After 4 years, 3 moves, and 2 different states my Sony STR-DE545 has finally bit the dust. Yesterday I purchased a Tamaha HTR-5640 but it doesn't have all the connections I need so later on today, I must trek back and try again. I've narrowed the it down to these two and I'm looking for advice. I must purchase from Best Buy and the salesman yesterday did not recommend another Sony so any thoughts on which of these would be the better choice?

Panasonic SA-HE200S
or
Yamaha HTR-5650

Is it the component video you need more of? the panny only has one and the yamaha has the same # as the one you already bought. What connections are you looking for?

I was looking for a coaxial which the Yamaha had for the CD player but not the DVD player. The Best Buy employee told me to just switch to using an optical cable which I did.

One of the problems I had with my older receiver is that when playing a DTS track, I could not longer control the TV volume - the sound would only come through the surround speakers and not the TV speakers which sucked if the movie alternated between dialogue and explosions. I'm having the same problem with the new receiver so I'm guessing this is either a TV issue or a player issue.

Thoughts anyone?

How do you make the audio connections? Most TV sets are not able to decode DTS.

I have an optical calble running from the player to the receiver. The only connection that's changed is that I no longer have an S Video cable running from the player to the receiver.

I was able to increase or decrease the TV volume regardless of the film's track until about one month ago so I'm at a loss.

I would look at the Onkyo line of tuners.

Do you have only 2 front speakers connected to your receiver? You would definitely have trouble with dialogue if you are playing the DD or DTS soundtrack with just two speakers.

If you have a full 5.1 setup, you really don't need the tv speakers.

I would just run audio cables directly from the dvd player to the tv to get audio from the tv.

I think this hookup is very confusing. Figure out what you need. (Are you using the tv's built-in speakers? If so, you really don't need a decent receiver, which the Yammy is!)

Coax, optical--they have the same signal, different connectors. If the DVD player & receiver have both, then it doesn't matter which you use. Neither will affect the ability to control the tv's speaker volume. (Why are you doing that again?)

The important thing here, seeing that your dvd player and receiver are connected just fine, is: WHat are your speakers, and how are *they* connected to the receiver?

Basically, you should have 5 speakers connected to the receiver (plus a sub, preferably) for surround sound. And *none* of them should be the tv's speakers. Changing the tv's volume should not even be anissue. All volume changes should be done thru the receiver's controls.

I suggest you read some HT FAQ's to figure out your setup.