Spiderbite

My question is a simple one. How do you listen to movies through your home theater receiver?

Most receivers now will "upmix" the soundtrack track to 5.1, 6.1, 7.1, 7.2, etc. to the max your receiver is capable of.

So do you only listen to the track as released on the DVD/BD or do you upmix every track?

This is not a question of only listening to original mono if you have both a mono and 5.1 track on the disc. I am simply asking if you have a mono track or stereo track, etc. do you let your receiver upmix it?

majorjoe23

With my ears, mostly.

Why So Blu?

I listen to the soundtracks as they are. I don't fuck around with upmixing. If it's a mono track I let it all come through the center channel. I don't switch it to the front speakers for playback.

Drexl

I only have 5.1, so I can't upmix to 7.1 (but I think I would if I could).

I would never upmix stereo or mono to 5.1.

E Unit

I JUST TURN UP THE VOLUME. I LIKE IT LOUD.

I actually just got a Marantz AV8802A, so 11.2 channels of ear bleeding sound. I did settle on a rather nice 7.1.4 speaker setup, so I can now experience the joys of Atmos. But since I have only a handful of Atmos discs, I just play whatever mastered mix the movie has, save for the old classics that have a mono track. But just because I have more speakers, I have had zero desire to ever upmix anything.

Eddie W

The problem is that very few movies released on mono are mastered to only produce sound through the center channel (I think I have run across one). But rather 2.0, which if left unprocessed will result in identical sound from the front 2 channels. So I have to turn on surround processing just to get all the sound into the center channel. And since it's the same track, sound ONLY comes from the center.

Ever since I got a Dolby Atmos receiver I turn on processing to simulate the height channels for 5.1 sources. And am generally happy with the results.

Rob V

I just upgraded to Dolby Atmos and 7.2... I just don't have a native source of 7.2 yet.

kenbuzz

Yeah, me too.

Lt Ripley

Yep, yep.

DthRdrX

Speaking as a video guy, I listen to whatever the disc defaults to when the movie starts. It all sounds pretty good to me.

Shazam

Just for kicks you should try it, because it's absolutely awful.

Alan Smithee

The closest to impurity that happens on my receiver is that I keep Dolby EX decoding on all the time, because not every disc that uses it is flagged for it and it doesn't damage the original mix in my opinion if it's on when it's not supposed to be. I did the same as a projectionist when EX was added to two screens, as practically none of the movies that used it were labeled for it. I also play all 2-channel tracks in Pro-Logic II Movie mode. I used to keep it on standard Pro-Logic, but switched to PLII after seeing that there is some material mixed specifically for that, and again it doesn't change older matrix surround tracks too much. Example of PLII material:
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/zYfqaWSZiuk" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

More controversial is playing music with PLII turned on, rather than switching to 2-channel stereo. For serious music listening I have a separate 2-channel sound system with no video, so that's where I first listen to all of my CDs, music on the home theater system is more "playing around". I admit to liking the effect most of the time, and back when theaters played CDs between shows that's usually how you would hear them too. (I have some 70s quadraphonic albums transferred to CD, which I play in PLII Music mode as that most accurately reproduces the matrix quad decoding.)

Alan Smithee

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ljBd30zmqnU" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

One of the best quadraphonic albums ever recorded!

hanshotfirst1138

There are enough distributors fucking up mono tracks as it is.

bunkaroo

I'm setup for 7.1 but I still have the 5.1 just go to the outer rear speakers. Anything under 5.1 is also left as-is.

RichC2

I leave them as-is unless it's something like a concert, then I'll force 7.1.

hanshotfirst1138

Well, since I just have HDMI, it makes the decision for me. Though I'm still fiddling with SRS.

Spiky

I used to be a pretty "original only" type of guy, would only use help for certain movies or music genres. But Auro 3D is incredible. I now generally leave it on all the time. It is amazing. Most of the time I don't even know that it is on, it just adds a little bit, like lifting voices from Center to Center+FrontHeight, putting the voice in my screen instead of below it.

printerati

Same here.

I do upmix stereo for TV and movies, though. I was using H/K's Logic 7 for years until my AVR2600 died, and now I'm experimenting with DPLIIx and DTS Neo:6 on my new Denon to see which one we prefer.

I have also always used 5 channel stereo for streaming music, but never SACD.

funkyryno

I upmix it to 11.