DTS-ES question

A friend of mine talked to a Internet Direct company about his preprocessor not being able to do DTS-ES (matrixing - taking a 5.1 DTS and making it 6.1) and the head guy of the company (not Outlaw) said that DTS (the company) does allow any receiver (or pre) to "matrix" a DTS 5.1 signal.

Does that seem very strange to anyone else? Cause my Outlaw 950 sure does so it. I can put on a DTS 5.1 track, and then select "DTS-ES" and it makes it 6.1. So, what's the deal with the above statement? Have things changed in the DTS world since the 950, or is the guy full of bull? I'm utterly shocked that this particular company won't allow DTS matrixing of a signal in their pre.

Thoughts?

I have to say that I really question the validity of that statement. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that claiming "DTS (the company) does allow any receiver (or pre) to "matrix" a DTS 5.1 signal." is a fairly absurd statement. After all, DTS offers a matrix decoding scheme for DTS 5.1 sources: it used to be called DTS-ES Matrix, but more recently they've phased that name out in favor of applying NEO:6 to DTS 5.1 (both cases use the same matrix decoder).

I will say that Dolby does not require that Pro Logic IIx processors be able to overlay PLIIx onto DTS 5.1, but that many receivers and processors do offer that - it's an optional portion of the PLIIx spec, and is done downstream of the DTS decoding (at which point it isn't functionally any different than applying bass management, and saying that it violates compliance with DTS seems pretty hard to swallow). The same would be true of the Cirrus Extra Surround matrix decoding that your Model 950 can use in conjunction with DTS 5.1. I would most certainly not say that receivers and processors (including your Model 950, my Model 990, and countless processors and receivers from companies like Denon, Harman Kardon, Lexicon, Anthem, Arcam, Rotel, Yamaha, Sony, ...) are doing something wrong by offering the capability to apply matrix decoding to DTS 5.1 sources.

Thanks Gonk.... I got your reply on the other forum. LOL! I didn't think the statement was correct at all either. I've replied over there, so we can continue the discussion in one place.

Thanks again!

- I posted over in that thread just a minute ago. Hopefully we can help your buddy get a better handle on his pre/pro's surround processing.