So you aren't in the US? Useful information. I agree that it alters the price range involved. Where are you?

RIHD is not 15 to 20 years old. It is Onkyo's name for CEC, which is just a few years old. RI is the name of an older connection type used by Onkyo, and I agree that RI has been around for a long time. Similar connections have been used by other manufacturers (Panasonic, Pioneer, Sony, etc.) for just as long, although each uses a different name for it. In each case, they allow IR signals received by one component to be passed to other components. I had a Pioneer CD player in college that used Pioneer's version of this - no remote and no IR sensor, but the Pioneer receiver's remote had transport controls and the receiver's IR receiver picked up the commands and passed them to the player. This feature is similar to the IR ports found on the Model 950 and Model 970. The Model 990 had similar ports, as well, but it required an interface module when used with certain IR systems. These interfaces are close cousins to simple IR distribution signals, but because there is no single industry standard there will always be some compatibility issues. It also doesn't solve any control problems because it doesn't have any sort of independent "language" - it is just relaying remote control signals. The IR distribution stuff I've been suggesting operates similarly. Having an IR input and an IR output or two is worthwhile, and I'd prefer one similar to what the 950 and 970 used rather than the type of ports on the 990. Having ten of them, though, seems like overkill - especially in a gaming system where the consoles don't even have IR inputs.

CEC is not an IR link, it's a protocol for relaying commands based on the state of other devices. For example: turn on a DVD player, the TV connected to it turns on and changes to the HDMI port that the player is connected to. Turn the player back off, the TV turns off, too.