I'm a proud new owner of a 990. I was able to purchase it used for a wonderful price. I chose this unit after a great deal of research and I'm quite excited to have it. It is part of my year long project to upgrade my system. While I was waiting for my 990 to arrive and even before I purchased I read the manual online and extensivley read this forum. I'd like to think I know at least a thing or two about the 990 and its advantages and disadvantages.

Which leads me to my question. The 990's DVI output as you all know does not don't have the OSD from the 990. Thus at the very least someother connection must be made to see the OSD. Furthermore, my current DVD player does not have an HMDI or DVI output, component only. The result of which is that as it now stands, I have to pick up the remote and switch the various inputs on the TV to watch either the Cable Box DVI out, the outlaw OSD, and the DVD player component out. My TV has a DVI in and multiple Component in but is just old enough that it does not have a HMDI in. It's max resolution is 1080i. I'd really prefer to use the video switch on the 990 and make it less of a hassle to watch various sources. It will especially easier for my wife who just refuses to remember when I tell her how to use some of this stuff. (she's actually woken me up before at 5:00 am to "fix" the t.v., when i was watching a DVD before I went to bed and forgot to switch the input back to the cable box)

So after that long story, here's my question. It there enought of a quality advantage in using the DVI input instead of the component input that I should continue to go that route? Or should the quality be good enought that the ease of use of the componenet input is appropriate? Eventually I'm going to replace the DVD player with the new Oppo Blu-Ray player, and at that point I can use the two 990 DVI inputs (after applying the HMDI adaptors) and the onboard switching to toggle between DVD and cable. But that's several months down the road. Well any help would be appreciated.

Thanks

Congratulations on the new (to you) 990!

If the source in question is a cable box, my experience has been that there is no benefit in using DVI/HDMI over using component. If I were in your place, I'd use component video from the cable box and the DVD player, leave the TV on one component output, and make your wife's life easier (and thus yours as well) without losing any video quality.

As you point out, if you move to the OPPO BDP-83, you can then switch to using the DVI switching with those two DVI/HDMI sources and keep things simple for the family.

You might also consider a good universal remote with macro capabilities (a Harmony or Universal) at some point in the future - if your TV has discrete input commands, a few slick macros and carefully-labeled buttons can make life much easier. I have used several Universal remotes (currently an MX-900 with an RF receiver, but before that an MX-700 and an MX-500 ), and having the remote properly set up makes it possible for me to have a pretty sophisticated setup without my wife kicking it (and possibly me) out of the house...

Thanks Gonk, that's what I thought but it is nice to hear it verified.

The universal remote is somewhere down the line. I'm waiting until I get all the components in place first.

As long as a good universal remote is on the list - my wife still classifies our first good universal (the MX-500) as the best upgrade we ever made, while HDTV is tucked somewhere below it on the list.