Blu-Ray Update...

Tonight I hooked up the new Blu-Ray Disc player.

Well, I guess I should say I tried to hook up the Blu-Ray Disc player.

Let me start by saying that it seems like everything electronic that I touch lately ends up costing a ton more money than you would initially have thought. Updating the firmware on the router?? Ended up spending an extra $100 plus countless hours of time getting the computer back up and running. Get a free Xbox from my best friend to hook up in the basement?? Ended up spending $120 on cables and adapters to get it hooked up to the network in the house. Get a great deal on a Blu-Ray Disc player?? Spend another $60 on cables and accessories to hook it up.

So anyways...

I hooked it up tonight, only to find out that the HDMI cable I purchased at Target today doesn't work. So tomorrow I'll be taking that back and getting my money back. I'll order one from Amazon and pay for the overnight shipping...that will still end up costing $15 less than what I paid at Target.

Well, I ended up grabbing the HDMI cable from the cable box...I knew that one worked...and hooked the player up. Only to find out that my surround sound receiver is too old to support the audio that the Blu-Ray player produces.

Sure, it plays audio at menus and on older movies. It even plays the audio perfectly on a standard DVD. But on the two newer movies we purchased, the audio didn't play at all. Of course I was able to find a work around by just listening to the audio basically through the TV...but that isn't in 5.1 surround sound and isn't really taking advantage of the system that I have.

From quite a bit of research, it appears that I simply don't have the correct receiver for the job.

Which leaves me with one of two options.
1. Buy a new receiver to work with the Blu-Ray player.
2. Just deal with it in Pro Logic II instead of 5.1.

Right now I'm leaning towards just going with Pro Logic II. For my audio setup it's probably just fine and I won't really notice much of a difference.

It's just a bit disheartening to think you're going to have this awesome setup, only to find out that one of the key components doesn't really work with it. The only good thing is I THINK I'll be able to return pretty much all of the stuff I purchased to make it work with the system. I don't need either of the optical cables I bought, or the optical switch. I also don't need the broken HDMI cable. I'll probably end up returning all of it and just paying $10 for the new HDMI cable from Amazon. That will end up saving me $50 overall. Not too bad.

I'm actually thinking more and more that when I do eventually upgrade the receiver for the TV, I may just go with a nice soundbar. The rear speakers are such a pain to work with and they just don't really "fit" in the room that we have them in. The soundbar would be sleeker and a bit more minimalist...and I think it would look GREAT with the setup we have now. Plus...we could move the 5.1 setup we have now down into the basement with Cathy's Xbox down there...so that she could have some awesome sound for her Netflix!!!