Starting and Home Theatre and need help

The advantage of the older receivers is they can have have good analog sections that are a step up from what most HDMI 1.3 receivers currently have and are available at good prices. The disadvantage is that to take full advantage of the audio on BR, they require the use of the analog inputs, which usually means you cannot apply any post processing and require extra cabling. Not sure now much of the details of BR you know, so here is some background - sorry if you already know this. Blu-Ray has new HD audio formats (LPCM, Dolby TrueHD, DTS Master Audio) which are a step up from the tradtional Dolby Digital and DTS found on SD DVDs. The new HD Dolby and DTS formats need to be decoded either in the player or in the receiver. If decoded in the player, you need HDMI 1.1 to pass the resulting LPCM to receiver or you can send in via the analog outs. To have the receiver decode the HD audio, you need to pass the bitstream to it, which requires HMDI 1.3a. If you try to pass BR HD audio over optical/coax you will get the traditional DD or DTS, not the new better sound. If the BR player decodes the new codecs it can put it out over the analog outs and you can input those into an older receiver. Most receivers do not digitize the analog inputs, so no processing (like PLIIx for 7.1 output or bass management) cannot be applied. If you have the Pioneer BR player (51 or 05), it does not currently decode DTS HD MA, but Pioneer has said in will provide it sometime in early 2009. It does do Dolby TrueHD and LPCM. In addition, it has a fixed crossover of 120Hz, which may or may not fit with your speaker and sub. It also does not allow you to set speaker distances, although this may or not be a significant issue. The 51/05 have excellent DACs (Wolfson 8740) so using the analog outs to a receiver like the Arcam should give excellent results, also long as you are aware of the limitations. Current mass market HDMI receivers (Pioneer, Yamaha, Denon, Onkyo) all have 1.3a and decode the new codecs, but typically do not have the audio quality of higher end 2 channel integrated amps or separates. If your current pre-amp has a home theater bypass mode you could keep it for 2 channel and use a receiver from 5.1 HT. For HMDI, try either Monoprice or BlueJeans Cable. Both are good quality and much lower priced than what most stores carry. I like BlueJean myself. As always, the choices here involve tradeoffs in price, quality and convenience. And, if you have the Pioneer 51/05 check the website for firmware updates. A new one should be coming out before Thanksgiving.