Upgrade to 7.1?

[ClaytonMG]

Originally Posted by mrhonda2

Are you sure you are not mixing up discrete and matrix? An earlier post you mentioned PLIIx which is no where near lossless 7.1. Have you honestly heard a 7.1 set-up(not in a store). I think you're too quick to judge.

I think you might be getting things mixed up. PLIIx has nothing to do with lossless sound. It can be applied to it if that's what you mean. And yes, I have a 7.1 reciever as well. But I prefer to use my 5.1 reciever with THX Select2.

[moviefan]

Originally Posted by Gremal

I disagree about the size of the room having a bearing on the decision to go from 5.1 to 7.1. If you want to access the 7.1 content of Blu-rays, go for it. Right now it's not essential, but when more 7.1 content is available, it probably will be.

I totally agree!
If you are gaming with the PS3 you won't believe the difference with 7.1. My son loves Uncharted Drakes Fortune)
As more movies come out with 7.1 it will get even better!
Go for it!

[Gremal]

Originally Posted by ClaytonMG

That is more my point. At no point should something behind the listener become distracting. And by fill the room with sound I mean more fill in the gaps.

That depends on how the mix is engineered. If the car crash is assigned to the rear surround and side surround speakers equally, it will tend to image equidistant between those speakers, whereas if it is mixed solely to the rear surround, it will image to that channel.

But I am saying that if you use 5.1 with Surround EX, PLIIx, or even the THX processing modes, you'll get the same effect as a 7.1 track. Unless the film was actually mixed for 7.1. Like right now, if you take a 7.1 Blu-Ray, those extra sounds that were originally in the side channels and then moved to the rears for 7.1, end up just getting stuck in the sides when playing the track. Where as if the film was in 5.1 and you enabled PLIIx or any of the other modes I was talking about, there's more of a chance of the sound coming from the right area of the room. Get what I am saying?

It's not that simple. Remixes in 7.1 can put discreet sounds in the rear and sides for different imaging than you get in 5.1, just as 5.1 remixes assign discreet sounds differently than in original two-channel or mono mixes. To hear a 7.1 BD as it was intended to be heard, you need a 7.1 system.

[Clark Kent]

Obviously with all other things being equal a 7.1 setup will beat a 5.1 setup in sound immersion. You have to consider though how much true 7.1 content there really is to play. Even on Blu-ray releases the number of 7.1 mixed soundtracks is very small. I'm happy right now with just a 5.1 setup and waiting to see if more true 7.1 content comes out.

[mrhonda2]

Originally Posted by ClaytonMG

I think you might be getting things mixed up. PLIIx has nothing to do with lossless sound. It can be applied to it if that's what you mean. And yes, I have a 7.1 reciever as well. But I prefer to use my 5.1 reciever with THX Select2.

What I meant was PLIIx vs Dolby THD/DTSHDMA from a 7.1 perspective. The latter of the 2 are discrete from the BD. PLIIx while watching a 2 channel source(such as several channels on my dish) does not mean it is now 7.1. Is your reciever a real 7.1 or one of the crap ones marketed as 7.1? I'm not trying to be an idiot with this but there are recievers claiming "7.1" that are only capable of PLIIx without hdmi or ext in. Therefore you would never get true 7.1.

[Steve]

I skimmed through some of the above posts briefly so I may have overlooked this. I'm not so much concerned about your room size so much as the layout. Are you physically able to place 7.1 speakers where they are supposed to go? That would be BEHIND you. If your seating position is up against the back wall (like in my house) then adding the additional speakers in their proper location becomes a little difficult. Not impossible, but certainly not as easy. Under ideal circumstances your speakers should be laid out like they are in this diagram.

http://www.avtruths.com/speaker.html

If you're not able to put them where they're supposed to be then you may not get the full effect they're meant to provide. Others may disagree, but that's my opinion.

[ClaytonMG]

Originally Posted by mrhonda2

What I meant was PLIIx vs Dolby THD/DTSHDMA from a 7.1 perspective. The latter of the 2 are discrete from the BD. PLIIx while watching a 2 channel source(such as several channels on my dish) does not mean it is now 7.1. Is your reciever a real 7.1 or one of the crap ones marketed as 7.1? I'm not trying to be an idiot with this but there are recievers claiming "7.1" that are only capable of PLIIx without hdmi or ext in. Therefore you would never get true 7.1.

Ohhhh I see what you were saying. I meant using it with a 5.1 source. Which still is pretty much a matrixed thing, but it still gives to you the same effect. It actually would give you a better effect when using a 5.1 source instead of a discrete 7.1 source.