I can get all 7 speakers plus sub to play audio but the problem I am having is that on the panel indicator for the speakers which specifies which speakers are playing the boxes for SBL and SBR are present but missing is the SBL and SBR indicators inside its box. Hope I make sense!
Would this have something to do with the DVDs i am playing or could this be a receiver set up issue.
The box tells you whether or not the speaker for that channel is enabled and the letter tells you whether or not the sound for that channel is being decoded. If you don't see the letters SBL & SBR inside their boxes and the AFD is set to Auto, it means the DVD being play doesn't have the surround back information. You can enable Surround Back 6.1 matrix for 5.1 encoded DD/DTS DVDs, though, and if you have 2 surround back speakers connected and enabled, you'll get matrix 7.1 surround sound.
Box and Letter: Speaker is enabled and sound is decoded for that channel.
Box only: Speaker is enabled but no sound is decoded for that channel.
Letter only: Sound is decoded but no speaker is connected and/or enabled.
There are no 7.1 DVD's available as of this time but you can enable surround back matrix to get 7.1 sound from 5.1 and 6.1 DVD's. If you see both the boxes and the letters for the surround back channels, it means you are having 7.1 surround sound.