They aren't idiots who were the sound engineers on Rockford. It was a show on tv in the 70's. No one in those days had any inclination to use anything but the single 4" full range driver on your average tv. So I don't understand how they were idiots.
But regarding what I said about pro logic, i might be remembering it wrong what setting I was using 20 years ago.
But still, I have read the manual and tried every option on the Onkyo and on my Denon and I cannot get simulated, up-converted or fake surround sound with my favorite 50 year old tv show. And that bums me out a tad bit.
Yes, they were idiots. They used to set up the musicians in isolation booths in those days, and then mix it down. I remember attending some recording sessions at a Westlake equipped studio back in the seventies. I quickly concluded they were absolute clowns. If you record like that, then the Dolby upmixer can not possible work. It defeats the whole premise of its design.
The whole design rationale to to be able to preserve and reproduce the acoustic of the recording location in your room. As far as I can tell the Dolby upmixer does that incredibly well and preserves the acoustic of the venue remarkably well. So Orchestra Hall Detroit sound very different in my room to the Royal Albert Hall or a cathedral.
I have noted the simpler the microphone technique the better it works, as you would expect.
In your case the recording was almost certainly made in a dead acoustic, likely with isolation and to add insult to injury with added artificial reverb. No decent upmixer is going to make sense of that.
