I am currently looking for a receiver/processor to power an Epic 80 system that I will be purchasing soon. I have no experience with surround sound and very limited knowledge of the differences between all the different surround modes (Dolby Digital, PLII PLIIx DTS DTS Ex, etc, etc) I was initially interested in the Emotiva LMC-1 LPA-1 combo, but am getting turned off by all the recent postings, mostly on the AV123 forums, discussing all the problems with the LMC-1's handling of the various surround modes and other issues. One of the things I have learned from following those posts is that I really have no idea what they are talking about with all the different surround modes for different applications, and all the tweaking that needs to be done with the remote to try and get things right.
What concerns me now is whether I will need to know all those details for any system, even a receiver based system. If I have a receiver instead of separates, will the receiver be able to determine the proper surround mode for a given movie or satellite channel, and make the adjustment automatically? Or will I need to check each DVD and satellite channel to determine what mode of surround was used for the recording or broadcast, and then adjust the receiver to accept that mode? If so, then I haver a lot of learning to do. How automatic are these systems, and how much input does the user need to do in order to get the system to obtain optimum performance?
