Best audio out method

I want to play audiofiles on the Macbook through the hi-fi system. what will give me the best quality output audio? I've got a scabby 3.5m jack plugged into the audio output and into the amp but it sounds pretty ordinary. I'm sure there's gotta be a better way to do it.
thanks
Bruce

Depends on the input capability of your stereo system. If it's analog, what you've got is what you need to use - it's analog, and that's certainly "ordinary". If it's digital you need a mini-toslink-to-toslink cable like this one. Either way, the miniplug goes into the audio out/headphone jack on the MBP (it's a combined analog/digital output).
Hope this helps...

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Reset PRAM. http://support.apple.com/kb/PH18761
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Choose the appropriate method.
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Why is audio out-of-synch with video on VOB files

I used a Pioneer DVR to import ~120 8mm and Hi8mm and Digital8 analog tapes to convert them to DVD's. These ~120 DVD's are in VOB format. These are 4:3 video (not HD). I did test this flow and didn't notice a few of the VOB's did not have the audio tracking properly.
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Longer cable (6') connecting female RCA L R Audio Out to Headphones In 3.5 on Vizio 32"?

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OK. Apologies. I ordered the wrong cable, based on a sales rep's suggestion and my not paying attention: more my fault than his. Anyway, got the order cancelled. The suggestion given to me is to get a 3" two RCA males to 1 3.5mm female. And then find a cable with a female and a male 3.5 ends. If anyone has been reading any of my posts, I offer my apologies. I am back to square one.

Optical audio out turns off during silence

My optical audio out port turns off when no sound is being played. When a sound is played my speakers pop as the receiver switches into optical mode. This takes a second so I miss system sounds. I would like to set the optical out to always stay on, even when I'm not listening to music so I can hear these sounds and avoid popping. Does anyone know how to accomplish this?

Note that there are several different ways that an iPod or Nano can support TV output, depending on the iPod model & type of connection. The charts at iPod and iPhone: TV out support may be of some help with this, but it still can be confusing, depending on which of the two Apple docks with very similar names you might have used, or if you used any third party connection products.
Because of this, it probably would be best for each of you asking for a solution to describe in detail which items you used in your connections, & which of the TV's video input jacks that you plugged the output connectors into.

Digital audio out port

I am having a problem, quite opposite to what most of what I've read about Mac audio port issues online, concerning my audio-out port. I'm running an Intel Imac, 7,1, running OS 10.5.8. The specs do specify the audio port on this mac is dual; analog and digital output. Everything I've read to date relates to the red optical light being stuck on coming out of the audio port. My issue is that I CANNOT, and I emphasize that, get the red light to come on and thus use my optical cable (it's working on other equipment) and connect it to my AV receiver. I have never in the past even thought about using an optical cable so it never was an issue. In fact I never knew the port was dual. The external speaker and headphones work fine and the audio panel in the preference pane reflects that; either says 'internal speakers' or 'headphones' automatically when engaging/disengaging audio phone jack. When I put in my toslink (optical) cable, the panel goes to 'headphones' instead of 'optical out' or 'digital out'. There is never a provision to click on digital out on either the sound panel or the midi setup panel. I've tried everything I can click on at both panels. Audio Output in midi setup says 'master stream' (always greyed out) and Source- either 'headphones' or 'internal speakers'. The default and system output drop downs never give me a 'digital' or 'optical' option. Everything works fine except that I cannot get the red light to shine and cannot get digital out at all. Any ideas? Maybe something in terminal or in openfirmware screen? Thanks.

have you tried other speakers or headphones and what version bootcamp drivers are you using?
Moses Kravitz wrote:
Does this port connect directly to appropriate digital speakers?
If so can someone recommend a decent set of digital speakers that will connect directly.
Or does the optical digital audio port connect to an amplifier or receiver and them to speakers?
With the suggestions i have below the set-up is like this:
Subwoofer - Connects to 2 (Stereo or technically 2.1) or 5 (5.1) speakers
The subwoofer connects to a control pod (which has the optical inputs, coax inputs, and analog inputs - atleast all 3 are on the z5500)
Digital/Optical Audio:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TOSLINK
Suggested Speakers; I Personally have 2 pairs of the Z-5500 set, true high quality audio and variety of settings for whatever you use them for, i have been so pleased by them and their warranty service is by far the best ever, anything ever happens to them, theyll send you a replacement set, logitech/apple great customer service, i also posted a few other priced ones if youre not looking for a huge set up:
The company site & Speakers: http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/speakersaudio/home_pcspeakers/&cl=us,en
Compares a few models:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/comparison/ref=pdcp_ecmp/104-4843690-8241552?ie=UTF8&ASIN.1=B0002WPSBC&ASIN.2=B0002SQ0AE&ASIN.4=B0002 SQ2P2&ASIN.3=B0002SQ0A4&bf=0
and some others in that same field:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/explorer/B00007AKDP/2/ref=pdcp_esexpl/104-4843690-8241552
And you're going to need a TOSLINK cable to go from the audio port to the back of the control pods; found a nice cheap one
http://amazon.com/s/ref=srkk3/104-4843690-8241552?ie=UTF8&search-alias=aps&field-keywords=toslink%20cable
hope that helps!!
Message was edited by: AppleNewton

