Connect macbook to home theatre? (1 Viewer)

Hello all,

I am looking at creating a system where I can wirelessly (either via the wireless internet card or bluetooth) connect my macbook to the home theatre to take use of the speakers (5.1 would be nice, but just using them at all is the goal).

What sort of hardware do I need to make this happen?
Is it possible to send video as well as audio to the system so I can watch movies from the macbook on the TV? If so what sort of hardware is needed?

I have absolutely nothing right now, so I can get whatever I need without a problem.

Thanks for any suggestions.

So am I! Ideally I would to find a Bluetooth interface that could be connected to my amplifier.

Apple TV should fit the bill.

I noticed that some receivers have a USB port in them for playing music on it.

Is it possible to plug in a wireless card (such as airport express) and then connect it to the router and play music from the macbook that route?

does anyone know? Thanks.

You will have a DVI output connector on your macbook. You can get a DVI to HDMI converter and then plug into a DVI port on your amp if you like. You may need to route audio via the headphone jack.

Depending on your setup, your AMP may be able to see your music etc from your mac with the right software.
Hope this helps

R

If it was wireless it would. I am trying to avoid more cables strung around the house. Since Bluetooth is built into the MAC I would like to find a methodology to send audio from the Powerbook via Bluetooth to device with a Bluetooth receiver that would have a stereo output port that would could be connected to an amplifier stereo input.

My problem is that I am writing music and any set of computer speakers or headphones simply do not have either enough dynamic range or low frequency response for an evaluation of a given piece of music. Currently I am forced to use Finale or Sibelius to record something in a .wav file, convert the .wav file to .mp3, burn a CD, and play it on my stereo system.

While that process works, it is slow and expensive and wasteful in the long run.

There's always Apple - Airport Express airport express, which uses 802.11g (also built into your mac).

Bluetooth just doesn't have the bandwidth for high fidelity sound The other option is to get a nice set of headphones (grado, high end sennheiser, etc) and a headphone amplifier

That sounds like a good solution. I'll check into that. Thanks!

One potential flaw in the scheme, though-- as setup, airport Express only streams from iTunes-- which may suit your purposes nicely. If, however, you're not using itunes, Airfoil allows you to stream audio from any application. Latency may be an issue, though.

Jeremy, thanks for the info. I am just a MAC user, but my son is a MAC person, and he told me about Airfoil. I also read the article in MAC World about the latency effect. I will not know if that will be a problem or not until try it. Unless the Airport/Airfoil combination is really kludgey, it should be satisfactory. I thought I had posted an update that addressed all of this, but it must have been lost in the ether somewhere.

Thanks again to you and everyone who has made a suggestion.