Is there any way for the menu to appear on any of the zone 2 video outputs??? This is for using a local LCD display as a "monitor" for all functions of the 990.

Appreciate any help on this....

It seems that the menu is ONLY displayed from the Monitor Outputs (ie sv, and composite).

Can you use one of the monitor outputs for this? That way you wouldn't need to turn zone 2 on to get access to the display.

Thanks Gonk.

Unfortunately both monitor outputs are taken, for use in two different surround rooms. Don't know why the menu won't display on z2 or rec out.....

The menu won't display on the record out because it would screw up the recordings. Zone 2's video switching is scaled back compared to and independent of the main video switching. I can see where it would be handy to have an OSD pop-up on the zone 2 (seeing what input you're on or what the volume is), but it was probably considered excessive to add cost to provide the capability for the menu OSD to be piped to the zone2 video - the intention of zone2 is to have a completely independent A/V output (potentially in a separate room), and adjusting the main menu from a second zone in another room was probably deemed unlikely.

It would have been nice to have this feature, as there are users who may want to use an lcd monitor in the fashion I noted, to replicate the lcd front displays of some prepros. The only way to do this if both monitor outs are already in use (as in this case) would thus be to split the monitor outs, which is not a great idea IMO.

I agree about the splitting of monitor outputs. Likewise, equipment rack LCD monitors are relatively common. With the crossconversion to component and video on the second zone, however, I doubt the designers expected users to have both the s-video and composite monitor outputs used up for things other than an LCD monitor of this type. Your scenario proves that it can happen, but before you presented your scenario I would not have predicted a case where the composite or s-video monitor out would not be available for an equipment rack LCD monitor.

Since we don't have the OSD on the second zone, maybe we can brainstorm a bit. Can you give a detailed summary of your system? Based on this post (which indicates both of the TV's connected to the monitor outputs are part of 7.1 systems), it seems clear that we're dealing with an unusually complex system here - three active video displays, each with (presumably) separate surround speaker setups, plus an LCD monitor at the equipment rack as the fourth display in the system. It might be helpful to know the full details of the audio and video signal paths involved. Maybe we can find a solution that is better than splitting a monitor output...

Gonk...
One monitor out is sent to a room with 7.1, with the audio signals routed to a Niles switching system. BTW, the 7.1 audio is actually split to THREE individual rooms (one is purely 7.1 audio). The other (third) video room has a projector, which has both s-video and componant video being sent to it. Thus the monitor out sv and componant 990 outputs are sent directly to this projector room; the composite output is sent to the other video room; and the 7.1 signals are sent to Niles A/V swithers to switch between each of the three rooms.

On installations we do, this is actually not that unusual a setup. Niles a/v switchers are extensively used for multiple 7.1 rooms. The hope was to use lcd monitors in future installs as well.

I suppose I could put ANOTHER niles a/v switcher between the "monitor" and the composite video in the other room, but wanted to avoid this if possible.

Hopefully this feature will be incorporated in a 990 firmware upgrade (if the latter would be theoretically possible...)

Interesting... So you have three sets of 7.1 speakers, all driven from a single source, and two of the three have displays associate with them. I've seen discussions on this forum about some unusual system configurations, but that's not one I've seen before. Is the Niles switch at the pre-amp outputs or after the amps? Can all three spaces be in use at once, or does the Niles allow only one space to be active at a time? If only one is in use at a time, then you could add an outboard video switcher in parallel with the eight-channel Niles switch and lose no functionality. In fact, you mention that the Niles units are a/v switchers - do they already have the capability of switching the video?

If all three rooms are active at once, then the audio switch would need to be boosting the signal some, in which case you might be able to do the same with the s-video or composite. But if all three are active at once, wouldn't there be some problem with control? That is, you'd have someone in the main room (room "A") running the show, and somebody in room "B" would not be able to select different music or pause it to answer the phone without screwing up the person in "A". And unless the Niles switch has separate volume control for each output, all three rooms would seem to be fighting over the volume.

