That does sound very similar to my experience with digital cable and the 950: only a few programs actually show up in full surround. We have the deal where you get 6 or 7 HBOs, plus the West Coast versions of each of those that repeat the same programming 3 hours later. I noticed that the only one that gave me 3/2.1 was the main HBO, never the Signature or Classic or whatever the others were. Even the West version of the main HBO channel would not show as 3/2.1, even thought the same movie on the regular HBO 3 hours earlier *did* give me 3/2.1. Didn't really notice about the repeats being different, but it wouldn't surprise me.

It is kind of deceptive, though I think they probably say "broadcast in 5.1 surround where available" or something similar to get around it...