Newbie with a new Blu-ray needs guidance

[gbatch]

I am a newbie here and fully admit to being somewhat green to all this component TV stuff and its fast moving technologies. What brings me here are a couple of issues with my newest purchase – a Panasonic Blu-ray player, Model DMP-BD10. I welcome informed replies and opinions.

(A) As I said, I recently picked up a Panasonic Blu-ray player model DMP-BD10. I’ve updated the firmware to the latest version. The TV this is hooked up to is a 61” Sony purchased in 2000, Model KP-61HS10. The TV does not have an HDMI hookup, but it does stipulate that using the Video 5 inputs enables the reception of the 1080i, 480p and 480i digital TV formats if one uses a digital TV receiver. So, I have the Blu-ray hooked up to the Video 5 with a component video cable. The picture is very good, but it’s not what I see at the electronics stores at 1080. I suspect it’s playing at 480p because the Blu-ray manual states “Some discs prohibit high def video output from COMPONENT VIDEO OUT terminals. In this case, video resolution is converted and output as 480p.” So, my question is since it says “some discs” is there any way to know which discs will have limited video output? So far, we’ve watched 300, Spiderman 3 and DieHard 4. They all seem to have played at 480p.

I know the real solution here is a new TV, and I may look into that but I’m also interested in any info that users think would be helpful or informative.

(B) For the audio from our Blu-ray, we are presently using a 2 channel hookup directly through the TV. However, we do have a 5.1 surround sound set-up using a SONY Receiver Model STR-DA333ES. This set-up works with the other components hooked up to it (DVD player, MD player and VCR). The receiver was purchased at the same time we bought the TV, so it’s 7 years old. According to the Blu-ray instructions, I can use either a digital optical hookup from the Blu-ray to the receiver or I can use the empty 5.1 inputs on the receiver and the empty 5.1 outputs on the Blu-ray. OK, so I’ve tried using the digital optical setup, and encountered the problem of NO sound at all. I’ve changed all the settings on the Blu-ray to PCM or bitstream and got nothing. So I’ve gone back to the 2 channel set up using the TV speakers. Then, I notice this small print nugget in the Blu-ray manual - “You cannot use DTS Digital Surround decoders incompatible with DVD. Even if using this connection, output will be only 2 channels when playing DVD-Audio.” Based on this, am I correct that the only way I may be able (no guarantee) to get 5.1 surround sound is to use the 5.1 outputs / inputs?

Yes folks, I know mixing 7 year old components with new stuff is always challenging and I probably won’t be able to fully enjoy the benefits of the Blu-ray unless I upgrade both the TV and the receiver. Still, getting a new Blu-ray at the price I paid was something I could not pass up.