PLEASE help! 2009 MBP to LGtv...no sound and going CRAZY!

Hello all,

1st time/1st time, and going nuts with this issue, and I have found nothing else on this particular sound issue...so here it is:

1.) I have a 2009 mbp, which I just bought refurbished, and has worked great.

2.) I have a brand new LG 60" plasma, also works great.

3.) I have a Belkin MDP > HDMI adapter. Picture is great.

4.) Finally, I have a Dynex mini-jack to RCA (headphone jack to red/white) audio cable.

5.) PROBLEM: The video works GREAT (after buying 2 diff adapters and a lot of grief). Now,
I do not have sound!!! From what I have read (after a LOT of research and reading threads) the model 2009 MBP I have does not support audio through HDMI. I tried the male/male 3.5mm from the headphone jack to the "Audio IN RGB/DVI" (single prong on each side) cable, and no luck. So, after reading, I learned I needed the headphone to red/white rca cable to fix this. I plugged one end into the headphone output, and the red/white cable into BOTH sets of audio IN inputs in the back of my LGtv. No sound.

There are NO settings that make this any different in the sound setup selections on either my tv, or my mac.

Also, under Preferences>Sound>Output, there is only 1 election, which changes from "internal speaker" to "headphones" when the RCA cable is plugged in to the MBP.

6.) I do not know what the problem is, but I am going nuts, and REALLY want to watch Netflix so I can catch up on SOA and watch the new episodes! Can any of you computer geniuses help me? I apologize if this is answered somewhere else, but I cannot find it anywhere on the web, and have tried everything I have found.

Thank you in advance!!

I bet you anything your problem is the way your tv is set up. It thinks that audio is coming from the HD cable so you need to change the setting to use audio from the rca port you plugged it into.
You can test this theory by plugging in your headphones while you have video on. You should hear sound from your headphones and see picture on the tv.

Thanks for your response Asma123, and I believe you are right, in that it is on my TV's end...because when the picture is up mirroring the image of netflix from my MBP, when I plug headphones in I can hear the sound through them...also, when I plug the RCA into the MBP, you can tell the MBP is detecting the connection.

My theory, although totally speculating and not a "techy", is that the LG tv is expecting to receive sound as well as video through the HDMI cable which is plugged in, and is therefore somehow "blocking" or "shutting off" the audio from the RCA input/Audio IN port. Idk, perhaps this is impossible, but I have tried the sound without the HDMI plugged in, and nothing coming through the tv speakers still...

So I am still stumped. But there HAS to be a way to make this work! I am not almost $80 and a few angry hours invested in this!

Thanks though...anyone else have any t thoughts???

"I tried the male/male 3.5mm from the headphone jack to the "Audio IN RGB/DVI" (single prong on each side) cable, and no luck. "
this should work. Is your osx lion or ML ? Mine is Lion osx.

Cannot provide a specific answer without the model # of your LG (and provided LG has the owner's manual online).

I can tell you that to get separate audio working with a HDMI port you must use the audio port that is labeled as DVI.
None of the other audio ports will provide sound in conjunction with a HDMI video input.

You can also look at your HDMI ports - I believe LG is one of those brands that only provides a single HDMI port that will work with a separate audio input (almost all brands are like this). If so, there will be one HDMI port on the back of the set that will be labeled DVI. You must use that HDMI port.


Or open up your owners manual, go to the section on connections - LG typically has a picture indicating the connections that need to be used when connecting a DVI device.

Also, LG (among many others) did not support a separate audio input on the first few years of HD sets that worked with HDMI.
If you have one of those early models and there is no HDMI port labeled as DVI input, let me know. There is another option to get it working.

Most of the manufacturers did not consider how many of us connect our computers to our TVs early on - or at least they didn't consider how many of us would want to use HDMI rather than VGA from our computer. Or perhaps they were just in a rush to get the sets out the door and didn't care about the few of us.