Side speakers?

Yeah, i hear ya
When 5.1 came out, it was a good thing. now everying is trying to expand it and have the latest and greatest, when in all reality they just make it more confusing.

one of the many reasons i stick with 5.1

In a 5.1 the sound will go to the designated "Surround" speakers while the rears will remain silent.

Not sure what you are refferring to as "Side" Speakers, even in 7.1 systems you have the left, center, right, surround right, surround left, rear right, and rear left. If you mean the "Sides" as the Surround then yeah they wil still play. It is the rear speakers that will not.

As far as i know you should set up a 7.1 system the same as you would a 5.1, the only difference is the inclusion of the 2 rear speakers. The "Surrounds" location would be the same in a 5.1 or 7.1 system.

the hard part of comparing it to a commercial theater is the size of a theater, andvery diverse seating possibilities. Normally the speakers on the side are the surround channels, while the side-rear would be the rear channels. Home Theater and Commerical Theater have as much in common as they they do differences.

Eldartford,
the rear surround can be discrete in DTS i believe.
The Rear-right/rear-left setup uses the discrete 6th channel and feeds it to each rear, at the same time depending on track it will matrix the surround left with the surround rear and the surround right with the surround read to give a more diffuse sound field and better ambience affects.

i think....

naaa,,. by 6th channel i mean surround-rear channel, for 6.1 surround.
the .1 is the LFE. and the 6th is a track for rear effects.

Ill agree, this stuff is all poorly explained. Im pretty sure DTS can do 6.1 surround with descrete signals to all 6 speakers plus sub. When using the 7.1 it splits the 6th channel (rear channel) between the two rear speakers and will matrix these with the surrounds on each side to give the feel of 7 channels.

Its all a real pain in the ass if you ask me.

I have 5.1, thats it. My Denon 3805 will do 7.1, but due to the fact that i only ran 2 speaker cables beneath my floor when i was installing the hardwood im sticking with 5.1 instead of 6.1 or 7.1

Ive used 7.1 in the past in the house i was renting before i bought my own, and i thought it worked pretty well, but not well enough for me to string a cable to the other side of the room for the rear channel. You really need to have some room for 6.1 or 7.1. The biggest issue is you need space behind you for the rear speaker, at least 8 feet. if you dont have the space then using 6.1 or 7.1 will feel kinda gimicky and the whole effect kind of collapses. With my house the couch is pretty much against the rear wall. No room for anything more than 5.1 and i really dont feel like im missing a thing.

5.1 works great, and im sticking with that. :)