[How To] 5.1 Surround Sound

[limini]

Quick question: can the 6 streams be interleaved live to the digital output using an aggregate device or is this only for redirecting multiple stereo streams to the analog outs?

[iskalec]

HI. One small problem.

My channels are set in midi to 5.1. Test ok. But after playing some music or 5.1 stream, channels position will be changed.

Like: stereo will play RL RR, i restart player and plays on C LFE and next restart on FL and FR. For 5.1 order changes channels too.

Any fix for this?

 

ALC888 chip...

[Antipodean]

i dont use front panel connector, no pins are connected.

but in os X the sub+center jack is mute. while the rest of the connectors work ok. this leaves me with 4 channels out of 6.

is there any way i can enable the headphones on the back, change jack mapping etc?

 

That's the same situation and board as me, I guess if you follow Taruga's guide (attached below) you can manually edit the pin assigns.

 

I can attest to the fact that this technique works, I subsituted the front headphone Node ID for that of the orange rear output Node ID in the info.plist for AppleHDA.kext, and using the aggregate output device guide from this thread, I now have full fantastic 5.1 Audio!!!

 

(gigabyte EP45-DS4P mobo, ALC889a audio)

 

w00t!

 

All thanks to consolation & the helpful info of contributors to this thread!

 

 

Thank u all!

[dawg78s]

Thanks Consolation, I finally got 5.1 sound (which I'm a fan of so much ) on my Hackintosh (the last reason I still needed Vista lol)

 

I'm using Realtek ALC889a soundcard on EP35-DS3R motherboard, and together with kexts from this post I got it working! I'm very happy thanks

 

Great Post!

[chuckcalo]

Hello, I need help setting up my ALC888 with 5.1 channels. I followed a guide for Aggregate Devices and I set all the channels to their current speaker however I'm still getting 2 channels output from aggregate device. Any suggestion ?

[YoMuS]

Hi!

 

My goal is not having 5.1. I have two small speakers when i'm in front of the computer, and two large speakers connected to an amplifier. What I want is to have plugged in the small speakers and the amplifier through the rca cable (white/red -> minijack) to the rear cpu panel and choose in system preferences where I want to send the signal.

 

Is this possible at all? I have ALC882 on my motherboard.

 

Thank you!

[Lukianos]

I go through the add aggregate device and test the speakers, and it recognizes all 4 of them. But when I select the aggregate device as the system default, it does not play any sound back.

 

Any idea what I am doing wrong?

 

Thanks!

[mrbrightside23]

Thanks this is awesome.

Using MPlayer Extended I can get my stereo music and movies to play through all speakers

 

If you want to play music/movies through all speakers, follow this tutorial:

Visit my tutorial

[nemo woo]

Which channels are you using for your setup? I had to assign one to my front case headphone socket to get 6 channels. If I used just the back sockets I'd get only 4 channels.

 

thanks for your wonderful solution. i use ga-ma78g-ds3hp, i meet the same problem what you had mentioned above(I had to assign one to my front case headphone socket to get 6 channels. If I used just the back sockets I'd get only 4 channels.). I think if there any way to use only the back socket to get all the 6 channels instead of always unplug it from the back plug into the front hole.

 

anyway, your perfect work give me a big hand, thank you.

[internet-music]

I am highly thankful to you for providing such a useful information

[eject]

Laik, I had that problem too, I get a "solution" using Jack (just google "jack for mac"). With it you can send any input/output from system or applications to another one. This way you can get a stereo music in itunes playing on 5.1 for example, just send the out1 of iTunes to system 1,3,5 and out2 to 2,4,6. And so on for the rest of applications.

this post is worth the weight of my pc in gold

[VirusX]

success here!

ALC889a on GA EX58 UD5

with AppleHDA.kext and HDAEnabler.kext in S/L/E.

At first I had the same problem as nat

it wont let me select 5.1. how can i make it let me select it?

but the following solved it:

-Different bit/sample rates on channels, you have to make sure that each channel in the aggregate device is set to the same sample/bit rate.

[amerto01]

hello,

I'm sorry for the english but I'm french and I don't write very good.

So, I have read your answers but I have not find my solution.

I have installed a hackintosh on a gigabyte EP45-DS3R and my chipset audio is ALC889a.

I have all tried but nothing is OK.

Have you the answer ? thank.

 

PS: sorry for the language--'

Edited February 20, 2010 by amerto01

[komodo_1]

Hi all.

 

I have my Lion working as posted here. I didn't use kextcache flag atm, so I got the audio kexts (ALC885_889a.kext ) in ChammyVolume/E/E and i patched applehda.kext in /S/L/E

 

Once it was working, under MIDI setup, I made the aggregate device for using 5.1 as i did on SL.

When i use configure speakers, every single speakers works when I set the right channel.

 

All working good for me!! Thank you for the usefull how to!!

 

Cheers,

D

 

P.s at first i thought something wasn't working for the grey sign appearing when i strike the keyb's volume keys. After some asking around, I remembered that's normal.

I've been stupid because i didn't try at all to play some audio and that stucked me for a pair of days.

 

 

 

EDIT 2:

 

All solved. I've forgotten that was normal!!!!

Using aggregate device the volume icon, when you use keyboard's volume control keys, it's always greyed.

When I play music or something, all works fine!

 

I leave the post for other users who could have the same "problem".

Cya

Edited July 29, 2011 by komodo_1

[komodo_1]

Hi amerto01

Did you give a look at this post (Link)? I solved here.

For Lion setup, follow 10.6.8 instructions

Let us know

Cheers

 

p.s i sugest you to add more infos about your system and your setting. that helps to find the answers

 

I have installed a hackintosh on a gigabyte EP45-DS3R and my chipset audio is ALC889a.

I have all tried but nothing is OK.

[Mxpxman264]

i may be missing something here... I set up my aggregate device and set it to 3 different stereo outputs on my MoBo... but my AV reciever only has a digital(toslink) input for 5.1 audio. Is there anyway to take those 3 analog inputs and make them a digital signal with a digital output??