Mac Mini HDMI into the TV and into the Caiman?

[magiccarpetride]

I started using Mac Mini via HDMI into my TV. But the audio is traveling through HDMI together with the video, and I was wondering if there is a way to send the audio separately into the Caiman DAC and bypass the crappy TV speakers? Sort of how I'm doing it when using Sony PS3 (I'm playing audio into the Caiman via optical while sending video via HDMI).

[allsorts]

I run my older mac mini with a "dvi to hdmi" adaptor then to"hdmi in" on the tv. Mute the tv or turn down to zero. Connect a mini optical spdif cable from the audio out to your caiman. Works perfectly for me. Strangely enough I don't seem to audio synch problems with this method; yet i get frequent synching problems just using hdmi from the pvr to the tv. Probably a question for the AV area.
BTW what is it with tv speakers these days? It is assumed that everyone has a surround system? The speakers on my smallish 23" tv can barely convey more than whisper level sound.

[Stratmangler]

Does your TV have an optical out?


We have the following connected to the TV here - Sky box, Blu Ray player, and XBox, all connected via HDMI, and a Wii connected via scart.
The TV is then connected via optical to the DAC.

The TV acts as a mini switch for all the peripheral devices.

[magiccarpetride]

Does your TV have an optical out?


We have the following connected to the TV here - Sky box, Blu Ray player, and XBox, all connected via HDMI, and a Wii connected via scart.
The TV is then connected via optical to the DAC.

The TV acts as a mini switch for all the peripheral devices.

Gotcha. I was mislead believing that I must pump the audio out of the Mac Mini; forgot that the TV can act as a switch

[magiccarpetride]

I run my older mac mini with a "dvi to hdmi" adaptor then to"hdmi in" on the tv. Mute the tv or turn down to zero. Connect a mini optical spdif cable from the audio out to your caiman. Works perfectly for me. Strangely enough I don't seem to audio synch problems with this method; yet i get frequent synching problems just using hdmi from the pvr to the tv. Probably a question for the AV area.
BTW what is it with tv speakers these days? It is assumed that everyone has a surround system? The speakers on my smallish 23" tv can barely convey more than whisper level sound.

Thanks. I agree about TV speakers -- they're atrocious nowadays. On my big TV, they can get quite loud, but extremely distorted at any levels. Basically useless.

[sburrell]

I have a new Mac mini that isn't currently set up, but I recall reading that the HDMI audio output was simply an additional option in the Audio section of System Preferences, and therefore you should simply be able to select the Optical out to route audio that way.

If this isn't true, but you run Lion, you may want to take advantage of something I just discovered: it's possible to create Multi-Output Devices in Audio MIDI.app (as opposed to Aggregate Devices, where audio cannot be routed to multiple outputs at the same time). With this, you should be able to send the same audio to multiple outputs simultaneously, and thereby bypass the TV as switch.