MacBook Pro to Denon Avr1613 to Sony Bravia

1528 Views 6 Replies 4 Participants Last post by wsokolosky, Mar 5, 2014

backwoodsbob

Discussion Starter · Feb 25, 2014

Hello everyone. Well the old DVD player went kaput so I thought no problem! I'll just play a movie on my MacBook Pro and hook it into the HDMI slot on the front of the Denon Avr 1613 receiver. Well 2 days later I still can't get a movie to play through to Sony Bravia TV. I'm using what I believe to be good quality HDMI cables from the laptop to the receiver and then to the TV. Not sure what I'm missing here...so I'd appreciate a walk through of items to check or other solutions. Thanks so much!

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chefklc

· #2 · Feb 25, 2014

What you have to do is first establish a connection to the TV as an external display, as in you see your Mac desktop on the TV and your laptop recognizes that it is connected to a second display in System preferences > Displays. Don't worry about mirroring displays or running them independently at this point, you need to get to the point that the TV is merely recognized as a 2nd display. It's usually easier to do that for the first time by connecting directly to the TV rather than first going through an intermediate device (the AVR) as you are trying. Going through an AVR is possible, but it's rarely "plug and play" so the first thing I'd do is connect directly to the Bravia and see what happens.

Which model MBP do you have and what are you using to get HDMI out of your MBP?

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backwoodsbob

Discussion Starter · #3 · Feb 27, 2014

Thanks Chefklc,

Using the hdmi cable I can plug the laptop directly to the tv which worked fine. For audio I used some old cables from the MacBook headphone jack to the receiver.

I was trying to use a mini-port adapter to an hdmi cable. The MacBook is a 2010 model with 2.9 ghz processor and 8 Gb memory. Not sure what more information you need.

My naive intention was to plug directly to the aux hdmi port in the receiver.

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backwoodsbob

Discussion Starter · #4 · Feb 27, 2014

FYI - the adapter from the MacBook to the HDMI cable is a Belkin mini-display port to HDMI adapter. Got it at the Apple store.

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olyteddy

· #5 · Feb 27, 2014

Quote:
My naive intention was to plug directly to the aux hdmi port in the receiver.

That is very naive. One should never expect apple products to do normal things. But I'm pretty sure it can be done somehow...

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chefklc

· #6 · Feb 27, 2014

Quote:
Using the hdmi cable I can plug the laptop directly to the tv which worked fine. For audio I used some old cables from the MacBook headphone jack to the receiver.

Glad that worked out for you…for 4-5 years I used relatively inexpensive Core 2 Duo MacBooks as HTPCs in the living room with the lid-closed, leaving them permanently in place connecting directly to the HDTV with optical going to the AVR. Resale value for Macs remained so high that it was always easy to upgrade to something more powerful for a pittance. Eventually I just put i5 Minis at every display because the step up in performance was so great, plus I grew to like having Thunderbolt, HDMI, firewire 800 and space for 2 SSD/drives in such a quiet small form factor.

Quote:
Not sure what more information you need...the adapter from the MacBook to the HDMI cable is a Belkin mini-display port to HDMI adapter

my point originally was only that you weren't just using an HDMI cable since your Mac didn't have a built-in HDMI out like on a Mac Mini, you had to be using some sort of adaptor in addition to that HDMI cable…and any adaptor potentially introduces another variable into the equation. There were lots of threads here years ago about various mini-DP compatibility issues and bugs with third party adaptors and trying to go through AVRs. Some folks found it was easier just sending audio over optical to their AVRs even if those AVRs had HDMI inputs.

I think the real issue you'll have to confront is how often you plan to do this, to play actual dvds with your computer hooked up to your TV. If you're like most of us you'll quickly tire of 1) playing physical media and 2) connecting and disconnecting that Mac every time you want to watch something and look instead for a streaming solution and/or something more permanently in place, whether that be with another Mac or an Apple TV.

I haven't "watched" a physical disc in ages…anytime we get something on disc, it gets ripped and stored on a network hard drive somewhere. Then anyone in the house can watch it anytime they want, streamed over the network, to a Mac, Apple TV or iPad.

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wsokolosky

· #7 · Mar 5, 2014

My Denon 3312 requires that I set up whatever input I want to use for the kind of signal going into it. It may well be the same on your 1613. If so, a trip through your Denon setup menu may solve your problem.

Wes

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