IMac digital optical output cable

Has anyone used the iMac headphone output in its capacity as a optical digital output? Can you even buy a 3.5mm - toslink cable? If I buy one it would need ot be 7m long...
Thanks
Andy

Andy,
I've used these successful in the past, however never directly from my iMac to a receiver. I'v normally gone from my Airport Express to my receiver to play air tunes music from iTunes.
http://www.amazon.com/Quality-Digital-Fiber-Toslink-Optical/dp/B003V7DSH6/ref=sr _1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1369175582&sr=8-7&keywords=3.5+to+toslink+cable
which looks like it may be long enough for you.

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S/PDIF OPTICAL DIGITAL AUDIO OUTPUT
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even though i did just order the wire online, lets start over since you obviously know what your talking about when it comes to this kind of stuff.
i have a 2.4 ghz intel core 2 duo imac(i believe late 2007) running latest version of snow leopard 10.6.7
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Anyone knows if the mini-jack in ipad 2 dock is also digital (optical) output? ... like in the latest AirPort Express.

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thx

http://www.apple.com/ipad/specs/
Standard audio jack.

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Just wondering since im not entirely 100% sure about optical outputs and those on the macpro, but is it always suppose to be shining red? its not bright at all but just wondering if it was normal for that to appear that way..
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Hi AppleNewton,
when the mac Pro is on, the optcial digital out will always have this light red shining.
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Have Fun
Stefan

How do you disable "digital optical output" so the red light in headphone jack goes off and I can use the internal speakers?

HI,
I have a red light in my headphone jack and I see "correct responses" listed as "when digital output is enabled speakers are disabled." That's all well and good but doens't really help. HOW do you disable the "digital output," get the red light to turn off and be able to hear through the speakers? What's the SOLUTION to the problem. Sorry, just a bit frustrated. Any help is greatly appreciated.
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Allegedly this can occur if there is a contaminant in the headphone jack that makes the computer believe there is an optical connection there, so it shuts off the internal speakers.
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Hey Guys,
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THIS IS WHAT SOLVED THE PROBLEM FOR ME:
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sudo kextload /System/Library/Extensions/AppleHDA.kext
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HELP! I'm losing my mind - Audigy 2 ZS digital coax output to receiver

I've very close to throwing my Vista media center PC out the window trying to get my Audigy 2 ZS to output a digital signal to my home theater amp/receiver. I've read as much as I can find on the subject and, as far as I understand it, the digital out 3.5mm mini jack on the back of the ZS is actually a multi speaker output designed for connection to Creative speakers, but to output a digital signal to my amp I need to plug in a 3.5mm mini jack to RCA connector then connect my digital coax cable to it and the other end to the amp, so I bought this little guy to connect to the ZS and my RCA coax cable: http://www.rakuten.com/pr/product.aspx?sku=263718980
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Audigy2 ZS platinium pro Optic output to receiver 5.1 - 6.1 -

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thanks

I am having this same kind of issue
I am currently trying to output using my optical out on my Audigy2 ZS to my Pioneer 85 reciever. I have selected to use the SPDIF passthrough and tried SPDIF bypass on my settings and my reciever is not seeing the coding coming to it (It has a indicator on it when it is recieveing the signal) I have checked both of my guides on my reciever and sound card and I cannot get it to work for me at all.
If I take the cable and plug it into my DVD player it works just fine. If I try my DVD rom dri've which is using the SPDIF on my player or any of my games, it only outputs to my L/R speakers.Message Edited by Ericn84 on 06--2005 06:5 AM

Digital audio output problem

Hi All
I have just bought a Mac Mini intel duo 1.83hz and a Hitachi plasma TV 42inch model 42PD9700.
I have tried to link a toslink cable from the audio port on the mac mini to the TV . The TV has an 2 inputs for audio, a HDMI Audio jack and a RGB audio input.
I have tried both ports but get no sound from the speakers in the TV
The message in the system setting under the sound output tab shows
1 Digital output : Port - Built in Output
and settings for the selected device: The selected device has no putput controls
I have used the following adaptors with each side of the toshlink cable
http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=29296&TabID=1&C=KRS&U=MapAuto&doy=s earch&MenuName=Optical+Cable
What am I doing wrong guys?
thanks

