It may be, but they are still very tight about releasing specs. As noted by Gonk, it omits some key features such as lip sync delay, 4-way bass management, USB input, DVI switching, it has fewer digital audio inputs, and most importantly, it does not appear as far as we know to have any provision for software upgrades. That, combined with what appears to be the use of an older (49326) processor, as opposed to the much more powerful 49400 in the 990 make it somewhat less than a full boat, particularly if they make you pay extra for bass management, which has already been stated and you have to pay $99 more to get an outboard digital video switch.

I say the better comparison is to put the 990 up against their "Big Dog" DMC-1. The 990 will most likely smoke it!