advice on HD Recorders re sound

From England, 1 post

looking at pricerunner.com there are only 2 models which have a yes in the dolby digital decoder box, that are multi region

does that mean if you dont get one of these 2, then i wouldnt get the benefit of surround sound through my home cinema set up as the dvd player isnt capable of processing the sound

currently i have a pansonic dvd player which does play dvds and the surround sound is good

i dont want to go backwards in terms of sound just to get a dvd recorder, so it looks like only the phillips HDRW 720M is an option