It is not a big issue to me that I can't see volume settings or other on-screen messages as I can see my 990 and the volume change (and input, etc) is displayed on the 990. I'll bet you find you don't need the extra monitor unless you are running a projector or your 990 is in another room. I recall a couple of Gunslingers with projectors added cheap monitors to view the setup menu in order to save bulb life. I rarely use the 990 setup now that everything is dialed in except in one case.

One of the things I miss (and this comes from my stereo days) is a simple balance control. I listen to a lot of stereo music and depending upon the CD I like to tweak the L or R to get the stereo image so it hits me between the eyes. To make a "balance adjustment" you need to use Setup and change the speaker calibration. However, you don't need to stop the source (in my case a CD) to adjust speaker calibration. I turn on my monitor, press the 990's menu and then adjust the L or R calibration all while the CD is playing. I'm pretty sure I'm able to do this because I assigned my CD's digital audio output to one of the 990's video/audio inputs but this might work for audio only input too. It is a little distracting to go through those steps versus just adjusting a balance control. I imagine there is a way to make a macro for my Harmony 880 to create a balance control, but I've not tried to yet. If anybody has figured out how to make such a macro for the 880/990 I'd appreciate your input.