is 5.1 channel encoding even necessary?

[sean madison]

I was wondering if there is a point to use an external tool to encode audio to 5.1 channel because whenever i play my movies on my receiver, it ALWAYS plays thru all 6 speakers.

[Hateslife]

No. If you did bother with 5.1 channel sound, you'd have to play the movie on your computer, since there more or less aren't any DVD players that will take SVCD's with MPEG-2 Multichannel, the 5.1 channel sound format that was originally supposed to be used on DVDs as well, but flopped.

For other things, sure, why not? You have the six speakers, might as well use those extra three for something

[Kdiddy]

yes it plays through all you speakers but in DOLBY SURROUND SOUND mode not DOLBY DIGITAL which is much different, some like myself prefer the digital sound which is why I make miniDVDs to play on my standalone.