Question about DVD sound quality

[Matt]

I was thinking about this the other day. Is the digital output from say a sony and a panasonic DVD player identical? The reason i ask is that if the audio is stored on the DVD it is as digital data. The laser head picks this up and converts it to a video image and a digital audio image. I can see that there might be a difference in sound quality using onboard decoding but surely the 'raw' digital signal will be the same. Therefore the sound output from 2 DVD players should be the same.
I realise that its different with a CD player as there is some decoding going on.

This is just me thinking it through without any specific tech knowledge, would be interested in anyones views.

[Bada Bing]

Basically it comes down to quality of components. There is still decoding going on for audio, and therefor the quality of the decoding cicuitry has an impact, then if outputting by phonos, the D/A quality has another impact, then finally at the amp stage there's another factor.
At a basic level, you'd think digital outputs would be identical, but the digital output is only that DVD players decoded version of the digital output, which is further decoded by the amp/receiver.

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