Quote Originally Posted by equate
You say movies with THX are great for 7.1? I don't have THX on my receiver. Thanks
As I pointed out, THX is nothing more than a certification standard. A THX approved DVD has met minimum picture and sound quality standards, but that does not mean that all of them will be better than non-THX DVDs, and it does not mean that the soundtrack will sound right when played back using the 7.1 playback mode. Most soundtracks out there are 5.1 (fewer than 100 6.1 DVD titles exist) and as I mentioned earlier, how it sounds in the 7.1 playback mode varies a lot depending on how the original soundtrack was mixed. It does not matter one bit if the disc is THX approved or not -- if the surround channels were not mixed with a lot of channel separation, the 7.1 playback will collapse the sound into the middle and destroy the surround effect.

You do not need a THX receiver to obtain the best picture and sound quality out of a THX certified DVD, any more than you need a Good Housekeeping approved kitchen appliance to bake cakes from Good Housekeeping approved cake mixes. Focus on optimizing the sound and picture quality on your system, and forget about looking for the THX label.

If you want a good system test for your 7.1 setup, some discs that will work well include The Haunting (the 6.1 DTS ES version), the Lord of the Rings extended editions (again, the 6.1 DTS ES soundtracks), and Gladiator (look for the old 2- disc set because it has the 6.1 DTS ES track on it; the rereleased single-disc version only includes the 5.1 DD EX soundtrack). Master and Commander and U571 are the soundtracks to beat for me, but they're both 5.1 soundtracks and may or may not work well with 7.1 playback.

In general, 7.1 playback is an improvement ONLY if you have the right soundtrack, a room with sufficient space behind the listening position, AND timbre matched speakers that are positioned correctly. Otherwise, if not done right, a 7.1 setup can do more damage to sound quality than good compared to a 5.1 setup.