Was my 7.1 set up a waste of time?

[speedknot]

I built a beautiful AV set up in my basement this past month. Although I have a bluray player, most of the movie content I stream from Netflix or the like. It seems like all the movies I try to stream only come in 5.1 surround. Was setting up the extra set of side speakers for 7.1 a mistake or am I missing something here?

 

[everettT]

I built a beautiful AV set up in my basement this past month. Although I have a bluray player, most of the movie content I stream from Netflix or the like. It seems like all the movies I try to stream only come in 5.1 surround. Was setting up the extra set of side speakers for 7.1 a mistake or am I missing something here?

There is very little content in 7.x . Almost none. 7.x is for certain rooms, that's why most of us are just 5.X or 5.X.X.

 

[William Lemmerhirt]

Actually what you added were rear surrounds not sides.
While there isn’t as much 7.1 as 5.1 it’s still not necessarily a waste. I have a few myself. What is your AVR? If it’s older use pro logic II X to matrix side surround content between them and the rear surrounds. Also, DSU(Dolby surround) on newer receivers will utilize all available speakers too. Personally I found PLIIx to muddy my rear surround field so if the track was 5.1 I would just stick to that. Also, Dolby Atmos tracks are done with a 7ch bed layer so even if you don’t have overhead speakers. You’ll still get 7.1 anyway. As far as streAming, I enjoy for convenience but BD’s are much better for performance. Also, I’m not sure if all streamers send more than 5.1(unless it’s atmos).

 

[RedCharles]

I just set up a 7.1 surround and I felt the same way you do. There isn't a lot of good 7.1 content out there and we can't hear as well behind us. There are a number of people who believe that 7.1 and Atmos are just scams to sell more speakers. I don't agree, but there isn't a great improvement.

 

[William Lemmerhirt]

I just set up a 7.1 surround and I felt the same way you do. There isn't a lot of good 7.1 content out there and we can't hear as well behind us. There are a number of people who believe that 7.1 and Atmos are just scams to sell more speakers. I don't agree, but there isn't a great improvement.

I will definitely agree that 7.1 isn’t a huge upgrade from 5.1 but still nice. Atmos on the other hand IS a big upgrade.

 

[lovinthehd]

As mentioned surrounds go to the sides (5.1), rear surrounds, well, to the rear. I think Vudu offers 7ch streaming. Fair amount of blurays have 7.1 and there's always upmixing. If the room is large enough 7ch might be better coverage than 5.1. I wouldn't expect a huge shift from 5.1 to 7.1 in any case.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

I built a beautiful AV set up in my basement this past month. Although I have a bluray player, most of the movie content I stream from Netflix or the like. It seems like all the movies I try to stream only come in 5.1 surround. Was setting up the extra set of side speakers for 7.1 a mistake or am I missing something here?

I think 7.1 might be good if you have 2 rows of seats.

But if you just have 1 row like most of us, 5.1.2 or 5.1.4 Atmos is a lot better.

https://forums.audioholics.com/forums/threads/the-dolby-atmos-dts-x-and-auro-3d-discussion-thread.112480/

Awesome thing about Atmos/DTSX is that when you use NeuralX to upmix your DD/DTS/PCM contents, many times it sounds like you are watching a Dolby Atmos content!

For example, in the Dark Knight Rises in DTS-HDMA using NeuralX , when the Batwing overs above the dark alley, it sounds like the Batwing is hovering over your room. Just one of many examples. Super cool.

 

[RedCharles]

I will definitely agree that 7.1 isn’t a huge upgrade from 5.1 but still nice. Atmos on the other hand IS a big upgrade.

Atmos is very cool. You're right. The way I wrote that made it sound like I was talking about Atmos too. When I only meant 7.1.

 

[little wing]

Actually what you added were rear surrounds not sides.
While there isn’t as much 7.1 as 5.1 it’s still not necessarily a waste. I have a few myself. What is your AVR? If it’s older use pro logic II X to matrix side surround content between them and the rear surrounds. Also, DSU(Dolby surround) on newer receivers will utilize all available speakers too. Personally I found PLIIx to muddy my rear surround field so if the track was 5.1 I would just stick to that. Also, Dolby Atmos tracks are done with a 7ch bed layer so even if you don’t have overhead speakers. You’ll still get 7.1 anyway. As far as streAming, I enjoy for convenience but BD’s are much better for performance. Also, I’m not sure if all streamers send more than 5.1(unless it’s atmos).

William - thanks for answering a question for me that I'd been wondering about. I have a 5.1 system and was wondering what Dolby Surround would do with the addition of 2 more speakers. I actually like the DSU upmixer for music because it's seems to extract ambiance from 2 channel recordings and send it to the surrounds, which creates a nice enveloping but subtle effect. So with more speakers in the mix, I'm not sure I would like it as much. Guess I'd have to hear it.

