I was a bit confused regarding the remote at first too.

There is no "power on" on the main remote: you select the input source on the bottom rows of the remote. However, these functions (that control the 990) only work if the remote is controlling the 990. To do that, you have to press the TNR button toward the top of the remote. That selects the 990 to control.

The PWR button only turns the 990 off, it does not turn it on. However, if another input is selected (via the top rows of buttons), for which the remote has been programmed, it will likely turn that input device on and off.

The main outputs will transcode composite and svideo to component video, and digital to multi-channel analog audio, but only for the main outputs. However, the video1 rec/out, aux/out, and tape/out outputs offer no transcoding: composite to composite, svideo to svideo, two channel analog audio to two channel analog audio. The manual is a little vague on this in places, but the unit operates like most other pre/pros in this regard.

Hope this helps.