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[infra_red_dude]

Hey Macboys, I want to confirm something whether it is available in Mac OS X or not.

I have an Intel DG31PR motherboard with onboard realtek HD Audio. I got 3 audio connector pins on the rear panel & 2 on the front Panel of my CPU chassis. I am running Windows Vista SP1.

Two days ago me & my brother decided to watch a movie on my PC but we had no speakers. So I connected my Philips headphones to the rear connector & connected another old Philips HPF 250 headphone to the front audio connector. The audio was coming from both the headphone for the same movie playing in Windows Media Player 11.

Then another friend came, she also wanted to see the movie but we had no more head phones. So I decided to check whether her EP-630 will work or not. I plugged it in the front Panel Audio In port which is pink colored & to my surprice Audio was coming from it too . Nice to see 3 headphones working together.

Now the best part, after some tweaking I was able to set my headphones in such a way that rear panel headphone was giving audio of movie which front panel port was giving audio running in Winamp.

Using this method, yesterday after getting my X-mini speakers, I configured my PC & now I can play a movie in X-mini speakers while music from Winamp in the headphone at the same time.

Is something like this possible using Mac?

Long Q, short answer:

You mobo connectors are faulty. Get them repaired!!!

No seriously! When you plug in devices at the front/rear connectors theoretically the output should be from either one of the connectors. The front has a higher priority over the rear.

Secondly the 'pink' connector is for microphone, if that is outputting audio signals then something is big time screwed up on your mobo! Its not a feature, its a flaw!!!!

And a port replicator can be connected to any jack, just that as the number of receptors increase, the quality decreases as there is no amplifier in between.

 

[gxsaurav]

You could just buy one of those devices which outputs one jack into multiple ports ?

^ I was thinking the same all along. Its not that difficult to get a port replicator kind of thing.

@gxsaurav I think that's possible because of the loaded Intel driver. Try that with the default Windows driver(if any). I may be wrong though.
If you buy external sound cards for Mac, the tools/drivers coming with it allow such stuff.

I would try it but I don't have headphones here right now. I don't think that's possible with my MacBook anyways, or any Mac by default.

Why should I buy something else? Do u expect me to go to the market when my friends r sitting in the room instead of just inserting the cable in the socket.

Windows Installs Realtek HD Audio drivers, same which I install. Just that the ones bundled in Window are old.

I hope you guys are familiar with "Jack Sensing" using which the Jacks of sound cards can automatically adjust there according to which device inserted.

When you connect a 5.1 channel speaker set to onboard audio, it has 3 pins which you insert in the 3 sockets at the rear panel of PC. How do u think at that time the Pink Mic In port is able to output audio

You mobo connectors are faulty. Get them repaired!!!

No seriously! When you plug in devices at the front/rear connectors theoretically the output should be from either one of the connectors. The front has a higher priority over the rear.

Same audio was coming from both the connectors. Its a feature of Intel HD Audio, Multiple audio streams due to HD Audio architecture. Nothing is faulty.

Secondly the 'pink' connector is for microphone, if that is outputting audio signals then something is big time screwed up on your mobo! Its not a feature, its a flaw!!!!

You are wrong. I have a very old mic of frontech which I bought for Rs 100 few years back, I connected it to the pink one & it was working as a mic & not speaker

 

[SunnyChahal]

^^
Hey dude I was just messing around. Don't take it seriously. Why do you Winboys fume up so quickly?
Anyways, I tried this and the very first thing that I found is that no audio is coming from the mic (pink) port and only two audio ports are there in most Macs. So this setup is very unlikely to work on a Mac.
I think this is a motherboard flaw or messes up connection. Get it checked. And if you think that I'm a fanboy then let me tell you that I also tried it on my PC and as expected no audio is coming from the pink port.
So,no. Consider yourself lucky or get your mobo fixed.

 

[FilledVoid]

Why should I buy something else? Do u expect me to go to the market when my friends r sitting in the room instead of just inserting the cable in the socket.

Er no . I meant you would buy it in advance. Either way you don't seem to enjoy the idea so whatever floats your boat. Oh by the way to answer your question . Would you go buy a Mac when your friends are over ? Either way mines was merely just a suggestion. Most people usually forget that splitters are available.

