Optical Out... Still Supported?

I used to use optical out on my MacBook all the time. I'm one of those people who still pulls out his MD player from time to time and I'm thinking of getting another MD deck. Anywaayyy...
I haven't used the optical out for some time and now when I hook everything up there is no sound. I know I'm doing it right, done it a thousand times. Checked my cables etc. with a different system, all good. MacBook seems fine, the light's there, switching from analog to digital is working fine, everything is as it should be under Audio/MIDI. Just no sound.
It was probably OS Leopard when I last used it. Is there no driver in Yosemite?
Someone told me the newer MacBooks and MacBook Pros don't have optical in/out any more (shame) so maybe Apple just dropped support for it.
My MacBook Pro is a mid 2009.
My vintage Yamaha CA-610 II anxiously awaits a signal.
Thanks for any feedback/info.

Hi there Jmttdr,
While the symptom listed is not the exact issue your are experiencing, I would still recommend taking a look at the troubleshooting steps found in the article below.
Troubleshooting issues with no audio from built-in speakers on Macs
http://support.apple.com/kb/ts1574
-Griff W.

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Optical out fail, but still shining?

Hi,
I have previously used my optical out fine. Recently I have tried using it to no luck. There is light shining through my optical cable. The mac automatically sets the output to optical. But no luck with my devices. (Surround sound a DAC) Anybody know anything I can try? Can this be a hardware issue if its still emmiting light and registering it automatically?
Thanks

Hi there Jmttdr,
While the symptom listed is not the exact issue your are experiencing, I would still recommend taking a look at the troubleshooting steps found in the article below.
Troubleshooting issues with no audio from built-in speakers on Macs
http://support.apple.com/kb/ts1574
-Griff W.

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Creative inspire t6300 5.1 surround on mac pro 1.1, optical out to 5.1 audio gear (digital sound decoder).

Hi there,
Been searching and trying a lot but no luck so far. I have a surroundset Creative Inspire t6300
to be able to add some more fun to movies and a few games on my mac.
I own an upgraded Mac Pro 1.1 under Snow leopard, 2.33 gHz, dual processor, 8 core, 8 gb memory.
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jacket) fl/fr (green jacket), sl/sr (black jacket) on the decoder. All perfectly understandable and it seemed to work well.
But when I tested with some of the testfile you find when googling on that, I think there is something wrong,
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There is an extensive test of the decoder on the net by someone who really is deep into the technics of it all but
no luck there either.
Back to basics: is it right that the optical out is truely 5.1 on the mac? With several tests the unit SFE does not react.
But when I play some music with iTunes, it works (loud and clearly :-)). Maybe I need a visit to the audiologist ;-) ?
Anyone?
tested with: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eL9-sIZRDHg&channel=alexnosenko
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sMh_zvCw6us
https://www2.iis.fraunhofer.de/AAC/multichannel.html

Hello John, I figured it was a signal issue. All the speakers fire and the sound is great. I was running the speakers thru a Dell PC with a Creative X-Fi Elite Pro, THX Certified, 7.1 soundcard using a fiber optic from the Mac Pro to the Z906's, it worked great until the Dell died!!! When I bought the soundcard from Creative I also bought the GigaWorks S750, THX Certified, 700 watt, 7.1 speaker system, used the speakers for 11 years and then the woofer/amp said "I QUIT" Creative quit making the speaker system and the sound card. The satellite speakers from the Creative GigaWorks speaker system still sound great (rated at 78 watt each) and are a little better speaker than the one's that came with the Z906 and the wattage from the 906 is sufficient to drive the satellites without any distortion. Thank you for addressing my issue, you confirmed what I suspected all along, just needed to hear it from someone with the same setup.
One last question, I purchased a Diamond Multimedia USB Soundcard, can't use the fiber optic(not supported by Mac) but the green, tan and black RCA's plug in and produces adequetly. When you plug your 906's into the Mac Pro using the fiber optic how do you set your speaker configuration? When I plug into the mac pro with fiber optic the 'Audio Midi Setup' does not seem to see the 5.1 configuration. Any thoughts there?
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Hi,
Is it normal that when I connect the optical out to the surround sound system the speakers produce a constant hissing noise. If I connect any other device with optical out to the surround system instead of the AppleTV, the speakers don't produce this annoying feedback noise. Is this a problem with my specific AppleTV or is this a design malfunction in all AppleTV devices.
The noise always has a constant volume.
I have tried connecting it to a different surround sound system, and the AppleTV
still produces the same noise. It's likely that most people won't be bothered by
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Thnx.
(To bad I couldn't get online support from Apple for the AppleTV, seems
they only have e-mail service for iTunes store????)
Message was edited by: timothyparez

