I just want to verify this, Is it true that you cannot provide the 990 with a DVI signel and output through components?

That is correct.

To expand on that, you can't provide any HDMI-equipped receiver or processor I know of with a DVI or HDMI signal and output that signal through component. When the 990 was designed, it was largely a hardware limitation, but at this point it has more to do with licensing restrictions and studios' paranoia about HD analog video.

You can record the signal off the 990 once it is in the analog domain but we could always do that for TV. The copy protection (DRM) won't allow you to record the signal in the digital domain unless you can somehow feed it back to the input to a DVR.

I haven't messed with the DVI in a while, but as I recall, it only switches between DVI inputs and passes the signal through. It doesn't do any conversio to or from DVI to the other input/outputs.

Your recollection is correct.

So, should I, can I, go from HDMI to the 990 DVI (with an adapter) then go from the DVI out with an adapter to the HDMI input of the TV, or should I just go from device to TV and let the remote handle the switching?

Yes you can do what you suggested above but you will have to run separate audio signal to the 990 from the device since DVI does not transmit audio.

In my family room setup, I go straight from my OPPO to the TV with HDMI with the sound set to off. The 990 doen't do any video processing so there isn't much benifit in passing the video through the 990 unless your using it to switch between multiple HDMI/DVI sources.

You can do either. If you have a single HDMI source, just run it straight to the TV. If you have two HDMI sources, I would consider using HDMI-to-DVI adapters and running both sources through the 990. If you have more than two HDMI sources, then either running all of them to the TV or through an outboard HDMI switch is going to be easier. At one point, I had a three-port switch upstream of one of my 990's DVI inputs (AppleTV, HD-DVD, and Blu-ray) and a fourth HDMI device (OPPO DVD player) on the second DVI input. That was a little extreme, though, and I still used macros on my remote to help manage input selection at the HDMI switch and on the TV (alternating between the TV's DVI input and its component video input).

You'll also want to run audio audio to the 990 separately. Depending on the device, that could be coaxial, optical, multichannel analog, or stereo analog. For Blu-ray, multichannel analog is preferred.

I connected my U--Verse DVR HDMI to the 990 DVI in and the DVI out to the HDMI in of the LCD TV. Works Good but, lip sync was way off. Component was right on. I had to adjust the lip sync for DVI input to the max that it will go. Is this a TV problem or what? I don't use the speakers or any audio features of the tv.

It's related to video processing somewhere in the signal path - either in the Uverse box or the TV. I've noticed that my Uverse box has required some lip sync adjustment, but so did my Comcast box.

I am told that only video is passed through the HDMI, but it seems like the audio changed if though I have it set for Optical out. Is there some audio going through the DVI/HDMI circut?

The DVI switching can pass audio - folks have done it before.