MBP- Digital Audio Out is always on

For some reason after (I believe) I updated to 10.4.9 the Digital Audio Out on my MBP is always on, thus making the internal speakers unusable. If I plug in headphones they work fine but after I unplug them it switches back to digital audio.
How do I fix this?
15" MBP 1.83ghz. Mac OS X (10.4.6) 1.5gb of Ram,

ok, since this prob comes up every week and often more than once a week, I wrote a detailed explanation and saved it so I could repost it next time it happened to someone. here it is:
the audio input/output connector on all mac notebooks is a dual function connection. it can switch between analog and digital optical. the way it does this is by an automatic sensor that detects what is plugged in. if it detects that an optical digital cable is connected, then it will switch to digital output and/or input mode as the case may be. this is why you see a red light - it's the optical digital audio stream. it seems that in many cases, people's connectors are becoming stuck, and the machine thinks there is a digital optical cable plugged in. it can happen if you've connected or disconnected headphones, or speakers, or possibly even if something is loose in that port and it just gets jammed with the sensor being tripped. people have suggested trying to gentle poke inside the port with a paperclip, to try and reset the sensor back to the setting that nothing is plugged in. for some people it has worked, for others, not. you can also try plugging in headphones and unplugging them a few times to see if it does the trick. if none of this works, then unfortunately the best bet is going to be taking the machine in for a service.

What settings give the BEST audio quality (original audio CD to iTunes)

Further to my last post, can ya'll PLEASE help me get the bottom of this? I have heard so many different opinions & need to resolve ASAP....
What pref' settings will give me the VERY BEST audio quality, when importing original audio CD's into iTunes 4?
File size is of no issue (I have TONS of storage). I aim to import all at the highest quality possible (files need to be "broadcast quality" - for playing through a big PA system). I have been advised to either.....
1. Import using the AAC encoder at a stereo bit rate of 320 kbps with a sample rate of 48.000 kHz.
2. Import using AIFF (lossless uncompressed).
3. Import using Apple Lossless (lossless compressed).
WHICH ONE SHOULD I USE? Bearing in mind that the files will be played LOUD through a professional PA system & I'd prefer the crowd not to notice a significant diference between iTune files & orginal audio CD's (I will be spining both, side by side).
Cheers - Sweetamix.

You are finding out that the answer to this question tough. Everyone has their own opinion on this one.
I saved the responses to a topic I opened six months ago on this same subject. I saved them and cut and pasted them into one document. Here were the answers I received. Good luck. bob
Subject: Re: Classical Music & Bitrate
Date: Sunday, June 26, 2005 11:12 PM
To: <[email protected]>
RE: Classical Music & Bitrate
My experience with classical music (and music in general) is that the higher the bitrate, the better the quality and richness of the music. On the other hand, there is a limit to how much distinction your ears can make, and I think that anything above 192 kbps (mp3 format) is not significantly better (and not worth the larger file size). And in terms of volume adjustment, I personally have not found any need for it.
RE: Classical Music & Bitrate
I copied the same CD to my computer in 128, 160, 192, and 320 bitrates, and I couldn't tell a difference between any of 'em. I was listening to them with Grado SR60 headphones too.
RE: Classical Music & Bitrate
I’m sure you will get several if not many responses. You may also find they vary with the preference of the individual. However there are some rules of thumb. Generally speaking I think you will indeed find the higher the bit rate brings you closer to the CD sound.
Certainly, 32-bit rate does not offer very good sound quality. Actually going from 32 to 320 should have been noticeably better, if not…. Then you’re in good shape. Because what you don’t know is there, can’t be missed.
Also, the bit rate is only part of the equation. What format codec <http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=51910> are your songs ripped to.
Consider the following - iPod: About compatible song formats
<http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=61476>
MP3 (from 32 Kbps to 320 Kbps)
MP3 Variable Bit Rate (VBR)
AIFF
WAV
M4A AAC
Apple Lossless Encoder
It sounds to me as though your songs may be in MP3 format. As a suggestion you might try ripping your CD’s to 128 AAC format. The general consensus is that AAC is better than MP3. Give it a shot…for the heck of it, and see what you think.
Finally in the end…..it matters little what we all might think….If you think your sounds are better ripped at a MP3 320 bit rate……Great. If not…experiment, and play around till you find what sounds wonderful to you!
RE: Classical Music & Bitrate
Sorry for taking so long to get back to this thread: had two twelve-hour work days in a row.
I did a Get Info on a typical piece in my iTunes and got this
Kind: AAC Audio File
Bit Rate: 128kb (have some at 192 & 2 or 3 at 320)
Sample Rate: 44.100 kHz
Profile: Low Complexity
Channels: Stereo
Volume: +2.3
I was troubled that one responder couldn't tell the difference among 128, 160, 192, and 320 bitrates even using Grado SR60 headphones!
And another seems to be of a similar opinion when he says that I think that anything above 192 kbps (mp3 format) is not significantly better (and not worth the larger file size). Does this apply to AAC format, too?
However, I am going to continue to add tunes at the 320 bitrate - for a while - because I swear that I can tell a difference when I play them over my car radio via the cassette adapter.

