mac mini as media center

just got my mac mini to set up to my samsung 46" 1080p/ 60Hz lcd tv to serve as a media center.. i am using a hdmi cable for my connection via the mini dvi to dvi and a dvi to hmdi adapter. for my audio, i just have a standard 3.5mm cable from my mini to my tv but i cant get any audio out of the tv seakers. ive tested the cable and its a good cable.. anyone know what im doing wrong?? im assuming its something that i need to configure with the TV but im just guesing

This is exactly what I was planning on doing with my Mini (using Plex as the media server).

As for the audio, this was one of the things I was wondering about. I guess my first question would be if your connected to the right source for the audio. What cable are you using? I assume it's a mini-jack to RCA? Can you try playing something via the Mac mini and switching between video sources to see if you can hear anything?

i was trying some different things in an attempt to figure this out and the audio from my mini will play over the TV speakers through a different source (PC connected to the TV via a VGA cable) but not through my current set-up mentioned above. im wondering if i need to get a "high definition" audio cable if my display is connected via HDMI? im not even sure if there is such a thing? any thoughts?

So at least we know audio of any sort is possible and it's definitely not the cable.

The video adapters look good but as we know, even though your going to HDMI, the audio does not go along with it. The reason I asked about the 'source' is that it seems to me that audio and the HDMI aren't matching. I wonder if the TV is expecting audio from your HDMI connection and as a result, isn't allowing/playing output from that particular HDMI source.

It sounds like for the Mini connection you may have to use VGA if you want video/audio from the same source. I know that the Mini supports audio-optical out using a TOSLink connector. This may be the route you need to take to get both working with your current setup. Of course, your TV would have to support this, or you would have to have a separate receiver.

I am by no means an A/V expert but that's what it sounds like to me.

wmprice1240 is right. Your TV is looking for audio from the HDMI cable, and since it's not finding anything, you won't get any audio. An optical cable probably won't help in this situation either, unless you can get the TV to use audio from that source.

I have Mini as a media center also, but set up differently. Video is the same, but the audio uses an optical cable to my surround sound system, and all the audio plays from the surround sound.

I've heard of a cable that will let you output sound via USB, and ties in with the HDMI cable from the DVI-HDMI converter, so that audio and video share the same cable. I haven't tried it, or seen it in person, so I don't know if it's available yet, but this may be something to look into.

Need to open up the user manual for your specific model.
As much as I dislike Samsung, they at least have it right on some of their models knowing that folks will be trying to connect a computer.

Some of their models are designed with HDMI 1 to be used with a DVI device and they have a separate DVI audio in with RCA plugs which will work for sound. But, only with HDMI 1.

Check your model. That may tide you over until you're ready for a surround system.

thanks for the info--im officially up and running w/ no issues.

Excellent! What was the solution?

wmprice1240 said:

Excellent! What was the solution?

Click to expand...

I would say it was what "bobtomay" suggested. My Samsung 42" Plasma is like that. One of the HDMI inputs is able to take in audio from a set of RCA audio inputs next to it. The other HDMI inputs will not be compatible.