I've missed a bunch while being in my latest hours-long meeting of the week...

First, the 990 and 970/1070 have very different IR support - as I mention in my 990 review, the 990 requires a special interface module to operate with equipment like the Xantech connector blocks we're discussing here, whereas the 950 and the 970/1070 do not. I would not expect anything from the 990 to carry over to the 970 as far as behavior. If I get a chance, I may try to run the 990's output to the input of my connecting block (although the meeting notes and meeting agenda that are demanding my attention tonight and the chiller room layout that has kicked them out of the work day make that test unlikely), but I don't think the results would be of use for the 970. The best bet at this point is probably to see what Steve comes back with.