How will sound work and how to optimise use of my 2.1 set up

[PondaBaba]

(posted here as couldn't see an appropriate audio sub forum to post it on, mods please move if shouldn't be here) [edit i misremembered where i was posting and turns out i posted in what i thought was the appropriate audio subforum in anycase]

I've been trying to understand a little bit about audio through googling etc., conscious that a) I know nothing and b) my set up might potentially be a little bit unusual compared to what blu ray players and discs etc are designed to work with, so have a bunch of questions that I can't quite find the answers to (as everything that comes up in results seems to either be still from people with more serious set ups that include receivers etc (honestly don't even know what one of those are tbh but not googled yet as because i don't have one am not sure it's relevant) or audio engineers involved with some form of highly technical audio production etc.

Essentially, my set up involves a monitor (that I'm using as a TV for watching stuff), a blu ray player and a set of 2.1 speakers that connect to the TV/monitor via a mini jack (so designed to connect to laptop or mobile etc.). The BD player doesn't have a connection for mini jack, hence plugging the speakers into the back of the TV where it has one for headphones. So the first q is, would there likely be any problems having it done this way round?

I understand most BDs are encoded with a couple of different selectable mixes, including 5.1 and maybe a 2.0. I understand that there's a process called downmixing where audio designed for a higher number of channels can be automatically mixed down into the lower number of channels actually present in a system.

I had been looking to understand whether for e.g. forcing a 5.1 mix through to my 2.1 system would mean I would be losing information (i.e. whole audio channels being omitted from output) but I believe this shouldn't be the case and for e.g. the sound from the centre and side L/R speakers (or rear L/R not actually sure how a 5.1 system is supposed to be arranged) should get appropriately output through the L/R channels of a 2.1 system (feel free to confirm if this is correct or where instances may occur where this doesn't happen, am aware results googling indicated Netflix for some reason doesn't or at least didn't downmix from 5.1 for stereo output and so people find they can't hear the dialogue that's supposed to be output through the centre speaker..)

I found this info from a forum post on another site:

"Since the early days of Dolby Digital in the 90s, Dolby-certified multichannel audio soundtracks have been designed to ensure compatibility with systems composed of less than 5 speakers. All Dolby 5.1 soundtracks (Digital, Digital Plus, True HD) contain additional metadata which may be used by the decoder to distribute sounds intended for absent channels between the available speakers. All TVs, 4K Blu-ray players and AV receivers use this metadata to downmix 5.1 soundtracks."

More technical info I see here https://www.audiokinetic.com/library...downmix_tables

https://www.audiosciencereview.com/f...it-work.23711/

I've read some other things though that a few questions still linger re: down mixing, for e.g., if the BD player is sending both audio and video signal into the TV via HMDI, because my actual speakers are one step removed from this (being through the mini jack out of the TV) will the player (with the help of the disc?) assume that I'm trying to output 2.0 to the TV speakers, and so miss out the subwoofer being utilised (completely? to its full extent?)

The above quote to me sounds as though the process of down mixing is done either via the disc encode, the BD player or both and assume this is correct (feel free to clarify if not).

Another q I have is, separate to any issues of technical quality of a particular mix (like a poor mix in and of itself), with a 2.1 system, all other things being equal, is it always advisable/optimal to choose a 2.1 track if available and I'm using a 2.1 system? I don't actually recall seeing 2.1 so much but do 2.0, so another question is if I choose a 2.0 mix, will the subwoofer be utilised? Or does the info laid out in the above quote negate the need to be so careful in choosing and rather it should sound fine with whatever is selected?

Any help/input would be appreciated!