Anyone play 5.1 DVD’s through their Macbook Pro/Mbox Pro?

[Max H.]

I've asked this elsewhere, but I'm sure the answer lies in this forum-

Just wondering if it possible to listen in surround using Apples' DVD Player on my Macbook Pro through an Mbox Pro. Or would I need an external DVD player? Before I buy the Mbox Pro I wanted to make sure I can listen to other movies through it, not just my own work.

At the same time, can I send the video through a Blackmagic card to an external LCD TV? Thanks for your help!

[pneyrinck]

It is possible but it requires a Dolby Digital decoder running in Pro Tools and careful audio setup. See this web page about how to get a DVD AC3 stream out of a Macbook:

http://www.neyrinck.com/en/tech-blog...utput-minijack

If you use the right cabling you can connect that to the SPDIF input of an Mbox. Then in Pro Tools you can use an aux input and use a SoundCode Dolby Digital Decoder plug-in to decode it.

[Max H.]

Hmm interesting workaround. So you set the SPDIF as an input, insert SoundCode, and output to your monitors. Any latency involved with that?

[Max H.]

I'm getting closer to making this work I think. However, I now have a Mac Pro. Does anyone know how to connect the Mac Pro's Toslink digital out to the Mbox Pro's SPDIF input? I'm assuming I can then route that into Pro Tools with the Soundcode plugin running.

Thanks.

[froyo]

Hello. You just need some variation of a SPDIF to Toslink adapter and/or converter. Something maybe like the link below. Good luck.

http://www.ambery.com/dioptotocosc.html

[Max H.]

i'll give that a shot, cheers!

[Ayush Ahuja]

Dear Max (and others),

Doesn't using the SPDIF/decoding method seem like a long winded process? The issue really is that Apple's DVD player doesn't provide multichannel sound output from the DVD stream.

Plug in the Mbox Pro and select it as default system sound output from system preferences. Open up Audio/MIDI settings and then 'configure speakers' for 5.1 output. Here you can configure your output connections accordingly - LCRLsRsLfe, LRCLfLsRs etc. depends how your outputs are cabled.

Now use VLC to play your DVD's, and you can configure multichannel out in the audio menu.

I've been using this successfully with my Mac Pro/MBox Pro setup. Hope this helps.

Alas, Blackmagic won't output the DVD to and LCD (I sure wish it could). For that you'd have to make a quicktime and play it out of protools or FCP, which would just be too time consuming. You could get a DVI to HDMI cable instead and use your monitor out, depending on the resolution of your mac's graphics card.

Yush

[Max H.]

Yush-

That is the answer I've been hoping for. Thanks, I can't wait to try it out.