I used to have the Pioneer Elite DV05 and Bel Canto Combo, and I remember the reason I bought the Pioneer instead of the Sony was that the Pioneer is the only DVD player that actually outputs a true 24/96 Khz on its digital out which is awesome if you have Checsky 24/96 DADs. Other players including the Sony and Denon DVD5000 converts the 96 Khz signal to 44 Khz on it's digital output. I can be wrong so check out the specs to make sure.Regarding optical cable I used a transparent high performance toslink and it worked really great.
happy listening Rmml