I absolutely love my 990/7125 combo. I finally have my HT complete and accessing the menu is driving me crazy. I am using 1 DVI and 1 Component connection from my equipment to my projector. I hooked everything up and after running all the wiring, I found that I couldn't acess the on screen menu with the DVI input because the 990 was set to S-Video from my old setup. I had to literally bring my projector to where my gear rack is and connect a composite cable. Then I had to literally project an image onto a wall to see the menu and setup everything. Luckily my projector didn't get damaged when I had to place the thing next to a sink in the back of my HT. I made sure I hooked up a second DVD player with component video so I could acess the onscreen menu if need be. I tested it out a while ago and it seemed to work fine with the component video. Yesterday, I wanted to tinker with some settings and when I try and acess the onscreen menu with the component, it just cuts to a black screen and my projector no longer gets a video signal from the pre/pro. Now I don't know how to acess the onscreen menu once again.

I feel this is a very very poor design. Not only do I have problems seeing the on-screen menu, but I can't see volume and dolby/dts settings on screen. I have to turn all the way around and look at the face of the actual pre/pro to see what audio system or what the volume is at. Why would they setup a system like this? More and more people are running there components with DVI/HDMI and you can't do anything from the face of the 990. If they weren't going to let you use the on-screen menu using DVI, they should have at least let you acess the menu from the face of it. Can anyone explain why I can't acess my menu using the component video? What should I do?

Thanks.

John:
I had the same complaint. I got a $13 TV with a composite input and I can use it for using Onscreen Menu stuff...

http://www.compusa.com/products/product_info.asp?product_code=313171&pfp=SEARCH

Long time, no see, John! The reason you can't see any OSD on a DVI source is actually related to the way the 990 (and nearly every other receiver or processor with DVI/HDMI switching) handles switching a digital video signal - the signal is a pure pass-through switch, with no manipulation of the signal (and thus no OSD and no video transcoding). It would have been a significant cost increase to attempt to include video conversion from analog to digital, assuming it could have been done at all without either degrading the signal or (worse yet) breaking HDCP compliance. It's unfortunate, but it's also almost completely unavoidable (and Outlaw does make mention of it in the manual - the first spot I found was on page 9, when they first identify the DVI connections and include the statement that "Analog video sources and on-screen menus do not appear on the DVI output.")

As for the component outputs, we have a different set of issues there, but once again we have to take into account the logistics of dealing with very large, complex data streams. The component inputs are designed to support HD resolutions, so it is reasonable to expect 1080i or 720p signals to pass through the switching. There are two common ways to deal with providing on-screen data with signals of this magnitude: do nothing (no on-screen data of any sort), or replace the incoming signal with a blank screen behind the standard menu interface. One approach leaves the user completely deprived of OSD menu data, while the other (which Outlaw used) still gives you access to the main menu. Both allow the processor or receiver to provide HD switching without attempting to superimpose data onto the HD source (and thereby degrading the signal, unless the product includes an array of expensive video processing gear that should be able to overlay the data without harming the picture quality).

The composite and s-video inputs get both the main menu OSD and an optional status OSD "pop-up". This is because they can superimpose data onto these video sources without messing up the picture quality. Because of the way the video switching signal path works, those sources retain the OSD overlays (both main menu and pop-up) when transcoded to component video output.

What I would recommend (and what I do with my 990) is to run both a DVI/HDMI cable (whichever your display needs) and a component cable from the 990 to the display. This will allow you to switch to the component input and get access to the main menu (you'll need to switch to a video input that uses a composite, s-video, or component video input - if the active source uses a DVI input, the component output will be inactive).

Thanks guys. Gonk, I have a second dvd player hooked up to the video 2 with Component video. I put the pre/pro on video 1 and put the dvd player on. I put my projector on component and I get a picture from the second dvd player. I press the menu button and the screen goes blank. Why is it doing that now?

