[Bradley_Z]

I have a dedicated theatre room that will have 7.1 speakers, a projector, a receiver, high definition cable or satellite, a DVD player, a universal remote, and maybe a computer or gaming console. I've decided on the Sony VPL-VW100 projector, and have 5 speakers already that came with the house, but am missing 2 of the wall speakers and subwoofer. Right now I am trying to figure out what receiver to get and have a lot of questions. I tried reading reviews of receivers but I don't know anything about them so its tough to decide anything when the reviews sound like a foreign language.

It seems like the main difference between receivers is how much power they have per speaker and the types and number of inputs that they have. Another thing is the upconversion feature as well as an autosetup for audio that a lot of them have.

I'd really like to know what kinds of inputs I'll need, how much power I need per speaker, and any other factors I should be considering when buying a receiver. I see a lot of receivers have 2 or 3 HDMI inputs, that doesn't seem life enough all my inputs are going to use HDMI. Do you have any suggestions for what I should get? I don't care about radio or ipod inputs.

Right now I'm very close to ordering the Denon 4306, which has 130 watts [er channel, 3 HDMI receivers and can upconvert analog inputs. It does not have any THX certification, but I don't know if that's a big deal or not. It said in some reviews that it is a good value as it has just about every feature and it's under $2,000.