I accidentally played a video file with an AC3 soundtrack in VLC. As usual, it switched my G5's audio output to the digital audio out, even though I had that option turned off in the VLC audio prefs. Now my Sound control panel is permanently stuck on Digital Out. I can change it to Built-In Audio but the moment I exit, it goes back to Digital. Used to be starting up iTunes or at worst doing a reboot would fix the problem, but not this time. I've rebooted twice with no success. Even deleted the com.apple.soundpref.plist and it didn't help. The only thing my analog audio output is good for right now is the startup chime. To add insult to injury, I can't play any MPEG files right now. Trying in column view in the Finder and in Quicktime Player results in nearly instant quit. MP3 files refuse to play in iTunes - it just sits there. Only VLC can still play MPEG files, although obviously without sound. I tried booting from a backup partition and everything works fine again, but it's a 2 month old copy of my OS, so it's rather outdated and I don't want to wreck it by dragging over the wrong file or preference and causing the same problem there.
I'm at the end of my rope. I've got a surround sound system on order, but it won't get here until next week. Until then, my system has no audio. Besides, I'd like to be able to switch between digital and analog outputs so I can change to headphones without having to plug and unplug them from the speakers. Any suggestions?
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