First the parametric equalizer. It only has two bands of equalisation, but the frequency on which each is centered is selectable by the user as is the width of the frequency band - very useful for taming a nasty peak. I did experiment with these, and they really are very flexible. However I have my MC-1 set up to use Lexicon's Bass Enhance feature which requires the processor itself to do the bass management, but the DIVA's settings can be disabled to avoid duplication of crossovers. Dolby Digital processors have built in compression to reduce the difference in levels between the quietest and loudest parts of a soundtrack.
Most processors only have one or maybe two settings which are applied equally to all channels.
The DIVA goes much further. It has separate compressors for each of the left, center, right and sub channels and the user can set individual settings for each channel. I dialled in some temporary settings and played some DVDs with wide ranging soundtracks. There are also options for limiters for each channel - useful for protecting your speakers, particularly subwoofer, from extreme output levels if your processor does not have limiters built in. The final set of adjustments are delay settings for each channel, and again they are more flexible than those in most processors.