Hi guys,
I still love the 990. It is a little sharper in the highs than the Meridian 861 I had but I think it is great. I just wish the remote was a learning remote since my pronto tsu 3000 died. Anyway I just purchased the toshiba hd-A1 and I am running the analogue connections for HD and the digital coax for SD dvd's. You guys are missing out. The dolby true HD with the 990 in 7.1 direct is stunning. This sounds better than anything I have ever heard, period. The Meridian can't touch this. So clear, so dynamic, and very smooth. The picture is a no brainer. This also works great with sd DVD's. The upconversion is top notch and better than my previous dvd player. The sound is better as well in this dvd player. You can run this in 7.1 direct mode as well and I think it is still better than the digital coax but very close. I am splitting the left rear channel into the left side and rear into the 7.1 with a y splitter, same goes for the other side. The surround effects is still great and you can hardly tell it from prologic 2x. I purchased mine for $290 and that is what I would have spend for a normal DVD player. I don't ever want to go back to sd DVD's so HD dvd better make some of the titles I want and blue ray better start lowering their prices(in due time) so I can get one of those as well. I am very impressed. I was switching back and forth from hd dvd and espn HD football last night and the picture is about the same. Some digital artifacts with my cable box and none with the HD dvd. For the price this is a must. Even if HD dvd and blue ray fail you get a high quality, great upconverting, and great sounding dvd player. Can go wrong, except the load times when first powering up.

Good to hear. Have you had any problems with the LFE (sub) output being very low compared to the other channels? I've heard of people needing to turn the other channels down very low to compensate.

Also, where did you get it for that price? Thanks.

The sub works great, hits me just as hard as ever. Just make sure you tell the toshiba that it is a bitstream not pcm or you will lose alot LFE, I did. BB had one to clear out.

Bitstream or pcm is for the digital audio output, not the analog. I didn't notice a drop-off in bass when I switched to the HD-A1 and direct analog connection. I plan on making a digital connection and running a calibration dvd to check the levels between the two. I'll let y'all know how it turns out. By the way, I totally agree with mktheater about the sound quality of the two Dolby TrueHD soundtracks I've heard.

--Chuck

That is right I forgot. When I watched War of the worlds(only sd dvd) I had very little bass output. I switched over to 7.1 direct and it was back. I then changed to bitstream from pcm and the digital coax was working again(bass wise). With digital make sure it is bitstream.

So did you guys need to do any bass management or level setting in the player?

Thanks for the info, I'm really considering making the jump to HD-DVD.

Nope. Just set all speakers to Large, set subwoofer to Use, and leave speaker distances at 0. I think those all may be the default settings but don't remember for sure...

that is correct, My only problem now is waiting for new releases for hd dvd. I don't even want to watch my reference dvd's anymore. I put in wotw the other day and it was so fuzzy, I could not even watch it because of this(I kept seeing the fuzz and not the movie).

I couldn't agree more. My HD-A1 has been absolutely fantastic as well. Hard to believe anyone would shell out more for BR at this point.

All of this works because of the great analogue section of the 990.