Hooking up my 990 tonight for the first time. Don't have the TV in yet, just wanted to listen to it and one of the amps I bought from eBay to make sure they work okay...Both powered up and work, but I can't adjust anything. You mean to tell me unless I use S-video or composite I can see the menus??? If I knew this I never would've bought the 990. I ran one HDMI through the wall to my TV...how am I supposed to adjust this thing?.. I can get a CD to play but my sub won't work. Do I really have to hook the TV I don't have installed yet up by 20 year old technology to see the settings...man...

Yes you need to get to the menu to set the speaker size and tell the 990 there is a sub present. You also have to set the crossover settings. You can purchase a small display(5") from radio shack to use as your OSD or if you have a small set that accepts composite, component or s-video you can use to set up the 990 then you should be ok untill you get a small display for it.

so, in other words..the settings won't show on the display on the front of the 990? I knew it didn't go over the DVI, but I thought I could scroll through and see the menu using the display on the front. Man, what a bummer, I don't have a TV here other than my 100lbs+ old Panasonic 30" that has an S-video. Even my computer monitor is DVI. Again, real disappointed...yeah, I can buy a cheap TV, or wait until I get the new Plasma and just buy a cheap S-video cable for setup, but it seems like a waste when you just assume the unit would display at least one line of the menu at a time..

no you can not get the settings on the 990 display.

thanks for the quick reply anyway...I'll just wait unitl I get the new TV and run a temporary S-video cable...not a great first impression I must say, I mean again, I understand about running OSD over DVI or HDMI, very few do it...but, most at least let you see the menu on the front of the thing.....

I think you'll find more and more new equipment requires OSD for setup. I helped a friend set up a new Onkyo receiver 2 weeks ago and could only do so with an on screen menu. Also was at a friends last night that has a Harmon Kardon and again menu display on OSD only. With all the setup/adjustment one has to do it just makes sense to me.

Outlaw's 1070/970 does allow access to the menu through the front panel, but the 990 (and, as mzpro5 points out, many other receivers and processors) only displays the setup menu on the OSD. If you look at the 990's manual, starting on page 23, you'll see how much information is packed into those menus and why it's generally preferable to use the OSD to configure the 990.

Have to agree. Recently calibrated my brother-in-law's home theater and his Denon AV receiver required us to use his front projector DLP to see all the OSD menus in order to calibrate the channels properly. His Denon is even more complex, it has the ability to calibrate each channel for each DSP mode it is in. I couldn't imagine doing all this on a one line display on his receiver. Also, many if not most DVD players these days require the same access to their menus via an OSD similar to my Oppo player.

I don't think any DVD player that I've owned has allowed player setup via the front panel - from the old Panasonic A310 I bought back in November '98 up through my OPPO's, they've all handled it onscreen exclusively. Of course, it's a somewhat different situation, since a DVD player would typically be connected to a display right from the get-go (players used in purely audio systems being an obvious exception, but also an exception that player manufacturers don't design for).

As receivers and surround processors get more and more functionality pushed into them, it's going to become more and more necessary to use the OSD to configure them.

..lugged my old Panasonic CRT down there and used the OSD...up most of the night listening...sounds good. I wish there was a crossover at 70 or 75 instead of jumping from 60 to 80, but overall it sounds good.

I think I will buy a small cheap TV/Monitor for the OSD..don't want to burn in the new Plasma....

...OPPO DVD players do OSD over HDMI correct???