Kinda thinking out loud here. My 950/7100 is just over 5 years old now. I've been considering going up to the 997, but $600 for a 990 is becoming harder and harder to resist.

I really like the idea of the HDMI support in the 997, since my TV has two HDMI inputs. Other than that, is there any compelling reason not to get a 990?

All of my video currently goes directly to my TV. One HDMI source (XBOX 360), one DVI source (Media Center PC with DVI-HDMI cable), one composite/S-video (Wii) and two component sources (DVD, HD Cable). Will probably add a PS3 or Blu-Ray player within the next few months.

Audio goes to the Outlaw. Optical from the Cable box, XBox and PC, Coax from the DVD, analog stereo from everyone else.

I'd really like to use the Outlaw to switch all of my video - I've got an MX-700 so can make macros for everything, but it'd be nice to have the one-stop-shopping in the processor. I'd need to go HDMI to DVI for at least the XBOX and probably the Blu-Ray player. I've read conflicting reports on whether this loses anything.

Any advice or discussion is welcome

-Joe

The 990 has DVI switching. As far as your TV is concerned, that does the same thing. The bigger question about HDMI is: do you have or plan to get a Blu-ray player, and if so do you think you will get one that has multichannel analog outputs? (Which would rule out the PS3.) If you plan to add Blu-ray without multichannel analog output, then the 997's HDMI input becomes more of a big deal.
With the 990, you would have the option of running all of these to the 990 and then running two connections to the TV: one DVI-to-HDMI, and one component. The Wii could remain composite or go over to component since you'd have a third component input available, and even if it stayed composite the 990 could transcode to component.

With the 997, it appears that we'll have an even simpler solution: just run an HDMI cable from the processor to the TV, and it will transcode, deinterlace, scale, and convert to digital as required.

Another thought: if you add Blu-ray but keep the DVD (which I've done, but don't plan to do for much longer), you would need to either push the Wii back to composite or have one video source bypass the 990's video switching (you'd have both DVI and all three component already taken). The 997's two extra HDMI inputs would solve that, as the Xbox, PC, and Blu-ray could all use HDMI.

Ah, so the 990 won't convert from analog to digital, so I'll still need both DVI and component inputs to the TV. If I'm going to do that I might as well just leave everything connected to the TV.

Food for thought, thanks.

-Joe

Great question Nostalgia. I too have the 950/7100 and was looking at the 990. I am not so worried about connectivity with HDMI as I run everything straight to the TV. I do have a Blu ray with multi analog so no problem. My question to the Outlaws is what improvements on the audio or video side would I get vs the 950?

It's been a while since I made the move from the 950 to the 990, but I remember it being a nice upgrade (my review may remember better than I do at this point, actually).

There appears to be a lot more difference between the 997 and 990 than just HDMI switching/conversion. To me the EQ room correction feature would be the most compelling reason to go with the 997.Video scaling in the processor may or may not be helpful as most TVs and disc players do that already with varying degrees of success. The ability to decode high resolutiom sound formats might be important , particularly if you feeding blu ray and SACD signals from different sources.
Having said that, I plan to stay with my 990 for the forseeable future, probably going with the soon to be released OPPO to handle the SACD/blu ray audio conversion and video scalling problems and live without EQ for now.

You do have 6 months from release to take advantage of the $200 off on the 997 for being purchaser of the 990. The $1,400 price tag has been listed as the "intro" price, so I would assume that the price would be up a short time after the first units ship out - this is only my speculation.

As someone who went from the 950 to a similar product to the 997, I would say the room correction is a pretty worthwhile improvement for movie soundtracks.

I defeat it for music as I try and get as much processing out of the chain as possible for that, and my room is reasonably symmetrical in its setup if not so perfect acoustically otherwise.

But I went from the 950 to my new pre/pro, and the current generation of sound codecs made one level of difference (I am using a PS3 BTW). When I began using the Audyssey in my unit, though, the steering and channel separation improved an additional step, especially for off center seats. I would expect the Trinnov processing would do at least the same.

I don't know if that is worth the price difference between a 990 and a 997, but it is a point to consider.