Related to this, there are four audio electrical levels. Mic levels are
tiny signals that come out of a mic and usually need to go through a
pre-amp before they can become usable 'line level' signals. Line level
is typically for signal routing such as patching the audio output from a
DVD player to the line input on your Mac. Next up is headphone which is
a much stronger signal as it's going to drive physical movement of
something to make sound waves in your ears. Last is speaker levels
which, like headphones, range from a few watts to thousands to drive
room or stadium filling speakers.
All that is to say, if your TV output is for headphones, direct
connecting it to the line input of your Mac may give distorted sound. It
shouldn't hurt anything but you'll know it when you hear it. Most modern
TVs have RCA output jacks (or something digital on newer sets) which
would be line level and a better source for recording. If not then
you'll need something called a "direct box" which takes a headphone
level input and generates a mic level output which you can then run to a
standard mic pre-amp to record. I have a Mac-mini headphone output going
to one of these to run it into a Mackie mixing console.
The last bit it hum. This can be any number of things including bad
cables, ground loops and picking up interference from power lines. If
it's a low pitched humm that might be 60-cycle interference as
alternating current flips polarity 60 times a second in the US and 50 in
many other countries. In the case of a ground loop, you can google the
explanation but it can sometimes be when two devices are on two
different power circuits. Sometimes as little as plugging both devices
into the same circuit can make that go away. The aforementioned direct
box can also have a 'ground lift' switch which can eliminate the buzz in
some cases. If it's from interference, the only solution is to move the
cables around to try and make it go away or use better shielded cables.
Hope this helps.
CB
On 2/9/15 3:49 PM, Tim Kilburn wrote:
Hi,
On a Mac, the headphone jack doubles as a line-in jack. You should be able to
go direct using 3.5 to 3.5 from the out on your TV to the jack on the Mac.
Using an app like Audio Hi-Jack Pro would do the recording for you nicely.
Later...
Tim Kilburn
Fort McMurray, AB Canada
On Feb 9, 2015, at 12:34, Michael Marshall <[email protected]> wrote:
hey all,
i have a TV with a 3.5MM headphone jack witch i used to connect to the mike
port on my windows computer and record the sound.
on the mac i have run into some significant difficulties with this.
Obviously the Mac has no dedicated microphone jack witch can be overcome with
the iMike USB interface witch i have got. this has a mike jack so i thought i
would be fine.
The main problem that I am having is that on that and any other computer a lot
of USB recording devices including this one have an unpleasant buzzing sound. I
have found this problem over multiple systems and multiple USB devices. My
theory is that it is electrical interference between the computer and the USB
interface.
what i would like to know is this, is there a way to use the 3.5MM patching
cable connected to the headphone port on my television to somehow Connect to
the Mac without USB? because i'm not getting the best Sound with my current
configurations.
thanks for any help on this.
Michael
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