Surround sound with near fields

[JohnyC]

This isn't really music related..
It seems to me that near field monitors could work very well as high quality speakers in a home theatre setup.
But how exactly could one setup a 5.1+ system with powered near field monitors and connect them to say the digital out on a dvd player?

Is there any kind of decoder box thing that has a whole bunch of 1/4 outputs for 5 powered near field monitors, and 1 powered sub ?

 

[notbradsohner]

if you are going to use powered monitors, you will need each speaker to be the one with the amp in it. Each of the 5 speakers should be on a seperate channel.

 

[JohnyC]

Yeah I know what powered speakers are.
I'm wondering if there is some kind of surround sound decoder device that has digital inputs, doesn't have an amp in it, and has 1/4 TRS or XLR outputs to connect a 5.1, 6.1, or 7.1 set of powered monitors and a sub. And also has volume controls on it and maybe some other features, whatever those may be.
Does anyone know of a device?

 

[JohnyC]

are there even any mixing boards that can decode dolby digital or DTS streams?

 

[TexRoadkill]

Yeah I know what powered speakers are.
I'm wondering if there is some kind of surround sound decoder device that has digital inputs, doesn't have an amp in it, and has 1/4 TRS or XLR outputs to connect a 5.1, 6.1, or 7.1 set of powered monitors and a sub. And also has volume controls on it and maybe some other features, whatever those may be.
Does anyone know of a device?

Yeah, they're called Surround Sound Decoders and are available from most home stereo/video companies. Most decent DVD players have built in decoders and seperate line outs for each channel.