I have had my 990 for several months and have just run across a problem. I have a couple of reel to reels that I occasionally use to record. I have an DGX switcher that I use to select tape decks. I am able to output a signal to the tape decks from phone and aux (direct TV box). However when I try and record a CD from either a dedicated CD player or DVD player I get no output. Seems odd since whatever source is selected, the audio should be output at the record/out tape jacks. I have both CD & DVD hooked up vie coax, I am letting the 990 decode the audio. Could that be the issue? Anybody have any ideas?

Correction to my initial post: The CD player is connected via an optical input, the DVD play via coax. I do not get a signal out from the record out jacks from either device.

Many receivers and processors don't convert digital audio to analog for the tape record output. I haven't tried the 990's tape output to know if it works that way or not, but I'm pretty sure the second zone output acts that way and it sounds from your testing that the tape output does as well. Try running stereo analog cables from either the CD or the DVD and see if that helps.

i think that the CD and DVD outputs both coax and optical only will output to other digital outputs.. the record optical and coax digital outputs. not sure they will go to analog outputs.

call Outlaw to be sure though

I connected analog cables (in addition to the current optical cable) from the CD player to the analog CD input on the 990. I am able to get a signal from tape output now. Fortunately I did not have to change the prior setup i.e. I still have an optical connection from the CD to 990 as the default for playback. I did not have to change the setup on the 990 at all. When I play the CD I still get the signal from the optical cable, letting the 990 decode, however there is also an analog signal that is routed to the tape out in case I want to record something.

I confirmed with Outlaw that this is the way the 990 is intended to work. This forum, and outlaws customer service is really helpful!

Excellent - glad to hear you've got it up and running.

Indeed glad.
Here's another idea.
I don't even use the record outs because only the signal passing thru the "MAIN" 990 goes "out". For analog out I go two possible ways, depending. (1) Use the ZONE 2. That way you can do your recording and still watch TV or whatever on MAIN 990. (2) For some signals (like my second dishnetwork receiver) I'll do a parallel output using RCA "Y" jacks.

What I'm recording to is a Panasonic DVD recorder.
It has three sets of inputs. Makes it convenient. I play its output thru either a second (smaller TV whose inputs are switchable for ZONE 2 or Panasonic out. I can also run it optically into Video 1 (which BTW doesn't for some reason output to 990 record out-whcih I'm not using anyway).

Maybe in the software revision the 990 will pass VIDEO 1 to record out.

You can imagine there's a rats nest behind my 990, but it works for me and is quite versatile.

Two things to be aware of when splitting the 990's pre-amp outputs that may not make it the best approach for everyone. First, if you have surround processing applied at the time, you're going to lose data to the center channel and surrounds - you'll need to have a stereo source and be in stereo mode (preferably bypass if you are worried about also preserving the low frequency data that would otherwise be crossed over to the sub). Second, the main output is downstream of the volume control, which will have an effect on your recording levels.

You brought up an issue I had not thought about. Assuming I am in the stereo mode with low frequency data crossed over to the sub, and I have the rca cables connected from the CD player to the 990 analog in, am I losing the low freq at the tape output? Does the 990 take the analog signal from the CD player, convert it to digital, and then convert again to analog at the tape output?

gonk wrote:

wo things to be aware of when splitting the 990's pre-amp outputs

Ooooops. I made an error ( not unusual ) I'm sending the output of the Satelitte receiver (analog stereo in this case) to the 990 analog and the DVD recorder to copy movies I;ve recorded to hard drive.
Of course I can also have the optical fed as well.
Sorry for mis-stating.