i had switched the blu ray output to 1080i and 480i and 480p etc. from 60hz to 24 and still no signal, well a black screen rather then the blue screen so i guess the projector gets some sort of signal right?

i swaped out hdmi to dvi cables from the blu ray to the 990 and i had the same problem. could it have been that run for the hdmi was just too long (the projector to the 990 was 25ft + the interconnect 4 feet?) my cable box works fine with the same distances so maybe my cable box outputs a stronger signal?

what explains the black as opposed to blue screen?

Yes, It is possible that the run and assorted connectors in the path were too much for the Blu-ray player. Because HDMI lifted the video specs from DVI (which was developed for PC monitors and had no concerns about long cable runs) it is not uncommon for there to be problems with front projectors or other setups with equipment located remotely from a display. These problems can be difficult to diagnose or predict because they can vary from one device to another...
I don't know anything about your projector, but my guess is that there is a signal getting through but it's too weak or too corrupted to decode into more than black, whereas the blue screen is generated when there is a complete absence of signal...

thanks gonk

I am glad it worked.