canofhumdingers said:

Hairy hen, what are your thoughts on watching the 5.1 mix on a sony soundbar with subwoofer? Im not a big audiophile and don't remember the exact specs but I know it has more than two speakers in the bar and is capable of decoding the main types of surround sound (the box listed all the types it was compatible with, and it was all the common ones you see on the back of DVDs and blurays).

As far as I know these bars mostly (all?) use phase trickery to simulate surround sound since all the speakers are physically in front of the listener. The ones I've seen usually have two inputs. A digital input (coax and/or optical) and stereo. If it were me, I would pick the stereo soundtrack and use the stereo inputs (as a 2.1 system).

I'm definitely interested in what Hairy hen as to say specifically about the processing that goes into converting the digital inputs to this "fake" surround. I seem to remember several recommendations in this and other threads about not folding down tracks specifically mixed for multiple (discrete) channels since this can introduce distortion and other bad things. My prediction (untested) is that you will get a more authentic listening experience going with stereo.