DVD video's sound playback on Mac

[sjsanford]

We don't have a TV, but we watch DVD films on a MacBook. I was thinking of connecting my MacBook into the unused USB input of my V-DAC to run the movie's sound through external speakers instead of the horrendous internal MacBook speakers.

 

Here's my question - do I need to adjust the Audio Midi Setup to anything in particular for sample rate / bit length? (I know the the V-DAC is limited to 16/48 via USB, so should I go with 16/44 or 16/48?) I always use Audio Midi Setup to match the sample rate and bit length of my audio source material in iTunes when using Toslink optical on the Mac Mini I have set up a music server - but how does it work with playing DVDs via USB? For playback, should I use the Mac's default DVD player, or is VLC better - and are there settings in those programs to adjust?

 

Just to be clear - I'm talking about while watching a film DVD, piping the movie's audio out through USB to the DAC (as opposed to grabbing the audio tracks off a DVD or DVD-A).

 

Thanks! I've learned so much on this forum.

-Steve

 

[Akapod]

I will occasionally play DVDs through the MacPro in my studio, which is connected to an Apogee Ensemble, and don't recall ever adjusting the Audio Midi Setup.

 

Why don't you you give it a shot and see if it works? If you get a weird sound, particularly one with clicking, then you're using the wrong sample rate (and you know how to adjust it).

 

 

 

[Bob Stern]

That's the sample rate used on almost all DVD's.

 

I've used Apple's DVD Player this way. I haven't tried VLC.

 

[sjsanford]

I set Audio Midi to 16 bit/48 KHz with DVD Player and it sounded great. I tried VLC as well, and didn't really detect a difference.