Aloha again. Thanks all for your recs - the 990/7125 is working out great, even with my older inputs. Just received my first new input today, the oppo 981. Little confused - I don't do v/switching - HDMI going straight to my 1080i CRT. Want to run audio output x 2 to the 990 - digital audio for DVD-video format, and analog(6) for SACD. 1) Will the 990 apply my speaker distance and level settings to the analog feeds, so that I don't have to perform this optional setup on the Oppo? 2) What, if any, would be the correct HDMI audio setting on the Oppo so that I wouldn't have to change settings to perform the above audio outputs as well as receive audio for my TV speakers? Mahalo.

1. Yes, the 990 will apply bass management to the 7.1 Direct input.

2. You might want to take a look at my 981HD review , but basically I'd recommend the following at the 981HD: all speakers set to "large", subwoofer "on", set all speaker delays to 0 (center and surrounds have some delay by default, and the 990 will handle this properly for you on the 7.1 Direct input anyway), digital audio to "raw" (same as bitstream on some other players, so the digital audio output you're sending to the 990 gets the DD and DTS bitstreams), and HDMI Audio to "LPCM" so your TV always gets an audio signal it knows what to do with ("Auto" would pass DD and DTS bitstreams to the TV, which it may or may not be cool with).

Much thanks.

I am still waiting for my Oppo 981 (I guess going through Amazon was a mistake -- cheaper shipping), and I'm appreciating all this advance discussion.

I'd be happy to hear more about what sort of configurations work well between the 981, the 990, and your television(s)/displays/etc.

Thanks!

My 981HD got connected every way that was possible since I was trying to test as many things as I could. With DVD's and CD's, the HDMI (either straight to the TV or through the 990's DVI switching) for video and coaxial or optical to the 990 for audio is an easy and sure-fire approach. If you want to toss DVD-A and SACD into the mix, a 5.1 analog connection to the 990's 7.1 Direct input (with the associated DVI input assigned to the 7.1 Direct input, if you are using the 990's DVI switching for the 981HD) will take care of that, too.

Gonk, awesome review on your website, thanks. I'm still waiting on the arrival of some SACD disks, but I couldn't tell from your review if the the 990 will apply Pro-Logic or otherwise to the Oppo's multi-channel analog output so that the rears in my 7.1 system are enabled?

No, the 990 will not apply any digital processing to the multichannel analog input. I've heard of a number of HD-DVD and Blu-ray owners using splitters to feed the side surround signal from their 5.1 sources to both side and back surround inputs on their receivers and processors in order to enable the rear surrounds, but I haven't tried it myself.

I love my oppo.

The SACD decoding is amazing.

Im not sure I prefer it over Stereo, but its fun!

Gonk, I was a little confused with regard to subwoofer settings for the 7.1 input selection because the surround mode is not active, but it seems as if the bass management is processed as if the surround setting is for stereo - ie., no sub signal when 990 configured for fronts Large/LFE, and a crossover only signal when configured for fronts Large/LR+sub. Is this correct ?

The 990 will apply bass management to the 7.1 Direct inputs in exactly the same manner as it applies bass management to other sources. That means that when the front are large and the sub is LFE only, a stereo source played through the 7.1 Direct inputs goes to the mains only (nothing crossed over to the sub). Likewise, a stereo source played through the 7.1 Direct input when fronts are large and the sub is L/R+Sub will send full range to the mains and produce a sub signal from the mains. The one case where the latter would not be true would be if all speakers were set to large, in which case the 990 does not apply any bass management to the 7.1 Direct input (even if the sub is set to L/R+Sub).

Gonk,

I have a similar question. What does the channel level need to be? Currently, my secondary DVD player, a Pioneer DV-45a used for DVD-A and SACD, is set to 4.0dB, with everything else set as you mentioned above. The channel level range is 0.0 - 6.0dB.

I'd start out with the channel levels all set to 0dB at the player since the 990 applies channel trim settings to the 7.1 Direct input. If DVD-A and SACD sound like they might be off, you could use a calibration disc to make sure there's nothing odd going on in the player that requires some additional adjustment, but ideally there shouldn't be a need to do so.

