Confusion on Atmos speaker layout configuration in 7.2 Onkyo receivers. Please help!

[Paulo Elias]

I have tried hard getting useful info about speaker layouts for Onkyo 7.2 Atmos receivers. Sadly Onkyo does not have a presence in my country, and the Onkyo official rep does not have the answer to the following:

7.2 Atmos AVRs from Onkyo may or may not have a separate speaker output for a pair of Atmos speakers, called Height Speakers in this case.

My current receiver has only one, and therefore it is automatically restricted to either 5.1.2 Atmos or 7.1.0 B with Surround Back speaker outputs.

Other models, including the new RZ units, feature separate Height and Surround Back speakers. So, you can connect all speakers but still restricted to 5.1.2 Atmos, since these are 7.2 receivers with only 7 power amps.

I read this info on an 7.2 Onkyo manual regarding speaker layout:

"You can connect both back speakers and
height speakers at the same time, but you
can only output audio from one of these at
a time."

Fair enough, since there are only 7 channels!

"When connected at the same time,
you can switch speakers to prioritize in the
Quick Setup menu that appears when you
press the Q button on the remote controller
(Speaker Layout function). For details, see
"7 Quick Setup menu" of "Step 3: Playing
Back"

And later, in the corresponding section:

"Speaker layout: Select the speakers to prioritize when
back speakers and height speakers are connected at
the same time."

All right then, but select what exactly? Which speakers will be "prioritized"?

Supposedly when you connect back and height speakers this setting would change 7.1.0 to 5.1.2 Atmos and vice versa automatically. They don't explain how this is accomplished though.

I have tried to find this info elsewhere. Onkyo does not allow residents outside their boundaries to send them an e-mail. I also asked for an American friend to help me out on this one. At this time he is doing whatever he can.

So I decided to post this thread here, in the hope that I find some of my forum peers to clarify this me.

Any help or input is deeply appreciated, and I thank beforehand anyone who is willing to help.