I'm currently having some video transcoding issues with my 990 and outlaw is working on them, but I just found something else very peculiar. I read one of TheNetGuy's posts here and while my problems are similar to his, they're not identical. Anyhow, I sent a letter to outlaw but I thought some of you with similar issues may find this interesting and find it comforting to know you're not alone. I've pasted the text below, a copy of what I sent to Steve. Be sure not to miss the photo link, this is something that should not be possible according to the manual! Anyone feel free to correct me here if I've made a mistake. Here's the text:

Another issue though that I just found, and I can't imagine this being correct is that I'm getting more than just sub frequencies out of my subwoofer channel. I'm aware of this because I'm using two full range 15" speakers as a sub. Now, I do understand there is an L+R subwoofer mode that maybe this is correct with if it's bypassing the xover, however, I'm also getting all frequencies out of the sub channel with LFE selected as well. Not in the movie modes or 5 channel stereo, but in the following modes I definitely get full range sound out of the sub channel:

1) Stereo mode with front speakers set to small, 40hz crossover point, LFE sub setting
2) Stereo mode with front speakers set to small, 40hz crossover point, L/R+sub setting
3) Stereo mode with front speakers set to large, 40hz crossover point, L/R+sub setting or LFE setting
4) Bypass mode with above settings
5) Upsample mode with above settings

In fact, the only music mode that only sends lows to my sub channel is 5 channel stereo. Also to be noted, and I think this is a bug, when setting up the channels I cannot change ANY of my sub settings when the front speakers are set to "small'. I read the manual and it says I should have a yes or no option, that isn't present at all. HOWEVER, I can change it when they're to "large" and the sub setting remains if I change the speaker size back to small again. I've taken a picture and posted it so you can see I'm not crazy here, you'll clearly see front speakers set to small and sub set to LFE which should not be a possible combination according to the manual. Something I feel is definitely wrong here, the fact that I'm getting full range frequencies out of my sub channel is the most bothersome. Yet another thing too, I tried autosetup, it told me no subwoofer was present, however the test tones played my sub so loud (with all frequencies mind you) that I thought it was going to blow out the speaker, it was severely overexcursing and popping from the experience not to mention my ears.

Here's a link to the image I took:

www.truetolight.com/post/990/menu.jpg

I really hope we get this all sorted out, I think I'm a reasonable person but I definitely want things to be "right" with a new piece of AV gear. Let me know if there's anything you want me to test, provide images of, etc. I tried a full reset of the unit (which erases all the settings) and that didn't clear up any of the issues I'm having.

Sincerely,

Rob Wasilewski

In light of the fact I don't see a way to edit my message here, I'll post a thread under my own message saying that I should have read more before posting this lengthy message... Apparently a lot of users if not all are having the same/similar problems with bass management on analog sources. The menu glitch I posted an image of is probably just that, a glitch similar to the work-around people found by going one direction to an item yet not another working. I suppose the solution to all this for some is to simply use all digital audio inputs, I've not tried it yet from my cd player but it does have an optical output so I'll give that a go, hopefully it'll resolve some of these problems.

The discussions were interesting, it's a shame some people got upset, angered or offended. My take is that nobody is right or wrong but we all have differnt opinions on how things should be handled. Outlaw seems to be frustrated by this problem and of course working on it. Perhaps some of this frustration came through in thier posts as unsympathetic or abrasive to customers, hard to say. Consumers on the other hand seem to fall into two camps, one that says an 1100 dollar product is cheap for what you're getting here, expect a few bugs at this price point and wait for a fix. Other owners/potential buyers simply feel that $1100 is a lot to pay for anything that isn't right with no guaranteed fix and no guaranteed timeframe for this fix.

I'm not sure where I stand on this, yes $1100 isn't small change for me but at the same time, the product has a lot of redeeming qualities and I can't think of anything better to replace it with. I also love the fact there is technical support that isn't hiding and also allows an open forum such as this, had I read this forum before purchasing I may have waited a bit until they came up with a solution, now that I have a unit I'm going to at least wait awhile for a fix, if one doesn't come out before my 30 day money back I'm not sure of what I'll decide on. For me the composite to component transcoding quality is a larger problem, it's something that I think may not be fixable with software on my unit.

Thanks for reading,

Rob W