The results from the disc should be roughly the same as the pink noise tones from your receiver. When you use these tones, whether from a disc or the receiver, all you are doing is ensuring that the volume from each speaker is the same at your seat (better known as "the sweet spot"). This is the spot where you should set the SPL meter when calibrating.

Then, regardless of the source you are using (DVD player, cable box, Xbox, Gamecube), your system is properly balanced (calibrated). If you're watching a movie, and a sound from the left front speaker is louder than anything coming from another speaker, that is exactly the way it's supposed to be. It's what the man who mixed the soundtrack intended. All calibration does is ensure you hear the surround sound track the way it was intended to be heard.

However, once calibrated, you are free to bump or reduce a speaker's volume to suit your tastes. I suspect most of us alter the center channel and subwoofer to give us what we want to hear. I know I set my sub volume (with the setting in the receiver) a little louder for movies than I do with music.


Jack

"People generally quarrel because they cannot argue." - G. K. Chesterton