Page 1 of Surround sound/5.1 Help needed

I just got my new Philips Widescreen 32" tv I had ordered, don`t have the model number on me. I just got the wireless speakers for the back of the room working and the volume for them is up to its Max. Yet it still is quite low in sound. Is it supposed to be like this just for echoes etc in films.
I watched a scene of a film with traffic in it with 5.1 turned on and I imagined you would hear the sound of the cars all around the room, though granted in a hospital scene you could hear the intercom in the rear speakers.
If I change the tv sound to Hall, which takes away the middle speaker on the tv, it sounds louder at the back to make up for it. How do I make it perfect for watching films is what I am trying to get at? Any hints?
Thanks

I felt the same when I first got my 5.1 decoder. I thought it was going to be like "quadraphonic" was on my hi-fi, a kind have all-enveloping sound, but unfortunately this isn`t the case. 5.1 is designed to enhance the movie itself, so constantly loud rear sounds would be distracting. They use them mostly for ambience and reverberation, DTS audio is a bit more active in that department, but you`d still be surprised at the lack of activity. I turn the rears up slightly to suit my tastes, but this does affect echoey affects and directional audio in a negative way. Basically, distracting sounds are obviously a bad thing for a film and as such, the people that mix the tracks together avoid over-stressing the rear usage. If you want to hear some good "cross-over" audio, try the opening titles of Art Of War, Chapter 2 of Little Nicky or THX intro`s to at least show your set-up is okay.

Try some of these DVD`s for excellent use of surround effects!
X-Men
Fight Club
Saving Private Ryan
Die hard

There are so many more.........even films u don`t think would have good surround like Toy story 2 & What Lies Beneath.

Adjust the rear speaker volume to suit u though.......some people prefer more rear volume others dont, it`s all down to personal taste.
BTW is the TV prologic only though?
If it is u may find that u may lose some of this surround effect on DVD`s unless u have DD/DTS. I should know.... I had a prologic TV until 6 months ago & with prologic some films do seem better than others!

The best advice I can offer is to play one of the films that u know very well & set the speakers to suit!
As previously mentioned the THX intro is also a good test!

Good luck!

Yeah thanks,
I have watched Fight Club and The X-Men on it this weekend and it was working quite well. The sound of the X-Men was spectacular actually. I think the Dolby Surround Sound rather than 5.1 is a better option for my tv, I will have to check if it is a Prologic. What does it mean if it is Prologic? The surround sound doesn`t work as well?