Mac mini and SSP-800

[ian1975]

Hi to all,

I just bought a mac mini to play my MKV movies and it will be connected to the SSP-800. Anyone had experience with this setup? how is the mac mini sound card (2.1 vs 5.1)? Will the SSP-800 do the sound decoding or the mac mini?
Any better solution?

Thanks

Ian

[mjb]

Ian, I have this setup and it works fine. I'm not too familiar with MKV's, I know with MP4 files, some players support streaming the AC3 to the SSP which will then decode it, and some don't, so you might have to experiment a bit. Hardware wise, its all there in the new HDMI Mac Mini. You can also send upto 7.1 discrete LPCM to the SSP, by setting it in the Audio Midi Setup program.

[wettou]

Use the HDMi out and it will bypass everything and allow you to do the DAC in the SSP-800 :T

[wettou]

Audio Midi Setup program.

Where is that?

[ian1975]

Hi Mike,

Thanks for the reply. I plan to play downloaded movies in AVI or MKV format on my TV connected from mac mini to ssp-800 with a HDMI cable. How do you configure the graphic and audio resolution? Is it in the mac mini? do you need a DAC between the mac mini and the SSP-800?

Ian

[mjb]

Where is that?

in the utilities folder, which is in the applications folder....

[mjb]

Hi Mike,

Thanks for the reply. I plan to play downloaded movies in AVI or MKV format on my TV connected from mac mini to ssp-800 with a HDMI cable. How do you configure the graphic and audio resolution? Is it in the mac mini? do you need a DAC between the mac mini and the SSP-800?

Ian

Yes, hook it up to the SSP with a single HDMI cable. When you select the Mac Mini on the SSP, the devices will handshake, and auto-configure. You'll probably find the screen resolution will be set to 1080p, a trip to the Mac's display system preference will confirm - and there you can change it to 720p if the text is too small. You can also turn "overscan" on or off.

Audio wise, the SSP-800 is the DAC, no other hardware is required. Again, it would have auto-configured during the handshake. A trip to the Mac's sound system preference will confirm HDMI as the output audio device.

If you wish to play with bit depth, sample rate, and number of channels, you need to open the Mac's Audio MIDI Setup application (in the Utilities folder). You will see the SSP-800 listed as a device, and all its supported modes will be available in the drop down format boxes on the right. This data was populated during the handshake. Any changes you make here are immediate, and system wide, but iTunes needs to be restarted for it recognise the new values.

Applications (video players) will generally have their own preferences for things such as AC3 pass-through. With AC pass-through the SSP-800 will decode the signal. Obviously the correct signal needs to be there in the first place, so this will depend on the source material. I seem to remember Quicktime is not compatible with DTS, but I might be wrong. AVI support is not available out of the box on a Mac, you'll need to download and install Perian and Flip4Mac to add the codecs. Both install as system preferences. You'll also want VLC (VideoLan) for AVI and MKV playback.

When looking for software, always download the 64bit Intel (Snow Leopard compatible) version. If thats not available a so called Universal Binary will work too, but a pure Intel binary is preferable.

Best thing is to see how you get on, and if you have any issues, this forum (or Google) will no doubt try to help.

[ian1975]

Hi Mike,

How do you setup in the audio midi for the SSP-800? By the way, anyone knows how to setup the harmony one + Plex player + mac mini + classé SSP-800?

Thanks

Ian

[mjb]

I have it set at 44.1K / 16 bit for music playback in iTunes. I experimented with an MP4 film with a stereo and a Dolby 5.1 track, and was surprised to find switching between the audio tracks auto adjusts the settings in Audio Midi. The stereo track shows 48k / 24 bit 8 channel and the SSP-800 displays Dolby Digital 7.1 channel. The Dolby 5.1 track shows 48k / passthrough and the SSP-800 displays Dolby Digital 3/2.1. Playback was done with VLC, which supports multiple audio tracks.

[ian1975]

Hi Mike,

How do you set at 44.1K / 16 bit for music playback in iTunes?

Thanks

Ian

[mjb]

Its all in the Audio Midi Setup program located in Applications/Utilities.
You'll have HDMI in the Devices list on the left... select it.
Click Output on the right, and then use the two Format drop downs on the right to select 44.1 and 2ch-16 bit.