Historically, the custom install market has not been Outlaw's focus - installers who are also local dealers for a certain line will typically use the line they carry rather than buy from an online dealer, and the original goal for Outlaw was to provide the average joe with good gear at a better price by using the Internet direct sales channel. On the other hand, installers who are not dealers could certainly make good use of Outlaw's amp offerings, and the 990's core architecture comes from a processor that does sell through traditional channels (and the RS-232 support allows custom control systems). What processors do you normally use for these installations? How do you provide the needed monitor outputs with those processors?

I doubt that it would be possible to make firmware changes to provide OSD at the second zone video output - since the second zone video switching is independent of the main video switching, I would assume that there would have to be hardware changes (potentially significant ones) to allow the second zone to get OSD support. I could be wrong, of course...

The individual rooms are indeed independent of one another, and are as noted, switched via the Niles system (which we do use exclusively, along with home automation controllers for RS232 and IR control).

Indeed, I agree that the only option is to use an av switcher (which DOES do video switching as well) for the local monitor, but then one would not have SIMULTANEOUS monitoring of Menu Display on Video locally with the actual video to the other room(s).

My other thought is to split the composite monitor output. We have not run into any problems in the past in splitting this signal once or in rare cases twice, (on the other hand, significant signal degradation was always noted in non amplified splitting of svideo signals).

Guess there just aren't other options at this point, but I appreciate the thoughts....

Call me stubborn, but I don't like to give up...

So the individual rooms are independently controlled, meaning (I assume) each is switched on or off separately and has separate volume control. How is that done with a single 7.1 processor? All three rooms would have to share the same active source, and the only way to prevent one room from controlling the volume in the other rooms would be to freeze the main volume in a single position and control volume for each space separately at the Niles. At some point, it would seem more flexible to simply have three separate processors for the three rooms - especially since you'd already have amps for all of them if the Niles is located at the pre-amp outputs. That's just my preference, though, based on my tendency as a geek to want to tinker and my limited understanding of the system and how it is being used.

I agree that the best bet is probably to split the composite monitor out if you want OSD at both the second room and the equipment rack monitor. If you can do without OSD in the second room, you might try running a record out to that monitor and using the composite monitor out for the equipment rack.

Gonk, your persistance is admirable!

Actually, the individual rooms don't have their own volume controls; rather, the 990 only "sees" one room (re the video and 7.1 output) at a time, via the niles av switchers. It is a good idea to switch the record out with the monitor out video, but in that case the video 1 output would be lost to that room.

But it may be an option, if the video 1 output was indeed sacrificed. If one did this, what would display in that room if another video output were selected...say, video 4? Also, if for example, video 4 on the 990 were selected, would the Video 4 audio be heard, along with a display in that room of the video from this input 4?

The record video out would behave the same as the monitor out except for the omission of OSD overlays, so when video 4 was active (and the pre-amp outputs were getting the audio from video 4) the record out would get video 4's video signal (as well as stereo analog audio, but I'm assuming that in this scenario we'd be leaving that unhooked). I haven't tried hooking the record video out up to a display and monitoring it on different inputs - have you verified that it cuts off when video 1 is active?

I guess we both agree re the normal output when video rec out is connected.

Re your question about the Video 1 input, I am indeed certain it is lost when video is output from the record out.

Just an update....

Splitting via a Y-Connector the Composite 990 Output did not result in any (noticable) degradation of video...even on a large screen projection display.

Not sure why that would be, since the p-p output on the 990 is listed at 1.0v. vs. a higher 1.5v. on the older 950.

I realize that splitting an SVIDEO output would be an absolute "no" .... but it seems that composite signals can tolerate alot more. Running the composite output to a switcher would still involve additional connectors and cables, so that it would seem that a simple y-splitter is not likely to be any worse.