All the modern macs have optical out on the audio ports.

I don't know if G5 iMacs have them though.

With the right adapter (http://www.amazon.com/TOSLINK-TO-OPTICAL-MINI-ADAPTER/dp/B0002MQGRM) you can watch your DVDs in 5.1 surround sound.

I currently use a mac mini and VLC as my media center :) ... iTheater looks promising, I'll check it out, thanks for the info.




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Looks like it doesn't quite work that way, unfortunately.
I remember reading in the documentation the Handbrake video encoding program, that there are limitations in QuickTime and the Mac OS Core Audio system that prevent sending 5.1 discrete channels over the optical out. Its possible with some analogue devices but not the mac's optical connection.

Refer to point 3 on page http://handbrake.m0k.org/trac/wiki/SurroundSoundGuide

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