HDMI can carry audio, but a DVI (from the Mac mini) to HDMI cable will not carry audio, just video. So, you'll have to select a different connection. I'm a little confused by your description of the other audio-in option on the TV as "RGB" since that means Red-Green-Blue which could be an SCART video port. This review says the TV has "stereo audio inputs" which, I would guess, are a pair of red & white RCA connectors (an analog connection). You might need a mini-jack to RCA type "Y" cable to go from the Mac mini's headphone port and into the two RCA jacks. Something similar to this:
http://www.pixmania.co.uk/uk/uk/187082/art/belkin/y-audio-cable-mini-jack.html
The Mac will switch to "digital out" if you plug in a digital optical audio cable with one of those adapters but that doesn't mean the TV is receiving that signal. A digital optical audio cable will not carry analog audio to an RCA jack.
-Doug

X-Fi support digital OPTICAL SPDIF outp

From what I've been able to tell so far is that the only way to get the optical output is to spend a lot of money on the platinum version of the X-Fi. Am I wrong or is Creative being creative in manipulating their sales and their bottom line?
Thank you.
ATTN Creative: We the consumers need an affordable X-Fi card with digital OPTICAL output without the front 5 /4 bay or the external platinum device! Space inside my PC is precious as I have a multimedia type microatx box. Get your engineers working on a solution!

I have nothing against the coaxial method, I just have mostly optical inputs in my yamaha reciever with the exeption of one thats coaxial but I believe my x-box is using that right now. Anyhow I looked all over the net for the digital kit and could not find one. I just have to ask what does creative have against them? To me it seems like their trying to skew the market towards their $400 dollar package. I don't know about you...

My Mac Pro doesn't have an option to send sound to Digital Optical.

Hello
I've recently had a problem with my Mac Pro where the sound options tab does not display an option to my digital optical audio port. I didn't notice it until I got a headset that needed that port. I figured it was probably the headsets fault, since it wasn't being very cooperative with the computer in the first place. But when I got a new headset that was made for PC and Mac, I found that the option was still not there. I've looked around, and haven't really found a similar problem or solution.
I am running an early Mac Pro 2008 dual Quad Core @ 2.23GHz. I have 14GB of Ram installed, and run an ATI 5870.
Also, I have tested the headset on the Windows side of my computer, and that side IS picking up the digital optical output, so I know that it is working, just not with the Mac OS.
If you guys can help, I'd be greatful.
Thanks,
NetBlitzer

okay, it could be one of a few things-first, fire up Audio MIDI setup and see if that helps, secondly, there might be something stuck in the headphone jack in the on positin- maybe wiggling around in there with a plastic pen might fix it
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J.B

No more digital audio output

Hi!
After my last update of the smplayer (and the packages that were updated for the same day) my system quit using the digital optical output to my speakers.
I checked my settings using alsamixer and the kmix from KDE4 but none of the settings were changed.
But as soon as I activate the SPDIF passthrough in smplayer I'll get the following error and nothing will be played:
AVI file format detected.
ID_VIDEO_ID=0
[aviheader] Video stream found, -vid 0
ID_AUDIO_ID=1
[aviheader] Audio stream found, -aid 1
VIDEO: [XVID] 608x336 12bpp 23.976 fps 605.2 kbps (73.9 kbyte/s)
Clip info:
Software: VirtualDubMod 1.5.4.1 (build 2178/release)
ID_CLIP_INFO_NAME0=Software
ID_CLIP_INFO_VALUE0=VirtualDubMod 1.5.4.1 (build 2178/release)
ID_CLIP_INFO_N=1
ID_FILENAME=/home/downloads/bittorrent/Movies/SGA Season 3/Stargate Atlantis - Season 3 - Episode 20 - First Strike.avi
ID_DEMUXER=avi
ID_VIDEO_FORMAT=XVID
ID_VIDEO_BITRATE=605208
ID_VIDEO_WIDTH=608
ID_VIDEO_HEIGHT=336
ID_VIDEO_FPS=23.976
ID_VIDEO_ASPECT=0.0000
ID_AUDIO_FORMAT=8192
ID_AUDIO_BITRATE=96000
ID_AUDIO_RATE=0
ID_AUDIO_NCH=0
ID_LENGTH=2609.53
xscreensaver_disable: Could not find XScreenSaver window.
Opening video filter: [screenshot]
Opening video filter: [expand osd=1]
Expand: -1 x -1, -1 ; -1, osd: 1, aspect: 0.000000, round: 1
==========================================================================
Opening video decoder: [ffmpeg] FFmpeg's libavcodec codec family
Selected video codec: [ffodivx] vfm: ffmpeg (FFmpeg MPEG-4)
==========================================================================
ID_VIDEO_CODEC=ffodivx
==========================================================================
Trying to force audio codec driver family hwac3...
Opening audio decoder: [hwac3] AC3/DTS pass-through S/PDIF
No accelerated IMDCT transform found
hwac3: switched to AC3, 96000 bps, 48000 Hz
AUDIO: 48000 Hz, 2 ch, ac3, 96.0 kbit/6.25% (ratio: 12000->192000)
ID_AUDIO_BITRATE=96000
ID_AUDIO_RATE=48000
ID_AUDIO_NCH=2
Selected audio codec: [hwac3] afm: hwac3 (AC3 through S/PDIF)
==========================================================================
[format] Sample format big-endian AC3 not yet supported
Error at audio filter chain pre-init!
Exiting... (Fatal error)
Like I said, it worked flawless before. Also the kaffeine player which I'm using for watching sattelite TV at the moment does not work with the digital output any longer. Analog Headset is still working but nothing else...
Is there anything known about that?
I couldn't find any solution to this for around a week, so maybe I'll find help in here!
Thanks in advance!
BYE

