by simply converting it to another type of signal.

The old Apple TV had a port for Analog the new one does not. Where do I find a (TosLink), Optical to Analog Audio for the Optical Output on the Apple TV so I can run my Analog outside speakers?

Where do I find a TosLink, Optical to Analog Audio for the Optical Output on the Apple TV 2?

click here for information.

Audio switching using optical connection

I am directly connecting to my 2005-era Denon receiver (AV3805, no HDMI) using an optical connection. With the ATV2 "Dolby Digital" setting to 'On', I can get Dolby Digital (5.1) from movies on iTunes, but I'm wondering if the Denon unit is capable of automatically detecting/switching between *Dolby Digital 5.1* and *two-channel stereo*, for example, if I wanted to also stream music. Am I missing a setting on the ATV2 that is preventing the receiver from doing this? Setting the ATV2 to 'Auto' does not seem to force the Denon unit to decide on its own. Thoughts from others with similar receiver set-ups would be appreciated.

Can you not configure the amp's input to automatically detect the feed?
I set the input to 'Auto' on my older Yamaha DSP and it switches automatically.
I don't think the optical feed itself can tell the amp what to do - it just has to detect what's coming in and respond appropriately.
For 2 channel audio AppleTV should be outputting linear PCM, but I believe the newer one adulterates it by up-converting to 16 bit 48kHz, whereas the older unit didn't fiddle with the sample rate.
I'm not sure either if the Dolby Digital setting in the AppleTV menus only affects HDMI output, whereas a surround track just gets passed though on optical if it exists, if not a 2 channel 48kHz 16bit bitstream is sent.

Apple TV2 missing analog audio output for multi-zone system

Found out the hard way that most receivers can't support digital audio in multiple zones (i.e., Zone 2). Since Apple TV2 (ATV2) dispensed with any analog output, if you have a whole-house system that depends on mult-zone to distribute audio to various speakers, you won't be able to use ATV2 to stream music to anything other than Zone 1. The only outputs are HDMI and optical (both digital audio). I think I found a work around (which, of course costs more money) which is a "de-embedding" device from Atlona that takes HDMI in and splits out the audio to analog and passes the HDMI through to the receiver. The analog audio output then lets me connect to the analog in on the receiver so it can stream to all zones. I figure Apple just didn't have enough real estate on the new product to make room for analog, but it's a pain. Hope this helps someone. If anyone knows a better work-around, I'd love to hear it.

I have the same issue with a MacMini I use for music. My solution was to use an inexpensive optical splitter - one feed to the optical input of my receiver and the second to a DAC. Then run standard RCA audio cables from the DAC to the analog Zone 2 inputs.
Here is a link for a DAC
http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?cid=104&cp_id=10423&cs_id=1042302&pid=6884&seq=1&format=2
They should have the splitter as well.

AppleTV audio out to old amp with only analog audio

I'm thinking about getting the Apple TV for both video and for playing my music on my home stereo system. I currently have an old amp with only analog audio capabilities, but the new ATV looks like it only supports digital optical out, and the digital to analog converters I've looked for seem pretty expensive. How can I get the audio from my music collection (iTunes) to play wirelessly through ATV through my amp?
I currently also have an Airport Express which I use for audio, but I was thinking of selling that and just using the ATV since the ATV can essentially do the same thing as the AX with added video benefit. I've seen some threads on streaming audio from the ATV to the AX, but do I really need both? Seems like there should be another way.
I was thinking of connecting the ATV to my TV via HDMI cable for audio, and then using an analog audio out from the TV to my amp. But, if I'm correct, that would only provide me with sound coming from the TV. It wouldn't give sound out from iTunes, for example. Is that right?
Are there any other options?

