NO Side Speakers in an atmos system?


Hey guys I hope you can answer this.
 I am looking to build a theater and have zero place to put side speakers.  I have the rears and the over heads covered plus the main front three and sub.  However my question is this, does my Pre/pro (marantz 8802a) take the signals normally sent to the side channels and send them to the back speakers if there are no side speakers?  I would hate to lose two important channels that seem more important than the rest.

Part two of this question depending on the answer from the first.

Should I use the rear speakers as side speakers?  Meaning, that I have the rear speakers hooked up to the side speaker terminals of the pre?

Thanks for your help.
Mark
mgould
I play a Atmos Blu Ray through my Oppo 105 outputting via the 7.1 channel RCA analog output of the Oppo into a Denon Receiver (again via the RCA inputs)
Dolby Astmos must use HDMI connection and set output to bitstream out to receiver/prepro, analog output will not give you dolby astmos, what you get is 7.1 surround decoded by your blu ray player.

Ok. My old Denon does not have HDMI inputs nor Atmos settings if that is what is required..

ozzy

I would agree, best improvement is a better blending of the surround channels into a larger sound field

Just got the new Oppo 205. (Again, I am using the analog outputs into my Denon 5803 receiver). When playing a video and I select from the on screen menu the Atmos over the 5.1 setting I do hear discreet sounds through my 7.1 speaker set up.

So, is the Atmos track being blended into the side channels?

ozzy