I just bought an adapter and HDMI cable so I could hook my MacBook up to the HD TV set in my mountain cabin and it looks great, but there’s no sound! Do I need a separate sound cable for this to work? I thought that HDMI could handle audio and video?
How old is your MacBook? If you have one that’s too old, it turns out that it might not be able to push audio through your DisplayPort, in which case the HDMI adapter isn’t going to be able to perform miracles, sorry to say. It’s about mid-2008 that the Apple hardware started to support HDMI audio, based on the research I’ve done, and there’s a pretty easy way to find out if your particular device works or not.
Before we do that, however, odds are that the problem is much simpler: your Mac probably just isn’t configured to use the HDMI adapter as the audio output for your system when you have things plugged in. Switch that and *poof* you’re good to go!
Let’s start there and then if it’s still not working, I’ll show you what to look for in your hardware configuration app to check your HDMI / Display Port capabilities.
I’ll start with a frame from a movie trailer (can you identify it for two points?)
It all looks good, but the audio is coming out of my computer even as the video is being fed to the HDTV.
To switch it, choose System Preferences off the Apple menu, then look for “Sound”:
The default audio output is “Internal Speakers”, so it’s no surprise that while we’re seeing the video on the TV, the audio is still being piped out of my MacBook Pro speakers. See the second choice down, however? That’s what we want, for the Samsung HDTV we’ve plugged into:
I click on “Samsung” and get an interesting warning message at the bottom:
“The selected device has no output controls”. Sounds ominous, but it’s not actually. It just means that I’ll have to adjust the volume on the TV itself rather than on the computer.
Once I’ve switched the output audio, it should automatically be feeding audio to the TV so a quick test with the movie trailer should work great, audio and video both. Easy once you realize that it’s not an automatic switcher.
Now, if it’s still not working, launch the “System Information” application that you’ll find in “Applications” > “Utilities”. Look for your Audio (Built In) and make sure that there’s an HDMI / DIsplayPort Output option, like so:
Mine’s ready to go, as you can see. If yours doesn’t show this then you might have an older MacBook or other Apple Mac product and might then need to have a separate audio cable hooked up to your TV. No worries, it’s easy to do and the back of your TV probably has a dual RCA-style “audio in” jack you can use with a simple audio splitter from Radio Shack or similar to accomplish the same goal. Not quite as neat and simple, but the end result’s worth the hassle, I promise you!
Hi. As of today, some video streams are coming through the hdmi cable to the tv speakers, and some will only play through iMac speakers, while the sound setting is set to the TV. Any suggestions? Netflix works and internet radio works on tv as well. Tmngo and Crave sound only come through iMac speakers… Before that all the sound went through the TV. I tried flipping the settings, updating the system, rebooting, unplugging and plugging in the cables and reducing quality settings within the websites, to no avail. Thanks.
Hello there,
I have older Desk top computer (iMac 7.1) .
I cant get the expensive little Apple made HDMI adapter to plug into the computer as there is no receiving female socket in the back of the computer.
Is there any other suggestions you might have?
Will the older computers have the ability to shove video down the HDMI cable?
Is there a adapter to the HDMI cable that fits into the older computers. (such as maybe, a USB port)
Cheers
No USB -> HDMI adapter that I know of, Will, but what exact model iMac do you have?
My problem is that about 50% of the time, I don’t get the SAMSUNG option in the Audio Output menu. Video transfers fine, but there is no option to switch audio output. Any ideas?
awesome worked perfectly. Menus are slightly different but worked fine when I figured it out
it worked great thanks 10 out 10
No 100 out 10 lol
You rule thank you!!!!
Brian, are you just not seeing HDMI as a potential audio output? If so, not sure what to say but to suggest that you try a different HDMI cable and/or take your computer in to Apple and have them try to hook it up to the TV in their store (they usually have one to demo AppleTV) and see if they can replicate the problem / offer a solution.
I’m having the same issue. All was working fine with my Samsung TV, but since updating the OS on my MacBook Air I get no audio. Video is no problem.
Anyone else having a problem of “was working, now not working” ?
I have this problem too… it just randomly started happening one morning – I didn’t update anything on my laptop or mess around with my Samsung TV at all.
I seem to have checked all the boxes in the online forums I’ve been reading, but to no avail.
I did all of the above – checked the “HDMI DisplayPort” function in System Information, and it’s there (obviously since audio output through HDMI from my Mac was working fine before)…
Anyone???
I have a 2019 Macbook air and I’ve never been able to get the hdmi device to show up in the system preferences > sound or the utilities as mentioned above
Are you sure that your HDMI port is fully functional? And/or that the adapter you might be using (does the 2019 MacBook Air have an HDMI port?) is fully functional, Amelia?
Dear Dave:
Problem: video out via HDMI works fine, but no audio…
I’m new to Mac’s and trying to stream video to my Toshiba Regza TV. I’ve followed your instructions and see what your Mac shows in System Information/Audio.. But the remarks above are where I now sit, not able to see anything other than internal speakers. Thanks for any help! Gordon
JBA said, on July 10, 2012 3:44 PM:
I opened utilities and as you said there was an HDMI/DisplayPort feature, and it looks just like your picture on my macbook, but there is no apply button and if i just close the window down after i have selected this, nothing happens?
I did what you suggested and suddenly my audio was working through my HDMI cable onto my TV. Now I have unplugged it, and I have no audio on my macbook pro. I checked settings, audio, and output, it is on internal speakers. But is does not work. I am sure it is a simple thing to fix, but I don’t know hw to. Can you help?
Thanks!
Hi, I was looking exactly for this info! thanks!! 🙂
I opened utilities and as you said there was an HDMI/DisplayPort feature, and it looks just like your picture on my macbook, but there is no apply button and if i just close the window down after i have selected this, nothing happens?
Just reading your suggestions for solving the problem of sound coming from Mac Book Pro speakers when connecting to TV by HDMI …. very clear and thought it might solve my problem .
However, i’m stuck at the “default audio output” stage. I don’t seem to have any choices other then internal speakers. What do i do about this?
Hope you can help
Thanks
I spent 2 days searching for information on how to get sound from my macbook to my tv. I bought additional wires. This was the answer that I couldn’t find anywhere else. THANKS!
Hi, I have just done the same thing for my older mac book pro. At the apple shop thay sold me an adapter that included a usb cable to take the sound. These were merged into a box that I plugged my HDMI cable into and voila! Sound on my TV!