PCM or Bitstream

Ha! In light of subsequent answers, mine shows just how familiar I am (not!) with multichannel, HT, pre/pro's, and all that jazz. Maybe one day I'll even buy myself a DVD player and join the modern world...Right now, I still think my naivete is more charming than it is pathetic... :-)

That player of yours must have two sets of DAC's inside it (on two chipsets, or both on one? I don't know). If the sound is not different enough to detect to your ears in your system, then I wouldn't worry about the choice. Another way to look at the situation would be to assume that quite possibly other, presumably shared aspects of the player, such as the transport mechanism, power supply, analog output stage, and output filter, may determine its characteristic sound to a larger degree than the method of conversion chosen.