Hackintosh Analog 5.1

[Tyranicus]

I have a Hackintosh (the machine in my sig), and I have a set of analog 5.1 speakers (The kind that use 3 minijacks.) I would like to use these speakers to get 5.1 surround sound with OS X. Is there any sound card that supports analog 5.1 in OS X? I've tried looking around. The USB cards I've found only support stereo in OS X. If anyone knows of a card, I would be very interested.

 

[Keitero]

Maybe an external DAC will let you have 5.1. I haven't messed around with my DAC in OS X enough to see if it can do 5.1

 

[Kaido]

Griffin FireWave:

http://www.amazon.com/Griffin-...nd-Sound/dp/B000A09IUS

You'll need a Firewire port!

 

[Kaido]

Originally posted by: Keitero
Maybe an external DAC will let you have 5.1. I haven't messed around with my DAC in OS X enough to see if it can do 5.1

I emailed one manufacturer of USB to Digital Audio adapters who had beta Mac drives for stereo output and this was the reply:

"Unfortunately due to licensing restrictions with the DTS and Dolby Digital Live encoders we are unable to do 5.1 over S/PDIF on the Mac"

I'm guessing this is why the market is completely dry of cheap digital audio adapters for Mac

 

[Tyranicus]

Originally posted by: Kaido
Griffin FireWave:

http://www.amazon.com/Griffin-...nd-Sound/dp/B000A09IUS

You'll need a Firewire port!

OK. Looks good. Can you recommend a good cheap Firewire card?

 

[Kaido]

Originally posted by: Tyranicus

Originally posted by: Kaido
Griffin FireWave:

http://www.amazon.com/Griffin-...nd-Sound/dp/B000A09IUS

You'll need a Firewire port!

OK. Looks good. Can you recommend a good cheap Firewire card?

I have an Adaptec AFW-4300C and it works perfectly. Might have to look on eBay for one.

Edit: Here's a couple:

http://www.pacificgeek.com/product.asp?id=88392

http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer...ie=UTF8&condition=used

 

[Keitero]

Originally posted by: Kaido

Originally posted by: Keitero
Maybe an external DAC will let you have 5.1. I haven't messed around with my DAC in OS X enough to see if it can do 5.1

I emailed one manufacturer of USB to Digital Audio adapters who had beta Mac drives for stereo output and this was the reply:

"Unfortunately due to licensing restrictions with the DTS and Dolby Digital Live encoders we are unable to do 5.1 over S/PDIF on the Mac"

I'm guessing this is why the market is completely dry of cheap digital audio adapters for Mac

I'm not sure if that applies to my M-Audio 410 FireWire, but now you've got me thinking. :-/

 

[Tyranicus]

Ok, I have a FireWire card and the Griffin FireWave. The only trouble is that they aren't working. I hear sound for a split second the first time I play something after turning my computer on, and occasionally for a second when adjusting volume. Is my FireWave defective, or is this some weird Hackintosh issue?

 

[Keitero]

It might be that your firewire card/chipset is not fully supported.

 

[TheStu]

Well, as it turns out, it was the Griffin box since it wouldn't work with my MacBook either, and the firewire has always worked in the past on my system.