I just got my 990 yesterday after waiting for several months to get things together (money) and setting it up now looks very daunting to me. I am working alot so this whole process may take 2 or 3 weeks since I'm limited on how much time I can spend doing this. My first decision seems to be whether I should run everything through the 990 or not, are the majority of owners doing this?

The way I have things hooked up now to different inputs is (1) Direct Tivo, (2) VCR, (3) Front input don't use, (4) Dvd, (5) Zenith HDTV OTA tuner, (6) Ant.2 ,OTA antenna (the signal being split to go to both HDTV tuner and Ant.2). I can't figure out if I can still do this if I ran everything through the 990 or not but what I like to do is to be recording on both Tivo tuners (besides watching one of them) and use the previous channel button on my remote to jump back and forth between one of the Tivo tuners and either my HDTV tuner or Ant 2 to check on ballgames. Could you still do this? I use a MX-500 with macros to jump from one input to another also. I just can't envision how this will work with everything going through the 990 after years of simply switching inputs. Is what I doing now actually easier and more functional plus the advantage of running the satellite directly into the tv.

After someone answers my first question, where do I start in trying to setup the 990 even though it may sound dumb to ask this?

I am running all of my video through the 990, and with an MX-500 you should be able to set it up so that things run pretty smoothly. Does your HDTV have a DVI or HDMI source, and if so do any of your sources include a DVI or HDMI output? If either of the answers is "no" then you can make things very simple: just run all of the video cables to the 990 and run a component video cable from the 990's monitor output to the HDTV. The Tivo would have either component or s-video output (preferably component if it's available) and a digital audio cable (optical or coaxial) to the 990, the VCR would have composite video and analog audio, the DVD would have component video and digital audio, the Zenith's OTA tuner would have a digital audio cable (since the video signal is produced in the TV, there's no video cable to worry about), and you might need to run analog audio from the Zenith for the other over-the-air (I'm assuming that antenna 2 is analog TV broadcasts) since it may not output the audio from the analog tuner to the digital audio output.

Yes the answer is no as my tv only has component and I guess my new Oppo 970 does have HDMI. Okay I'm now looking at the back of the 990 so:

My DTivo has only S-Video so I should run it into Video 1 In (S-Video) and the optical output into Optical 1 In.

My Zenith HDV-420 OTA tuner has component outs so they should run into Component 2 In and the optical to Optical 2 In. Currently I have a couple of different outputs I'm running out of the Zenith but I can't remember why. I'm running analog R/L for audio since I never had any digital cables but I'm also running another R/L analog audio and composite video out from 480i output although I don't know why. Maybe I ran more cables than I needed to.

My Dvd should run Component out to Dvd Component In.Then run optical out into optical in. Do I just pick any optical input not in use since there is not a designated one for Dvd?

I understand about hooking up the vcr. Can you verify that I'm understanding so far what I'm doing? I have 3 optical cables on order from Outlaw, one for the Oppo, one for the Tivo and one for the Zenith so I guess I need them before I can do much.

I think you're on track! Yes, the OTA tuner and Oppo 970 DVD player should have component video cables connected to the 990, the Tivo should have s-video to the 990, and the VCR should have composite to the 990. Lastly, a component video cable from the 990 to the TV will get you set up.

The digital inputs are completely assignable (as are the component inputs, for that matter) - you can connect the Tivo to optical1, the OTA tuner to optical2, and the DVD to optical3 and then just assign optical1 to Video1, optical2 to Video2, and optical3 to DVD. Then you can also run analog audio from the VCR to the same input that you ran the VCR's video cable to. If you ever use the TV's internal tuner, you'll want to run analog audio from it to an input on the 990 (and this can be either a video input or an audio input like AUX or TAPE since you don't have to do any video switching).

You probably used the OTA tuner's analog audio and composite video to go to the VCR for recording, if I had to guess. You can still do some of that if you want/need to, and we can help figure out the easiest way to set it up if you do. If you're feeling overwhelmed, the delay while you wait for the optical cables can help to get all your ducks in a row (as my wife would say) - it's intimidating, but once you break it down to what you really need and ignore all the extra connections you won't need it actually gets manageable pretty quickly.

Thanks Gonk!

Gonk since I've hooked up the Dvd to Optical 3 can I still use Video 3's S-Video and Analog audio for my VCR?

Also you mentioned that if I wanted to use the tv's internal tuner I would need to run analog audio from it to a video input, but wouldn't I have to run video also?

Absolutely you can use Video3 for something else - remember the digital inputs are completely separate from any analog input. And to use the TV's tuner, you'll want to run audio from it to the 990, but since you're video is being produced by the TV there's no video to send. You could use any input on the 990 - you could even use the tape input if you wanted ti.

Okay gotcha! I also see in the manual that besides running component from the Monitor Out to the tv you should run another S-Video or composite cable output to the tv, what's the reason for this? Does it matter if it is the lower quality composite if I'm running out of S-Video outputs on the 990?

The s-video or composite cables really aren't required with the 990, in my opinion. Since the 990's component output gives you access to the setup menu as well as transcoding of composite and s-video sources, there's no particular need that I can see.

Good no need to do that then, maybe I will find some time to mess with setting it up tomorrow. Thanks!

