I'm going to be getting a new HDTV soon
& it has several HDMI connections. Since
the 990 doesn't have it, how are people
running the signal through the 990 if
at all? Do they take the HDMI out of
their bluray/dvd players, convert it to
DVI, then take the DVI signal out of
the Outlaw & convert it back to HDMI to
the TV?

The way I currently see it being done
would be as follows:

1. For bluray/dvd transports (HDMI out
only), connect directly to the TV & use
the optical out on the TV back to the
990 to handle the sound that way. I
don't own one of these yet but it seems
like this is how it would work if I
get one.

2. For the AT&T U-verse cable box either
do the same thing as 1 or stick with
component cable I/O & the U-verse's optical
connection directly into the 990, which is
how I have it currently configured.

Thanks.

To connect HDMI devices to the 990, you simply buy cables that have a DVI connector on one end and an HDMI connector on the other. Of course, if you do things this way, you're depending on the 990 to handle the audio for your programming. For me, I have my CD transport and BluRay player feeding the 990 via TOSlink fiber cables for audio delivery. I haven't bothered with setting up the 7.1 analog connections from the BluRay player since I rarely watch BluRay content and settle for humdrum ol' Dolby Digital sound. In theory, with the advent of the Outlaw 997 (and a lot of competing products already on the market), you'll simply need HDMI cables from the sources to your processor and then one HDMI out to the TV/projector/etc. Can't wait to see MIT start hawking $3000 cosmic ray shielded digital HDMI interconnects. LOL

Best,

As Ritz says, all you need is a DVI-to-HDMI cable or an HDMI cable and DVI-to-HDMI adapters. For folks who haven't previously bought DVI-to-HDMI cables, I often recommend picking up these for the 990's three DVI connectors and using HDMI cables, especially if you have any HDMI cables already lying around. (My OPPO players have all come with HDMI cables, for example, so I've got some in the drawer under the TV.)

twitchy:

I run HDMI->DVI cables to the 990 from both my Philips BD7200 Blu-Ray disc player and my cable box, and then run a DVI->HDMI cable from the 990 to my front projector. I also run the component video connections for all three.

The connection from the cable box works fine for the digital connection, but from the BD player the vertical size is wrong (I seen only the top 2/3 or so of the image, stretched to fill the height of the screen). Apparently the different components speak different flavors of HDMI, which reportedly still an issue.

The component video connections still work fine in all cases, however.

I thought I might add some possible limitations on using component video when HDMI is available. On the Oppo BDP-83, the component output for blu-ray discs is limited to 1080i (not producing 1080P if available) and the video up-conversion feature is limited to unencrypted discs and only produces 480i/576i. The HDMI output is protected with HDCP and has no such restriction. I would imagine that most other DVD players have similar limitations. Just some reason to try using HDMI outputs on devices when available to achieve the full resolution potential.

Component video can in theory do 1080p, but in reality almost every product limits component video to 1080i (example: the Xbox360 can output 1080p via component, but since no HDTV's I've found will accept 1080p via component it is only useful when connecting component to the VGA input of a computer monitor).

All disc players that support scaling are required to limit their component video output of DVD's to 480p when they encounter CSS encryption. There were some early players that ignored this requirement, and some hacks for others (including OPPO's 970HD), but it's rare to encounter such cases.

Thanks for the quick reply guys. I'll be sure to use this thread when it comes to time to set it up. Probably I'll see the best way to setup the AT&T U-verse cable box prior to getting the bluray/dvd/cd player, for proof of concept.

Best,
Twitchy

I finally got the HDTV & set it up. Currently
I only have the component cables. The Sharp
didn't include an HDMI cable even. So far
it looks like it's defaulting to 420p.

However, I have a Tivo chained in via RCA
jacks so it's upscaling from a lower format.
I'll have to setup a direct connection via
hdmi/dvi to see the display from cable box to outlaw directly. Need to order the cables
next.

Assuming that the Sharp is your new TV, it is scaling the source to its native resolution. If it is reporting a resolution such as 480p, that is the input resolution (whatever the source you're using is providing).