My TV finally has died after 8 years of use and figured instead of fixing it, i'm going to get a new one.

Seeing as component is on it's way out now and the 998 is not quite here yet is there an option that would not require me to teach my wife a new remote to use every time that would let me switch mulitple HDMI sources?

I'd be using a PS3 and a DirecTV DVR mainly, would like one more in case the Wii ever goes HDMI.

quick clarification, would like it to know when I switch video inputs or something like that. Sometimes the PS3 is left on running that folding at home client so the 'is there a signal' ones would get confused I would expect.

There are several different universal remotes available which are reprogrammable when you change out equipment. I use the Harmony ONE from Logitech. It is easy to program and has a intuitive touch screen with your various activities on it so you can select what you want the system to do (Watch TV, Watch a BluRay, Listen to Radio). It is programmable for almost any device either over the internet or by learning from your old remote. You can even use it to control multiple systems if you want.

yeah i have an old pronto i could use. If the TV had an RS232 would that RS232 port do anything on the Outlaw? I guess the newer TVs with four HDMI ports sense somehow as well. Wasn't planning on upgrading right now, TV broke and forced the issue so just starting to check things out.

Many TV's these days offer discrete commands for the different HDMI inputs (and two or more HDMI inputs are pretty standard). A universal remote would probably be the ideal solution in that case. A sensing switch would be an alternative, but if both components are turned on most of the time you still end up needing to use a remote to manually change inputs on the switch.

You have a Model 990, though, so I may be overthinking this a bit. You can use the 990's DVI switching for the PS3 and DirecTV receiver. You may have to switch the TV over to component for any other video sources, but how you accomplish that (universal remote or a fairly simple command for the TV perhaps) may not be too copmlex. The RS232 port probably wouldn't be able to help you, though.

Sadly the ps3 down samples to1080i or worse if I don't use hdmi. I'll just do the universal thing after researching most of the day think that's the best option until the 998 hits

You can use HDMI with the DVI switching, though...