Ed Kerns

7.1 VS 5.1 need basic advice please

My son has an Onkyo 790 HTiB in a small apartment. Because of the floor plan, placing the side surrounds is a real challenge. I'm not particularly knowledgable about home theater in general, and know nothing about 7.1 - I've lived with a 5.1 system for a number of years and still think it sounds good.
My son is considering just storing the side speakers until he moves (He's in school) and can use them more efficiently. I have 3 questions; Is there any harm to the amplifier by simply not connecting the side surrounds? Does the system then effectively become 5.1? Is there much material encoded in 7.1? Can anyone recommend a dvd/scene that really shows off the side surrounds?
OK, I guess I had 4 questions. Thanks very much for any advice.

Nick:G

Re: 7.1 VS 5.1 need basic advice please

Quote:

I have 3 questions; Is there any harm to the amplifier by simply not connecting the side surrounds? Does the system then effectively become 5.1? Is there much material encoded in 7.1? Can anyone recommend a dvd/scene that really shows off the side surrounds? OK, I guess I had 4 questions. Thanks very much for any advice.

You will not damage the receiver at all running the system as 5.1. In fact, you can usually turn the "back surrounds" off in the receiver setup menu, which will effectively make the system 5.1. In a 7.1 setup, the "side surrounds" actually play back the information that is normally encoded for the surround speakers in a 5.1 mix. Current 7.1 setups matrix information into back surrounds in lieu of a rear center speaker in a 6.1 setup (i.e. Dolby Surround EX, DTS-ES).

Current 7.1 systems benefit most from soundtracks encoded in Dolby Surround EX or DTS-ES. Dolby EX uses a matrixed rear center channel, whereas DTS-ES will either achieve a rear center channel by a similar method or by an actual discrete encoded channel (DTS-ES Discrete). Very few film soundtracks are recorded in these "extended" formats. A good example of a Dolby Surround EX encoded soundtrack is Star Wars: Episode I.

The next generation surround formats (Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD) are capable of fully discrete 7.1 soundtracks, but 1) the soundtrack on the disc has be recorded that way; and 2) you'll need new hardware to decode the format.

Ed Kerns

Re: 7.1 VS 5.1 need basic advice please

Thank you Nick. Am I correct in thinking the hardware has out paced the software and 7.1 is, at this point, under utilized? It sounds like 90% marketting hoopla. Again thanks for your reply - you turn your back on this technology for a minute, and all of a sudden you're tech stupid!

Nick:G

Re: 7.1 VS 5.1 need basic advice please

"Current" 7.1 can make appreciable differences at times, especially in larger rooms. But yes, it is under-utilized as we speak. Having 7.1 never really hurts, but if it means the diffference between buying a more useful piece of gear (like say a new DVD player) or not instead of two additional speakers, I'd probably settle on the former.