how to get true 5.1 sound from my macbook pro optical port (receiver doesn't have hdmi in)?

[Woodsy99]

I've tried midi setup and can only configure 2 speakers not 5.
I can get virtual surround sound, but not true surround sound.
All the threads say use hdmi cable, but my receiver doesn't have an hdmi in (Samsung).
Is there a solution?

(Separately, I'm putting movies onto a flash drive, and trying the USB port on the receiver, but movies over 4 GB can't be stored on a FAT32 system which I think is the format required! Arrgh!)

 

[americanaudiophile]

You could use one of these to extract the audio from the HDMI
http://www.monoprice.com/Product?c_id=101&cp_id=10114&cs_id=1011412&p_id=10251&seq=1&format=2
if that is the only output that the macbook is configured to do 5.1 through.

 

[Woodsy99]

You could use one of these to extract the audio from the HDMI
http://www.monoprice.com/Product?c_id=101&cp_id=10114&cs_id=1011412&p_id=10251&seq=1&format=2
if that is the only output that the macbook is configured to do 5.1 through.

this is a wonderful suggestion - thank you so much.
Are you suggesting that an optical cable would be able to carry the 5.1 channels from this product to the receiver?

My concern is that if my toslink optical cable from my macbook pro won't handle 5.1 channels and only provides me 2 channel option, why would this alternative of HDMI cable to this converter to optical cable work?

If your solution works, why wouldn't the original toslink optical cable work straight from the macbook pro?

I don't want to get this awesome product just to find the optical cable will still only carry 2 channels to the receiver.
thanks, David