Hi! I have a home theater setup around an Onkyo TX-602 7.1 receiver. I currently only have 3.1 speakers (front left/right, center, powered sub).
I have searched the manual and online to no avail. What happens when I input 5.1 or 6.1 audio? Are the missing channels dropped or down-mixed to my existing speakers? The Onkyo knows what speakers I have.
Does the listening mode matter? Which one should I pick? What is Theater-Dimensional mode?
Depending on the mode, I can definitely hear 4 distinct channels. So my real question is whether or not I am losing the surrond/rear channels that I do not have. Obviously, I'd prefer to be able to playback in a 5 or 6.1 format, keeping my four channels, and have the channels that I do not have by downmixed into my existing speakers.
If you set the rear speakers to none on the receiver, the sounds from rear channels will go to the front speakers but of course you can't hear the surround sounds from the back.