They went with DVI because at the time it was essentially compatible with the HDMI spec at the time and they felt that DVI was the better connector...which it is.

They couldn't possibly give you an HMDI 1.3 spec preamp when the 990 first came out.

And you have gotten good use out of the unit since you bought it, right?

If you want to upgrade, just sell it on ebay or Audiogon when the new one comes out. Most people don't need HDMI and will jump at the chance to get a quality piece like the 990 for a discount, even if it's used.

They went with DVI because HDMI in early 2005 would have been v1.0 (in other words, no better than the optical and coaxial jacks adjacent to it) - in which case there would not be lots of very confused and ticked off people discovering that their HDMI connections were actually little more than DVI ports without thumbscrews. Anthem didn't get HDMI v1.1 worked into their processors until a year later, and that was the first version of HDMI to really be useful with the new formats.

As for the other question, the answer is "yes" - Outlaw announced back in October that they would give all 990 and 970 owners a $200 discount off of a next-generation surround processor during the first six months that the new processor ships.

Personally, I decided to go with the Onkyo as it has all I'm looking for and I dont mind waiting till Jan. Many people on AVS Forum have reported good service from Troxell and the price is around $1300(hard to beat) I like the rackmounts for my Slim 5 application.I have a 950 which will find a home in another roon. Sadly I paid over $300 for a Zektor DVI Switcher that is useless with the new HDMI setup.Its a must to have with all these new audio offerings and the 990's ommission of HDMI was something that worried me then. I'm sure they will come out with a great product, but the Onkyo/ Integra is too good to pass up and can be in my theater in a reasonable time, about the same time as i plan on adding the JVC RS2, while my Outlaw 950/Zek switcher will feed my JVC HX 2. Okay! You guess it, I like JVC projectors...a great film-like image. The component switching in the 950 is superb, as I used prior to DVI switching and saw only marginal inprovement.The Outlaw video cables are the best Ive ever used, alone with AudioQuest.

When you do get it, please let us know what you think of it.

I 'll do that. In the meantime, go to http://www.avsforum.com and scroll down to "amps, recivers and processors" and click on either Onkyo/Itegra models and read the reviews from owners...hundreds of pages and mostly positive. Good viewing!