Quick Sony BDP-S350 vs. Panasonic DMP-BD35K question.

[DJ88]

I'm thinking about finally upgrading to Blu-ray and I think it's also time to update my old 5.1 system to something that will give me all the HD audio formats. I've been looking at this particular system, the Sony HT-SS2300

http://www.sonystyle.com/webapp/wcs/...52921665368399

It will accept Linear PCM so I need a player that decodes both HD formats internally right? So I've been looking at the Sony BDP-S350 and the Panasonic DMP-BD35K.

In some AVS forum thread about the S350 they make it seem like it, paired along with the SS2300, will give you both HD formats no problem. But looking at the S350's specs tells me that it only decodes Dolby TrueHD and not DTS HD. It can bitstream the two but in order for that to work the receiver would need to be able to decode it, and the SS2300 doesn't decode HD formats. So am I right in thinking that those 2 paired with each other would only give you one of the HD formats?

Now if I paired the SS2300 along with the BD35K, then that would give me both right? Because the BD35K can decode both formats to a Linear PCM and send them to the SS2300 already decoded.

I just want to be sure I'm understanding all of this correctly since I've been out of the loop from HD audio for awhile.

Thanks!

[Elee s]

The S350 will decode DTS-HD but not DTS-HD Master Audio. So yeah, go for the BD35
http://www.blu-ray.com/players/playe...=93&show=specs

[Mainiac]

I'd go with the BD35 also. I pulled the trigger on the 350 from Sonystyle for $150 last week, but now I'm regretting it. It has nothing to do with the player though, mainly just the fact that the BD35 does decode DTS-HD MA and the 350 doesn't. My current receiver doesn't decode HD audio and I was planning on purchasing a new receiver and moving my PS3/Yamaha 661 out of my home theater and into the living room. I've decided I really can't afford a new receiver at the moment so I'd rather just pair my PS3 with my current receiver in the living room as I can live with the non-HD formats there for now. I really don't want to give up DTS-HD MA in my home theater so I'll probably unload the 350 on a friend or relative and get the BD35 instead. The BD35 does seem to come out ahead in most of the stuff I've been reading about the two players.

[DJ88]

Cool, now I know for sure what I'm going to get. Thanks again!

[sysyphus]

Just wondering can the sony not be updated to work with DTS-HD MA? Can they release a firmware update that makes it work?

[mrspeakers]

Just wondering can the sony not be updated to work with DTS-HD MA? Can they release a firmware update that makes it work?

Hard to say. I haven't seen a teardown that indicates if it uses the same decoder chips as the upscale model, but if it does, SOny left the feature off to differentiate the products, and they COULD do a firmware update to enable the feature.

However, it could be that the chipset doesn't support this feature. I don't really know. Anyone seen data on the internals of the two Sonys?