Blu-Ray Audio Problems

[Briandr]

I just picked up a Sony Blu-Ray player last night. I am not at home so I can not provide the model number just yet of that or my Sony High Def TV. I will be able to provide that a little later. Here is what I noticed after watching two movies last night. The video quality is excellent. The audio quality is good (not excellent) as well, but it seems like you have to jack up the TV volume to a 34. Normal TV volume is about 15 for most viewing. My TV is a Sony 1080i. The Sony TV only has one HDMI port on the back. So what I did was get a HDMI splittler for both my cable box and Blu-Ray. I figured I would get better quality using the HDMI cable as opposed to the component cable. I have not tried plugging the Blu-Ray directly into the TV's HDMI's port, although I plan on trying that later. Hopefully the problem is not with the splitter. I seemed to recall having a similiar issue with the Toshiba HD DVD player which I got late last year. I since returned it since I did not want a 'beta max' on my hands. Also from reading the Sony Blu-Ray manual it does make mention of a known issue with low audio. I tried adjusting the setting to help the low volume issue, but that in my mind did nothing. So what are my options at this time. Try the component cable instead of the HDMI cable? Invest in a audio receiver? Get another HDMI splitter?

Thanks in advance.