RobCole

Dumb question regarding Denon 3802

Hi all,

I've finally upgraded my speaker setup from a 5.1 setup to a 7.1 setup by adding two Energy RC-6 ceiling speakers above the couch in my living room. I was unsure about which connectors to use on the Denon, so I configured it using the Surround Back/Multizone connectors as the "rear wall" speakers (Dahlquist QX-20r's) and the Surround A channel to the Energy's (full setup is QX60c center and QX10 fronts).

I've got these connected to a Sony DVPNS75H (Costco's version of this DVD player, but basically the same unit I believe). I measured sound levels and checked everything, and now, when watching the Illusionist (and when watching HDTV connected via a Comcast/Motorola HD-DVR) that the Denon reports, on its on screen display, "6.1 Surround DVD" mode.

I'm writing because I'm a bit unsure of what this means. The Denon came with very poor instructions and I'm basically curious as to whether or not this means that the movie/DVD player/inputs are properly configured to give 7.1 sound. I don't really understand the differences between Dolby DTS, Dolby Digital 5.1/7.1, and the like, and am just trying to ensure that I have everything setup. It sounds wonderful, which is good enough for the wife, but I feel like I need everything to be setup technically correctly as well as sounding great.

So yeah -- does the "6.1 Surr DVD" display on the LCD mean that everything is connected as it should be? Also, given the house setup (2 floorstanding front speakers, the center channel, two Energy RC-6 speakers in the ceiling above the couch [halfway through the room], and 2 QX20r's mounted on the rear wall), do I have them setup appropriately with the Denon?

Sorry for the dumb questions. Still learning some of this stuff.

Rob

RobCole

Re: Dumb question regarding Denon 3802

I've been reading up on this since my first post (since the movie ended) and it looks like Dolby Digital doesn't support 7 channels of audio, but DTS-ES does. What I'm taking this to mean is that I can get 7 channels of audio from DTS-ES sources (some DVDs, but no HDTV sources or XBOX360, as far as I can tell), but from Dolby Digital I'll only get 5 channels.

With my current setup, I'm wondering if anyone can give me a bit of advice as to how I should ideally configure it so that the surround sounds the best for the majority of sources.

The configuration is as follows:

Couch, 8-9 ft from front two floorstanding speakers and TV. Center channel along shelving on wall, ~2 feet behind the TV, about 2.5ft from the ceiling (2.5-3ft above the floorstanding speakers). The Energy RC-6 speakers are each on the ceiling above the couch (probably about 5.5-6ft above ear level). The QX20r's are behind the couch by about 9-10ft, positioned about 1ft from the ceiling. Currently they are set to Direct mode but I've been toying with them on Direct and Ambient mode.

The majority of the use of the HT setup is for TV. The balance is probably about 30% HDTV, which I believe is Dolby Digital out (it reports as "6.1 SURR TV" as I mentioned earlier). An additional 20% of use is non-HD sources, which the Denon 3802 interprets as Prologic II. The rest of the use is ~30% DVD and 15% XBOX360. A small amount of use is also a MacBook Pro using HDMI+optical audio out. All inputs into the Denon 3802 are digital optical.

I'm getting to understand this better but I'm really hoping for someone to advise a bit about which configuration would be best, especially with regards to which of the rear speakers should be "Surround A" and which should be "Surround / Multichannel" or whatnot.

Thanks again,
Rob