I wrote this little FAQ for a trade-in program that Mark Schifter of AV123 arranged with Outlaw, but it may be of interest to you for what it says about the 970. There was a long-standing "no audio" bug that seems to have been largely (albeit perhaps not entirely) squashed, but that bug never did affect the multichannel analog input. I suspect that Lizard King can offer some thoughts specific to that multichannel analog connection, as he's used it extensively with his 1070 (same platform as the 970) and a DVD player similar to what you are describing. As a purely analog multichannel pre-amp, it's probably one of the best bang-for-the-buck candidates out there.