I want to make sure I have this right. I have my dvd player connected directly to the tv with HDMI cable and dvd player connected to 990 with optical cable. Is this the best way? Is the optical cable the right choice? The 990 is connectd to the tv with HDMI/DVI cable. This uses both HDMI inputs on my tv. I still have a HD cable box o hookup. Thanks again.

I don't use the DVI inputs on my 990 but I'm pretty sure of one way to do it. Connect the dvd's HDMI (via a HDMI/DVI adapter?) to one of the 990's DVI inputs. The HDMI/DVI from the cable box would connect to the other DVI input on the 990. Then connect the DVI output on the 990 (again with an adapter?) to the TV. This way the 990 does the digital video switching between the dvd and the cable box.

For audio connect the dvd and the cable box's digital audio outputs to the 990 via optical or coax digital inputs; both work equally well. Now the 990 will do the processing and switching of the audio.

In the 990 setup tell it where all the video and audio connections are connected to the back of the 990 and you should be OK. I Have this exact setup except I use the analog video component connections (red, green, blue) versus DVI.

Your DVD hook-up sounds correct. My only question is why do you have the 990 hooked up to the TV? Do you have a third HDMI source other then the DVD and cable box? If not and you don't plan on using the 990 DVI switching just plug the cable box directly into the TV. There is no 990 generated video on its DVI output, so unless you plug your DVD and cable box into the 990 DVI there is no reason to plug the 990 DVI up to the TV.

The DVD player's audio is correctly connected. As AvFan points out, you'll want to do the same with the cable box's audio output.

I'm not sure you really need the HDMI/DVI cable from the 990 to the TV when you have no HDMI/DVI video sources connected to the 990. You do need at least one analog video connection (composite, s-video, or component) from the 990 to the TV so you can get into the 990's menu. What video outputs are available on the cable box? It should at least have a component video output, but it may also have a DVI or HDMI output.