I'm looking at buying a new BluRay player, which I'd be feeding into my Exotik through the analogue outputs. Whilst I'm not expecting anything I buy to get near to my Akurate DS in audio performance, if I can pick one which has better decoding of the audio I'd prefer to.

As far as the video goes, anything will be a step up over my current DVD player, and I'll be using it with an external scaler anyway, so my main concern is the audio side.

Two which have been suggested to me are the Panasonic DMP-BD55 and the Sony BDPS550, both of which have full 5.1 (or even 7.1) analogue outputs. Both cost around £250-350.

EDIT: Also just had the I've also just had the Pioneer BDP51FD suggested to me for a similar price.

Does anyone have any recommendations or comments?

Many thanks.

What about a mediaserver, example popcornhour?
It play movies from a NAS.

Just rip the movies you have. Then you have all flexibillity as with a Linn DS.

Not something I'd considered before, although I've been using a Snazio player for downloaded HD content and the odd ripped disc for a while. However the analogue outputs are pretty horrid :(

Does Popcorn Hour handle BluRay discs? Also, what's the sound quality like compared to a good BluRay player?

Also, I'm less fussed about taking the time to find a disc and load it up when sitting down to watch a movie or concert than I am when listening to music. I'm fairly sure that I'm never going to want a "shuffle" mode for my films :D