Half-baked....perhaps. But it's reality. The other guy's comment about people with projectors not needing HDMI is laughable. How many people do you know that have a projector in their mix? That probably represents a few percent of the buying public, at best, and those folks are usually on the higher end of the price spectrum...

Outlaw needs to broaden its market if it intends to survive. Offering rebadges of other equipment isn't likely to cut the mustard and likely doesn't offer sufficient margins to remain a credible player.

Tough times ahead.

Out of five people I know who have home theaters, four have front projectors.

Actually, a very capable 1080p projector can be purchased for under $1000 now, so you can buy a projector for less than a lot of people pay for LCD TVs. You could supplement that Dynex TV with a very nice front projector and it would suit your system quite well.

As far as "Tough Times Ahead" and trusting Outlaw is concerned, I suspect that Peter understands this marketplace much better than any of us and can take care of himself and his company very capably.

You have cooler theater buddies than I do, Bob. Projectors certainly are cheaper, but aside from folks I know through forums like this one, I only know one person with a projector. Projector installation is more complex than any sort of direct-view display, due to a combination of cabling, screen space requirements, and overall planning (getting projector distance and screen size coordinated, etc.).

That being said, the folks who put in the time to research, plan, and install a projector on their own are more likely to gravitate to a company like Outlaw than either the people who just buy a TV from Best Buy or the people who pay a custom installer to do their projector for them. (The one person I know with a projector fits that description, and he replaced a Model 950 with a Model 990 a while back.) As such, Outlaw probably gets more business from projector owners than the overall averages would predict.

The 990 is fully capable of providing the video input to any display of any resolution currently on the market. I do not believe it can be completely disregarded for current home theater designers as its lower cost will allow the budget to be targeted towards other more expensive equipment. Granted, it is not by any means future proof, but it is capable today and will be until the displays are far more adavnced than they are today. The fact that the designers at Outlaw gave it both DVI and 7 channel analog input made it as future proof as it could be when it was introduced. That tells me they thought it out pretty well and it is a success.

I have a 990 and a Onkyo 886. I am in the market for a new display and would trust either processor to provide an excellent HT experience. I think for those of us that see through the Audio/Video "bleeding edge" hype, Outlaw and Emotiva and others provide equipment which performs as well as any on the planet.

It might be because I've had a front projector in my system (not the same one!) since 1983 and they've all seen it over the years. And, actually, installation isn't that complex, particularly if you buy one of the current LCD projectors that have very flexible placement, zoom lens, lens shift, and so on.

Back to our previously-scheduled topic. Sorry for the OT digression. (Though I'm no longer clear that this thread is actually performing a useful service to those of us waiting and hoping for the 997's release. Perhaps we should collectively form a prayer circle to the Home Theater Gods to give Peter T. and his colleagues divine strength and godspeed in his holy mission to COMPLETE THIS DAMNED THING!!! )

i am losing my faith as well. i bought a 970 last september(less than six months ago!) from outlaw and it now has multiple audio issues. audio should be the most basic function for them suppling an audiophile product and yet they sold me a defective unit, and long after the issues were well know. i have the same "no audio" issue, and since then ive done testing and found the balance in stereo mode to be off, and not in a consistant manner either. one person believes its an issue in the pink noise generator which is unproven. im very disappointed i was sold this unit, period, and even more disappointed to see them still being sold on ebay by outlaw.

i also found a set of mono blocks locally and auditioned them at home before buying..which ended in disappointment too. they were noisy when nothing was being played, and once playing music i found them to be less musical than my 20+yr old adcom amp with half the juice. at least i didnt have to buy them to find this out thank god. i realize thse amps are not made buy the builder tha makes most of the rest of their amps but it simply tells me that quality isnt there any more.

if all this is some kind of "thrown under the bus" move toward outlaw from the customers i dont want to be a customer anymore. when a company like this sells this type of product they deserve to have feedback. i sure lost money on this gear, they should lose face.

i understand loyalty toward the makers of your gear, but why defend them when they are falling short? should all of us having issues shut up and except our loss? and what about others considering buying the 970, shouldnt they get a warning? great service is second only to an even better product, the cart seems to be before horse here. Outlaw should look to emotiva for some example how to stay relevent. they cant keep their products in stock they sell so fast, and their products are being compared to those with 4x the price tag with favor in hifi rags across the net.

im very disappointed. its a shame, 7yrs ago this company was a real value, now i see a huge hole in the boat and no one seems to be bailing water.

Why trust Outlaw?
I guess the main reason I trust Outlaw is that I've bought two great products from them - a 7125 and the LFM1-ex - both of which we absolutely love. Unlike some of the other people on this thread, I don't work in the music industry. I've never met anyone from outlaw, and i'm not affiliated with them in any way. I'm just someone who demands great performance at the lowest pricepoint possible for that level of quality, and outlaw comes through. Great tech support too.
They're also one of the few high end audio companies with a forum such as this where the public (and/or their competition) is free to come and badmouth...Imagine if all companies had that? Log into toyota with a hardware issue, then B+W where your speakers each cost more than your toyota?! HA!
They're ok by me.
grog

I guess I am somewhere in the middle in this discussion. For the most part, I have been very happy with my outlaw purchases (a 1050, RR2150, SMS and LFM-1 Compact). My original 1050 (B stock) was DOA. I got a replacement at no cost (no return shipping). On the other hand, I do remember a lot of frustration when it was determined that the 1050 could not play certain DVD's correctly unless a 6th speaker was installed. The have also been minor issues (in my mind) like the crappy quality of the volume knob on the 1050 and the source selector knob on the RR2150.

Personally, I remain hopeful for Outlaw in general and the 997 in particular.

Great point!

Because they shared the debacle of the 997 with a higher level of honesty than any consumer electronics company has ever shown, in my experience.