I got a second disc that invokes the 'Matrix' mode on the 990. "Castaway" (Tom Hanks) dts track gets you there. Just like the platinum T2 disc...I really like this mode and enjoy it even more the neo/6...apparently if the codec is "DTS-ES" specific, the matrix mode pops up...On my old denon units I could invoke this mode on any Dolby/Dts track or choose 'non-matrix', or the usual PL/neo modes. I always enjoyed the matrix modes on those units as well. Is there some way to activate the 990's matrix mode on Dolby/Ex tracks?? Or on all DTS tracks? Processing-wise, it's no biggie. If not, too bad, I'll live. No need to attend any firmware-upgrade beggar banquets. But the matrix mode is total killer..Guess I'll roust up some more dts-es discs out there...Thanks for any help.

There are three possible scenarios with DTS: DTS 5.1 tracks (which the 990 can process as pure DTS, DTS+Pro Logic IIx, or DTS+NEO:6), DTS ES Matrix tracks (which will probably be flagged to force the 990 to use DTS ES Matrix), and DTS ES Discrete (with will definitely be flagged and must be processed with DTS ES Discrete to get the rear surround signal). For the first (and most common) scenario, just use the "DTS" button to pick your preference (although you may need to use the "Dolby" button to get the DTS+PLIIx mode, I don't recall at the moment).

With Dolby Digital 5.1, you can use the "Dolby" button to select DD+PLIIx or Dolby Digital EX, but I'd use PLIIx. I only use EX when the DVD has a Dolby EX track that includes a flag forcing EX to engage.

Here's one bit of trivia to keep in mind: the old Denon you used offered a "DTS ES Matrix" mode that could be used with DTS 5.1 tracks, while the 990 offers DTS+NEO:6 instead for these cases. The difference is purely one of semantics. DTS changed their standards not too long before the 990 came along and restricted the ES modes to cases where the source track was ES encoded in some manner. For those cases where they had previously used "ES Matrix" for generating a rear surround channel from standard DTS 5.1 tracks, they changed to using NEO:6. The matrix decoding scheme used remained the same. I've always figured that the change was done to help NEO:6 compare favorably to Pro Logic IIx - before the change, NEO:6 worked only with stereo analog or PCM stereo sources. Also, not all receivers or processors allow Pro Logic IIx to be used with DTS 5.1 tracks - it's an optional aspect of the PLIIx spec.

Thanks for the good info Mr. Gonk. It makes sense with my experience with the older processors and matrix selection. It explains why(at least to me) when I did engage the matrix on the old Denons it somewhat gave a "blanket" response to even the "es' flagged discs..Or in other words, this 990 matrix mode really rocks! Of course, so does the neo/6...much better(as you have explained) than the old style. I didn't get excited about 'es' discs like I did discrete because the 'es' discs and the old matrix modes weren't that much better than plain 'ol 5.1, if at all. The 990 matrix is much more akin to 6.1 in the soundfield/presentation and does a fine job of fleshing out the soundtrack..O.K. This means I can go get some more 'es' movies and play with much joy! Heck, I believe there are more 'es' encoded discs than 6.1 discretes. The 990 now has me really looking forward to getting more of these movies that I kind of passed over before. BTW, have you(you must have!) tried any of these discs in matrix mode?? I remeber you posted you might have one in your collection and I'm wondering if you ever dug it out and gave it a spin....Happy Mothers day to all forum member mothers(and especially to your's Gonkster man!) Have a great weekend!