AV Receiver USB input = can we trick this into accepting a feed from a PC or MAC?
Sep 11, 2011 at 7:36 PM Thread Starter Post #1 of 5

mcgsxr

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I have a Pioneer VSX-819H receiver.  It has a USB input, and is iPod certified.  I guess that is a fancy way of saying that if you connect an iPod to it via USB, you get tunes, and an on screen display to control the tunes, with your Pioneer remote.  I use a Logitech remote anyway, but that is not my question!
 
I have an incoming used Mac Mini (G4, running 10.5 Leopard), and have to wonder - has anyone found a way to directly connect a mini and an AV Receiver?
 
I have played around with a lot of AV in the past, but never tried a media center, and am considering using the Mini as one.
 
Will use an App to let my iTouch control the Mini, and use a DVI-HDMI connector to feed video from mini to Pioneer to Panasonic Plasma.
 
Should be fun, but not loving the idea of using the 1/8th audio output of the Mini for that HT install.
 
Thanks,
 
 
Sep 12, 2011 at 8:50 PM Post #3 of 5
My Mini is an intel based from 2006, but it has optical out from the 1/8th. I used it as a HTPC for about a year using an optical 1/8th to toslink, worked very well, except for the fact that the mini does not to HD video very well. But for pure audio it did quite nicely.
 
If your Mini also has the optical out, and your receiver has optical in, your in business. Looking at Apple's spec sheet for the non intel Mini it says it has a line out jack so you probably do have optical out.
 
Sep 13, 2011 at 9:53 AM Post #4 of 5
If the mini was a 2006 one, it would have had the combined headphone/optical output.
 
As for the one I have purchased, no such luck, but it was cheap.
 
Not a big issue, for what I want to use it for, using a break out cable will work fine for audio, but it would be nice to be able to network an AV receiver via existing USB ports since they both have them.
 
I am sure in the coming years this will happen.
 
Thanks guys,
 
Mark
 

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