I have had the 990 for many years now and have been very pleased. Just recently I bought a set of Sennheiser RS 120 wireless headphones for simple TV watching while the baby sleeps in the nearby bassinet. Hooking up the headphones was easy and I had no problem getting into headphone mode by holding down the 'mute' button for ~5sec. Everything seemed to be working perfectly until I used the commercial skip button on my Comcast cable remote. When I did that I noticed that the 990 was making that familiar clicking noise as it cycles between different settings (eg: etween video 1 and DVD...). It happens too quickly for me to figure out what it is switching to before it switches back to what it should be.

Then I started to notice that it happens when I use the back-skip button and even with the FWD and REV buttons. To top it off I noticed that it did it when the show I was watching experiences a pause in transmission such as when the ad break is ending and the show is about to restart.

Because of this I figure that it has something to do with the 990 interpreting a break in the signal from the cable box (digital hookup) as if the cable box were turned off. I do not know why this never happens outside of headphone mode and I have yet to try other wiring set ups. I was hoping that it would be a simple setting that I had overlooked (I tend not to change settings much).

Has anybody else experienced this? It kind of defeats the purpose of having headphones if it is going to click so often. Plus I fear that I am wearing out whatever it is inside the 990 that makes that infernal click!

Any advice is appreciated.
Terrapin

The digital audio signal is being interrupted (the cable box quits sending anything out), so the 990 has to re-acquire the signal. That "click" is part of the signal acquisition process. It's not going to wear anything out in the 990 any more than using the 990 is going to.

If it is really bothering you, there's a possible workaround for the clicks associated with channel surfing and DVR-viewing. It's a bit odd, perhaps, but it would eliminate the click. You could set up an input with analog audio from the cable box instead of digital, and then use that input with the headphones. This will give you an analog input that doesn't need re-acquiring. If you are using component or DVI inputs for the cable box, you can simply take an unused video input, connect the analog cables, and then set that input up to use the component/DVI connection that your Video1 input (or whatever you use for the normal cable input) uses along with analog for audio. Personally, I'd probably let the 990 click, but your mileage may vary...

Thanks gonk!

I am going to try your workaround because the whole idea of using the headphones was to provide quiet TV viewing. The clicking is simply too loud. Perhaps my click is abnormally loud?

Anyway, it is strange that it only occurs in headphone mode and not during normal operation. For some reason the 990 is able to either maintain the signal no matter what I do with the DVR, or it reaquires the signal without the click.

Well, I will let you know how it goes.

Thanks for the reply,
Terrapin