5.1 and 7.1 surround

[knorr]

Do 5.1 (side surround) and 7.1 (back surround) speakers get the same signal for movies? Or does the sound mix send different signals?

 

[lovinthehd]

In a dedicated recording they're recorded as unique channels, altho surrounds and rear surrounds may share some information, would depend on what the mixer did to create the soundtrack. If you're using an upmixer on 2.0 content then both the surrounds and the rear surrounds are just "manufactured" or "matrixed" from that base. If you're upmixing 5 to 7 ch then the information for the rear surrounds could be based on all the other channels...