Wednesday, December 15, 2010, 07:30 pm

Apple updates Cinema Display firmware to fix audio issue

By Josh Ong

Apple issued a firmware update to its 27-inch LED Cinema Display Wednesday, addressing an issue where sound cuts out from the display's speakers.

AppleInsider reported earlier this month that owners of Apple's new 27-inch LED Cinema Display were experiencing problems with the hardware's speakers. According to multiple postings on several threads on Apple's official discussion forums, the audio on some of Apple's Cinema Displays would cut out until the display was unplugged and then plugged back in.

Other users also experienced issues with the response time of volume control on the keyboard, with delays of 6 to 7 seconds after pressing a key to adjust the volume.

The LED Cinema Display Firmware Update 1.0 released by Apple on Wednesday appears to solve the issue of audio cutting out. Apple's support page for the update says the 957KB download "addresses intermittent audio issues some users have experienced."

To install the update, users should first connect their LED Cinema Display by USB to a Mac, then run Software Update. According to Apple, the updater application will download to the Utilities folder and should run automatically. Users can also manually download the update and install the application themselves.


Several users of Apple's discussion forums have reported that the update fixed the audio problems they were experiencing with their Cinema Displays.

Prior to the release of the 27-inch Cinema Display, Apple released LED Cinema Display Software Update 1.0, adding ambient light sensor settings to the System Preferences pane and an update to the Sound preferences pane in Mac OS X.

The $999 27-inch LED Cinema Display went on sale in September, sporting a 2,560-by-1,440 pixel resolution and a 178-degree viewing angle. Previously, Apple sold 24- and 30-inch Cinema Display models, but those have been discontinued in favor of the 27-inch version.

AppleInsider was first to report on Apple's plans to introduce the 27-inch Cinema Display back in March.