Quote:
Originally posted by Brandon B:
From the literature, it appears they are "mixing" between the 5 or 7 channels instead of sending them discretely to the correct speaker such that , say for a situation where your rear left surround is to far back, a small amount of the signal for that speaker would be sent to the left side surround so that the "image" of the sound would come forward from the actual speaker position slightly.

So they create virtual speaker locations using your actual speaker.
Basic old skool calibration would accomplish the same thing, ensuring that the SPL and delay (and by extension imaging) of each speaker is equal.