I'm curious about the video conversion capabilities of the new 990. Particularly, I wonder if there is down conversion from component to S video, and if so, whether there is any advantage to using the component outs from my DVD player or satellite box into the 990, then an S video from the 990 to my TV (a plain old CRT, but sharp and colorful). I currently use the S video outs from both.

Mark

The receivers and pre/pros that I've seen convert composite and s-video to component have not gone the other way. I'd suspect the 990 will behave similarly. Building a backconversion like that wouldn't offer any benefit in image quality (might even cause some problems). In the event that the component input was carrying porgressive scan or HD material, there would be the additional burden of interlacing and/or scaling the image. I'd plan to stick with s-video from your sources.