As for the quality decrease. Splitting one output into two barely decrease the sound on my system. You would hardly notice any change .

 

[infra_red_dude]

Same audio was coming from both the connectors. Its a feature of Intel HD Audio, Multiple audio streams due to HD Audio architecture. Nothing is faulty.

Read this: *www.intel.com/support/motherboards/desktop/sb/CS-020642.htm

Multistreaming (as the name suggests) allows 2 different streams, one from front and another from back. If the same audio is coming from both then the front panel jack sensing is not functioning properly.

You are wrong. I have a very old mic of frontech which I bought for Rs 100 few years back, I connected it to the pink one & it was working as a mic & not speaker

Read this: *www.intel.com/support/motherboards/desktop/sb/cs-015851.htm

This is Intel's own documentation for all Intel boards with HD Audio codec (including Intel® Desktop Board DG31GL, Intel® Desktop Board DG31PR). There is no way a 'pink' microphone connector can output audio.

It used to be true in olden days for a 5.1 connector. The 'pink' connector was for subwoofer but not anymore as the subwoofer has a separate connection now.

 

[jamesbond007]

A laptop has a head phone jack ( green ) and a microphone jack ( pink ). Now if you plugin an ear phone/head phone into the microphone jack, you can still talk. I mean to say your headphone will serve as a microphone when its plugged into the pink jack. Clarity of voice is an issue for sure but work in a worst scenario.
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Posted again:
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A laptop as a head phone jack ( green ) and a microphone jack ( pink ). Now if you plugin an ear phone/head phone into the microphone jack, you can still talk. I mean to say your headphone will serve as a microphone when its plugged into the pink jack. Clarity of voice is an issue for sure but work in a worst scenario.

 

[pickster]

Got my Macbook today..
the aluminum model, 2.0 GHz.
and its freaking awesome!!

the things that are bugging me till now

- the confusing shortcuts - for eg : control + tab to cycle through tabs but command + t for new tab in firefox instead of control + t; no shortcut to go straight to the search box...
- enter / return key renames the folder instead of opening it... any idea how to deal with this?
- delete key working as backspace and not delete

i'll install windows 7 tomorrow. let's see how that goes...

 

[jamesbond007]

^^^ Congratulations for your new MacBook.
Command key for Mac is your Control key in Windows, so Cmd + t will open a new tab in most browsers. To go directly to the search bar you need to type Cmd + Option + F

Return key in Mac renames a file/folder, thats how it works here. Now if you need to open a file or folder you'll need to press Cmd + O

delete key in Mac is your backspace key in Windows. Now if you need delete key to actually delete like in windows you'll need to press Fn + delete.

Please be patient and don't hurry and install Windows on a MacBook. You can use bootcamp if you want to dual boot.

 

[pickster]

Command works as control except for command + tab.

I already installed Windows 7. Works flawlessly... well... except for the right click.
Did not test iSight, just played Left 4 Dead and Burnout Paradise. They run really well... better than i expected.
And i obviously knew that i had to use Boot Camp.

Thanks for the fn + delete tip. Really helpful.

I gotta admit, OS X has the best interface till date. Just pure awesomeness!

 

[jamesbond007]

^^^ There are two ways to get right click :
1) On track pad just tap with two fingers
2) On key board you can click Ctrl + Trackpad button

 

[yash]

I use a diff set of shortcuts in firefox.. and I believe it's enabled by default. cmd+k will take you to search, just like cmd+option+F.

and cmd+shift+[ or ] will toggle you through previous or next tabs in firefox and safari.

 

[gxsaurav]

Read this: *www.intel.com/support/motherboards/desktop/sb/CS-020642.htm

Multistreaming (as the name suggests) allows 2 different streams, one from front and another from back. If the same audio is coming from both then the front panel jack sensing is not functioning properly.

I checked this in some other motherboards too with HD Audio & front panel connector & yes, same audio was coming. Now I find it hard to believe that 5 motherboards on which I tested this were malfunctioning.

This is Intel's own documentation for all Intel boards with HD Audio codec (including Intel® Desktop Board DG31GL, Intel® Desktop Board DG31PR). There is no way a 'pink' microphone connector can output audio.

I will upload a video

 

[Pat]

Command works as control except for command + tab.