Followings are my observations in audio streaming with Apple TV 3 and Airport Express through AirPlay protocol:
-- Apple TV 3 come with only digital audio outputs through HDMI and optical SPDIF outputs. If you connect optical link from the optical output to optical input of any DAC and HDMI cable from the HDMI output to HDMI input on TV set, audio output will be transmitted through both digital outputs. Thus is is not necessary to turn on TV set unless visual feedback is required. There is no audio analog line output for Apple TV 3.
-- AirportExpress come with single combo mini jack (digital + analog) for audio output regardless of old/new models. You can connect either digital optical link (with Mini/Toslink adaptor) to digital input of DAC or analog line cable (inferior) to analog line input of amplifier. When analog line is used, digital-to-analog conversion is done by DAC built into AirportExpress for which do not expect quality is as good as most external DAC models. What do you expect from a single-chip DAC implementation vs standalone DAC models cost few thousand dollars ? Moreover analog line is susceptible to interference more than digital line.
So the decision to use Apple TV or AirportExpress, analog or digital transmission for audio streaming depends on whether you need WiFi base station features of AirportExpress to establish wireless network and quality of your audio system to justify all-digital audio transmission. Followings are what I use in audio streaming from iMac/iPad mini /iPhone 5 to audio system in living room. Quality of audio output is comparable with Sonos Zone Player as audio source.
Apple AirPort Extreme wireless base station (802.11n, 5GHz)
Apple TV 3 (firmware 5.1.1, Xtreme HD Toslink optical cable)
Antelope Audio Zodiac DAC
Bel Canto power amplifier
Bowers & Wilkins 683 speakers
Yamaha YST-SW215 subwoofer

HT2844 iMac 27"(late 2009), Audio in/Optical digital audio out port, stopped recognizing my new Bose speaker system, previously working...

Hello,
My iMac 27"(late 2009), Audio in/Optical digital audio out port, stopped recognizing my new Bose speaker system, previously working through that port. I tested the speaker system through my iPhone, and it works fine. I hooked it up to the Headphone out/Optical digital audio in port, and it works through that port also. I did a computer restart, I also checked all wiring and did a system repair on the computer. I also restarted the computer in mode where I could use the system utility, and the computer still did not correct the matter, and it reported everything as being "ok". I wented into "sound", through system preferences, and the computer does not recognize anything I plug into the Audio in/Optical digital audio out port. When I plug the speaker sysytem into the headphone out/optical digital audio out port, it does recognize the Bose speaker system as being "headphones".
Reading through a lot of forums, I hear everything from compatibility, to the port being stuck, and on and on. Since the port was working before, and just quit working one day, I wonder if there is a capacitor or fuse or some type of similar thing is blown, and causing the port to be unfunctionable. Maybe the port went bad, but before this time, I had never used it, and the computer does not move around, and I never plug in and pull wiring out unless needing to, and that being rare.
Here is a link to Costco, where I bought the system, and the exact system I have, if this is any help: http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/productdetail.aspx?c=us&l=en&s=bsd&cs=04&sku= A4092931&ST=pla&dgc=ST&cid=262075&lid=4742361&acd=1230980794501410
By the way, I am running OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.5). I upgraded to Mavericks about a month ago, and expeirienced a number of issues, and had to take my iMac into Apple. Talking with the tech, I decided to wait for a while more before I upgraded to Mavericks. I try and keep the computer maintained.
If any of you have any ideas regadrding wear and tear, and fix I can do, etc., besides having to take my computer into Apple? Thank you, and potentially all of you, for your time and effort in helping me with this issue. Thank you kindly.
davE

Okay, davE, first, you have posted in the "Mac Pro" forum (not Macbook Pro), so we can't be super helpful
but we help you. First, hold down the Option key while clicking on the speaker icon at the top of your screen. This should show you all the inputs and outputs you have. you could check in "About this Mac" then "More info" to see whatever's recognized. Then, maybe, fire up Audio MIDI. your speaker system should show up there. something might have gotten set incorrectly. You can test it there. I guess you are using the good ol' analog cable for connection, and it works on your iPhone, so the cable isn't bad. You could try this. it 's an adapter which might solve your problem
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004HBWYQ6/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i00
depending on which model of Bose speaker you have, you might try doing a product reset
turn off speakers...unplug power cord from outlet...wait 1 minute..plug cord into outlet..turn on speakers..
\\turning off automatic standby||
press and hold top of control pod for 6 seconds until you hear 2 tones that go from high to low
other than that ,I don't know
John B

