Microphone on MacBook Pro?


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I plan to get a MacBook Pro for college and whatnot. Is it possible to use an external (non USB) headset microphone on the MacBook Pro? I know it has a built-in mic, but I plan to dual boot with Windows to play some games and I want to use a headset mic for that and also Skype. The MacBook Pro has a "Combined optical digital input/audio line in (minijack)", does that mean a microphone jack? I think I've read of some people trying to use headsets on the MacBook Pro with little success.

Thanks

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I'm not sure, but in the worst case scenario, you could simply get one of these (USB Sound Card adapter) and hook up your microphone to it. I'm using one just like it and it works fine (my internal sound card is flakey).

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I plan to get a MacBook Pro for college and whatnot. Is it possible to use an external (non USB) headset microphone on the MacBook Pro? I know it has a built-in mic, but I plan to dual boot with Windows to play some games and I want to use a headset mic for that and also Skype. The MacBook Pro has a "Combined optical digital input/audio line in (minijack)", does that mean a microphone jack? I think I've read of some people trying to use headsets on the MacBook Pro with little success.

Thanks

As you have said the MBP has a "Combined optical digital input/audio line in (minijack)" so yes any audio line in source would be suffice. Whether its a mic, dat machine, dj kit etc.

The other option would be to use a bluetooth mic headset, like the ones you get for mobile phones. They will work too.

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I'd like to hear some user experiences though. I hear a lot of people are having trouble with external mics on the MacBook Pro. So has anyone here been successful in getting it to work in Windows, such as in Skype?

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Just got a MBP a week ago, sound in OSX is flawless, separate standard mic and headphone jacks are present, the mic is located under the left speaker grille.

Skype for OSX works fine, built in mic is great, you don't have to bend forward at all.

I haven't tried Skype for Windows, but as of now the audio driver has one known issue under windows, it doesn't support audio rerouting, which means if you plug in headphones sound still comes out of the speakers :(

There are some unofficial drivers (same drivers just directly from the company 'Sigmatel' not from Apple) and they solve this issue.

Built in mic works under Windows, will try using an external one later today, although I'm sure it will as well. The only problems reported with Skype for Windows are when the iSight camera hasn't been disabled in device manager, since it isn't yet supported under Windows it causes a crash when Skype tries to use it.

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As analytical posted above, with the standard Boot Camp drivers the sound comes out of the speakers even when headphone are plugged in. The Sigmatel drivers for the chip solve the issue with the headphones, but then the external microphone socket stops working (although I seem to remember reading that it works for Optical in?).

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Thanks for the response guys. I've been referring to this thread at OnMac (the original XP on Mac solution prior to Boot Camp), and people seem to be having mixed results. Hopefully when Boot Camp goes final, they will have all these issues fixed.

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