I have been out of the country for several months and am not up to date on the latest developments. I would like to buy a Blu-ray player and after reading the discussions in this forum I gather the best choices are the Sony BDP-S550 or the Panasonic DMP-BD50(or the PS2)for my 990/7500 system.

My friend is going with Sony and he is vastly more knowledgeable than I but we need onboard decoding with an Outlaw amp as I understand it so I am wondering which of the two is best for use with my system.

The one benefit I see with the S550 over the BD50 is the 7.1 analog output (BD50 only has 5.1). Both players offer full decoding and Profile 2.0. Since you have a 7500, it would appear that you don't need the 7.1 output. Based on that, the two are a wash on features as far as your needs are concerned. Of the two, I am partial to Panasonic (have a BD30), but some of that is the lack of info on the S550 and a generally positive experience with the BD30.

Thanks, Gonk. I read in another forum that some prefer the Panasonic remote over Sony's, but otherwise both units seem to cover all the bases as you indicated. Some reviews criticize the chip performance in the Panasonic. What are they referring to?

I may wait for the Sony and save $200 but I bet Panasonic will lower its price at some point soon.

Panasonic's UniPhier chip (which I probably just mis-spelled) isn't the greatest at scaling DVD's. I think the BD30 (which uses the same chip) was a little behind my OPPO 980H in this regard. Depending on what you have now, that may still be an upgrade from your existing player. (See my BD30 review for some notes on its performance.) Of course, we don't know how good the S550 will be at standard DVD's, either. As for the price, I've seen a few comments online that suggested the BD50 is starting to show up at prices closer to what the S550 will sell for.