I just picked up the BDP-51D as well. I have it connected to my 990 via the 8 analog connections and with the optical. For SD DVD. I use the optical and for the BR-DVD I use the analog. For the analog, I set the player to multichannel audio, all speakers large and all output levels to -3db except the sub which I set to +6db.

I have a 7.1 system, but I am only get 5.1 out with the analog because there is no PIIx or ES processing on the player to simulate the rear channels, so the rear speakers are not active. In my HT, the 5.1 side surrounds (dipole) are placed about 3 feet ahead of the seating area. Not ideal, but necessary do to room construction. My rears (bipole) are 4 feet behind the seating area. I feel my rears are in a much better surround position, so I ended up swapping the pre-amp to amp surround connections to watch the BR-DVD. Of course this screws up my DTS-ES SD DVD's so I have to swap them back when I watch them. Otherwise this is a great player despite not having the DTS-MA firmware ready.

Where is the 997 ??????? (sigh)