Why would lack of HDMI remove the 990 from HT consideration? Projectors don't use the audio portion of HDMI and the video portion is identical to DVI. So the video output of the 990 can go directly to a projector and provide 1080P resolution in a very stable configuration. The 990s analog inputs allow it to use an outboard Bluray device to decode the audio from any of the formats. While I agree the 990 is doing no processing of the signals in either case it does provide a stable platform to control your system.

5 years ago HDMI was not as user friendly as it is today. It had a lot of quirks due to HDCP and the plug itself is a engineering disaster. Let us not forget that they also put out several new versions of it to make it more mainstream but have never improved the video capability over what DVI already provided. I am sure that when projectors start using 4000P we will see HDMI 1.X touted as the next best way to see the huge improvements in the picture.

To me the best thing about HDMI is the ability to reduce the cables in the back of the system. I just wish they had designed to plug a little better. It only takes a little cable stress to make the plugs pull out ever so slightly causing audio loss.