# Probably the dumbest newbie Q ever...7.1/5.1....



## ChipperX015 (Dec 26, 2008)

....so I have a 5.1 setup with cheap speakers and not much of a talent for hearing the type of nuances an audiophile might. I'm ok with staying with this 5.1 setup for my theater system. But the Blu-Ray player I want is 7.1 (Panasonic). I really don't want it for the possible audio upgrades, but for the reviews of great video playback. But it would be nice to start somewhere with 7.1, I suppose. 

Main question is...can I hook up all my 5.1 stuff to the back of a 7.1 capable machine and it will not lose something? Am I loosing something to upgrade one component at a time? I've checked close up views of 7.1 systems backs. And I'm still not sure if it all works. Am I ok with one 7.1 component in the middle of 3 other 5.1 components? Should everything work as it should? I really don't know this...thus the stupidest question ever posed here.


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## tcarcio (Jun 27, 2007)

Hi Chip, If you are useing a reciever with hdmi then you just plug it in and your good to go because it will automatically play the disc at 5.1 on your system unless the disc is a 7.1 encode then you would need to choose 5.1 on the disc menu. If you are going to hook it up useing the analog connections then you just use hookups for left,right,center,right surround, left surround, subwoofer or lfe out and you are good to go. I wouldn't worry too much about 7.1 at the moment because there are very few discs encoded in that format. Also one component at a time is fine and will not cause a problem, Hope this helped.


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## salvasol (Oct 31, 2006)

I agree with TC ...if your AVR is 5.1 and you play a 7.1 DVD it will sent the Back surrounds to the surround speakers (similar as playing a 5.1 DVD with a 7.1 system, the AVR copies the signal of the surrounds and send it to the back surround to complete the 7.1 from a 5.1 source) :yes:


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## ChipperX015 (Dec 26, 2008)

Thanks to both of you. You answered the main question. My receiver is about 5 years old and no HDMI imputs/out or 7.1 support (I bought in just before things went this way on a larger scale, I suppose)....so I was mainly concerned that the analog cables format still worked and, if so, what that meant when the audio was being translated to my older AVR. Now that I feel more comfortable, seems as I might as well start by buying one 7.1 component and see how it goes from there (as far as widespread support and a slow upgrade of my whole system). Thanks again for your time!


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## tcarcio (Jun 27, 2007)

Glad we could help. Happy New Year........:yes:


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