This topic came up a few weeks ago and led to a great dialog on what was desired in the 990, but an underlying issue got left by the wayside. I'd like to restart it to better understand whether there's a bug or a design choice (feature) in the way you can set up the speakers.

I'm currently running a 2.1 system (see below). I expect to add my surrounds in the next week or two, but my center channel will take a little longer to pin down. I am unable to configure a 2.1 system, and I've now worked through just about all the combinations I can think of.

If I set the Mains as "small," and the Surrounds as "none," the Center sticks at "small." If I set the Mains as "small" and the Surrounds as "small," I can set the Center to "small" or "none." The Sub goes through some interesting changes depending on the above but doesn't affect anything else.

If I set the Mains as "large," and the Surrounds as "none," the Center can be either "small" or "large," but not "none." As above, if I set the Surrounds as "small" or "large," I can set the Center to "small," "large" or "none."

The design choice, for better or worse, seems to be that you must have either a Center channel or a pair of Surrounds (with or without the rear Surrounds). You can't just do Mains and Sub.

Assuming that this is a choice and not a bug, what would be the rationale for it? I can't think of any, but I'm a newbie at this game, so I'll give the Outlaws the benefit of the doubt here. As I recall, some folks were quite certain that it is a bug, but the consistency across various configurations leaves me unconvinced.

I am almost certain that this is a bug in the software somewhere rather than a design feature - there's no logical explanation for it as a feature.

Well, if Gonk is pretty certain that it's a bug, I figured I'd check with the Outlaws directly. And once again, per Scott, Gonk's right. It's a bug. Scott said: "Unfortunately, we are aware of this bug and are working to resolve it as part of a software update. When watching some "pre-flagged" content, you will need to select "stereo" to prevent the loss of surround information. I apologize for this inconvenience, but expect it to be temporary only."

Unfortunately, one has to select Stereo each time a STB feed flips to 5.1, IIRC. But, it's nice Outlaw acknowledges it as a bug.

Ah, I was wondering about that. I have my DVD player configured to send TOSlink to the DVD input and coax to the CD input. I noticed recently that the CD input would randomly revert to PL II from Upsample and I'd have to manually change it back. Looking forward to the firmware update if it fixes that issue.

Cheers,