Before I begin the Auto Setup should I tell it my speakers Sizes and crossover? I'm running Amrita Jovian Pillars (plus center speaker from Amrita, bookshelf surrounds and a powered sub) that go down to about 45 which I consider having good bass down to that point but I believe I read somewhere that you should set all your speakers to small even though you might consider them large. So before I begin the Auto Setup should I set them all to small? And to what crossover?

I couldn't wait so I went ahead and tried the Auto Setup but I did set all my speakers to small and the crossovers to 80. It went fine but after the Auto Setup it changed my speaker sizes to:
Front=Large
Center=Small
Surrounds=Large

Why did it change my settings, I guess I don't care if my Fronts are set to Large but not my Surrounds? Since it changed them do I just reset them myself and everything will work fine? I did change my XOver on my Fronts to 60. Also before running Auto Setup should my Sub Xover be set to minimum and what about it's volume?

If I end up running all my speakers to Small can I still run my Pillars full range when listening to cd's? Could I also in addition to running Pillars full range run my sub (for a little foundation)

The 990 will make an attempt to set up your crossovers, but there's nothing sacred about what the auto-setup comes up with. In your case, I suspect that the crossovers were set a bit too high and the auto-setup made a few less than ideal decisions. Fortunately, you can adjust the bass management settings and the only other setting you may want to adjust would be the sub's trim (which is one that many people end up fine-tuning by ear anyway). I'd suggest setting all of your speakers to small and use a 60Hz crossover for the mains. The center and bookshelves will probably be best with an 80Hz crossover.

If you want to run your mains full range for two-channel listening, the easiest way to do that is to set them to "large." Bass reinforcement using the sub could be achieved by setting the sub to "L/R+Sub," which will use the mains' crossover point to produce a signal for the sub while leaving the mains' signals full range. An alternative that would work if you listen to CD's in a player with really good DAC's is to use would be to use the player's stereo analog output and the 990's bypass mode, which would also send a copy of the left and right channels to the sub - but with your current system, this isn't really an optimal approach since the best DAC's in your system look to be the ones in the 990. I'd actually suggest experimenting with three things: mains large with 60Hz crossover and sub "l/r+sub;" mains large and sub "lfe only" (crossover of mains not used); and mains small with either 40Hz or 60Hz crossover. If the sub feels a bit excessive in any of these cases, there's an option in Surround Config called 2-Ch Sub Offset that will let you basically turn the sub down a few dB when in a stereo mode.

Gonk I tried all speakers to small and xovers to Front (60) Center and Surrounds (80) like you suggested and this time it left my Fronts and Center to small but says my Surrounds are Large. I talked to Steve briefly and he seemed to think it had to do with my Surrounds being so close to the ceiling. I just changed my Surrounds back to small and left it there. I'm really not that overly critical about my 5.1 system being perfectly matched as it sounds so much better than my old eight year old Chiro. If fact the way it's currently set up sounds pretty good to me.

On the other hand I'm probably more critical with how two channel music sounds. I do in fact have an outboard dac (MSB) for music that I am running analog into the 990. Now whether it is better or not than the 990's dac's I don't know since I haven't tried them yet for music.

I like the speaker settings at small for movies but might prefer running the Fronts large for music but it's not possible for the 990 to be set both ways is it?

When I'm experimenting changing the speaker settings and xovers do you have to run the Auto setup each time or are the volume settings of each channel already set (and if you are happy with them) you wouldn't have a need to mess with them anymore?

I also have a buzz in my front speakers (I assume is a ground loop) which I've had ever since I hooked up the Direct Tivo so this is nothing new. I was just hoping it might go away with a new preamp but I guess not. If you unplug both coax inputs that are running from the dish to the receiver the buzz goes away. Since you are not supposed to put anything inline between the dish and receiver do you know of any filters that might be specially designed that would allow you to do this?

It is not possible to set the 990's speakers to small in one mode and large in another, but there's absolutely no need to run auto setup when changing crossovers.

Some of the other dish users around here may have some suggestions for coping with the ground loop in your dish connection - I know that people do use devices to resolve that, I'm just not sure what devices are best for the job.

That's kind of what I thought. I guess as long as I use my outboard dac and by-pass for music I'm kind of doing that already and that sounds the best to me as far as music goes at least until I decide to try the 990's dacs. For 5.1 I'm running all speakers to small and xover to 60 on fronts and 80 to the center and rears. My Auto Setup is giving lots of errors now but I believe it is close enough I can dial it by ear. I really do think the 990 sounds really good with music (as a preamp) and very impressive for movies.

I'm still trying to figure out how to setup my MX-500 to run the 990 with my Tivo and still keep the settings I need to run the Tivo when the 990 is shut off for late night listening. Maybe I need to create two device settings for the Tivo, one when the 990 is on and one when it is off.

I probably should start another thread about the ground loop. Thanks Gonk!

The MX-500 can do quite a bit with a little scheming, but I'll toss out my standard question to folks who are trying to configure a system to operate with and without a receiver or processor being on: are you sure you don't just want to use the 990 all the time? The extra cables and control issues can be a huge pain, after all. Just playing devil's advocate a bit...

Well I'm doing it for two reasons, the first is because it can be a little loud at night when everyone else is in bed. Second my son is blind so I was just trying to make it easier on him. I really wish the 990 had a simple power off and on button like most equipment, I don't like having to push an input button to turn it on. Last night my son turned it off but later decided to turn it back on but couldn't figure how to do it.