Question about Matrix on a 5.1 Receiver

[kragnorok]

Hey, I just got my whole system set up, and Im running a Yamaha 5830 and I have 5 Athena speakers and my HSU sub, so its just a basic 5.1 Setup. However when i was watching a movie today, and in the Adventure setting, it showed up as 6.1. The thing that confuses me , is I watched another movie yesterday, and that didnt show up. I only have 5 speakers, and on the front panel it shows up as saying I have a SB, which doesnt make any sense lol. So if anyone has any idea, if Im just stupid towards Dolby settings, which is probably the case. So if anyone could give me any info, would be much appreciated.


Thanks

 

[kragnorok]

Any idea? I cant really figure it out lol, I think its just something stupid, because it cant be the fact I have something hooked up wrong, because it is only a 5.1 receiver lol, I must just be over tired but cannot figure this out for the life of me lol.

 

[MDS]

I would bet that the display is showing you the input format, not how many speakers it is using. The receiver can probably accept a 6.1 format (like DD-EX) but matrixes the 6th channel into the surrounds.

There should be a button on the receiver or remote that shows the current surround mode. Try that and see what the display reads - PLII, DD, 'Matrix'?

 

[kragnorok]

Oh, well I just looked at the back of the DVD I was watching and the setting I had selected was DD EX, so all my receiver did was simulate a rear center using my 2 surrounds? So its is almost a virtual speaker produced by using the surrounds?

 

[j_garcia]

DD-EX IS matrix only, there is no other flavor. If the movie has an EX track, your receiver will detect it as such if it is flagged correctly.

 

[Nick250]

I've seen the term, but I do not know what is ment by "matrix sound"?

Nick

 

[MDS]

Any of the decoders that turn 2 channel into 5.1 (eg. ProLogic II) or 5.1 into 6.1/7.1 (PLIIx) are generically known as matrix decoders.

They 'extract' (for lack of a better term) the other channels from the source using a proprietary algorithm. If the source was surround encoded using Dolby Surround then it is known how to extract the channels because it is known how they were matrixed together in the first place. If the source was not surround encoded then they take the out of phase information from the 2 channels and send that to the surrounds and sum the same info to mono for the center channels. Each algorithm is slightly different but that's the gist of it.

 

[Nick250]

Got it, thanks.

Nick