Sound for Dummies

[Perquacky]

Ok, I know there is heaps of info on this, but going through many, many forums I could not find something that states what i THINK is a normal situation that I have and am still not sure how to fix:

I buy a nice new HDTV. Of course, I have to get the blu-ray to go with it. So I buy the blu-ray and the best HDMI cable I can get (If nothing else having one cable for sound a picture is great). I use just the stereo speakers with the TV(I know Im missing a lot but bear with me).

Everything is hooked up and off we go just to have the drowing off voice sound. Now, I have heard all about having a greater range because of realisim, thats the way they do it now, etc... Ok, so I turn on dynamic compression to "even out" the sound. Does not really help that much.

So, after reasearch, the center speaker is where most of the voice sound comes from. So turn that up and it should help. Great... but I dont have a center speaker...

Very well, so I go to my TV settings and have it set for stereo. check. I go to my Blu-ray player and there is no stereo mode, lots of PCM and other terms that dont seem to be what I am looking for. Guess it does not control the sound mode?

Off to the Blu-ray itself. Well, on many I have, the only options it has is 7.1 and 5.1 For some reason they have digital stereo(Thats what I want) in other languages.

So, basically it boils down to the Blu ray telling the sound to play through the center speaker which I dont have and there is no way to get around it.

Question: Is there ANY way to get it to stereo or even Mono mode so I can just use my tv speakers or is it a conspiracy to force me to buy yet more equipment. Im not a huge movie guy but like to relax and watch without too much trouble. It is very strange that it would bassically not allow you to proporly use a 2 speaker set up. Lots of people have this problem and the answer is "Turn up your center speaker". Despite the majority people on this site, most people just want to buy a TV and player and go. Any help or if I am wrong in areas plesae let me know but this is what I have come up with. Thank you.