PowerDVD 5.0 Dolby Digital Setup

[jab1981]

-edit- topic should read 5.1 not 5.0

Hey there, I've just got a simple question. I'm currently running PowerDVD 5.0 with an Audigy Platinum on WinXP. I've got Klipsch 5.1 speakers hooked up.

Here's my problem. When I go into speaker enviroment it has options for 2/4/6/7/8 speakers. Seeing as logically I have 5, I'm uncertain what to pick. 4 seems like I'm not taking the benefit of the technology I paid for and 6 seems like I'm going to miss something by shooting too far. Any help and enlightenment would be greatly appreciated.

[setarip]

"I'm uncertain what to pick. 4 seems like I'm not taking the benefit of the technology I paid for and 6 seems like I'm going to miss something by shooting too far"

It probably wouldn't take much more time to test these two settings than it took to post this question...

[jab1981]

I should point out that my post is less about jury-rigging my computer to run 5.1, or testing things out. But it's more about trying to understand how 5 speakers can equal 4 or 6. I'm trying to understand rather than fiddle with things until they work out. Even if I'd had some fool proof way to know everything was assembled properly, all the tests in the world would answer my question. To me 5 speakers don't equal 4 or 6. And the basics of my question are why should they?

I apologize for my being rather new at this, but how would I go about testing out this? I'm guessing by a sample of movie? If that's so, then I'd doubt my own hearing. For example, a well encoded stereo track can sometimes be misleading. Once I listened to half an album I was very familiar with on a stereo missing the right channel. The lack of the right channel only brought out more subtle sounds from the left side. So for a while I was actually thinking how much more detailed the sound was. I'd fear something similar would happen on a similar test. Especially considering how minor some of the channels are on DD.

So basically what I'm asking is, outside of my own flawed hearing, how would you suggest I test this out. I'm just looking for help. I think it's fairly obvious if I knew what I was doing I wouldn't be asking for that much.

[jab1981]

Any input? Even on those quick tests?