# How to determine if you are getting 7.1



## nheintz (Jul 16, 2014)

I know this sounds odd, but how to do determine if you are getting a true 7.1 mix or just a simulated 7.1 mix that the receiver has made?
I have a Pioneer VSX-9120TXH-K receiver and a LG BP420 blu-ray player. The blu-ray player is saying a 3/3.1 mix, but the sound is coming out of all the speakers in what sounds like a 7.1 mix. But I don't know if its a true mix or not. Any Ideas?
I'm as using a 2013 THX demo disk watching a clip from HERO. 

Thanks,


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## Kal Rubinson (Aug 3, 2006)

nheintz said:


> I know this sounds odd, but how to do determine if you are getting a true 7.1 mix or just a simulated 7.1 mix that the receiver has made?
> I have a Pioneer VSX-9120TXH-K receiver and a LG BP420 blu-ray player. The blu-ray player is saying a 3/3.1 mix, but the sound is coming out of all the speakers in what sounds like a 7.1 mix. But I don't know if its a true mix or not. Any Ideas?
> I'm as using a 2013 THX demo disk watching a clip from HERO.
> 
> Thanks,


Just set the Pioneer for "Direct" output and see what you get.


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## willis7469 (Jan 31, 2014)

Is the Blu Ray player set to PCM, or bitstream?
Also, if you set an AVR with audyssey to "direct", it bypasses Audyssey 's filtering. I don't know if mcacc is like that. My bedroom AVR is a 1019 ahk, but I only use Direct mode in my main system once in awhile(not pioneer).


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## willis7469 (Jan 31, 2014)

Is the BD player set for PCM, or bitstream? If it's set to bitstream, the avr decodes it and the display will say what track it's playing, "dts" or DD HD-MA, etc. if set to PCM, the BD player decodes the track, and AVR will show "multichannel", and play back which soundtrack is selected. If it's a "faux" version, (expanding from 5.1 to 7.1) it should say EX on the display.(or something like that, depending on sound mode)
Also, if you set an AVR with Audyssey to "direct", it bypasses Audyssey's filters. Not sure about mcacc, though my bedroom AVR is a 1019ahk with it, I don't use direct mode in there.


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## willis7469 (Jan 31, 2014)

...oops, double post. Sorry. I bumped send by accident before I was done.


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## nheintz (Jul 16, 2014)

I will be picking up a new blu-ray player, the Panasonic DMPBDT460. The LG didn't want to connect to internet anymore. Once I get that up and running i'll try what you guys have suggested. 

Thanks,


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## selden (Nov 15, 2009)

You also need to be aware that most AVRs include a version of the DTS-HD MA decoder which automatically upmixes 5.1 audio tracks to 7.1, and you can't disable it. Apparently the DTS point of view is that if you have 7 speakers, it's because you want to hear all of them.


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## MIKEVO (Oct 21, 2014)

I guess that kinda makes sense.


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## tonyvdb (Sep 5, 2007)

If you look at your receivers display it will show what channel signals it is receiving. The channel icons will light up depending on what it is getting.


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## nheintz (Jul 16, 2014)

tonyvdb said:


> If you look at your receivers display it will show what channel signals it is receiving. The channel icons will light up depending on what it is getting.


That makes more sense, I always thought that was the output.


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## tonyvdb (Sep 5, 2007)

On my Onkyo the channel number indicates how many actual speakers I have hooked up (in my case 7.1) and the number will have a box around it when its receiving the dedicated signal.


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## Skytrooper (Feb 1, 2014)

selden said:


> You also need to be aware that most AVRs include a version of the DTS-HD MA decoder which automatically upmixes 5.1 audio tracks to 7.1, and you can't disable it. Apparently the DTS point of view is that if you have 7 speakers, it's because you want to hear all of them.


I was wondering why I was getting sound in the surround backs with a 5.1 source. My receiver is old and I use analog ins from my Oppo. I think Dolby True HD does not do this. Correct me if I am wrong.


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## selden (Nov 15, 2009)

Skytrooper said:


> I was wondering why I was getting sound in the surround backs with a 5.1 source. My receiver is old and I use analog ins from my Oppo. I think Dolby True HD does not do this. Correct me if I am wrong.


 My understanding is that Dolby's decoder does not do any upmixing on its own. I'll admit that I haven't tried to verify this understanding, though. I recently upgraded to a Marantz SR7009, and I've been enjoying the upmixing provided by Dolby's new Surround upmixer.


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## nheintz (Jul 16, 2014)

I release the full extent of my problem, when I played the THX optimizer of terminator 2. I had all the left channels play of the front Left channel, and the right channels playing on the front right channel. After playing around with the blu-ray player, I ended with it on DTS re-code which seems to fix the problem. I have PCM Stereo, PCM multi-Ch, DTS RE-encode and BitStream as a output. 

Witch one should it be on?


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## selden (Nov 15, 2009)

In general "bitstream" should be enabled and "secondary audio mix" should be off.

If "mix" is on, the player has to decode the soundtrack into LPCM in order to be able to mix the two audio streams. However, very few discs have secondary audio. Also, when soundtracks have to be mixed, the players often produces a lower-resolution audio output than is provided on the disc.

Quite a few Blu-ray player manufacturers are cutting costs by including only two-channel decoders because the licensing fees are much less than for a full 7.1 channel decoder. That seems to be what you've encountered. Upmixing the audio again in the player is unlikely to recreate the same audio that was recorded on the disc. If you bitstream the audio, then your receiver does the audio decoding. Receivers include full 7.1 channel decoders, so you'll get the same audio as is on the disc.


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## nheintz (Jul 16, 2014)

Thanks, 

I will change it to bitstream. It diffidently is a cheep bly-ray player, I'm waiting till black Friday to get a new one.


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