Line-In port not working (Sonos)

[Nickdk]

Hello everyone,

I'm using a Mac Mini as Media Center, and it works great.
My problem is that I have bought a Sonos system that I have plugged into the Line-In port on the mac mini so the audio is passed on via the Mac Mini to the AVR.
I haven't been able to get any sound from this at all via tweaking the built in Mac settings.
After several hours of frustration I found a small application build to 'solve' this it's called 'Line-In' by Rogue Amoeba. If I use this app i can correctly passthru the audio from the Line-In port to the connected HDMI cable to the AVR.

So far so good. The big problem is that when this app is used it breaks the rest of my system and when I play movies via Plex they're played as 'Stereo' and not the correct encoding. If i close the 'LineIn' app the audio is correct again (DTS or what ever 5.1 format)

Can some of you clever mac enthusiast help me out. Why doesn't the Mac Mini Line-IN work by default without this 'hack'??

I hope someone can help me

Thanks

 

[fa8362]

My problem is that I have bought a Sonos system that I have plugged into the Line-In port on the mac mini so the audio is passed on via the Mac Mini to the AVR.

Thanks

Perhaps you typed incorrectly, but you should use line-out, not line-in.

 

[Nickdk]

Perhaps you typed incorrectly, but you should use line-out, not line-in.

I'm not sure I follow your logic.

I'm feeding my Mac Mini with the signal from the sonos device, so I'm using the Line-IN on the Mac.

(Sonos) > Mac Mini > Denon AVR > Speakers.

I'm using the Mac Mini as the main Hub so i don't have to change inputs on the amplifier to keep the WAF at a high level.

The Mac mini serves as both a media center and a relay/passtru device for music via sonos.

 

[fa8362]

I'm not sure I follow your logic.

I'm feeding my Mac Mini with the signal from the sonos device, so I'm using the Line-IN on the Mac.

(Sonos) > Mac Mini > Denon AVR > Speakers.

I'm using the Mac Mini as the main Hub so i don't have to change inputs on the amplifier to keep the WAF at a high level.

The Mac mini serves as both a media center and a relay/passtru device for music via sonos.

Okay. I understand. The answer to your earlier question then, is the Mini was never designed to be a pass thru audio device. I'm surprised you were able to get it to work at all as a pass thru device.

 

[Nickdk]

Okay. I understand. The answer to your earlier question then, is the Mini was never designed to be a pass thru audio device. I'm surprised you were able to get it to work at all as a pass thru device.

Thank you for the reply,

The Mac Mini is widely used as media center hub, and it might not be what it was designed for. But since I got this working with the small App i mentioned, the functionality is there. I just need a better way to hack it and I assumed this forum was there place for something like this.

This is my first OSX device, I'm used to windows with a large community around the media center PLEX.
Can you point me in the right direction regarding other places to get tech Mac help?

 

[TheEasterBunny]

Thank you for the reply,

The Mac Mini is widely used as media center hub, and it might not be what it was designed for. But since I got this working with the small App i mentioned, the functionality is there. I just need a better way to hack it and I assumed this forum was there place for something like this.

This is my first OSX device, I'm used to windows with a large community around the media center PLEX.
Can you point me in the right direction regarding other places to get tech Mac help?

I'm not sure if this helps or not but have you seen this Preference?
You have to ignore the Optical in, I took this shot on my Pro.
I'm not sure if this makes a difference or not, but, the Line-in on a Mac is not amplified, sometimes this means it needs a pre-amp.

 

[Nickdk]

I'm not sure if this helps or not but have you seen this Preference?
You have to ignore the Optical in, I took this shot on my Pro.
I'm not sure if this makes a difference or not, but, the Line-in on a Mac is not amplified, sometimes this means it needs a pre-amp.

Thank you for the input

It doesn't really help me, but thanks anyway for taking the time to assist.

 

[Madmic23]

Just out of curiosity, why do you have the Sonos plugged into you Mac mini?
Why not plug it directly into the AVR?