DescentBB

Anyone ever experimented with a 6.1-surround Home Theater system? My parents bought a Yamaha YHT-740 6.1 speaker a month ago, and tonight we set it up. when my mother brought it home (she bought it as a birthday present for my dad) I found the 6.1 claim a bit fishy... turns out that the additional rear center channel is just supposed to be a composite of the rear left and right.

Whatever. The point is that the rear center speaker isn't outputting any sound at all. The rear left and right channels are a bit weak, but I can't tell if that's intentional or not (the currently playing movie is Schindler's List). No matter what we try we cannot get the rear center channel to work.

Here's the configuration:

DVD player: Yellow composite video out
---INTO---
A/V receiver: Yellow composite video in

DVD player: Audio data optical out
---INTO---
A/V receiver: Audio data optical in

A/V receiver: Yellow composite video out
---INTO---
TV: Yellow composite video in
(this will be replaced with S-Video upon the purchase of a new TV)

All the speakers are hooked up correctly with speaker wire cut from the same 100-ft length of wire.

Anybody have any experience with this and would be able to shed some light on this subject?

hummm well i not to certen but if the movie doesnt support 6.1 it might auto shut off that speek cause mine kills the back ones when i watch anime thats onley in 2.1

Try playing around with the soundfields, (the effects).

My experience with any "home theater in a box" is that they should all stay in the box, very poor sound from them and all bareley put out any sound from the rears.

You have to tape them to your head like some big Flintstone headset in order to hear anything from them.

Tell Mom to save up and buy a real amp with real speakers... much better.

You might want to try RCA cords for the audio (just for troubleshooting purposes). If that doesn't work, then take an OHM meter and check the cable to be sure there isn't a break/kink somewhere that you aren't aware of. (My parents have an RCA 5.1 630W system and this is how I troubleshooted it.) You might even want to plug those speakers into different spots on the A/V unit and see if they are actually putting anything out worth a damn.

most of the 5.1 /6.1 whatever a/v receiver have a testmode where you can put white noise to each loudspeaker seperate for adjusting volume, did you checked that already?

if yes you have probably switched to a wrong mode or the dvd doesnt support dolby digital. another thing to check: audio-output mode of the dvd player. probably its switched to prologic downmix? (analog out)

I tend to agree with Warlock. If it's not in 6.1 (and hardly anything is) I doubt you will get anything out of the center rear.

However, you might pose the question here...

http://www.hometheaterspot.com/htsthrea ... Board=UBB5

I received some very good advice from there when I was looking to buy my surround sound system.

I've had some experience with Surround Sound, and from what I gather, you wont hear much comming out from them unless you load up a super-action movie. In drama they are practically silent except for the occasional musical score or a sound or two from a movie in which they enhance the front speakers. Thats it.

Otherwise, yea you would hear sound from them but it would be rare because thats how they are made. Say when a ship zooms by into warp speed to your right in a Star Trek movie, thats when you will hear the true effects of it. But other than that the 2 front and center channels bear most of the sound weight.

See, aint it overrated?

I've got a 5.2 setup at the moment, The rear channels have always been weak for me too, it takes some tweaking. I actually have a Pioneer Reciever between my PC and my speakers to give me better control over the channel strength. When you run the white noise test, the volume is greater in the rear channels than what you actually get when playing a movie/game etc, all it does is confirm the speakers are in the right position and are working.

The surround speakers are quieter because the encoding is that way. It is supposed to give the sensation that you are in the middle of what you are watching and not on your couch, its more ambient than anything else. If you are listening specificly for the surrounds during playback, you'll have a hard time hearing them over the front speakers, because they only provide the ambient "surround" effect, and the sounds are pretty close in time. Just make sure you have your distance set correctly on the reciever, its very important.

The 6.1 surround is just an extention of the ambient effect, by mixing the left and right surrounds, it gives another ambient source, thus greater effect. But really it is rather useless. You get better effect by placing your subwoofer in the rear center position (still on sub-out, just move the speaker itself) Keep the extra speaker as a spare in case you blow one out or one goes bad.

On my 5.1 setup, I split the sub-out so I have a front and rear sub, hence 5.2 They are different size and power subs, I put the large one behind me center and the small one in front center. Sounds much better

Well, toying with the effects worked. The rear center channel now "functions".

Whee! Often that is the problem.