Audio Midi Setup: Getting Dolby 5.1 set for digital out

This is still with leopard for a day or two. But the mac pro won't
change :-)

I have toslink cables from the Mac to the stereo.

With VLC, I can watch a 5.1 movie by setting the Audio Device to
"Digital - encoded" (or some text akin to that). The stereo
automatically notices the change in sound format and switches to dolby
digital.

However, the documented way to set the digital audio: use the Audio Midi
Setup.app doesn't work for me.


Properties for: Built-in Digital Output

IOn the Audio Output section, I have "Digital Out", 48khz, and I am
allowed to select Encoded Digital.

BUT, In the "Configure Speakers", I am allowed to select "Multichannel",
but it remains with the 2 speakers, and in the pull down menu, only
"Stereo" is available, all others, including 5.1 are greyed out.

i know I was once able to set it, but I do not recall the obscure and
magic incantations that were made and what the position of the moon and
stars was to allow the multichannel to offer 5.1 Surround as a possible
speaker setup.

Does this change with Snow Leopard ? And if not, what is the magic
incantation to tell the Mac that I really do have a 5.1 capable stereo
at the other end of the toslink cable ?

It is rather stupid to have to fight a computer to convince it to allow
me to specify 5.1 surround.

I take it that for toslink in input, there is never any option to allow
5.1 Surround or anything better than "Stereo" ?

In article <00a65c11$0$6710$>,
JF Mezei <> wrote:

> This is still with leopard for a day or two. But the mac pro won't
> change :-)
>
> I have toslink cables from the Mac to the stereo.
>
> With VLC, I can watch a 5.1 movie by setting the Audio Device to
> "Digital - encoded" (or some text akin to that). The stereo
> automatically notices the change in sound format and switches to dolby
> digital.
>
> However, the documented way to set the digital audio: use the Audio Midi
> Setup.app doesn't work for me.
>
>
> Properties for: Built-in Digital Output
>
> IOn the Audio Output section, I have "Digital Out", 48khz, and I am
> allowed to select Encoded Digital.
>
> BUT, In the "Configure Speakers", I am allowed to select "Multichannel",
> but it remains with the 2 speakers, and in the pull down menu, only
> "Stereo" is available, all others, including 5.1 are greyed out.
>
> i know I was once able to set it, but I do not recall the obscure and
> magic incantations that were made and what the position of the moon and
> stars was to allow the multichannel to offer 5.1 Surround as a possible
> speaker setup.
>
> Does this change with Snow Leopard ? And if not, what is the magic
> incantation to tell the Mac that I really do have a 5.1 capable stereo
> at the other end of the toslink cable ?
>
> It is rather stupid to have to fight a computer to convince it to allow
> me to specify 5.1 surround.
>
> I take it that for toslink in input, there is never any option to allow
> 5.1 Surround or anything better than "Stereo" ?


I just tried out the app and it appears to be fairly broken in 10.6.
Speaker configuration is missing options, test tones don't work for a
new configuration, and it crashed on exit.
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