5.1 PC Connections

[Touchwood Studios]

I am setting up a 5.1 system with my PC and I will be encoding for Dolby Digital I am not sure what is the standard layout for my I/O ( I still need to switch back to Stereo mixing) SMPTE/ITU Layout 5.1 Dolby Digital Monitoring or Film (Pro Tools Default) 5.1 Monitoring Connections.
Which one??? or does it matter
Thanks

[Delta Music Belgium]

I think it doesn't matter that much in the end, it's only about monitoring and you only need to to take care about how you route the correct output to the correct speaker. I have my outputs on my 192 I/O distributed as 'Film' routed to a Grace Design m906 (I do not use the analog section of my Pro Control) and from the m906 to the speakers.

If I would like to change the system to SMPTE/ITU Layout 5.1 Dolby Digital Monitoring I should reroute the outputs from my 192 I/O to the m906, that's all. In case of using the analog section of the Pro Control, it is just the same, choose a setting and route accordingly...

[MIKEROPHONICS]

Hi

I have a pro control and use an SPL2489 monitoring controller. I connect the D sub from the 192 to the SPL. The only setting that works in this instance (due to being confined by the dsub) is the DTS/Procontrol layout. This works well for me as 1&2 are L and R in both instances - I just turn the C Sw Ls Rs outputs off to mix in stereo.
I got all concerned about track order for dolby E, but either the Neyrink broadcast plug will re-order your files, or the dolby boxes will reorder the stream before it encodes - so it really is no problem.
Within the session Protools records 5.1 in its own fixed way on a track and you have no control over the order.
Get familiar with your I/O set up page as having sub paths correctly set up really eases life in 5.1.

cheers