Need serious help in choosing a new player

[Mike Z]

Hello all,

Okay, so my Sony BDP-S300 pretty much chooses what movies it will play and which ones it won't and I'm completely fed up with it.

I'm looking to get a new player, possibly the S350 but I'm leaning more towards the S550. I feel a little burned by Sony right now but based on what I've read in the forums the S550 seems to be popular but I have a few questions.

I have a 65" Mitsubishi 1080P DLP HDTV with the HDMI connection. However, it seems rare that I get that incredibly crystal clear picture that blu-ray is known for; except maybe with the Iron Man blu-ray which is phenomenal. Maybe I don't have perfect settings or whatnot but maybe someone knows the solution.

Have there been many problems playing certain discs on the S550? My player doesn't seem to play Fox titles and I really just want a blu-ray player that will, y'know, play blu-rays. I'm already at the 4.30 firmware level and the problems persist.

Also, I know I might get joked here but the truth is I don't know what the Profile means when it comes to these players. For example, Player Profile 1.0, 1.1, 2.0, etc.

And the last thing, I'm not really too much into audio, I enjoy the high definition video more than anything. But I'm looking for a player that will be able to connect to a good sound system. I do want to get a sound system down the road but people are always talking about 5.1 and 7.1 and PCM tracks and lossless audio and I'm kinda lost when it comes to that stuff.

I know there's countless threads about this stuff but I'm really just looking for some opinions and suggestions. I want to get a player and not have to worry about certain movies not playing and things like that. I just want to enjoy blu-ray.

I appreciate the help.