I have my center speaker 18" in front of my 5080 plasma. Should I be playing with the lip sync adjustment on the Outlaw? I notice that if I have my outlaw on and also the tv speakers at the same time, there is a definitive delay difference between the two.

The speaker placement relative to the TV is not generally the reason for AV sync - the time that it takes sound to travel 18" is very small, and you'll be dealing with an adjustment of probably 1ms or 2ms. The reason for AV sync adjustment is video processing - it takes your TV (and the rest of your video signal path) time, sometimes 50ms to 100ms or more, to complete the various video processing tasks that are needed for a given source, and when the audio signal path is separate from that video path the audio doesn't get delayed automatically to compensate for that. When you have both the 990 on and the TV speakers on, you are hearing just how much audio delay your TV is automatically applying to compensate for the video processing that it is doing.

thanks for the reply. I do, however, hear a significant difference between the tv speakers and the center channel when played at the same time. I would like to figure out which one is correct although I have not been able to find the time to research this.

The correct timing for the speakers is the one that most closely matches the timing of events on the video screen. Since you can't adjust the timing of the speakers in the TV and they should be set to match the video processing delay, you could try increasing the delay setting in the 990 until the sounds from your mains and the TV speakers seem to occur simultaneously.
Other than that, why even use the speakers in the display?

What sources exhibit this behavior? Is it true for all of them, or just for certain ones?

An 18" difference in distance equates to about 1.5ms of difference due to delays associated with the speed of sound. That difference is very difficult to hear - some folks report being able to detect differences this small, but in general the rule of thumb I've heard is that it takes close to a 10ms difference for it to be detectable. That makes me suspect that if you are hearing a difference then the problem is an audio/video sync issue.

thanks again....I will play with the delay when all this election stuff is over and let you know what i find