I had a question about getting a surround sound system. If I'm going to be mostly playing Blu-ray/HD DVD movies is it best to use a 5.1 or 7.1 setup? Also if it matters, the room I'm using it in is a medium size room.

I have setup a temporary 7.1 setup in my medium sized room of 16x14. The QS8s are on the sides, I have M3s about 5.5 feet behind the listening area. I have not noticed a significant improvement. I have about 2 in 50 movies that actually use 6.1. I have setup the 7.1 speakers for my LOTR day on saturday (that uses DTS-ES 6.1). After that , I will be taking the M3's upstairs I think.

7.1 isn't worth it in my room, I listening to Gladiator in DTS-ES last night a bit, I didn't notice a more enveloping experience than what the QS8s gave me. The QS8's are amazing.

-Hutz

What if the movie has 6.1 DTS or 7.1 LPCM does it convert it to 5.1 on the receiver?

Hopefully mdrew will chime in, he is all informed about the Bluray/HD DVD audio and such and can probably give you a better idea.

But I do know one thing, the Toshiba XA2 only comes with HDMI audio and analog 5.1 outputs for LPCM. So the majority of the movies are indeed 5.1 (even DD TrueHD movies).

IMHO with my setup, adding another 2 speakers back there isn't worth it, the QS8s do their job much to well. If I had direct radiating speakers on the sides, I think having a 7.1 setup would be beneficial, but for me in my room, the QS8s do a superb job and I see no need for a 7.1 setup.

It doesn’t really matter what format the DVD is in or if it’s cable TV. To go 5 .1or 7.1 channels really depends on your room. As Rob mentioned, it wasn’t worth it to him.

My SB speakers are on a wall less than five feet from the main listening position and they are M3’s and my surrounds are QS8’s. I have my receiver set up to matrix everything into 7.1, and I find it more enveloping than 5.1. I’m surprised that Rob doesn’t. Are you using DD PLiix Rob?? You should be loving 7.1, so I think we may need to ‘tweak’ your set up.

But as far as BR and HD go, the big question is “will the receiver process discrete 6 and 7 channel L-PCM”. Not all will and some won’t even matrix 5.1 into 6/7.1. And some only switch HDMI and do no audio processing at all.

I’m currently looking for a second HDMI processing receiver to use as a back up. I’ll let you know how that works out.

………..I’m really beginning to miss my old 25” boob tube set up without Surround and all these gadgets that keep going tits up on me.

actually mdrew, I have been using the DTS-ES and DD EX settings on my receiver for 5.1 movies. I have checked the rear surrounds and they are outputting effects.

My wife was watching a movie with me last night, so I didn't want to start messing around trying to find the DD PLIIx.

I couldn't find the PLIIx setting, all I could pull up was EX/ES and EX settings and Auto. I will try it sometime here with PLIIx once I find it. I will be moving my M3s out of the room sometime, I will see if it is worth it. I can't wait to watch LOTR in DTS-ES this weekend.

I use 7.1 for watching movies with the rears simulated for soundtracks that are not 6.1 encoded. There is no question that the rears add to the ambience. I was watching King Kong last night and decided to experiment with the rears on and off. The rears made a huge difference. Perhaps this is because my listening position is quite far away from the rears and sides (about 12 feet) as shown here.

I also use rear surrounds and use PLIIx on content that isn't 7.1 and it works pretty good. The effects aren't always obvious but I think they're worth it. A lot of the tv shows on my Netflix (first season of Stargate SG1, Firefly, etc...) are in stereo and I can't believe how well PLIIx works. On top of that I'm using old speakers from my HTIB for the back until I'm allowed by my "boss" to buy some extra QS8s. Nonetheless it still sound decent.

On the other hand if cost is an issue then starting with a 5.1 is more than adequate, after all there's not a lot of content with true 7.1 yet.