On streaming - I agree that nothing beats a disc for picture and sound. But I use the Vudu and netflix apps on my smart TV to stream 4k and it looks and sounds really good. I'm sure having 300mbs of download speed and being able to hard wire to the router helps. The only drawback, is that I have to turn on ARC in my receiver to get the sound from the TV app back to the receiver. So I can't verify what I'm getting as far as audio resolution, 2.0 or 5.1. because the receiver menu will not overlay over the TV app.

 

[VonMagnum]

Well, I've got 11.1.6 set up in a 12x24 room with three rows of seats. Not only is the rear surrounds a huge improvement, but so was the "rear wides" (aka surround#2) between the side and rear surrounds. That set would not be needed without extra rows, though.

5.1 is ok for one row (although I'd personally still prefer two rears inward from the sides as you can't really get true 90 degree side coverage AND imaging directly behind you at the same time since the side surrounds have to be behind you (even if on the side walls) to image behind you, but then they're no longer directly alongside you... You can remedy that with some front wides on the sides that can then phantom to the sides even without a speaker there, but then you've got another form of 7.1 once again....

Hence, I've got front wides so my sides can be somewhat behind me so true 5.1 tracks can image behind me (between first and second row) yet the arrayed matrix effect puts the flat test tone off to the side of me. The rear wides (between 2nd and 3rd row) do the same for the second row, pulling the side image back to the side of the 2nd row yet allowing smooth panning between sets. It also allows me to put the front right chair closer to the wall (so I can fit three chairs in the relatively narrow 12' wide room as the speaker isn't right up against the chair (and there's an open doorway/drape on the left side so no speaker can go there. This solves the issues completely and everything can image 360 degrees smoothly for all rows (the three center seats anyway; the side seats don't image symmetrically, but they are still inside the overall "sphere").

I would think 7.1 would be needed to get a completely smooth/even sphere for one row, 9.1 for two and 11.1 for three and so on. You might be able to skip rows (say one side surround for every 2-3 rows) with a wider room since the side speakers would create a wider imaging and frequency response window.

That's being picky, of course. Most will be fine with 5.1 for one row.

 

[Albert Street]

There is very little content in 7.x . Almost none. 7.x is for certain rooms, that's why most of us are just 5.X or 5.X.X.

Not sure I agree with that. PLENTY of movies are mixed with 7.1. Even for content that is mixed in 5.1, applying the right processing (Dolby Pro Logic or similar) to upmix it to 7.1 usually works quite well.

While 7.1 may not be as dramatic an upgrade as Atmos, it’s still a worthwhile setup, and is a great starting place to do a 7.1.x setup down the road

 

[everettT]

Not sure I agree with that. PLENTY of movies are mixed with 7.1. Even for content that is mixed in 5.1, applying the right processing (Dolby Pro Logic or similar) to upmix it to 7.1 usually works quite well.

While 7.1 may not be as dramatic an upgrade as Atmos, it’s still a worthwhile setup, and is a great starting place to do a 7.1.x setup down the road

Maybe you have a list you would like to share? I have nothing against 7.x, just most rooms do not benefit from it. I'd prefer overhead object based setup in my room over 7.x

 

[Sef_Makaro]

Maybe you have a list you would like to share? I have nothing against 7.x, just most rooms do not benefit from it. I'd prefer overhead object based setup in my room over 7.x

I seem to remember reading recently that anything with Atmos has a 7 channel bed layer encoded into it. I may have misunderstood what that poster was saying though.

 

[William Lemmerhirt]

I seem to remember reading recently that anything with Atmos has a 7 channel bed layer encoded into it. I may have misunderstood what that poster was saying though.

I think that was me. Yes atmos has a 7ch bed layer.

Here’s a list. I already selected the 7.1 filter but if it’s not, go to the “audio” drop down and choose 7.1. You can basically filter by any parameters you like.
http://www.blu-raystats.com/Stats/Stats.php

 

[speedknot]

When it comes to blu-ray, there seems to be plenty of content for 7.1, but as I mentioned in my OP, I'm streaming most of my content and I can't find anything in 7.1 on Netflix or AmazonPrimeVideo or Hulu. That's why I feel like it was a waste of time to run the other pair of speakers if I'm locked into 5.1. I could have kept my 15yr old receiver if that's the case. I guess I didnt research enough.
As much as I love a hard copy of a movie, I cant bring myself to buy something I'll only get time to watch once.

 

[MR.MAGOO]

The larger the room is, I'd guess you'd need more speakers to disperse the sound evenly.