You can't dim the display to my knowledge, but you can set it (the dislay) to turn off xx seconds after the last remote command. I set mine to 10 seconds, good enough to track the volume changes.
Enjoy, I've had my 990 since xmas, movies sound a lot better than my old adcom preamp, and CDs are getting a whole new life, especially after figuring out when to switch the subwoofers internal xover on (full range is sent to subs in certain modes, ruins the stereo image, unless xover is enabled).
dave