Macbook Pro, Surround Sound, Audio on HDTV

Hello,

First off, this is my first time starting a thread and I apologize if I posted in the wrong forum.

Here's my situation- I have a macbook pro 4.1 and I am trying to hook it up to my hdtv so I can watch 720p videos. I am running the 720p files through Plex (application for running video files smoothly).

Now the hooking up the macbook to the hdtv part. I used a dvi to hdmi cable to get display on my hdtv. For the sound, I used the RCA cables with the head in the headphone jack and Red and white cables in the Left and Right Audio of the HDTV.

I have my tv synced with my surround sound system.

The display is splendid. The problem is that the Right side Audio speakers in the Surround Sound System with the RCA cables don't work. Left Side speakers work perfectly.

I think I might have to change the audio settings on my macbook or something of the sort. There's nothing wrong with the cables, as normal cable tv works perfectly with the surround sound system.

How can I get the Right Audio side speakers to work? The audio on my macbook is on full volume when I plug in the cables, in case anybody is wondering. Please helpp!!!!!!!!111

Could be a couple of things:

Open up System Preferences - Sound - Output; make sure the slider is centered on the two channels. Check with headphones that you are getting output on both left and right channels.

Just because the cable from the TV to your surround system works, this does nothing to verify the cable from your Mac to the TV is working. I'd make sure you have a "stereo" mini-plug to RCA cable and not a mono to RCA cable.

I would also suggest rather than taking sound to the TV, and then to the receiver, take it directly to your receiver and use a mini-toslink to toslink cable (optical). This will enable 5.1 sound when you're watching a 5.1 source.

Thank you for the quick reply, bobtomay. Both left and right channels worked fine with headphones.

For the RCA cable, I am using the one that came with my camcorder. The head fit into the headphone jack without an adaptor, which is why I chose to use it. I'm not sure if that's mini-plug or mono...

Also, I do have a mini-toslink to toslink cable with an adaptor. I got it for less than $5 bucks on amazon (cable and adapter). I couldn't figure out what end goes where though. The end with the adaptor goes in the headphone jack. Where does the other end go? I couldn't figure out where to plug it in the sound system. There was "Audio In" on the front.
The cable receiver is output only.... Some advice, please!!

Here are a couple of thoughts for the little bit they are worth.
1. Make sure that the miniplug you were using to connect to the computer is not mono. Mono plugs tend to have a single dark band at the tip of the connector. Stereo plugs have a double black band.
2. If you have an older stereo it may not have the right connection for a toslink cable.

Check out Home A/V Connections Photo Gallery for pictures of all the connections.

From the picture link, It seems to be stereo, but it has 3 equidistant black bands instead of 2.
It is something like the black connector cable plug in this link -http://www.amazon.com/6FT-Camcorder-Video-Cable-Sony/dp/B000I1D0BW

Yep, the cable would be the issue there. Need the stereo cable like this one.

You could try plugging the yellow cable into the red port on the TV to see if it's pushing the sound through that wire until you get the right cable. Dunno, never tried putting a video plug into a stereo port. Shouldn't hurt anything, it's either getting the signal or not.



If you have the toslink cable already, check to see if your sound system has an optical port to bypass the TV altogether. If it's 8-10 years old or more, maybe not. Anything newer than that should have at least one optical port.

I just ordered it. Will get back with results by next week.

Also, there is an optical port but its for output, instead of INPUT. And it's in the cable receiver, instead of the sound system. It didn't work when I tried to connect my toslink cable from my headphone jack to the cable receiver's output.

I'm not sure about the sound system. It is called Sony s-master digital amplifier. I couldn't find the exact picture link anywhere. This one's somewhat similar-http://dallas.craigslist.org/ftw/ele/1528797976.html

is this the correct cable to use? (connecting my macbookpro to my audio system's optical input):

Amazon.com: 6ft Toslink to Mini Toslink Cable: Electronics

and i plug one end into my macbook's headphone jack?

TIA/

m a x i m u s said:

is this the correct cable to use? (connecting my macbookpro to my audio system's optical input):

Amazon.com: 6ft Toslink to Mini Toslink Cable: Electronics

and i plug one end into my macbook's headphone jack?

TIA/

Click to expand...

That's the one.

thanks!