Suround Sound?

tilt

Hi all



Just out of curiosity: Front Row is supposed to bring the iMac to the living room as the digital hub, it comes with this cool remote control etc.



My question is: Does the iMac (or any Mac for that matter) do surround sound? A lot of DVDs come with fancy surround sound. How do the Macs deal with that?



Even if you hook up the Mac to a home theatre system, the output from the Mac (and therefore the input to the home theatre system) is still just stereo and not surround, so...?



Or am I just missing something obvious and asking a dumb question here?



Cheers



BTW, I missed an "r" in the title of this thread, just typing too fast. Sorry

xool

Quote:

Originally posted by tilt

Hi all



Just out of curiosity: Front Row is supposed to bring the iMac to the living room as the digital hub, it comes with this cool remote control etc.



My question is: Does the iMac (or any Mac for that matter) do surround sound? A lot of DVDs come with fancy surround sound. How do the Macs deal with that?



Even if you hook up the Mac to a home theatre system, the output from the Mac (and therefore the input to the home theatre system) is still just stereo and not surround, so...?



Or am I just missing something obvious and asking a dumb question here?



Cheers



BTW, I missed an "r" in the title of this thread, just typing too fast. Sorry

The optical audio output found on some Mac systems, including the PowerMac G5 and iMac, can produce Surround Sound output from DVD Player. A few other apps may support it but I'm not sure.



That said, Front Row's stated goal is to be the interface to use when sitting back. Steve has never explicitly stated anything about the living room... yet. Maybe next week.

tilt

Ah, OK. Thanks

xool

The AirPort Express also has optical output but I don't think it supports surround sound. Someone with a surround sound setup should test it out using Airfoil and the DVD player. My guess is no though.