The VideoLAN Forums

is there any info on setting up M-audio products for VLC?

such as?

Sonica Theater.

Basically you're fine as long as you choose digital out. I struggled for six months to get the six-channel output the Sonica Theater was designed for, then I gave up [1]. I should have bought the Sonica Transit (digital in/out only) to start with. These days all playback systems except the cheapest have digital in anyway.

Of course I did bother with analogue output because I have analogue boxes, Logitech Z-5300. Then I bought the excellent Creative DDTS-100 decoder. Now with Mac->VLC->Theater->DDTS-100->Z-5300 I am fine. As a (big) bonus, I can use the many digital and analogue inputs of the DDTS to select input sources for the Z-5300: TV audio, CD-player, etc. The only minus point I can find with the DDTS is that apparently it lacks a digital-out line.

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[1] with analogue out I had all sorts of problems: scrambled 5.1 channels, only stereo, 5.1 OK, scrambled stereo, inconsistent behaviour depending on the OS and the VLC versions.

If you use the latest drivers, the latest VLC, use no more then the 5.1 setup of the Sonica and properly configure/assign your speakers in Audio Midi Setup Utility, you shouldn't have a single issue.

If you use the latest drivers, the latest VLC, use no more then the 5.1 setup of the Sonica and properly configure/assign your speakers in Audio Midi Setup Utility, you shouldn't have a single issue.

Alas, I did try just that. Could it be that I had to do a clean install first, or it would work on an out-of-the box Mac, but it just failed in my case. Anyway, the future is digital. And, I am quite happy with VLC the way it is setup now.

I have had a Sonica Theater for months. The support in VLC for analog multichannel audio is built against it. If it doesn't work for you, then you have incorrect settings somewhere.

(Or an OLD driver. it's very important you have the latest driver).