Originally Posted by VirusKiller
My understanding is that all Blu-Ray discs *should* provide a compressed multi-channel soundtrack that is backwards-compatible with older, non-HDMI-enabled, processors, whether this be vanilla DD, DTS, re-encoded lossy DD/DTS from a decoded advanced format, or the DTS core from a DTS HD MA soundtrack. This seems to be the case so far, but may not always be true.

Finally, it looks as if it will be possible to modify HD DVD and Blu-Ray players that have multi-channel analogue outputs (excludes the PS3) to provide a 3x SPDIF coax output which can then be fed to a 568.2 with MM input.

If I were you, unless you have a 568.2MM and are prepared to go down the player modification route, I would look for a Blu-Ray player that can decode all of the advanced formats and re-encode them as high bit-rate (lossy) DD or DTS. Personally, I prefer lossy (but good quality) multi-channel to lossless stereo when I watch movies.

just some points of clarification. For blu-ray DTS-HD Ma and DTS-HD HR are composed of a core + additional sountrack. The core is very similar to the lossy DTS we have today. When the player is outputting over digital coaxial it will extract the core stream only and output to your processor. DO bear in mind that the core stream will always be 1.5MBPS, which is the theoretical max as used on DVD but very rarely found in commercial disks (most are 768kbps...) As for Dolby True HD your stuck unfortunately. The blu-ray implementation (unlike the HD-DVD one) is composed of a core track only, and the player will not send anything over coaxial. DD+ is 1.5mbps out of which only a theoretical maximum of 640kbps (up from 512kbps) will be output over coaxial.....

Thats all the theory in place.

Now some suggestions> DONT Go for anything other than panasonic for Blu, their players are by far the best. Wait for BDP30 or BDP50.

Secondly, as you have a 568.2 you most probably have some very good power amps (if they have balanced inputs its even better). I would really recommend you get one of these to replace your 568 for next-gen movie formats.

http://www.onkyopro.com/model.cfm?m=PR-SC885P&class=Preamplifier&p=i