No sound / bad sound with blu-ray player

[flyfree432]

Hello, I recently purchased a Samsung LN46A850 tv and a Sony 550 blu-ray player. The blu-ray player is connected via HDMI to the tv and optical cable to a Yamaha HTR-6030 receiver.

When I power on the blu-ray player I get static over the tv until a disc loads and kicks in and the movie sound starts playing over the receiver. I cannot get any sound out of the external tv speakers. In fact, the static remains even when the tv volume is turned down to 0.

When I play back Band of Brothers using the 'picture in picture' feature there is NO audio coming from the vets talking about their experiences in the war, but the rest of the audio works fine.

Please help, I'm getting frustrated and ready to take both the tv and blu-ray player back.

edit - i have firmware version 015