I already installed Windows 7. Works flawlessly... well... except for the right click.
Did not test iSight, just played Left 4 Dead and Burnout Paradise. They run really well... better than i expected.
And i obviously knew that i had to use Boot Camp.

Thanks for the fn + delete tip. Really helpful.

I gotta admit, OS X has the best interface till date. Just pure awesomeness!

Command key is your Control key on OS X..Command - C to copy, Command - V to paste..

Command - Up arrow to go up a folder in Finder, Command - Down arrow to go inside/open a folder or execute application(like enter key on PC)

 

[pickster]

i already tried that two finger tap.. doesnt work. maybe because its windows 7.
installed some really old apple mouse utility and now i can right click using cmd + click. good enough for me.

i'm already getting the hang of the new shortcuts. not difficult. its just that the concept is new.btw, where the heck is the fan outlet?

another weird thing happened to me twice today - tap to click stopped working in OS X. everything else worked, just tap to click didn't. but a restart fixed it.

 

[IronManForever]

@pickster.. Congratulations. Its good to see Macs here.

Dont fret if you cant get things to work. Most of the time, its because you are habituated to Windows and cannot figure out the Mac way to do it. Happens with me at times, but I must say I have switched 80%. In fact nowadays I get confused when I have to a Windows PC.

Things that you might have noticed after getting the MacBook.
- Its slim and sexy.
- The screen has a really good color representation and contrast.
- The trackpad is huge, responsive and much much better than whats one most notebooks.
- The keyboard is very comfortable to type on.
- Its fast! Compare that to any similar spec'ed Windows Laptop. Mac OS X starts up and shuts down a lot faster than even high end Windows laptops. And its generally more responsive.

If you havent already grab the following..

Perian plugin for Quicktime
Adds up a lot more to the default Quicktime media file support.

VLC
Video Lan Client. Do I have to say anything? Much wider format support than Quicktime. Works beautifully on a Mac.

Quicksilver
A tool Mac users swear by, I simply use it as a launcher. Still, try it and check if it works out to be a must-have for you.

The Unarchiver
Handles much more archive file-formats than default.

Sun VirtualBox
Free and loaded Vistualisation software. If your virtualisation needs arent mission-critical and demanding, this is what you should be using.

Onyx
System maintainence and tweaking. Something that Mac OS needs lesser than Windows but still necesarry at times. And it does more!

Adium
Multi protocol messenger. Must-have for me. Support for lot many protocols that what other multi's generally have. You do get Yahoo and MSN for Mac though.

Growl
A notifier. Really handy. Apps that support growl notifications (like Adium) will be required. Once you get used to it, you'll think how you lived without it. It greatly supplements my multitasking abilities.

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I think the Fan is below the keyboard. Place the laptop on a table, and turn the table so that you see at the back. There, from the back, the most air comes out from.

I expect you keep visiting this thread. We dont have a large no. of regular visitors.. Mac users here.

@infra red dude Whoa, nice research!

 

[amitava82]

Any good image editing software? Stupid iPhoto 09 does not have image resize option. Even a basic image editing tool has image resizing option. Wish Apple had bundled iWork instead of iLife 09..

 

[IronManForever]

^ That should be there in Preview.

Adobe CS4 is loaded. But pixelmator should get your job done as well. I use Pixelmator and GIMP.

 

[pickster]

@IronManForever
Thanks a lot bro!
I have all the apps except Onyx and Sun Virtualbox [don't need it]

the OS X is certainly a lot better. Much slicker and smoother than Windows.
Yeah i noticed all the things that you mentioned. The gestures on the trackpad are so awesome that i cannot imagine using a notebook without them now. Thank god boot camp supports some multi touch gestures at least.

BTW, how do you cut a folder? i cant see the option anywhere. If i drag it from one finder window to another, it just gets copied. How do i move it?

Another thing is that i did not get iLife 09. I got 08. Is there a way that i can upgrade without paying anything extra?

 

[amitava82]

Sure I'm not gonna spend couple of hundreds dollars for CS4 just resize a image; a feature that should have been there at the first place and I don't feel like stealing.

@pickster: no cut option in Mac.

 

[pickster]

@amitava82
have you tried export function in iPhoto?