Home Theater Setup for PC

[WinterChill03]

Hey gang. I recently was in the mood for some really nice speakers for my room, and instead of going out and buying some, I found this old Panasonic SC-HT920 group of speakers in my brother's old room. They still work and sound great, but I'm having trouble setting things up so I get the full surround sound effect.

For starters, my room is about 12x10. My bed takes up half of the width of the room, and my computer desk takes up the other half. I have my desk pulled out a little, and the three front speakers are mounted about a foot above the top of my computer screens and about three feet in distance from where my computer chair is. I put them up a little because I thought the screens would be blocking the sound if they were lower. The surround speakers are all the way behind me, maybe eight feet back, high up on the wall. At first, I couldn't even tell that the rear speakers were on. I finally figured out how to adjust the levels of the speakers (praise the internet gods that archive all of the manuals known to man), and turned the rear speakers up as high as I could. The only other adjustment I can make there is to lower the volume of the center speaker because the front left and right speakers can only be balanced one way or the other and not individually reduced in the same way that the others can be.

My question is, how can I get the most out of these speakers? I would love high quality sound for games, movies, and music, which is already there, but the surround is not as good as it could be for movies and games.

If there's something I missed, let me know, and I'll give more details.

For your convenience, I'll link the page of the manual that I was referencing for sound adjustments.
http/www.manualslib.com/manual/247039/Panasonic-Sc-Ht920.html?page=25#manual

 

[americanaudiophile]

Because the Panasonic has stereo audio inputs the only kind of surround sound your can get is analog surround derived from stereo rather than discrete digital surround sound which you could only get if the main unit had digital inputs or discrete analog 5.1 inputs.
The test signal is supposed to sound the same volume for each full range speaker from your chair after you adjust them. That will duplicate what the mixing engineer heard in the studio. If you want more surround or louder dialogue you can adjust from that setting but be aware that the surrounds are not supposed to be on all the time on most sources and not at all in some movies. The sub level you set to your taste.
Try different surround modes for different sources.

 

[WinterChill03]

Because the Panasonic has stereo audio inputs the only kind of surround sound your can get is analog surround derived from stereo rather than discrete digital surround sound which you could only get if the main unit had digital inputs or discrete analog 5.1 inputs.
The test signal is supposed to sound the same volume for each full range speaker from your chair after you adjust them. That will duplicate what the mixing engineer heard in the studio. If you want more surround or louder dialogue you can adjust from that setting but be aware that the surrounds are not supposed to be on all the time on most sources and not at all in some movies. The sub level you set to your taste.
Try different surround modes for different sources.

The optical cable that I've plugged into the receiver from my computer is not a digital input?