Only One Channel Surround Back Input

Are you talking about the analog outputs?

I've never heard of a receiver with 7 analog inputs. Usually there is 6 or 8 for a 5.1 or 7.1 setup. If you receiver does have 7 analog inputs then yes, you could use a y adaptor on the rear surrounds of the 5000. That way both of the rear channels of a 7.1 soundtrack would be directed to your rear center speaker.

I have the Sony STR-DE895... (Did you reverse numbers in your model or do you really have a 985?).. When I connected mine to the analog on the Samsung I just used the left channel. I didn't even think about trying to "mix" both channels for the surround back channel. I'll have to consider that at some point and see if I can hear a difference.

I don't have any of the "legacy" codecs with a 7.1 surround track... only newer codecs that my receiver can't decode or the uncompressed PCM... so I don't actually know what would happen if I fed a 7.1 track through it. All of those end up sending either a 6.1 "legacy" hidden track or 2-channel PCM via bitstream... and for those I obviously go ahead and switch to the analog to get the better sound.

I know there are 6.1 receivers. I have one, Yamaha RX-V1. It will use the rear center when the receiver is decoding a DD/DTS 6.1 soundtrack. Those are rare. It will also matix in the rear center with a 5.1 soundtrack. My receiver only has 6 channel analog inputs. It won't use the rear center when I am using those inputs.

What I am talking about is the multi channel analog inputs on the receiver. Do you have 6, 7 or 8 inputs? 6 channel will have left front, right front, center, surround left, surround right, and subwoofer. 8 channel adds rear left and rear right. Maybe you do have 7 inputs but I've never heard of that. I've never seen a player with 7 ouputs.

If your receiver does infact have 7 channel inputs, I doubt it, then you could use a y adaptor on the 5000. That way both rear channels will be played through the one rear channel of your receiver. This only applies when you are decoding a 7.1 audio track. Since there aren't that many movies with 7.1 True HD I don't think it is that big of a deal. If the 5000 decoded DTS MA then I would be more interested since there are more and more 7.1 tracks in that format.

Same here, though I'm too lazy to climb behind things again and add a y-cable... I most definately have 6.1 analog inputs (7 connections) to my audio receiver.

IF anyone hasn't seen this before, then you must either have an older receiver or a newer one. At the time I bought mine (roughly 2003 I believe) the 7.1 systems were just starting to come out and I think I only saw one system with an HDMI connector then as well. Even 6.1 was overkill then as nothing was out with more than 5.1 surround at that point for the home user.

That should work.