My Yamaha S1500 has been relegated to audio duty by the Oppo - the S1500 gets CD's, DVD-A's, and SACD's while DVD-Video is handled by the Oppo. For DVD-A and SACD, I have the S1500 connected to the 7.1 Direct input on the 990 - like you, I pick the 7.1 Direct input on the remote and away I go. My speakers are also set to small, with an 80Hz crossover everywhere except the mains (which crossover at 60Hz).