If no surround speakers are used in my HT set up.....will the signals that would otherwise go to them be sent to the mains for dolby digital and pro logic? I will be using a 3.1 set up for a while and was curious about how this works.

If you have a 3.1 setup and you tell your surround processor or receiver that you don't have surrounds (in the 990, this would mean going to the speaker setup menu and selecting "NONE" rather than "LARGE" or "SMALL" for the surrounds), the processor will redirect discrete surround data from the surrounds into the fronts so that the information isn't lost entirely. Additionally, modes like Pro Logic II and NEO:6 will be much more limited in nature as they will not attempt to create any surround channels in the first place. (Also, the 990's 5 Stereo and 7 Stereo modes will not be available unless at least five speakers are enabled in the speaker setup menu...)

Thanks Gonk.....that's what I thought.....just wanted to be sure,

Yup, each surround channel will be folded into its respective front channel. But keep in mind that combining two full range channels could result in overload, so some amount of dynamic range compression and/or volume level attenuation will be applied when downmixing.

Thanks, I appreciate your responses....one other question, if you don't mind. Will folding in the discreet sound to the mains diminish the overall sound qualtiy in a way that is noticeable....is it better not to redirect the surround signals to the mains and just forget about the discreet affects? If you were in this situation, what would you do?

I would not expect it to be detrimental to overall sound quality. Certainly on movies with aggressive surrounds, you won't get the full impact of surround sound. Personally, I'd redirect surrounds to the fronts if I were running without surround speakers.

Thanks Gonk.....I appreciate your comments very much.

John