Outputting 5.1 Audio From 2009 IMAC

[jesse_ray]

Hey there. I am trying to play 5.1 audio files from my 2009 iMac to my Sony digital AV receiver. I have a toslink cord going from the headphone port to the digital input on my receiver. I keep reading various threads that talk about either just playing files in VLC (but I don't see any way to change the settings to surround sound in there) or using the midi audio program in utilities, but when I open that and click on configure it only has an option for stereo. I thought the toslink cable was supposed to somehow make the midi program recognize that I have 5 speakers hooked up to my receiver but that doesn't seem to be happening. I have no problem getting 5.1 sound from my Bluray player, it would just be nice to be able to play surround audio files from the Mac. Is it possible my iMac just isn't capable of doing this? Do I need more hardware or something?

 

[Ritsuka]

toslink is an old technology with a low bandwidth, it can do only stereo PCM. 5.1 requires sending the AC3 or DTS data directly.
VLC should be able to do it, maybe there is an option in the VLC preferences to enable "ac3 bitstream" or something similar.

 

[Airsculpture]

Hey there. I am trying to play 5.1 audio files from my 2009 iMac to my Sony digital AV receiver. I have a toslink cord going from the headphone port to the digital input on my receiver. I keep reading various threads that talk about either just playing files in VLC (but I don't see any way to change the settings to surround sound in there) or using the midi audio program in utilities, but when I open that and click on configure it only has an option for stereo. I thought the toslink cable was supposed to somehow make the midi program recognize that I have 5 speakers hooked up to my receiver but that doesn't seem to be happening. I have no problem getting 5.1 sound from my Bluray player, it would just be nice to be able to play surround audio files from the Mac. Is it possible my iMac just isn't capable of doing this? Do I need more hardware or something?

On my old iMac I used an adapter plugged into the mini display port connected to a HDMI cable to my receiver for all audio from 2.1 to 5.1.

Now on my 2017 iMac I have a similar arrangement using a USB-C to HDMI cable from Monoprice, very reasonably priced.

Alter audio output in Audio Midi Setup app accordingly.