Originally posted by bwallen77:
I think 13.1 is something the studios will use for movie theaters. Comercially it makes perfect sense to have 13 independent channels. Just think of the possibilities in a room so large. I think you guys are right for the home though. 7 is plenty.
The movie studio offers the best rationale for the extra channels, but there are issues that make it unlikely even there. In a theater, the mix must allow for similar sound experiences for each movie-goer, whether he's sitting in the front row or the back row. That means that the side speakers really need to all get the same signal. As a bit of evidence of this trend, all of the DD Plus tracks currently showing up on HD-DVD and Blu-ray have been 5.1, and the information I've seen indicates that this is because that's all sound editors want to mix to for theatrical release.
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