This is my biggest dissapointment with the 990, you have to use the OSD for almost everything besides source switching...truly a pain if you use DVI (which was the reason I bought the 990). My Sunfire Theater Grand 3 is 100% configurable via the front panel 7-digit bar-segment LED display (thats right, technically a far inferior display to the 990s). There is no reason that the 990 cannot do the same, I doubt the software would even require much work - just mirror (a close approximation at least) the settings on the current line of the OSD onto the front panel display. And design the menus so they are intuitive & hierarchical like those on the Sunfire.

To see what I mean, just check out the Sunfire manual, page 31:
http://www.sunfire.com/pdf/Theater%20Grand%20IV%20Manual.pdf

Rob