Thanks dude!!!

That's interesting. I've just compared the test tones from the 990, with the Avia test tones through the Oppo (using SPL meter). The mains are the same level, but the center and surrounds are 4 to 6 dB louder with the Oppo/Avia disk. I'm guessing this is because I left the speaker setup as large for center and surrounds on the Oppo. Will adjust tomorrow and re-check, but this might also be useful info for others as well...

I'd be curious to know how the AVIA levels compared when using the OPPO's digital output and when using the multichannel analog output.

FINALLY, Amazon has notified me the Oppo 981 is shipping... *whew*

So, I just wanted to ask Gonk again about the connections...

HDMI -> DVI (990 or straight to TV) for video
coax or optical out for DVD and CD?
multichannel analog out for SACD and DVD-A?

Is that how you're doing it?

I know I saw a post from you somewhere about what connections out from the 981 you have connected to what inputs for the 990, but I'm not finding it at the moment.

Thanks as always for sharing your expertise.

That's exactly how I'm doing it. HDMI to DVI for video (to DVI1 on the 990 in my case), coaxial out to the 990 for DVD and CD audio (to coax1 in my case), and multichannel analog out to the 990 for DVD-A and SACD. The 7.1 Direct input is set to use DVI1 as the video source.

Wow.

The Oppo DV-981HD arrived today, and what a phenomenal picture compared to my old DVD player! Better colors and extremely sharp details! I'm using a 1080p display and have the output from the 981 set accordingly. The picture frequently rivals true HD material. Just fantastic.

Thanks, Gonk, for your review. Indispensable for me with getting it set up.

I'm running the HDMI straight to the display, digital optical to the DVD input of the 990, multichannel audio to the 7.1 input for SACD and DVD-Audio. Works like a charm.

I won't sleep much tonight. I'll be up playing around with this wonderful system... :-)

- Have fun!

Thanks to gonk my future looks so bright when my Oppo DV-981HD arrives Friday.
All I have to do is follow his setup directions and I'm good to go.
Gonk, where do you find the time to do all this research and then put it in writing? Do you ever sleep?
If I'm ever in your neck of the woods I'll buy ya dinner. If you have time to eat...

The DV-981 is here...and...

Because my audio rack and HDTV are 12 cable feet apart I'm left with an equipment/cabling dilemma. Do I put the Oppo on top of the audio rack and run short audio cables to the 990's 7.1 inputs? And then do I run a 12' HDMI cable to one of the Sony's HDMI inputs? Or should I use a HDMI-DVI adaptor to feed the video thru the 990 and then back to the HDTV to take advantage of the video switching?
I don't really want the Oppo on the audio rack. Why is the audio rack 12 feet from the TV? Speaker considerations. My old but beloved AR9's have side firing woofers and need to be two feet away from everything. And the walnut audio rack doesn't look all that cool next to the glass and metal TV rack, anyway. The Oppo 981 and HD cable box and other equipment fit better on the TV rack.
But if the Oppo goes on the TV stand there's a 12 foot run of audio cables to the 990. My past experience with 12 foot runs of low level audio aren't reassuring. And should I still do the DVI-HDMI thing or send the HDMI right to the TV? The TV speakers are never gong to be used. My past experience with 12 foot runs of low level audio aren't reassuring.
No no...the 990 and four Carver amps are not going to fit on the TV rack.

Life was so simple before the 990 arrived.

If you are planning to use the 981HD's multichannel analog output, I'd much rather have a long HDMI run (12' is still well under the length limit for HDMI) than a long analog audio run. Personally, I'd put the 981HD in the equipment rack and just run video to the TV. If you think you'll have a second HDMI or DVI video source, I'd go ahead and set up the 990's DVI switching and make things simpler for later. Otherwise, it's just as easy to run straight to the display.

Thanks, Gonk. The long HDMI run makes the most sense to me, too.