hi! i have a 5.1 surround system which i use for watching movies and i'm quite pleased with it. there's one thing i want to know, the centre speaker is off by default, it can be swithced on, but it's recommended to be left of. can anyone explain why? whart's the use of it if it should be left off? does it kill some of the surround effect?
I have no idea why anyone would recommend it be left off. I can see them saying that it's not ABSOLUTELY necessary, but better if you use it. (IMHO) Most of the dialog will come from the center speaker. With center turned off, then you have your front right and left speakers doing a "Phantom Center". They "Fool" your ears into hearing a center channel. I feel it's always better to have the real thing, instead of a simulation. That's why I got rid of my Dolby Pro Logic receiver, and bought a Dolby Digital 5.1 receiver! Good luck!
The whole point of having a 5.1, 6.1 or 7.1 system is to get 6,7, or 8 discreet channels including the center, which is by far and away, the "MOST IMPORTANT" speaker in the system. Movie sound tracks are approximately 80% dialog, which is steered to the center channel. You should always buy the best center channel you can afford, and never ever turn it off for any reason when watching Movies! Multichannel music is a personal choice issue. BOB
I got a question for you guys. I have a 5.1 sound card and it works the way it ought to when I play a DVD in my DVD application. However, when I play songs in Windows Media Player or Musicmatch Jukebox, the sound only comes out of two of the speakers. Is there any way to adjust the settings so that it will play out of all of the speakers, or is there a free plug-in I can download to fix the problem? Thanks!
I think you have to buy the upgrade for these programs, for them to support 5.1 surround. Will the same player that plays your movies, play your songs? If that player supports 5.1, it probably also supports Pro Logic, with music, or other stereo sources. Good luck!
Well, Windows Media Player claims that it can support 5.1, and I found a plug-in that worked, but it was a trial, so I got rid of it. Musicmatch says that it doesn't and never has supported it. Go figure. I played my movie in PowerDVD, so I guess I can try and see if it will play a mp3 file.
Well, it seems that PowerDVD can, indeed, play mp3 files in surround sound. That seems quite odd...but you've got no complaint from me at the moment.
The reason it does not play on all speakers is because audio CD's are not recorded in surround sound. They are only recorded in 2 channel audio. You can adjust it to play in surround sound but it is just simmulated. To me, audio has always sounded better in stereo rather than surround sound. I have the settings to Auto Format which mean it will detect what audio format the recording was made origianlly. If it is an audio CD it will ALWAYS be 2 channel. If it's a movie, it may be dolby digital 5.1,6.1 or maybe even DTS.
Yea, I figured you were going to say something like that. It's just aggravating to me because if I have a 5.1 speaker system, I want music to come out of all of my speakers, not just 2. Gueds I'll keep using PowerDVD.
your speakers might have a way to 'emulate' surround sound.. i have the logitech z-680 THX/DTS 5.1 Speakers and use the Stereox2 mode which uses 4 of the 5 speakers for non-dolby/dts/thx audio..