Does the component input you're using support 480i input? The 990's menu screen is generated at 480i, but your DVD player is probably a progressive scan unit that typically outputs 480p.

It worked at some point. Maybe if I change the settings of my dvd player it will work. Thanks for the help once again my friend. I couldn't figure it out.

O.K. now I'm loosing my mind! I'm so frustrated with this thing.

Gonk, I switched to 480i on my dvd player. I press the menu button on my outlaw and the menu goes on for a split second then the picture goes totally black. I hooked up the component to my oppo and the same thing happens. I can't put the oppo on 480i though. What is the deal with this friqquin thing!!!

How is it that my sub $200.00 oppo dvd player can display an on screen menu on DVI, or component video and my Outlaw audio pre/pro that is the brains of my entire system can't? I would have happily paid and extra few bucks to have this feature. Instead, I can't properly set up my equimpent without unhooking my projector, attaching a cheesy S-video or composite cable and awkwardly projecting an image on a wall. I'm sorry, this is rediculous!

The worst part is that every time I had a problem with my system, nobody from outlaw is available to take a call and when left a message they didn't call back. I am shocked that they are being this way after all I heard about there customer service.

I spoke to Scott earlier this week, and I understand that Steve's taking a couple days off - that means there a little short-handed for a few days. It happens to the best of folks, but I'm sure they'll get back to you soon.

Let's try a couple things, just for the sake of my curiousity. We know that the menu is appearing, but moments after it appears the screen goes black. We know that this happens with component video inputs getting either 480p (the original case where the problem occurred) or 480i (the second test with the progressive scan player and the test with the Oppo - the Oppo is only capable of 480i over component). We also know that the menu worked through composite connection directly to the projector. Since you get a brief glimpse of the menu, it is doubtful that the problem is a lack of 480i support at your projector, but a more definitive test would be to try to play a disc using either DVD player with the component video connection and the player set to 480i. (The Oppo might be the easy way to go here - if you can see the movie when played through the Oppo's component output, then the projector's component input supports 480i and we can scratch that problem off the list.) Once that's off the list, we can try some other things. First, switch to an unused video input (video 5, for example). This should give you no video because there's no source there to generate a video signal. Now try to bring up the menu and see what happens. An alternate approach would be to connect something to a composite input on the 990 (digital camera, DVD player, VCR, game console, whatever) and try that through the component output; if it works, try pulling up the menu and see what happens then. I realize all of this can get a bit tedious, but you're running into a situation that I can't yet explain and I suspect there's something we're missing.

Comparing the Oppo and the 990 is not at all an apples to apples case. The Oppo can display data on screen over DVI because it is a video player and nothing else - the majority of the Oppo's $200 cost is centered around the DVI output, with a bare minimum spent on the analog sections (hence the inability to get even 480p out of the component outputs and the Oppo's generally lackluster reputation for analog audio output). The Oppo has no audio or video switching, minimal bass management for the 5.1 analog output, a very rudimentary analog audio section, a massively smaller power supply and chassis, auto speaker setup, and a few other things left off that the 990 includes. As I said before, the reason that the 990 can't add any video data to the DVI outputs is clear: doing so would have required them to add hardware specifically to generate a video signal in the digital domain that could be passed to the DVI output. It would have been more than a few dollars (I'd guess we'd be looking at nearly a $100 increase or more, but that's just my SWAG), and the ability to get to the menus through every other video output presumably was considered sufficient reason not to add such a large cost increase to the unit. It's unfortunate, but it is also a design decision that I believe can be readily justified.

I imagine there are some HDCP issues at work here as well. You can only play with the DVI signal so much before introducing HDCP handshaking problems between the source and the display.

I have an infocus X1 and it can't show 480i over component video so I suffer the same issue as you. In my case, its the X1's fault, but I am not sure what is causing your problem if you projector allows 480i over component video. It would be nice if the hopefully upcoming update allows for a menu on the 990's lcd display.