Hiya

We can't answer your question unless you tell us what player you are using.is it a dvd player or cd player and what brand/model ?

Hi again

Okay,i know what you mean,actually,the same thing puzzles me.Anyway,as far as i know,it doesn't matter if the dvd (software) has 2 or 5.1 channels.What matters is the hardware,in your case the marantz dv4500 player which normally should "downmix" all channels,be it 4 , 5.1 or whatever,into stereo. Why don't you try it the easy way to be 100% sure ? Get a demonstration or set-up and give it a listen.These dvds let you hear individual tones or music played through each channel at a time,usually together with comments from human voice.if you can hear everything,well , it works ! lol The commentator usually talks you through channels,ie "now you are listening to the surround channel" etc , you will know when you are not hearing a channel.

If your DVD player has multi-channel analog outputs, it should have a setting to downmix everything to 2.0 through the main right and left analog outputs. I did that for a while, but wasn't very happy with it. It always seemed that I had to turn the volume up abnormally high to hear the dialog clearly.

I ended up buying a center channel speaker and a used processor that I use just for television and DVD viewing. This resolved the dialog problem, since I could adjust the centre channel levels to my liking. However, it created a rather complicated mess of pre-amps, amps, source devices and speaker cables.

I'm now in the process of putting together a stand-alone 2-channel system so I can get away from the compromise ridden 2ch / HT hybrid behemoth I created... which of course requires more square footage... which has me thinking screw the HT stuff and just run the video related audio straight into my serviceable LCD TV's speakers and be done with it