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Buying advice? Need receiver with optical out to use with Powermac G5 and FCP
Hi all-
I’ve been using an ONKYO receiver which is plugged into my G5 mini-audio out… the ONKYO is driving a couple of 3 year old polk audio book shelf speakers.
My ONKYO reciever just died and I’d like to move into another reciever that will work with the G5’s OPTICAL OUT. Can anyone recommed a receiver or amp that will allow me to do this… and will also allow me to eventually plug a Mackie mixer into. Something perhaps under $500 dollars (I will buy used).
I would be using this set up to monitor audio in FCP 5, do a little mixing and perhaps a very small amount of sound design.
thank you,
Michael
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4 Replies
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Virtually every mid-to-higher-priced “Home Theater” receiver has an optical audio input (as most DVD players now have optical outputs).
I see scores of these receivers in pawn shops.
Just look on the back of the unit to see if there’s an optical input.
Various price-ranges, starting at under $100 for a name-brand with moderate power (certainly enough power for an edit bay monitor).
The pawn shops (national chain) here offer a (short term) money-back warranty on electronic gear, but I’ve had very good luck buying used equipment there.
Or, you can pay more, buy new, and get a “real” warranty at any electronics retailer.
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You should not be monitoring audio from your Mac for FCP, you should be monitoring audio from your deck. It’s cool to monitor iTunes, Logic or ST Pro from there though.
That’s a basic setup problem you have there…..
Kevin Monahan
Take My FCP Master’s Seminar!
fcpworld.com -
What about when I want to monitor the timeline and the footage is playing from my mac/harddrive (not through the deck)? Is the mac sending the audio signal from the timeline back through the firewire to the deck for audio playback? That seems redundant to me?? That’s an additional device that the signal has to go through…. it seems more direct to go right into a receiver from the optical out. Or even directly to a really nice pair of powered reference monitors from the Mac.
What’s the reason for this.
Thanks,
Michael
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[Michael Pierre] “What about when I want to monitor the timeline and the footage is playing from my mac/harddrive (not through the deck)?
Well, you just should not be editing that way because then you won’t have any video monitoring, right? There’s really no excuse to avoid monitoring unless you’re editing with a laptop in the field or on a plane.
Is the mac sending the audio signal from the timeline back through the firewire to the deck for audio playback? That seems redundant to me??
Yes!
That’s an additional device that the signal has to go through…. it seems more direct to go right into a receiver from the optical out. Or even directly to a really nice pair of powered reference monitors from the Mac. What’s the reason for this.”
Check the manual for basic system setup. As illogical as it sounds, you NEED the deck for proper monitoring. Why? You are using the DV Codec, which uses both hardware and software to compress/decompress. The software side is taken care of within the Mac, the hardware side is taken care of by an internal chip that is inside every DV Deck and Camcorder. So your audio actually is required to be routed through a DV Deck or camcorder to monitor the signal properly.
By circumventing the deck, your audio will be downsampled to 44.1 kHz coming out of the Mac. This is not the full 48 kZh signal you should be monitoring.
Kevin Monahan
Take My FCP Master’s Seminar!
fcpworld.com
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