OK that worked! Gonk, you are the man,.. the late night man.

Maybe I wasn't exactly clear on how the 990 needed to be configured even though I've been using it for a few months. After I saw your reply I entered the OSD menu and traversed to the "7.1 Direct" input and enabled the DVI input the XA2 is connected to (DVI_2), and WA-LA... it worked.

here's the way I have my system setup:

I have the DVD input configured to my Oppo DVD using DVI_1 and optical.

I have the Video_1 input configured to my HD cable box using component and optical.

I have the Video_2 input configured to my Xbox360 using component and optical.

What I had been doing is configuring the next available slot, Video_3 to Video = DVI_2 and Audio = analog. I had assumed that analog meant 7.1 direct analog. I guess not. is that 2 channel?

When it's working in 7.1 mode there seems to be no control of surround sound processing. I thought I read you could still control what DTS mode is being applied. So in 7.1 mode what processing will take place?

Thanks again,

billmac