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Optical Digital In/Out on the Powerbook 17"

Over the weekend we watched a few cool movies (Zoolander & Snatch) with my Powerbook connected to an external TV and hifi gear.

Connecting the video was easy using the S-Video out on the right side of the Powerbook (even though we had to go through the S-Video to Composite, and then to SCART converter). Once the SCART converter was connected and set to input, "Detect Displays" works fine from my Mac I was able to drag DVD Player over to the TV display and enter full screen mode to view the video.

Connecting the audio was also fine using the headphone/line out connector on the Powerbook, but I was wondering how I could get more than just stereo out of the connector since the DVD's we were playing had full 5.1 dolby surround sound, and the hifi we had included a receiver that could handle this.

I remembered reading something about optical in/out existing on the Powerbook, so after a bit of googling I was able to find some articles that described how to get this working, awesome!

On the left hand side of the 17" Powerbook there's two connectors, one for headphones, the other one for a input line. Both also double as optical digital input/output sockets as well for sending digital audio to/from your Powerbook!

The headphone port is a 3.5mm analog/optical combo jack, that can send S/PDIF (IEC60958-3)/AC3 audio all the way up to 96KHz. The input line port is also a 3.5mm analog/optical combo jack that can accept optical digital audio.

Using an optical cable (the kind that came with my old Sony MiniDisc player), you can connect your Powerbook to a 5.1 surround system for example and watch your DVD's in full surround sound. Likewise, you can send audio into your powerbook for recording from other digital sources such as a MiniDisc, decks, and/or digital instruments.

Thanks to both these sources for the details! :)