how should i move forward...blu-ray etc...?

Oops, I was looking at specs for the 6 analog OUTputs for decoded DD/DTS.. My bad... Johnnyb53 summed things up nicely. -jz

02-09-09: Richard_stacy
johnnyb thanks, what i was afraid of. i'm pretty sure that is correct. was not sure if the digital input formats would work but i guess not. oh well!
it really is hard for me to imagine things sounding that much better anyway.

Oh, I just remembered: Even if you send the audio from a Blu-ray player to your Casablanca over a coax or Toslink digital cable, in many cases is WILL sound better than the digital feed coming off a garden variety DVD.

Why? Because the Blu-ray player downconverts the uncompressed multichannel signal to send over the digital link, and this bitstream comes at two to four times the transfer rate that comes off a regular DVD. In many cases it downconverts to DTS, which is less lossy than Dolby Digital.

So even though it won't be lossless, it *will* be an improvement. This is how I run mine. I use a PS3 for Blu-ray. It has Toslink, HDMI, and analog stereo outputs, but no multichannel ananlog outs. So I use the Toslink into my Boston AVP7 and it sounds really good--incrementally better than most of the DVDs I've watched.

so that sounds pretty simple johnny, just run 1 toslink from blu-ray to digital input on the casanova...what would i use to run video then to the runco. the vivix has only one pass through and i use it for the hd dtv box..?

02-10-09: Richard_stacy
...what would i use to run video then to the runco. the vivix has only one pass through and i use it for the hd dtv box..?

What physical format is the pass-through--component or DVI? I couldn't find any pics of the back panels of the two units.

Without more info, I'm assuming the VIVX only outputs composite, S-video, and component video, right? But the Runco display itself accepts DVI as well. If that's the case, directly connect the Blu-ray player to the PL 50-HDX. Use an HDMI-to-DVI cable such as this or this, bypassing the VIVX altogether.

johhny not sure what the format of the pass through is, they call it hdx looks like rs-232, may be proprietary.
the only output on the vivix is component. inputs are composite, component, svideo and an rs232 for controllers.
there is a dvi input on the panel which they describe as...use to connect a computer. does not support the display of copyguard-protected video signals.