[ehMax]

New G5's have those funky spdiffy digital sound in/out ports on them. I see Apple advertises some funky Logitech 5.1 speakers as a part of a cool gaming solution along with a special Monster Digital Fibre cable.

What's this for? Can I watch surround sound movies with a G5 and these speakers. Will all games sound better? Can someone in the know give me the full 411.

 

[monokitty]

The Logitech speakers Apple advertises is Logitech's top-of-the-line model. The included subwoofer has built-in surround sound decoding, allowing you to send the signal to the Mac and vice-versa via optical digital. So yes, with those speakers and the G5, you have true surround sound (for applications/games that support it).

 

[RubberGorilla]

I don't THINK that DVD Player in OS X 10.2.7 has support for 5.1 surround, but Panther DVD Player apparently does.

 

[TCB]

10.3 will have native support for 5.1 and hopfully 6.1 soon. DVD player doesn't support 5.1 as of yet....the OS does though.

 

[gordguide]

Panther's DVD app will suppport 5.1, but in the meantime, you can use a DVD player available from M-Audio on any Mac with a digital out (or M-Audio's USB-based processor).

The app is free, but a little tricky to find. It's there, though, via M-Audio's site.

 

[monokitty]

Say you don't have digital out... how can you make surround sound happen? Assuming we have Panther 10.3 and that Apple's DVD Player supports 5.1 surround. Would you need some type of adaptor? And what kind? Is this the adaptor you need?

 

[gordguide]

The Sonica Theatre and Revolution PCI & USB soundcards are some products that can do surround (the surround processors are built into these products).

Also, any 24/96 soundcard with a digital output, or the digital out of the G5, can send multichannel digital audio to an outboard processor; one common processor many people already own is their home theatre receiver.