[msmart]

I am a complete novice but see similar info on this site so hoping someone can offer some advice. We have a new Samsung HD tv and want to buy a blue-ray player but use it with our existing Sharp HT-CN400DVE home cinema dvd system for sound.

The sharp system unfortunately does not have an optical connection or HDMI, just a scart and S Video and audio jacks (red and white). From what i have read i am confused and trying to determine if we will be able to get better sound out of this system than what we would get by connecting a new blu-ray player to our new TV? I assume the only way to connect the new blu-ray would be to the tv via Hdmi and then to our speakers system via red and white audio cables. Will this work or will it be a problem with some blu-ray discs? Am I right in understanding that we cannot get surround sound this way, just 2 channel sound?

And finally are there specific dvd blu-ray players you would recommend for this? Sorry if this is all very basic but looking for some advise. Thanks!

[davepuma]

By using the stereo analogue audio outputs, you will be limited to a pseudo effect e.g. dolby pro logic ii. This is not true discrete multi-channel surround sound. You could connect the TV's analogue audio outputs or use the ones on the player. Try both. However, I would strongly recommend upgrading the surround sound setup to a separate AV Receiver and speakers capable of handling audio over HDMI. Bluray is capable of outputting lossless High Definition audio formats e.g. Dolby True HD and DTS HD Master Audio over HDMI. If you use optical, you are limited to lossy formats but these are significantly better than stereo or dolby pro logic ii which you will get from your present setup.

Regarding the bluray player, I can recommend the Sony BDP-S350 at £130. It has just been replaced by the S360, which by all accounts is a cracking player.