[Code Chemist]

Hi all.  Pretty soon I'm going to purchase the Panasonc sa-xr45 and I hope to use the optical digital output from my DVD player to connect to it and use it this way for both CD listening and movie watching.  At the moment I only have 2 speakers but I intend to get a full HT setup in the not too distant future.  My question is how will the amp "know" that it is receiving only 2-channel audio sometimes (when playing CDs) and several channels other times (when playing a DVD)? Will I need to set up the reciever so that it knows that there are only 2 speakers connected to it? Or is this a function of the DVD player?  Is the optical out only used for multi-channel (>2) audio whereas for 2-channel listening I have to use analog?  I don't have any experience in the home theater game and the DVD manual isn't clear on this issue.

Thanks in advance!  

[Brad]

The DVD player will read the disc and output the appropriate digital signal to the receiver (2 or multichannel)

I would use the optical (or coax if you have one) digital output for both stereo and multichannel.

[Rob Babcock]

A CD only contains 2 channels- the receiver will "know" this.  But there is a menu where you tell the receiver what speakers you have connected.  In almost all cases this in an on-screen menu, but I'm not familiar with the Panny menu.