William Sommerwerck wrote:

"Steve Kraus" wrote in message
m...

If I do go the cheap home player route I will still want it to have
an audio out of some sort

"Cheap home player" and "analog audio output" (presumably of the
lossless HD formats) are mutually exclusive. Getting the latter
requires specialized chips, which you won't find in cheap players.

No, the minimal requirement would be a digital coax or optical connector
not analog. Even the cheapie Sony I tried had a digital coax connector but
that's the exception. Many have nothing on the back but the HDMI connector
so I can't go quite that low if the player is to be useable in an emergency
at my business. (At home that's fine as I don't do fancy sound at home --
just the tv sound.)