Hey Everybody,
First post here.

My background is in recording equipment, and I've tended to have a pretty crappy home stereo setup for a long time due to spending most of my money on various recording gear.

So, my understanding of the various digital formats used to transmit surround from the DVD player to receiver and TV is a little limited.

Regardless, I've been called upon to upgrade the fiance's parents' home theatre system. The old receiver took a crap, so that's the first call to business.

So far, from my floundering research, the Denon AVR 987 seems to have the feature set and price that they are looking for. And, from my experience, Denon generally seems to be a step up from Sony/Pioneer/Harman etc.

Here's a link:

http://www.circuitcity.com/ccd/productDe...de=93#prodspecs

My question is concerning whether or not the HDMI output on the Sony DVD player is actually going to work with this setup. The DVD player also has Coax and optical digital outs, both of which the Denon has in corresponding inputs, so am I right to think that at least one of these formats will enable true surround sound from the DVD player?

I just want to make sure these things are absolutely compatable.

Anyway, please pardon my ignorance here.

1. What do you guys think about the quality of this unit?
2. Are there going to be any problems with the format compatability to get surround sound (up to 7.1 if possible) with the Sony DVD player and the Denon?

DVD player has HDMI out/Coax out/optical out. Denon has all these inputs and says it supports: DTS 96/24 decoding for DVD-Video, DTS-ES Discrete 6.1, DTS, NEO:6, Dolby Digital EX, Dolby Pro Logic II, Neural Surround and Dolby Digital.

3. Is there another unit you guys might suggest that would be better? (Bare in mind, for the main L&R's, the preamp will be used as they already have a really good Adcom amp)