Not sure if anyone else out there may have encountered this one or not so here goes......

In getting my Oppo Digital DVD & 990 & Sony KD960XBR TV set up via DVI/HDMI cables I have noticed that Sony has designated Video Input 7 for HDMI.

The 990 can only output the OSD in analog. Since the DVI input does not seem to have a corresponding analog output associated with it, how can I get the OSD to appear on Video Input 7? (or get ALL my inputs to go through VI 7?!)

Now it's possible that I just have my head up my butt but I have found this to be rather annoying. To say nothing of having to change the TV input too. Does anyone know of a workaround for this? I realize it's Sony's fault too but wondered if anyone else has encountered this and what your solution was?

Maybe I'm missing what you are asking, but it looks like you answered your own question when you said "The 990 can only output the OSD in analog" which is correct. You will need to hook up one of the analog outputs of the 990 to the Sony to see the OSD. The DVI jacks on the 990 are just a switch nothing more.

In fact if the Oppo is your only digital output device I'd recommend you not connect it through the 990.

Digital video switching (DVI/HDMI) is still developing, so the video processing tools to transcode analog video sources (composite, s-video, and component) to digital (DVI/HDMI video) without degrading the image are rare and costly. (Some new receivers are offering it, although I don't know how transparent the transcoding is, and of course Anthem's D2 and AVM50 have a video scaler that will handle it - but the cost of the addition of the scaler costs about as much as an entire 990.) As a result, the 990 is not capable of transcoding analog video to the DVI output - including the OSD menu data. To view the 990's menus and any analog video sources, you will need an analog video connection to the display. If all you want is the OSD menu, you can get by with just a composite or s-video connection. If you have any component video sources, you'll need to run component video from the 990's monitor output - at which point you can use that component connection for all video sources except the OPPO.

Does that help? Another suggestion that might help - many HDTV's will allow you to "turn off" inputs that you aren't using, which would allow you to set the TV up to only offer the component input and HDMI input as choices.

I have an S video cable as the monitor cable to the TV. The question is if there is a corresponding analog output for the DVI? The OSD works fine for the satellite, vcr, dvd recorder, cd, etc.....on Video 1. When watching the Oppo dvd and then wanting to make any changes to the settings via the OSD, I have to change the TV input back to Video 1 because there is no output for the OSD to the TV on Video 7. Does that make anymore sense?

Oops! Now I think I've answered my question! I just need to run an S video cable on the VD output I have the Oppo on and I'll be fine.

Now in order to keep from switching back and forth on the TV inputs I suppose I could simply run everything into VD7 if it will accept both HDMI and standard inputs eh?

Are you talking about the Oppo OSD or the 990 OSD?

I don't see anyway to get around the switching on the Sony.

Are any of your other sources (specifically the satellite or DVD recorder) capable of component video output? If they are, you may want to connect them to the 990 that way and replace the s-video monitor cable with a component monitor cable. That will give you better picture quality from those component-capable sources, and will still let you see the s-video and composite video sources over the component output. As obie_fl says, you'll still need to switch the HDTV's input between analog (s-video or component) and digital (DVI/HDMI).

DVD yes, Sat no. As soon as I get away from being too cheap to get a HD Tivo for the Sat then I can do that. Until then I still get those signals for free OTA. It just sucks to have to have a video switching device like the 990 and still have to change the TV inputs.

- I know what you mean (although I've gotten around it with the macros in my MX-700 ). Ironically, the technology to allow good, clean, reasonably affordable transcoding to component arrived about the same time that DVI and HDMI started coming onto the scene - just as we began to be able to do switching in a receiver or processor with a single output, we picked up a new video format that didn't fit into that switching technology.