If I remember correctly (and feel free to set me straight anyone), based on what I read when I was planning my IR distribution system, the processor's IR output simply repeats all commands passed from the IR-in. In other words, it is doing the same thing that a Xantech connecting block would do. So you could connect the IR out from your 970 to, say, your DVD player's IR-in which (if it has its own IR-out) could be daisy-chained to another unit's IR-in, and so on...

That's not how I chose to do mine, since sometimes we use the DVD player and TV without turning on the rest of the HT. In my case, I have a Xantech connecting block with 4 IR-outs, although I am only using 3 (Processor, DVD, and Satellite).