ould wrote:
My digital sound stops working every once in a while as well, specifically PCM stuff (mp3's, wav's etc) Usually my Dolbly Digitial and DTS passthrough continue working though. Anyways I find running this command fixes things:
iecset audio on
Try that,
Kevin
Amazing, that fixed the problem with my digital out!
Now I just have to find out what it does.
Thanks a lot.

How to connect Digital Optical Audio output iMac with Receiver Input

I have connected iMac with onkyo hts-3300 home theater system receiver through optical audio TosLink Cable.( http://www.amazon.com/Digital-Optical-Audio-TosLink-Cable/dp/B001ZU3G2I/ref=sr12?ie=UTF8&qid=1292865309&sr=8-2 ). Unfortunately there is no sound coming out from the Home theater system. I have verified the Receiver optical input is working fine by connecting with my TV optical audio digital out put and the it's working great. The only difference between TV and iMac is, on my TV, it has optical audio digital output and I can use this cable (http://www.amazon.com/Tripp-Lite-A102-02M-Digital-connectors/dp/B0002WPREU/ref=s r11?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1297320792&sr=1-1) to make it work. I can also verified my optical audio TosLink Cable working because I can see the red light coming out from the cable. So the only problem could be from iMac. I doubt I need to change the additional setting to configure iMac to use external optical audio setting instead of the buit in audio setting. Hoe can I able to do it? or my iMac(IMAC 21.5"/3.06/2X2GB/500GB/9400M-ITP
MB950ZP/A) doesn't support optical digital audio out put? I have follow this thread http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=12769423&#12769423 and to my surprise which doesn't work out for me. I doubt that i need to change some setting, but when I got to setting>> sound I cannot change any setting. I was quite depressed aldy. Can someone answer my question as i m a newbie here. Thanks a lot

Thank you very much for your reply.
@Király : May i know how to Open Audio Midi Setup? Is this Audio Midi Setup is in the locatated in the Setting in Mac Snow Leapord OS? or how to locate this "Audio Midi Setup " in Mac enviroment. Is it possible to open this Audio Midi Setup in windows 7 enviroment also? I Just want to get the audio from my iMac in Hts-3300 onkyo home theatre. YOur help is much appreciated
@rkaufmann87 : Thank you very much for your sharing about this http://www.apple.com/airportexpress/ connection. for me what i understand is the digital audio output in airportexpress is the same as the audio out put in iMac in terms of details sepcs. So this airportexpress will only help you connect wirelessly to home theatre system, rather than waired connection. Other than that nothig much difference. So there is no point for me to spend extra bucks to attain the wireless connection. Unless the airportexpress have optical digital input, which i believe not. Correct me if I m worng, thanks

IMac digital optical output cable

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