Rene:

I think you are answering your question for yourself without realizing it. Outlaw is in a segement of the market where people want to tinker with settings and equipment placement (speakers) but not have to deal with the arcane world of software. It would appear that they do a good job for that type of customer. It doesn't mean you are right or wrong, it simply means that you are looking for something that I'd guess 99.9% of their customers don't want, don't need, and wouldn't know what to do with if it was there.

IF you have the desire to fool with software, than by all means avail yourself of the products you have mentioned that do that. Remember, as a software professional, your interests and knowledge are considerably different from the average "I just want to watch my home theater and not have to think about it" person.

The risks to Outlaw of having people mucking around with the inner SW of the 990 or any other product strongly outweigh the benefits. I'd hate to be Scott or one of their other customer service people on the other end of the phone when a customer calls after loading hacked software that has a bug in it that might corrupt the microprocessor or memory -- or ever worse. The novice will make their life difficult and insist that Outlaw fix it even though it isn't their fault.