Does the 950 properly handle multichannel pcm?
Got a new PS3 to play Blu-Ray discs and the 950 display defaults to PLII-C, with PLII-M and Dolby Pl as available.

Am I truly getting multichannel pcm?

And is the ghost center speaker properly created (I have no center speaker)?

What is the proper setting (ex. Dolby Pl)?

Thank you.

Chris

No, you need to hook up the player's 5.1 analog outputs to the 950's 5.1 analog inputs. Then, you need to go into the player's setup menu, and tell it you have no center channel.

One more thing, then you select the 5.1 (6 CH) input on the 950.

As surroundophile points out, the 950 lacks an HDMI input, and thus cannot accept a multichannel PCM signal (optical and coaxial can't carry more than two channels of PCM). The standard alternative for folks with HD-DVD and Blu-ray players who want access to the new audio formats is to have the player decode internally to multichannel PCM (for DD+ and TrueHD - BD's with PCM tracks don't need any decoding) and output multichannel analog to a 5.1 input in the receiver or processor. The PS3 does not have a multichannel analog output, however, so you are limited to the optical output. For discs with multichannel PCM tracks, I believe that the PS3 will downmix to PCM stereo, at which point you'll be relying on Pro Logic II to achieve surround. If you use the Dolby Digital, DD+, TrueHD, or (if you encounter one) DTS-HD tracks, the PS3 should send the core DD or DTS track out via optical to the 950.

If you have turned the center off in the 950's speaker setup, then the 950 will properly generate a phantom center by mixing center data into the front speakers.