Speakers and optical connection

Hi there,
I just got a new Mac Pro and I'm wondering if there are any audio/speaker solutions out there that allow you to use the optical out, which I assume is the cleaner, better way to connect.
Can anyone shed any light on this? Thanks.

The answer to your question about optical being noticeably better than analog is highly subjective.
IMO 98% of consumers would not notice the difference because their listening environment, the source material, and the combination of all the elements of their playback systems would combine to make it impossible to pick out the optical connection as the source for an improvement in sound quality.
Really, all that is happening is that you are depending on the D/A conversion of the speakers (logitech in this example) instead of the D/A converters built into the Mac. I would guess that both are very similar in quality, as they are both low-end consumer devices. I say that knowing that the logitechs seem expensive, and of course your MacPro is big $, but consumer devices try to do so many things that compromises are made in the pricing of the parts at the component level. They need to do this to make products that the majority of people can actually afford. In the case of the MacPro, Apple knows that the true high-end audio users (music production) are going to have commited after-market products to do their D/A conversion, so they don't need to put extra $ into the built in ones... I doubt many of the true, nose-in-the-air, audiophile types would consider a PC as an appropriate audio source when there are turntables, custom CD players that cost thousands, tube amplifiers, etc etc blah blah that only the true connoisseur would use...lol
Most consumers these days are listening to MP3s anyway, so your source material is compromised right from the beginning.
Most listening environments where a computer is being used are not optimised in order to hear that last 1-2% of "quality" difference that may or may not be linked to the cabling/connection type of the audio monitoring systems that are being used.
The real advantage you get from using the optical output is that it is the only way to get surround out of the Mac (without buying other after market gear) but your speaker system still needs to be capable of doing the decoding. Thats why the logitech system fills that niche. YMMV

Audio In/Optical Digital Audio In

I have a pair of JBL Duet computer speakers connected to the Headphone Out port of my Mac mini. They work fine.
QUESTION: Is it possible to play a 5-disc carousel CD player (Sony/JVC/Sherwood) through the Mac mini & those speakers WITHOUT first going through an amplifier?
On the CD players, I see three (3) possibilities using an adapter cable into the mini's Audio In/Optical Digital Audio In port:
1. Headphone Jack w/Volume Control > Could an analog cable be used to go from the CD player's front 1/4" headphone jack to a 3.5mm stereo mini-phono jack into the mini? Would a CD player's front panel headphone jack provide sufficient volume, or just enough for headphones?
2. Analog > Use the CD player's rear L/R analog out (RCA-type) into the mini's 3.5mm stereo mini-phono jack. Would there be sufficient volume without an amplifier?
3. Digital > Use the CD player's rear Digital Audio (Optical) Out to the mini's Optical Digital Audio In. Would there be sufficient volume without an amplifier?
Any advice/recommendation with specific info on appropriate adapter cable would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
Mac mini Intel Mac OS X (10.4.9)

Thanks, good thought.
I believe this variation will work also: I see your idea requires Quicktime Pro for that new recording (monitoring) function. I only have Quicktime Player (no recording), but I do have Toast 8's CD Spin Doctor, which will provide the same monitor/output function (select "Play Input through Speakers" and slide speaker icon to the right).
Other readers-- If any other cable connections work, please add to the discussion. Thanks.

