I was a little dissaponted when reading Scott's post about what the update adresses. But, I installed the update (not without a few moments of fear of the 990 becoming a black brick), and am happily surprized.
Now I can access the 7.1 direct from the panel (in case the baby steals the remote, as she is prone to doing)
Now I can see what surround mode I am in by the first button push, instead of it changing modes.
Now the bypass mode is the same level as the stereo /upsample modes.
Don't know what else is better, I would like to know what the "minor changes" are.
Of major impotance to me was the issue of the surround mode presets that change if you cycle signal between PCM, DD, and PCM again. This caused the surround mode to leave my preset of stereo and revert to PL2. I haven't tested this yet, I sure hope it's fixed.
I still of course wanted other things as well, but I am 90% happy here now. I wonder if the outlaws are done with updates for the 990, or if they will add more in the future?
Anyhow, thanks again Outlaws...

Ditto.

Being able to see the current surround mode by pressing the button once was at the top of my list. The other was being able to use the lip sync delay without running the video through the 990. I’m tickled pink.

I am happy that some of you are happy, but my reaction was pretty much a letdown. Forums would be pretty boring if everyone agreed on everything! The upgrade does fix some minor annoyances for some, but I found it disappointing especially considering how long it took. I have had my 990 for a year, since the first batch. Don't get me wrong, on balance I am still very happy that I bought it and that still have it. They listed 4 sets of improvements, and this is how I understand them. If I am wrong please set me straight and make me even happier.

1. Lip Sync control from front panel. I have never had any problems with lip sync, but then I have an RPTV, not a projector. I am happy for those who need it.

2. Improved bass management matrix. This raised my hopes the most when I first read it, but turned out to be the biggest disappointment. I think all it means they provide tables that now clearly explain the way the 990 has behaved all along -- and that I had figured out with a lot of useful info from this forum and the wonderful Outlaw customer support. For me the 990 still unfortunately passes summed L+R output to the sub in 2-ch BYPASS and one still cannot get a 7.1 direct analog bypass unless one reconfigures all speakers to LARGE.
Rant: Basically if you have a sub and have to use the 990's otherwise great digital processing for some sources (cable box, VCR, and DTS) and prefer to use it for others (DD5.1 and UPSAMPLE for CDs), you cannot make practical use of the otherwise equally great 990 analog electronics for other analog sources (Phono, SACD, DVD-A, future HD-audio) w/o the extra A/D-D/A. The only way to do this is to set your speakers to LARGE/LFE-only, which bypasses digital processing altogether for all sources. [Yes, why can't I have everything, when the 990 is so close to delivering it all!]

3. Ability to name audio inputs. The 990 already had names for all the devices I had or can imagine getting in the foreseeable future, plus you can't change them on the remote anyway.

4. Subwoofer trim and AM stations above 1190. If anyone knows, I would appreciate an explanation of what was fixed in the subwoofer trim. With help from Steve in Outlaw support, I eventually figured out what the 990 did before and got all my settings to be reasonable for all sources. Although I hardly ever listen to FM (except in the car), or to AM even less, fixing the AM station tuning bug is quite reasonable. Changing the Stereo and Surround mode buttons to show the current mode first was the only minor annoyance worth addressing that I would even notice....though I had gotten used to hitting the buttons a few times.

I have to admit, I am also let down after waiting so long for an update. I thought more would be acomplished.

I recently bought the BA AVP7 to compare to the 990. I think it has better functionality (multiple memorized channel settings, different bass settings for DD, DTS, and MPEG, upsampling is done for 2-channel and for L/R in all other modes as well). The AVP7 does lack the quad-crossover (I have all small speakers set to 80Hz anyhow), the balanced outputs (don't use them either), and the DVI in/outs (don't use them either) the 990 has.

As far as sound it is a very close contest, with the 990 slightly edging out the AVP7 for 2-channel, and the AVP7 slightly edging out the 990 on movies. I was waiting on the firmware update to see if Outlaw would give me a good reason to keep the 990 over the AVP7. I have decided to stay with the AVP7 and will be parting with the 990 shortly.

I forgot, the 7.1 direct runs A/D/A, which can't be good to keep doing this. Right now, I have L/C/R set to large, as the L/R are actually full range, and the center uses a ICBM in recombine.
The rears/surrounds will be going through their own ICBM soon as well (have to hook it up), to avoid the A/D/A conversion. I was hoping the line by line selection like the 970 has would be implimented, so I could sell off my ICBM. Others, however, don't have the luxury of extra ICBMs to use like this, and if I didn't I would be a bit more upset.
My 950 has analog direct, the 970 has line by line selection, the 990 should, if by no other means, a toggle, NOT turning all speakers to large each time.
Oh, and why not something like SNAP? I heard that they weren't satified with it's performance, but is that really it? I mean, it's not like you have to use it, is it? Just to have it availible would help many nasty room nodes, would it not? I don't really need it as I have DEQX, but why not include it?
But, be that as it may, I am happy to get some fixes, BUT, I want more too...

How long do you think you will have to wait for an update to the AVP?

Opps...

Podboy,

I bought the AVP7 knowing no updates would be avaiable (unless the Sherwood ones in the future will apply) and got it new for the price of a 970. The nice thing is BA/Sherwood got many things right from the get-go. The 990 is a fine unit and I am not bashing its performance by any means, but bass is harder than any other unit I have had to get dialed in properly.

I just thought we would get something worth waiting for. I did not suffer from the bass managment issues most did due to having my L/R set to large and the sub set to LFE only. The upgrade should have brought more to the table in my opinion such as different channel level settings for different inputs, .5dB adjustments, etc.

There are things, of course, I wish were different with the AVP7 as well (the display is hard to read for example), but I have never found a processor in my price range that I have said "Wow, this has every single feature I want!" On a sonic performance level, the two units are peers. Keeping the AVP7 will just end up costing me less.

Regards,

I still need to load this upgrade, but the one item I hope is fixed with the bass management is the fact that high frequency information was being sent to the sub output. This was pointed out by someone else on this forum as well (The Capt) who I think sent his 990 back due to these problems.

I was a bit let down as well with the other content of the upgrade. While I know the Outlaws did not like the current quality of SNAP used in the Sherwood units, I thought they stated that there was going to be somekind of equalization added in future.

I just have a feeling that if this was all we got after all this time, we will not be seeing any of the changes we would like to see.

The cases that the sub gets high frequency are listed in the new bass management summary - basically, it's the bypass mode (which bypasses bass management).

There wasn't any activity on equalization in this update, but they also didn't rule out future updates.

I don't know, I'm torn about this.
On one hand I am thrilled that they updated the product, and it is clear to me anyway, that a lot went into making this happen.
I am also happy that 3 of my pet peaves are fixed.
I hope they are not done improving though, as I really want these other issues adressed.
The A/D/A conversion of the 7.1 direct sort of defeats the "direct" nametag, does it not? I mean, really, this sounds like it can be fixed. I say that because if it can be defeated by setting all speakers to large, it IS a firmware revisable issue. (but then again what do I know, I just plug in the wires and hope it works)
Anyway, I am happier than I thought, but not as much as I could be...