This is a public update of Lion available since last night.
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Hi, I have recently set up a system based on the MSI KT4-Ultra board. I'm using an Athlon XP 1700+, a Radeon 9000 video card, and I've installed Windows 98.
Although all the drivers and audio applications which MSI provided installed fine, and 2-channel audio from the on-board sound chip works great both for music and for the 3-4 games I've installed so far, I can't seem to get the optical SPDIF port to work! I bought a cable and connected the computer to my Sony MD-player and attempted to copy my CDs onto MD. I go into the MSI control panel and check the box to enable SPDIF-out, removing the speaker cable from the analog line-out just for good measure. When I plug the optical cable into my MD it recognises digital input and prepares for recording. I press record on the MD and play on the computer's CD-player app, but the MD LED shows "no signal". I'm pretty sure both the MD recorder and cable are OK since I've used them to copy CDs from a Kenwood portable CD-player quite recently, so it must be the MB that's giving me problems. Indeed, when I've stopped playback in the CD-player app and went back into the audio control panel, I found that the SPDIF box had been unchecked of its own accord. I've tried this several times, and I've unplugged the S-bracket and reinstalled it all over again just to make sure it was plugged in properly, and I still get the same problem. All audio works fine except optical out! Haven't got a coaxial cable or recorder so I can't check if the coaxial port is equally buggered or if it's just the optical, but I'm getting really annoyed here: this was the one feature I liked best about this board and the only one which isn't working! Any ideas, anyone?

dude, i think i can get u ur signal, but currently i can only get silent recordings, u may have better luck.
on the minidisc, there should be a switch or button that will toggle synchronised recording on and off, turning it off should get u a signal, but it wont be in sync wiv the cd, ie u cant trust it to form track gaps.
hope that helps, done flame me if it dont, if i manage to get substance to my recording, i will send u the info just in case.
take it easy

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?Thank you!

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What is with that?Also I still do not get audio in any games, Resistance (Blu-ray)?or any game demo but I do get the audio from the game display screen (XMB). Please if anyone has?any?useful advise or information it would be greatly appreciated.
?Thank you!

Xdock Optical out to MD in?

Hi there,
have just become the proud owner of an Xdock transmitter & receiver pair. Unfortunately, my pride is draining away fast!
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Have been reading the manual that came with it, and am now fearing that it only outputs DTS encoded data.
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Thanks for the quick reply, but no, that's not the system (model num HCD-SE - it's a few yrs old, but otherwise a nice bit of kit).
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UPDATE - managed to track down the Sony system manual - says that the MD in is to connect an optional analog component.
Message Edited by Heeber on 02-04-2009 04:36 PMMessage Edited by Heeber on 02-04-2009 04:36 [email protected]

Optical out audio not working

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Optical Out 5. not working?Hi everyone.
I have a Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Audio PCI Express card on a windows XP SP3 PC.
I connected the optical OUT to a Sony 5. Home Theather system, DTS and Dolby Digital capable.
When I configure the creative console to output 5. channels, and use the tone or channel tests, I can only hear the front left and front right channels, the others make no sound. My receiver says it's receiving a 2.0 signal, but If I listen to stereo music files or movies, the sound comes out wrong, with low volume and a weird metallic sound. If I set the console to 2., this problem disapears.
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thanks everyone and excuse my broken English.

Re: Optical Out 5. not working
Sorry, I mistook your card for another model. There is no option to select SPDIF passthrough. The Digital Out for this card is always on.
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I am not sure what is that weird metallic sound, it would be advisable to contact Customer Support to see if they can help you on this.
Sorry, I mistook your card for another model. You are right, there is no option to select SPDIF passthrough. There is no need to, because the Digital Out for this card is always on. Based on your posting, your Home Theater System is already doing the decoding. Please note that optical cable will only carry pcm stereo or compressed bit stream AC3, DTS.
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Optical Out... Still Supported?

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