Howdy! I've recently installed my 990 and am looking for a bit of advice about DD, 990 & DVD configs- I also installed a new Oppo DVD player- It's optical output choices are PCM or "Raw"- It apparently won't output DD unless it's set to "raw" but the 900 doesn't seem to "like" the setting- Set to raw, the audio drops out, occasionally making various random hi-pitched "squeaks & squeals" before it does- Set to "PCM" the 990 only plays back in Dolby PLII mode. Any thoughts or experience about this? Thanks in advance.

I have my Oppo set to Raw and have not experienced any drop outs or any other problems with my 990 handling the Raw signal.

The Oppo definitely needs to be set to raw - that's the only way to get the disc's original audio bitstream passed to the processor. Are you having problems with every disc you try? Can you try a different DVD player (or other source such as digital cable or satellite that provides a Dolby Digital bitstream)?

Definitely set it to RAW. Also check out oppodigital.com and get firmware updates.

did you go into the 990 input menu and choose DD for your DVD input source? I think it defaults to DD when it receives a DD signal, not quite sure though.

As soon as the 990 sees a Dolby Digital signal, it will engage Dolby Digital decoding - it has to. There's no need to set the input for DD in advance.

I chose Upsample for my DVD source to gain the benefit of the upsampling. DD is indeed selected automatically when I start up a DVD. I just get the front 2 channels in 192bit.

yeah but can you override the auto DD settings?

Which settings do you want to override? You have to at least be using DD decoding to begin with (unless you want to try applying DTS decoding or treat it as PCM, either of which would tend to destroy your speakers and your ears), but beyond that you can choose to apply additional processing modes like Pro Logic II/IIx or Dolby EX.