Does anyone use Optical Audio out to connect studio monitors?

I am planning to snatch a Mac Mini as my studio upgrade. I am also planning on buying some studio monitors (as opposed to just regular speakers). I was wondering what people use to get great, accurate results for under $600. The Mini can achieve optical audio out, apparently. Are there studio monitors that use digital, optical audio as a means to connect? How do fellow Logic home studio users have their audio out set up?

Scroto Saggins wrote:
well, optical is digital (right?), so wouldnt it be the only way to get the best, uncolored sound out of a Mac? what other (better) options are there? I started this topic because I dont really notice studio monitors that use optical, and I am wondering why? Whats the downside?
Because the ones that do, are way over the budget of most people on this forum.
I have this pair :
http://www.jblpro.com/catalog/General/Product.aspx?PId=28&MId=5
They retail at around 1500 per pair. They are not the most expensive ones out there, rather the less expensive ones with digital inputs.
Cheers

PREMIERE PRO cs3 & cs5 - audio out of synch by 6 frames after export

i have never had formal training on adobe premiere, and therefore when i am working with my students it is basically down to expereince i have gained by myself.
with cs3, we always worked on the basis that it would always export the audio out of synch with the video by 6 frames so they would routinely have the audio tracks on two separate tracks, one for editing and one for exporting which was offset +6 frames.
when we made the transition to cs5 and new kit i was stunned to see that the synch issues were still there. and since a quick google yielded very little evidence that others shared this issue i thought it must be something i am doing wrong after years of bad habits learned on the fly.
so here is my workflow, where am i going wrong and why is it always out of synch?
open cs5
choose an editing format. (this varies but the synch issue is always the same)
import content
edit
export (normally as a microsoft avi, with no compression which i later convert into quicktime compressed with ANIMATION)
i teach on an animation course so normally the content we import is a sequence of stills such as jpg or tiff, but we also capture stuff on dslrs too
the timeline colour is normally yellow, which is fine at standard def, but larger def we will render workspace to turn it green
the editing format depends on our target format. the current project is 720 hd
the export as avi with no compressor i suspect to be a weak link in this work flow, but the problem remains if i export as anything else so....
now as an additional point on the matter, the current project we have had people miming to an audio clip which we played live for their performance. the audio blips were aligned on the timeline with the audio blips from the edit
but after rendering out, the footage is out of synch by 6 frames. it has always been this way.
any thoughts? i know i must be doing something wrong, but the issue is consistant across different computer, running different OS and different versions of PREM...so either i am doing it wrong or premiere is fundamentally broke.....i suspect its me though

is there a logical reason for opting for a preset which is the lowest common denominator rather than a highest? is it not better to work at the best res possible?
does it matter either way? because i have often created 1080p content and worked in a 1024/576 edit environment only to later export at 1080p with no loss of quality?
i create the avi and then open this in quicktime to export to the desired formats.
now that you posted that comment i cant believe i have never done the simple trouble shoot of 'at what point does it go out of synch'
files are too big to playback uncompressed though.
i know it is a workflow issue and not a prem issue because no one else seems to have the problem.
im going to run some tests
thanks, will report back

Audio out of sync - FCP to Motion

I've read the posts about motion audio not syncing to video when subclips are imported. When I imported a subclip of audio & video into Motion - audio was the whole length of my master clip (1 hour!) Way off sync.
I selected a clip in the sequence, exported the audio out as an aiff (still as long as the whole sequence), opened it in quicktime, went back to FC and made a note of the TC where my clip began in my sequence, then went back to QT to edit the clip to around that area on the audio, saved it as a smaller file, then imported it into motion and slid it around a bit to make up for the frames that I was off by. You can't be serious..... is this the workaround?
Is there any other way????
Exhausted. I have 135 subclips to animate to over in Motion !!!

