If your using coaxial or optical the built in decoder in the DVD player doesn't matter. It is only active if your using the analog imputs from the player to the reciever i.e. L/C/R/LS/RS/Sub. Otherwise, it doesn't affect your setup. You should check the way the sound is being sent to your reciever in the setup menu of the DVD player. You say your getting no sound from your tv when playing DTS encoded tracks. Most if not all TVs cannot downconvert DTS to 2 channel so you obviously won't get any sound. I may be reading into you statement wrong, though. I'm assuming you meant your center channel and left/right speakers, right?

I think that answered my "question". Since the receiver has a DTS decoder, I get sound from the 5.1 speakers connected to it, just not the TV. While there's nothing really wrong with that, and I never watch DVDs without my surround system on, my TV has pretty good sound, so I hate seeing it go to waste. So, I'm assuming, then, that if the DVD player has the decoder built in, it can process the DTS signal and send it off to the TV in a format that the TV can "understand." If, however, I must rely on the receiver to decode, the DVD player will send the signal off for the receiver to process, but the receiver won't send the processed DTS back to the TV, just to the 5.1 speakers. If any of that makes a lick of sense, would I be on the right track? Thanks again.

Let it go to waste. If you bought a surround system, you obsoleted your TV speakers. My TV that I had for 8 years never used the speakers til it got replaced and moved it to another room.

No, wait. That's not quite true. I used them once when I had a retro party to play some Intellivision.

Yeah, I think you got most of it right except for "So, I'm assuming, then, that if the DVD player has the decoder built in, it can process the DTS signal and send it off to the TV in a format that the TV can "understand." That is something any TV or DVD player cannot do. As I've stated earlier no TV can decode DTS even if your DVD player has a DTS decoder. You can however have the option of using the downmixed 2 channel output from your DVD player and output it to the TV. This actually converts the DD 5.1 to 2 channel stereo but not DTS. On my set up the reciever and tv are independent of each other. The digital connection goes to the reciever and the 2 channel downmix goes to the TV. That way I have a choice to listen to surround or not. However, it sounds like you've been using your TV speakers along w/ your surround when your listening to a DD 5.1 track. Doesn't it sound weird? Sort of like an echo with the tiny speakers working along w/ the surround speakers?

I guess I kind of want it all, especially since the TV's speakers are so damn good. But then again, that was with the TV that this new one is replacing; I have no idea how this one will sound, really. You can only get so good of an impression in the store.

And, mrhan, oddly enough those speakers have never made it seem like there's an echo. My hearing is pretty damn good, too, so I'd definitely be able to discern such a thing. Oh, well. The setup is still pretty sweet, anyway.

Thanks again!

If the timing is not off, there shouldn't be any phase issues, which could sound echo-y. But it will still throw off imaging if you use both. All the sound will be in the TV speakers, which will mean the surround signals will come from both the front and back. You might notice something off if you play the DTS trailer, for instance, since it spreads sounds from one speaker to another. Or a sweep around each speaker from a test disc, these are designed to make sure your imaging is correct. Once you got used to it, you'd notice the difference in many things.