Oh well preferable Onkyo but any other really good receivers below $400 that do this? I've found some Pioneer receivers that do it I believe but not sure about the Onkyo's.
I thought that 7.1 was using the rear 2 channels of 5.1 and copying in mono. As such, the 6th and 7th were mono anyhow. What do you want to accomplish, man?
Due to the setup of my living room I can't exactly have a 7.1 setup but I could manage a 6.1 setup. That's pretty much it. I did notice that Pioneer had a 7.1 receiver that could do 6.1 and 5.1
Every 7.1 receiver can do 6.1, if you missed it when Nuck replied, the surround back channels are identical to one another, so it doesn't matter which you hook it up to. Some 7.1 receivers have a function which de-activates the Surround back right channel in 6.1 mode, I'm sure this offers some benefit, but it is hardly necessary.