completely lost." I am. However I have made connections based on advise from Gonk, thanks Gonk, but still not up and running. BTW, I bought the Samsung HD 836 DVD player, not the Toshiba. These are my connections:

Samsung Plasma has component video to the 990 and HDMI/DVI to 990

Samsung DVD player has optical to the 990 and HDMI/DVI to 990

Cable box not hooked up yet.

Ok, I turned on the 990/7125 and pressed the menu button for setup, per instructions, and no menu popped up on the 990 or the tv. What is on the 990 screen is a diagram of my 5.1 setup. I have not hooked up my back surrounds yet, just my back right and left. Anyway, could someone walk me through this. I think I am close, but there is something that I am not doing that I can't figure out. I have to take this one step at at time. Newbie, but I want to learn. Thanks.

The only way to see the 990's menu is via an analog video output - that means you need to switch the TV to the component input that's hooked to the 990 and then press the "menu" button on the 990's remote (the one next to the "0" button, not the one farther down with the primary label of "tone" and the secondary label of "menu").

Ok,I switchd the tv and got the menu on. Should my tv be plugged into the "monitor" out or the "video out" on the 990. Also, no sound is coming ou of my speakers. I tried the autosetup and the screen said that the left speaker or the mic was not connected. they both are. I have an optical cable running from the DVD player to the 990 and an HDMI to the tv.Thanks

For the component output, the only output available is the monitor output. For the s-video and composite video, you want to use the monitor output to connect the TV. The other video output is for VCR's or other devices, and it does not carry the OSD menu information.

Have you run the manual test tones to make sure the left channel's getting a signal? There are enough connections in that path that it's not hard to have one loose - I usually have at least one get swapped or jostled that I have to re-visit.

Steve, at Outlaw helped me get up and running. My amp was not turned on. Thanks for your help as well Gonk. A couple of questions. The rear left and right surrounds do not seem to be putting out much volume. I ran the autosetup. Can I manually adjust the volume that these speakers put out.

You can manually adjust the levels (in fact, that's how I normally do my setup, even though the auto-setup works well in my room) - in the 990's menu, there's a screen called "channel calibrate" that will let you adjust each channel.

Thanks. I finally have the system operating and watching movies. I still have a lot of tweeking to do and wire hiding and room accessories and wall panels and such, but I have sound and video. I am going to add the two rear surrounds this weekend to get to 7.1 I am going to Radio Shack to pick a "thingy" as my sson would say, and sound check each speaker. I am sure I will have some questions. I really appreciate all the help. thanks.

Miscanthus,

I think you will find the Meter thingy to really help balance the sound. Once done don't hesitate to play with the channel volume while watching a movie. I found bumping some of the speakers up a little made a huge difference in how the side and rear speakers filled the back half of the room.

I looks like you decided to stay with 7.1 I think you will be glad you did. It made a very noticeable difference in the surround affect when I set up my 990 a few months ago and added 2 more speakers. Even if you are only sending the same signal to side and rear on each side having sound from both directions is a whole different effect. You may want to play with the delay/speaker distance as that will change how the sound from the surrounds reach your ears. There are a lot of things to play with. You should have a good time doing it.

Brad