Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater Playing 5.1 mix through 2 speakers

Just wondering what actually happens when I play a 5.1 mix off a blu-ray disk considering I only have 2 front speakers. Obviously on my AVR I only have the front L+R selected as large and the remainder to off.

Does the sound from all channels condense into the 2 fronts?

Also, will there be any noticeable difference between say a regular DTS track and a DTS MA track with this set up? I ask because my current receiver doesn't have HDMI inputs, so I would have to upgrade my receiver to take advantage of the lossless formats.

Cheers guys,
Adam

Unless you have a six-channel input on your current AVR(which I assume you don`t), it would be best to go in to the BR player's menu and convert the sound to "downmix" to two channels otherwise you are not getting the signals directed to the appropriate two-channel configuration you are striving for and the proper direction of the signals would be getting somewhat lost in the process.

In terms of any perceivable difference between DTS and DTS MA in your current two-channel set-up, there would be little, if any.

Ajack, does your avr have low level inputs on the back? If so looking for a higher end BR player that does the decoding for you would work, this would give you access to the HD sound formats.

Low level inputs? As in seperate RCA's for each speaker? Yes it does have those (i'm using a Denon AVR 1400) however I'm using a ps3 as my blu-ray player which obviously doesn't have analog outputs like that so unfortunately HDMI is the only way to go.

Casey, in terms of selecting downmix do you mean selecting the stereo track in the DVD menu or selecting an option in the PS3's menu's which automatically downmixes 5.1 signals?

Are you saying that the AVR get's confused and is unable to properly separate the 5.1 channel's it is receiving into just 2 speakers?

What I'm thinking of doing is going HDMI from PS3 to Pana plamsa then digital optical back to receiver. It's my understanding that the TV will only send a 2 channel downmix back to the mixer anyway, is that correct? (I have a TH-P42V20A)

Oh, you should have said you were using the PS3. It does a fine job down-mixing audio.

I think you're right, going via HDMI to the TV will make the PS3 see only 2-channel PCM as an available output, and automatically enable the downmixing. But that will only work if the TV will indeed pass HDMI input audio to the optical out. You may need to run an optical cable from the PS3 to the receiver too.

Try first and report back. If it doesn't work, I'll dig through the PS3 menus to give you the best settings.

Great, thanks! I'm actually moving house this coming weekend so everything is packed away at the moment so I'll have to wait to try it all out. I think I'll avoid upgrading the receiver just to be able to use the lossless formats though. By the sounds of it, the difference will be minimal.

By the way, I got myself confused...my cd player is a denon dvd 1400, my receiver is an AVR 1804!

I have an 1804 too but use my 3808 to make use of the HD sound and HDMI switching. I beleive the Panny V series is capable of sending back the DD/DTS signal over the optical out.