I have had my 970 for a little over a week and have the following issues:

1. The infamous "no sound" problem.

2. Front L and R channels reversed. Easy fix by plugging things in reverse but, c'mon guys! This is not doing much for my confidence.

3. Difficulty switching DVI inputs (usually ends up with no signal going to TV). Not user-friendly enough for wife and kids, so I am back to where I was with my Technics SH-AC500D which is no video switching and plugging things directly to the TV - not where I wanted to be after making an expensive "upgrade" decision.

4. This is a big "maybe" but my CARVER amps, Polk Audio speakers and Sunfire Sub have been around for many years and this is the first time I have had a ground loop issue. The day after the 970 joined the family, I noticed humm/hiss from all speakers (volume-independent). I have two separate amps by the way. I could not really isolate the problem to any one piece of equipment, but fingers are being pointed...

I just flashed the firmware. My L and R channels are still reversed (didn't think that would be software related). Hopefully the "no sound" incidents will be reduced or eliminated.

I should have saved my money (for a long time) and bought me the Sunfire pre/pro. I sold my Technics SH-AC500D to buy the Outlaw, so there's no going back. Well, I really do feel like I ran into an Outlaw...

I haven't heard of others running into reversed left and right channels. It sounds like you've checked your wiring, but it wouldn't hurt to double-check the entire signal path (including connections into and out of the amp) - I've had surrounds get messed up and taken some chasing down.

The firmware update reportedly significantly helps or eliminates the "no audio" problem - hopefully it'll do the trick for you.

Feel free to kick around things here, and perhaps some of the crowd here can help chase down things. Oh, and welcome to the forum.

Well, I need to wipe some egg off my face. Following gonk's recommendation, I unwrapped the set of left and right interconnects going from the preamp to the amp. After "walking the line", I discovered that they were color-coded incorrectly (red on one end going to blue in the other end). Sorry for the false alarm and thanks gonk.

I'll keep an eye on the other issues.

Mis-labeled cables would certainly be a sure-fire way to get turned around. Glad I could help.

An update on my rocky relationship with an Outlaw 970.

Thanks to gonk, I discovered that my channel reversal problem was not a problem.

The other 3 issues are still there, although I seem to be suffering from the same dillusion as many other outlaw owners and think that I am ever so close to consistently replicating the "no audio" issue. There should be a t-shirt or a giant belt buckle at the end of that quest.

New problem to add to the list: the remote sometimes refuses to work. The last time it happened I noticed that the red LED was not blinking when pressing certain buttons, so I started switching components, etc. on the remote until the LED would blink for every button pressed and voila! the remote started working. Make my t-shirt a Large please, thanks.

I'm not sure if anyone is following this thread. I am sort of using it as my own 970 experience blog.

About 2 weeks ago I moved all my equipment to a rack located about 15' to the side of the viewing area in my home theatre. I have not experienced remote control problems since. I suspect the previously mentioned problems could be IR interference from my plasma display.

The new, extremely roomy 6-shelf rack and a complete cable replacement with professional hand-made interconnects fixed all hums and hisses.

That leaves me with the no-sound issue and balky dvi switching.

garcianc2003, I'm glad you have worked out all but one of the problems. I personally am on the verge of getting the Outlaw 970 or the Emotiva LMC-1, but I don't want the headache of the "No Sound" issue. Wasn't there supposed to be a firmware update that fixed this problem??? If so, have you uploaded the firmware fix to your 970??? It would be great to hear your progress on this problem!!!

I upgraded the firmware but did not try the "beta" update mentioned in the "sticky" comment at the top of this forum.

After my firmware, update the "no sound" problem was less frequent. When it happens, it almost always happens when my DVD is already playing a music CD when the 970 comes on. Although it has creeped up when doing something as simple as changing channels.
I am waiting for the next firmware update to come out of beta before trying it.

Is there any news on this?

I just installed the beta firmware. Can't really comment yet since I've only used the 970 once since then but it did lock on me right after. I had to unplug it from the wall.

Wonderful product. :rolleyes:

"No sound" issue, now "eventually sound" issue?

I just replaced my Denon DVD-1910 with a new Oppo DV-970HD. I have noticed that sometimes there is about a 1-2 second lag before the sounds kicks in but, so far, it has been coming on consistently.

What follows is total speculation but, I wonder how many people experiencing the no sound issue have multiple digital sound sources plugged in. Both my HDTV receiver and DVD player are connected via optical connection only. My HDTV receiver is always sending a signal to the 970 when it's on. DVD players, on the other hand, do not (as far as I know) send a signal even when turned on unless something is actually playing - don't be confused by the screen saver signal being sent to your display, there is no sound. So, to continue the speculation, I wonder if at the point where the multiple signals begin to fight for common resources (DACs?), if the 970's software might suffer from a logic problem that leaves us in an undecided state. If the 970 uses some sort of polling algorithm to detect an incoming digital signal, that could account for the hit-and-miss behavior of this problem. Like I said, this is just guesswork...

On other news, in addition to the Oppo I also installed a set of 4 Polk Audio RC85i in-wall speakers for surround sides and back to go along with the Outlaw 7125. I am totally satisfied with the 970/7125 combination.

More later...