Playing 6.1 track on a 5.1 reciever question

[no1jmv]

So here's my question:

Say you have a 6.1 track, DTS-ES or something, but you only have a 5.1 receiver. What happens with the channel containing the rear center information. Does the 5.1 receiver read the signal and play it over both the left and right surround to create a pseudo-rearcenter or does the information contained in that signal just not get played at all?

If the information does not get played, then it would be ideal to choose the DD 5.1 track if available then becuase you'd be getting all of the sound information encoded in a way setup for 5.1.

Thoughts???

[Invidiosulus]

Hi,

My yamaha htr-5540 reciever has the ability to decode 6.1 DTS tracks(The Fellowship of the Ring to be specific) but it only has a five channel amplifier so it averages the center surround channel between the left and right surround channels.

Obviously the ability to do this would vary depending on the reciever.

Seeing as how my yamaha is a relatively inexpensive model I would think that most of the nicer recievers would be able to do this without a problem.

Peace, Josh

[skonopa]

Now, that is a good question. I would imagine that the rear channel would get lost if you tried to play a 6.1 DVD on a setup with only 5.1 capability. I guess like if you tried to play a 5.1 DVD on a stereo (2-channel) setup. Now, the better and/or newer recievers may be able to fake it using a "phantom rear center" much like if you had no front center speaker.

I would play it safe and just play the 5.1 track, that way, you'll be sure you get everything that was intended. In the 5.1 track, they probably have the "rear channel" faked by using the two surrounds much like if you had no front center.

I guess you could try it and see how it sounds on your setup. If there seems to be a "hole" in the rear, than use the dedicated 5.1 track.

Now, this all speaking purely from theory since I have no way of actually trying it out on my setup (I have a 6.1 reciever, and I know the Denon that I have will fake the rear center if I physically disabled it (and does a pretty convincing job of it))