I received my new 990 yesterday. I have spent this evening setting it up (and retiring my 950). A few issues have come up that perhaps you can help with.

I have a Motorola Desktop Cable box with a HDMI output. I connected that to the 990 DVI 1 input. My TV does not have a HDMI or DVI input, so the 990 is connected to the TV with Component Video cables.

I have not been able to get this configuration to work. Should the 990 support this setup? If so, perhaps the Motorala cable-box has some issues. Thanks for your help.

Won't work.
DVI-IN (or HDMI) > DVI-OUT is the only thing that works.
If you want it, buy a scaler, else use component.

Unfortunately, no products will ever offer DVI to component down-conversion - there are security issues with digital video output that has MPAA pretty up-tight. If you do not have HDMI or DVI inputs, you'll want to use analog connections from all of your sources.

i use component all the way from DVD player to 990, then out to the tube TV.. component looks great IMHO. i don't have a DVI DVD player.. so i haven't tried that.

Actually, a few DVD players can deliver upsampled/HD output over their component outputs. The MPAA quickly squelched the affected models, including the Samsung HD-841. I have one that I'm not using that's been modified by these folks:

http://www.referenceaudiomods.com/Mercha...egory_Code=MODS

It's got all the bells and whistles except the Herbie feet. If anyone wants to buy it, give me a shout as I've switched over to using the Oppo 971.

Cheers,

When I compare PQ of Component vs HDMI I would say there IS a difference, but not big.
And since it is a digital connection kickoff handshaking leads to a lot of switching noise, snow pics and garbled frames before hdmi finally settles after a few secs.
Also, my Marantz DV-9600 player sometimes refuses to put out a hdmi pic for no apparent reason, so when that happens I have to switch over to component!
It's not the Marantz (same thing happened on a Pioneer DV-989), nor the scaler, it's THE SYSTEM...
So don't worry too much if you don't have it...