new to bluray

[admin_exported]

hi all, i could do with some help please. I m after a blu ray player and i m torn between the sony 350 and 550, i ve got a 40"w series bravia, a sony str-da1200es amp and 7.1 kef 1005.2 s. I know my amp wont decode true hd or master audio and the 350 will do true hd internally and the 550 both internally. My questions are; is true hd 7.1? Is master audio worth the extra £80 (seen the 350 for £192 and the 550 for £275), are there many discs out with master audio? and how would i connect the player to the amp, is it just a hdmi cable or do i need to use a coaxial as well (can t use optical as this is needed for my sky hd. Thanks in advance to anyone who can help!

 

[professorhat]

5.1 or 7.1 is not dependent on whether the track is HD or not. Some HD soundtracks are in 7.1, some are in 5.1 (just as was the case for older Dolby Digital / DTS soundtracks on DVD).
On the HD audio side, your Sony receiver can only accept video signals via its HDMI socket, so in order to get any of the HD soundtracks, (Dolby TrueHD, uncompressed PCM or DTS HD Master Audio), you need to get the Sony BDP-S550 and hook it up using the analogue multichannel outputs. With the 350, your only connection option would be coaxial digital which would only yield the core Dolby Digital / DTS soundtracks, not the TrueHD, uncompressed PCM or DTS HD Master Audio soundtracks.