Here is hoping for some super sweet iPHONE universal remote applications.

O.K. I got my harmony one and it's pretty awesome indeed! I highly reccomend it. The softward makes the remote really awesome. Not only does it control my outlaw flawlessly, but the buttons are labeled as per my prefererences in the order I want them. I even have icons with my favorite channels and all I have to do is press them to get to my favorite channels (even the wife was impressed with that). It's awesome. Now I'm much calmer and less frustrated.

I'm back to loving my 990 again after shaking my whole house up with a couple of good blu-ray's and HD-DVDs. I'll one day buy the next model.

Gonk, your the man. Once again you helped me. I am glad I went with the harmony. RF would be cool for me in the summer when I watch TV in the back yard but the harmony is the best thing for my HT.

The only problem is that you say the input button should work when using the directional buttons. That seems to be defective as well as my former remote. It flat out doesn't work.

Glad to hear that the Harmony did the trick. It's hard to beat a really good universal remote.

Odd about the front input control. Did you try left/right as well as up/down directional buttons? It's been a while since I've done it, and I usually have to try both before I get the right one.

Without a doubt a Harmony is the way to go. Get one, program it, take the batteries out of your 990s remote and put it some place safe.
FWIW, the 990 also shares it's remote with a number of McIntosh models including the $8000 MX136.