I recently acquired a Pioneer Cld-99 which I absolutely love. I am looking to upgrade to a receiver that does surround sound, built in ac3-rf (so I don't need to also buy a demodulator) and DTS. I have come across a Sony STR-DE1015G that is in my budget that has built in ac3-rf but there is no mention of DTS. What do I need to look for in/on a receiver to know if it will decode DTS discs? P.S. I have done some searching and I am still confused.

Thanks in advance

A DTS capable receiver will have a DTS logo on it, usually the front panel. I think they have to put it on because of licensing if not marketing reasons. That's your surest way to know. Some of the early Dolby digital receivers will only do Dolby digital, so it's a good thing you are trying to be sure.

Looking at the manual it seems like it doesn't. In 1997 DTS was still an expensive option so people used stand alone decoders. This receiver doesn't have a set of six channel inputs either (although the similar STR-DE815G and STR-DE760Z do) so its a dead-end for DTS.

Unless its a seriously high end piece of gear you will see a DTS logo. On the more affordable stuff they slather the front panel in so many logos its ridiculous.

Such receivers exist, but you might have a hard time finding one since DTS started becoming a built-in feature right about the time AC-3 was being dropped.

I'm running a Harman Kardon ADP303 (which puts out six line level signals) and an AVR235 with the proper inputs. The ADP303 as shipped does not output a DD bitstream, but it has the same demodulator chip as everything else so it can be hacked to do so without too much difficulty. I paid $35 for my 303 about a year ago making it a MUCH better deal than a standard demodulator.

Thanks. I'll look out for that.