I often hear that it's best to save and store important projects to DV tape, i.e. play your FCE project back through a Firewire cable to a new tape recording in your mini-DV camera, and archive it that way for the long haul. I suppose that's because the quality of the image is maximized on tape, since it is not compressed as it is on DVDs.
But I had hopes that DV tape was a little more durable than that, for long term archiving. Sounds to me now as though the fragility of that tape doesn't bode well for preserving video very long into the future.
I have 15-year-old Hi-8 tapes that I've been digitizing into my Mac through a Canopus converter box, and then recording back to mini-DV in hopes of preserving them. These 15-year-old analog tapes seem to play just fine, with pretty good video images, despite conventional wisdom that analog tapes deteriorate after about 10 years. But I wonder now whether I'm going to a lot of trouble to just prolong their existence for only a few more years, if mini-DV tape is even more fragile than Hi-8.
Maybe in another ten years, the video on those old Hi-8 tapes will be superior to their copies I made on the mini-DV tapes, if the latter turn out to degrade more in storage. It could be that these people whose cameras record onto memory cards, DVD-R, and little hard drives are the smart ones (whether they know it or not), and will still have their video in good condition decades from now, if those media are more durable than tape.
Guess I'll burn DVD copies of all my old video as well, in case that medium lasts longer than DV tape backups. Better compressed and slightly degraded than nothing. Would be nice if my kids, when they reach old age, can still see video of themselves when they were small, like I can do on the 8mm film my father took many years ago, in the 1950s.
Tom B.

Audio out of sync from demuxed program stream

Hi All,
I've been trying to resolve this problem without any success. I recently ripped some video from a dvd in order to make a backup. I extracted the title I wanted as a muxed program stream. I then used MPEGStreamclip to demux into .m2v and .ac3 files. I imported these into DVDSP and burned the disc. The result is that the audio drifts out of sync over the course of the length of the video (about 1.5 hours). I've done this same exact procedure many many times and haven't had this problem before. In fact the video will play back in perfect sync in both MPEGStreamclip and VLC. I did notice when importing the files into DVDSP that the length of the ac3 file shows a difference of almost 4 seconds (shorter) than the video. So obviously this is the problem. I just can't understand why if the video plays back perfectly its not being extracted properly by MPEGStreamclip. I also tried demuxing with BBDemux, which produced the same result. I then tried with the demux tools in ffmpeg and that process started creating numerous different versioned files of the original file and actually ended up running out of disc space.
Has anyone run into this problem before and found a solution?
Thanks,
Chris

Ok, I understand what you're doing now. But you're losing some quality by going to 422 and then back to m2v again, not to mention the extra time required for the encoding.
Thanks,
Chris
KADVD wrote:
Hi Chris,
I have used this method frequently when issues arise,
I use the original "Video TS" from the DVD, open,
Then open Streamclip, select the VOBs in the TS that don't end in a zero,
and drop them into the streamclip window, singly if needed, then convert
to (I prefer) pro res 422 SQ, I like the results better than DV.
assemble if needed in FCP, match sequence settings to clip, and
verify audio and video are in sync, then use compressor to create
your m2v and ac3.
Depending on how the original DVD was authored, menus, tracks etc.
the ".0" VOBs will frequently contain a 1 sec. black slug, this can
throw the audio out of sync when the video is extracted.
if there is a motion menu this will become a video clip, usually
in VOB "1.0", you probably don't want that.
Hope this is a clearer explanation.
J>H<L</div>

Built in audio out disappeared

The built-in audio out option has disappeared from the Sound Preferences window and Digital Out is the only option. So I'm not getting any system sounds, etc. The volumn icon is greyed out, etc.
I've been using Logic and had the audio out set alternatingly for built-in and Presonus Firebox. When the FB is plugged in it shows up in all the right places.
The built-in mic still shows up, but the built-in output has vanished.
Any ideas?
TIA,
Daniel

Since discovering that the problem I was having was with that switch, I've just been careful to plug in the headphones with some firmness and then unplug it with a good quick tug and the switch has been ... switching.. reliably ever since. I'm not sure what one could do to "fix" that, and fortunately I don't seem to need to try that right now, but if you do need to get into that I'd be interested in any tips..
Best,
Daniel

Best audio out method

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