[Boston2010]

Okay. I followed all of the steps in the article, and have an optical cable plugged into my receiver. When I open Audio MIDI Set-up, click on configure speakers and select multichannel, on the right-hand side menu stereo is my only option, and 5.1 is grey.

[Boston2010]

Okay. I followed all of the steps in the article, and have an optical cable connecting my Mac to my receiver. When I open Audio MIDI Set-up, click on configure speakers and select multichannel, on the right-hand side menu stereo is my only option, and 5.1 is grey.

[AmandaB]

Thank you thank you THANK YOU. I had all but exhausted the Internet looking for solutions to this problem and THIS is the only process that actually worked!!!

I am confused as to why these steps are still needed 2 1/2 years later though as Apple has had plenty of time to fix this. I am running a 2011 17" Macbook Pro with the latest update of Lion and the latest version of iTunes, with a 5.1 stereo system connected via Toslink. Why does iTunes advertise Dolby Digital in its content if it DOES NOT WORK??? (Note I was able to get 5.1 out of DVD Player right away, just not in iTunes) So infuriating. Thank you for the fix!