7.1 setup - side channels act is if they are rear channels.

[kingofgrills]

Originally Posted by shinseiromeo

Beaner, everything you posted is correct and what I am experiencing. I expected the rear channels to work in a 5.1 movie and not to disable them. I assumed the side channels in my setup would deactivate, not the rears. By using Multich with my setup during a 5.1 mix, it throws off the movie entirely as the sounds are not in the correct location.

Now that that's out of the way, if I use THX Select2 with a 7.1 mix on my setup, is that possibly downgrading the mix to 5.1 and deactivating/altering the sides? Is it better to use the Select2 listening mode during a 5.1 mix and use Multich during a 7.1 mix?

Where are your side surround speakers relative to your listening position? Your Onkyo is operation correctly. Rear surround speakers didn't come into play until 6.1 and 7.1 channel soundtracks were developed. 5.1 channel surround uses the surround speakers (side surround), and not rear surround channels.