As to locking onto 7.1 decoding until the user turns it off the Outlaw 950 does not have this functionality. I don't know about the 990, but Marantz, Pioneer, Denon, and a few others have this feature.

You have a choice of AUTO back surround decoding (only turns on when the data stream is flagged), ON [overlays DD PLIIx--or possibly Circle Surround 7.1 or Logic7 depending on the brand and features--onto any source from PCM to DTS until it hits a format that uses discrete back channel(s) like DTS-ES 6.1 or 6.1/7.1 PCM, TrueHD, or DTS-HD and then those formats take over], or OFF.

That's a very simple feature and it's very handy too.

The upcoming top end Sherwood Newcastle receiver is supposed to sport six HDMI 1.3 inputs and possibly 2 HDMI 1.3 outputs.

The summer/fall Denon and Marantz receivers for 2007 from their upper mid to high end models are expected to include four or more HDMI 1.3 inputs, all the latest audio formats for Blu-ray and HD-DVD, DeepColor support, and full 1080p upscaling and pass-through features.

Why can't an Outlaw pre-amp that's a little more than the 990 have these features (and more) with better sound quality since the amplifiers have been dropped?

This is not a lot to ask, especially if they get help from Dolby and DTS in implementing the decoding software properly.