No output sound from output port/analog audio: Need help

hello, I want to connect my analog audio equipment to my iMac. I have done this in the past with my old G3. I have connected the RCA cables to a 3.5 mm jack and put it into the audio input port, which was what worked on the G3. When I open the sound page for input & output, on Output I can see the volume bar thing moving in relation to the sounds from mic, turntable, etc: all the analog audio things. However, there is no actual output of sound through the iMac;s speakers or a headphone. The output page is pretty simple so I am real sure I have all the rigt things checked, unchecked etc. Any ideas? Thanks.

I had what sounds like a similar problem to jazzzrat. i had my macbook setup to a stereo and it worked for over a year. suddenly no sound came out of the stereo. in my case, it definitely was a software setup thing.
plug in your stereo jack into the audio out port. then go to system preferences-->sound-->output. on there you should see, under "device for sound output": Name=Headphones, port=built-in output. (if you see name=built in speakers, you plugged in the wrong plug). Now go down to the bottom of the window and UNcheck the "mute" box, and make sure the volume slider is midway or more.
For some reason, mac allows you to mute the "headphones" and "built in speakers" selectively. we have no idea how that box got checked, that remains a complete mystery. but when we eventually found -- and unchecked -- the box, our stereo output came back just fine.
i hope this works for you. good luck and have a good new year.

Audigy 4 Pro - can only get 2 channel sound via SPDIF/optical connecti

I have two PC's, one with an Audigy 4 Pro and one with an Audigy 2 Platinum (A2P), I have my 5. speakers hooked up to the A2P and the A4P connected via the SPDIF to the A2P, I would expect to get 5. - both are setup to use 5. speakers, (I know that as a standard Digital coax/optical connections should handle multi speaker configs my entire A/V sound system (7. Dolby) uses optical and coax and it works fine).
If I run the channel test on the Audigy 4 I can get nothing but sound through the left and right speakers, if I run the test on the Audigy 2 (speakers direct connected) the sound is fine, if I reconnect the speakers to my Audigy 4 I get sound on all speakers so it looks like its an issue with the SPDIF and optical inputs (I tried both).
I have emailed tech support, I'm waiting for them to come back and tell me that the Audigy 4 cannot transmit more than two channels down the SPDIF/optical outs, thats my suspicion anyway, if that is the case then I'm not going to be a happy man and the Audigy will be going back to the store. Could be a driver problem of course as I cant believe they would implement Dolby and THX and only transmit two channels on the optical outs, that would be a bit dumb considering the primary use for digital connections is sound system interconnects.
Anyone with any ideas about this let me know, perhaps theres a hidden setting somewhere or a registry setting that switches the digital outs to carry all signals.

Just before everyone kicks off, heres a response I got from a tech guy at Creative themselves.
If you connect speakers to your sound card using a digital cable
(RCA/SPDIF or optical) then the software speaker test will only output
from two speakers. The reason for this is that the speaker test signal is
not in AC3 nor DTS format.
The signal on a digital connection is either
Optical SPDIF - which is either Stereo PCM signal or AC-3/DTS Bitstream
RCA SPDIF - which is either Stereo PCM signal or AC-3/DTS Bitstream
If you play AC3 (Dolby Digital) or DTS encoded signals, the amplifier
decodes this and outputs it to all 6 speakers (5 satellites & subwoofer)
discretely.
When playing back stereo signals (such as Wav/CD Audio or MP3/WMA files)
the amplifier may generate 5. output based on the incoming stereo PCM
signal, provided Dolby Pro Logic decoding is available and activated.
Therefore the speaker test should not be relied on when using RCA or
Optical digital connections.
This applies to all speaker systems equipped with RCA or Optical digital
connections.
This makes sense to me and I'm pretty happy with it, basically as the reply says above the speaker test does not encode to AC3 hence if you hook two Audigys together and run the test you only get 2 channel output, if you play a DVD which is AC3/DTS encoded on one Audigy and listen to speakers hooked up to the other when both Audigys are connected via SPDIF or optical you should in theory get full playback on all speakers. Hopefully
Cheers
Simon

Analog audio to optical connection

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