mac mini audio

[69 Bay]

Hi
My wife has a mac mini which she bought a year or two ago.
I have never looked at it much, but a friend has one which he is using as his tv (usb freeview), video recorder, audio store, etc, which has got me thinking...

Could I use it for my 'cinema' setup? Does it have surround sound output? I was looking at the info about it on the net, and it does have optical out, but is this 5.1?

Also, do all mac minis have optical audio (as I said, the one we have is a year or two old now and I dont know if this was available back then)?

What specialist leads will I need if audio is available?

Thanks for any advice that anyone can give

69 Bay

[muddyfox470]

I believe the mac mini is only able to support 2.0 (maybe 2.1) - although I haven't really looked into it that much!
(I didnt think mine had optical out :s - mine is a PPC mac mini (1.5Ghz G4))

Ian

[schmunk]

Can you get a USB soundcard for it? That should be able to give you a 5.1 output.

[Gordy]

This is now out that will do the job
http://www.griffintechnology.com/products/firewave/

Old mac mini's don't have the optical out of the newer ones.

[69 Bay]

Hi - Thanks for helping

If I am looking at an external soundcard to do this, I have started thinking about the leads. I may use the mac mini with a projector, which means either:
1) Putting the mac with my HiFi, and having a long video lead from the mac to the projector, or
2) Placing the mac & soundcard near to the projector and having long audio leads to the HiFi, or
3) Placing mac & soundcard near projector and having long optical lead to surround sound amp, or
4) Placing mac near projector, and having a long USB\Firewire lead to the HiFi, where soundcard would be

Option 1) would be the neatest, but would the video quality be compromised over this distance (approx 15 - 20 feet)?
I imagine 3) would be the best quality, if you can get an optical cable to run over this distance

I would also probably want a USB DVB television receiver, so would it be possible to have a USB hub in the HiFi cabinet, with the s\c & receiver plugged in, and this would be connected to the mac via long lead?

So many solutions to the problem, but what is best?

Thanks for looking!

69 Bay

[unrealrocks]

That would work althought generally USB has a limit of around 10 meters.