Hello, I am new to this forum. I have read topics on this website for at least the last two or three years. Outlaw (according to specs, and my opinion) makes a WELL above average line of components.I was looking into upgrading to a 990/7125 setup. Sometimes now can be just as good as later, sometimes not. I know the current 990 preamp's days are numbered, with the release of the newer model next year sometime. But..,I am old school. I have always had two channel amp/preamps, or integrated amps etc.. Audio is good! The first, and only surround sound system is the one I currently have. It is six years old(the receiver). I have spoken to Scott at Outlaw Audio, and he was very helpful. The question I have is still with the HDMI??? As I understand you can use a DVI to HDMI cable for the SAT signal, but what am I missing over the HDMI 1.1, 1.2, 1.3 compaired to the 990 which doesn't have the HDMI input? P.S. I can't seem to see through this cloud????? Am I looking too deep, or what? Thanks, Stephen.

My HDMI FAQ may be some help in starting to clear away some of the clouds. Here's the "quick & dirty" summary:

For CD's, DVD's, cable, satellite, and devices like game consoles or media players (Squeezebox, Roku SoundBridge, AppleTV), you can use an HDMI-to-DVI cable and coaxial or optical digital audio cable and have exactly the same thing you would with HDMI v1.x.

There are basically four formats that offer audio which cannot be carried by optical or coaxial digital audio connections: DVD-Audio, SACD, HD-DVD, and Blu-ray. DVD-Audio is very nearly dead at this point (new releases basically ceased close to two years ago). SACD is still around, but it's a niche format that at this point will never see large-scale adoption. HD-DVD and Blu-ray offer a couple of new audio formats that won't go over coaxial or optical natively. In all four cases, you have two practical choices: multichannel analog, or HDMI v1.1+.

Please, for all practical reasons, am I OK with this receiver? We listen alot of lp's, and the same for movie's thru

Stephen:
Gonk has posted an excellent, short review of HMDI and has a great detailed review.

In answer to your most recent post the answer is yes. You referred to "receiver", but if you mean the 990...a big YES. The 990 will serve you well for LPs and movies.

For music (be it CD, LP, or other formats) and movies, the 990 is a great piece of hardware. The fuss about HDMI these days comes mainly from the HD format war, but there are ways around that if necessary.

Speaking of HDMI...Oppo recently came out with a 1.3 certified switch...for $99.

These guys are almost as amazing as the Outlaws.

http://oppodigital.com/hm31/

Alex

I saw something about that switch. OPPO Digital is a good crew. That also reminds me of an experiment I've been running for a while now: using a separate HDMI switch upstream of the 990 to provide additional DVI/HDMI video inputs. Since the 990's DVI inputs are assignable, I have two video inputs both using the same DVI connection (DVI2) and a $40 MonoPrice switch controlling either an OPPO 981HD or a Toshiba HD-A2. The HD-A2 doesn't get along great with the MonoPrice switch (unlike when I had it connected directly to the 990, it tends to not appear as "active" to the MonoPrice switch until it has been on for a while, causing the switch to refuse to change to that input, and as a result it can sometimes have some trouble establishing a handshake with my HDTV), but a three-input switch could allow the 990 to operate with up to four DVI/HDMI video sources. You'd still be using alternate paths for audio, of course, but for some sources (cable/satellite, regular DVD, AppleTV, etc.) that's not a big deal. Maybe I should grab one of those HM-31's and try hooking video from both OPPO players, the HD-A2, and my HD cable box to the 990 via HDMI...

Sounds like a fun experiment to try.

If you do end up getting one, let us know how it goes.

Will do. In fact, I've got an e-mail started to ask OPPO a couple questions about it, although I don't know how long it'll take to finish in between other tasks...

Hello, thanks for everyones input. The "HDMI FAQ" link Gonk supplied was very informative. I guess I was trying to read between the lines with this whole HDMI issue. I am going to upgrade to the new DIRECTV HD receiver when it is available, and just wanted to make sure the 990 preamp will process the HD video format. Thanks again, Stephen.

For HD cable and satellite, you'll be fine with the 990.

I did get that e-mail sent to OPPO yesterday, by the way, and will be picking up an HM-31 soon to experiment with. I'll post something in "Outlaw to Outlaw" when I get it up and running.

I got my HM-31 yesterday and have started to tinker with it. Initial results are favorable - problems that existed with my old MonoPrice switch look to be resolved. We'll be out of town this weekend, but I should have some detailed notes on the HM-31 online early next week. It does seem to be an easy way to expand the Model 990 to support video switching of up to four sources. It wouldn't work so well with the 970 because the DVI inputs aren't assignable, but I've got DVI2 assigned to three different sources (Video2, Video3, and Video5, if I remember correctly - they're labeled "CABLE", "OPPO981", and "HD-DVD") with each using a different digital audio input.