Question about 7.1 Ch Receivers (1 Viewer)

[Dave***G]

I recently upgraded my receiver and speakers thanks to a nice bonus at work. Without doing much research, I decided to go with a medium price range 7.1 set up, (Guess I figured I would stay ahead of the technology curve for a couple of years). But recently I'm starting to think this is overkill. I don't own a SACD / DVD-A player, I pretty much just use it for DVDs and as far as I can tell there aren't any 7.1 channel DVDs yet.

Can anyone tell me why a 7.1 ch setup is a good idea?

 

[MikeyWeitz]

Matrixed rear surrounds.

I notice a NICE difference between 5.1 with my surrounds @ sidwes vs. my 7.1 with rear surrounds added and I don't even have recommended seating setup for it. Sofa is 1.5-2' from rear wall. Rear surrounds on stands firing up towards ceiling.
REALLY noticeable during RE2 last night (my 1014 and rear surround setup is only 1 week old) and also on some THX demo's. REALLY noticeable there.

 

[John Garcia]

7.1 is not a format, 6.1 IS. In a 7.1 setup, the rear centers are playing the same thing as if you had a 6.1 setup. For SACD and DVD-A, they are both 5.1 only, I am not aware of any 6.1 titles.

7.1 is a good idea in a very large room. In a typical room, 6.1 should be sufficient, and even 5.1 is already pretty darn good. If I had a way to do it in my current room, I'd go back to 6.1, but 5.1 is doing fine for now.

 

[John S]

DTS 6.1 DTS NEO:6, DPLIIx and DD EX are the best reasons I suppose. I also like it, even with the people I know that have simply attached two speakers to their 6.1 rear channel. 5.1 is fine and dandy as well for sure though.

 

[Dave***G]

Thanks for all the replies.

So are there are movies out there in DTS 6.1 format (etc.)?

 

[JeremyErwin]

Yes. The Lord of the Rings has a dts-es 6.1 track.

 

[John S]

Your right, most are DTS 5.1. I am sure I have a couple in real 6.1 though. I'd have to take a hard look at my collection to tell you which ones. Not many for sure.

 

[John Garcia]

http://www.hometheaterforum.com/htfo...ighlight=dtsES