Thanks, Gonk. I have seen you give very good advice on a few different threads and forums (such as the Oppo thread at AVS). So I respect your opinion.

After reading the HDMI primer and your overview of the 970, it appears that the 970 or 990 will work for me. However, I have one additional question about the lip sync function. I have not seen a need for it, but I wonder if I will need it once I upgrade my TV. I eventually will have an Oppo 980 and a Comcast HDTV cable box connected directly to a Vizio HDTV. I think the 980 has a lip sync function built in so that may not be an issue, but I don't know about Comcast. If the comcast cable box is unable to do lip sync, does that mean that I will have to connect the video signal to a preamp that has the lip sync features? If so, will I lose some picture quality by using an HDMI-DVI adapter?

Thanks.