Onkyo HT-RC180 Zone 2 connection issues

I have the receiver by my TV and want to dedicate zone 2 to my patio According to the manual for the Onkyo, this should all work with the caveat that when zone 2 is powered, the primary 7.1 drops to only 5.1.

I am doing the same thing as explained in the manual , i have a onkyo htrc180 , a 7.1 setup in my living room , now i bought 2 atrium 5 speakers for my patio , from all the posts and the manual i read ,, the system automatically lowers or powers down the 2 surround back speakers in my living room and the living room becomes 5.1 with one source and the Patio's Zone 2 starts with another analog source , does this mean that i have 2 sets of speaker wires going in the surround back's ? How does the amp know which to power down , if it calculates the distance to know which are zone 2 and which are surrounds from the 7.2 then what if the distance is less to the zone 2 and more to the surrounds ?

Due to this confusion and lack of understanding i have downgraded my 7.1 system to 5 .1 , and connected the zone 2 to surround backs . it is working i can play my tv or any digital source in my living room and can play an analog source in my patio. but i do want to know the workings of hits receiver as to how it knows which 2 to power down .

Another issue with the zone 2 is i cannot see the display on my tv when i try to select the zone 2 source , i presently can power the zone 2 with the receiver built in Pandora radio as its the only analog source , i can see teh source on the receiver led display but it goes in a couple of seconds.

Can i connect my PS3 via the hdmi and a component cable to the receiver thus enabling one more source to my Zone 2 ?

thanks for clearing it , but i still dont understand how does the speaker know which are the zone 2 and which are 2 rear surrounds if both the speakers are connected to the same channel on the receiver . to put it other way 2 set of speakers are connetcted to the same port which is surround rear on the receiver if i turn on the zone 2 how does the receiver know out of the 4 speakers connected to the surround rear which set of 2 are zone 2 and which are the part of 7.1 its supposed to power down ?

Secret Squirrel
Thanks a lot for the info , like in my profession they say Read The freaking Manual , I missed out on that , anyway , like you said I will buy another amp and make my Onkyo a pre amp , that way I can use the 7.1 and Zone 2 , saying that I am not very impressed with my 7.1 in the first place , I bought Flaming lips DVD A , DSOTM on SACD, Love by Beatles on DVD A all are good but not blow you away types , one reason I guess is that all my 4 surrounds are at the ceiling height. Other than that I have done audessey set up couple of times. The only song which is awesome is Time by Pink Floyd.
Recently I visited a friend who had old Yamaha and Bose 501 series and you won’t believe it he powered the amp with his phone and that was sounding pretty decent.
I was in an apartment earlier and I thought the acoustics are not that great but now I bought a house with a room dedicated as a home theater. My listening tastes are vary from Classical to Pink Floyd to World Music ,My next buy is going to be Chris Botti live in Boston DVD A , I hope that blows me away .
Am I expecting too much of my system? By the way I have the Onkyo HTRC 160 and Polk RM series with a HSU sub .

Again thanks for the help ..
KKdonn