Can I connect Blu-ray player to old amp?

[Piman]

I'm looking to start the upgrade to HD - I can only upgrade one bit at a time due to having to negotiate with the purse-holder :-(. I'm starting with a Blu-ray player as even she can see that it makes no sense to spend money on DVDs anymore.

I've currently got a Sony STR DB930 Receiver which is pre-HD, so no HDMI, etc. It can do DD and DTS decoding and will accept PCM inputs and has Optical and Coaxial Digital inputs as well as a 5.1 set of analogue inputs.

I'd like to set get some degree of surround sound out of the Blu-ray. Do I need to go for something like the Sony S550 which has analogue 7.1 outputs and just leave two unplugged?

Or, in the review of the S350, What HiFi said "For sound, it can output HD audio in bitstream form, or if you want to do the decoding in the player, it can convert everything to LPCM apart from DTS-HD Master Audio". Does this mean that if I use an optical or coax digital link, I can get surround sound that way?

I've got a provisional go on the blu-ray player and I'd really like to splurge this weekend before she finds something we need more, so I'd really appreciate some help.

[Bunjiweb]

optical out from bluray to amp...

[dave87]

All you realistically need to do is take an Optical (Toslink) cable from the S350 to your amp, and set it to digital in, away you go.

HDMI to the TV as normal, just leave your TV sound on 0, otherwise you'll get an echo.

[handscombmp]

If it can take in the optical using the S350 set up to output in dd or dts should be fine.

[Skinleech]

Originally Posted by Piman

Or, in the review of the S350, What HiFi said "For sound, it can output HD audio in bitstream form, or if you want to do the decoding in the player, it can convert everything to LPCM apart from DTS-HD Master Audio". Does this mean that if I use an optical or coax digital link, I can get surround sound that way?

Not on the HD formats - optical can only output 2 channel LPCM due to the bandwidth constraints. So you need to either:

A. As noted, a straight optical connection, to give DTS and DD5.1.

or

B. Analogue cables to your amp and a player that will convert HD audio formats to LPCM for playback over the analogue connection.

[Piman]

Thanks for the help so far.

So, are you saying that on most Blu-ray players, I can select what type of sound is output through the optical connection? I can select e.g. DD? And it will automatically convert whatever is on the disc to DD?

I've started reading through some of the model-specific threads and it sounds a lot more complicated than DVD. I've no doubt I'll get it but I don't want to get it 5 minutes after I've read the manual, realising that I've bought the wrong machine.

[handscombmp]

I think though that the sony 350 may not support the decoding of dts hd master but i don't know if thats for lcpm through hdmi.
I think i've read somewhere that each blu ray has to have a DD track to be output through spdif.
Anyone want to tell me.

[Skinleech]

Originally Posted by Piman

So, are you saying that on most Blu-ray players, I can select what type of sound is output through the optical connection? I can select e.g. DD? And it will automatically convert whatever is on the disc to DD?

Originally Posted by handscombmp

I think i've read somewhere that each blu ray has to have a DD track to be output through spdif.
Anyone want to tell me.

All Blu-rays should have a legacy track on them: DTS-HD tracks have a standard DTS core that will play over optical. Many Blu-rays will have a regular Dolby Digital 5.1 track on them, and if not they will have a Dolby True HD track, which also has a regular 5.1 core for playback over optical.

[Piman]

Cool. Thanks for your help.