Another question. Is there much difference in running the hdmi through the AV receiver versus running hdmi directly to the display. the display I'm hooking up has 3 hdmi inputs so logicaly I'm thinking bybassing the AV receiver would be better but is it really?

(I know I would still need to run dig coax or toslink the AV receiver for sound but if the video quality is far better it would be worth it to me since I'm running 30 feet of hdmi cable

Especially with HDMI there should be no difference. Now if you were talking component there would be a slight possibility that there would be difference depending on cables, cable length, and receiver. HDMI for the most part like optical or coax works or it doesn't work, there is no middle ground.

The only difference is if your player and TV both support HDMI 1.3 and your receiver doesn't.
Then your player will sync up using HDMI 1.2 with your receiver and you will lose the extra color depth 1.3 provides.

But of course that is really irrelevant at this point, because there are no sources that support deep color, and few displays that do either.

Upside to running it all through the receiver;
1. HD Audio codecs (if your receiver pulls audio from HDMI),
2. Ease of use by just switching the receiver and having the audio and video switch at the same time,
3. Simpler wiring (if your receiver pulls audio from HDMI)

Downside;
1. Scaler chip in receiver might be bad in a technical sense (but you can typically disable this and let the TV handle de-interlacing if it's better at it)
2. Cannot fine tune TV calibrations for each source since it's all being routed through one physical input on the TV instead of 2-3 different ones which you could theoretically tune individually

Here's what i do:

I run the HDMI (and component cables) to the TV. I run the TOSLINK and Digital Coax to the receiver for sound.

I ALSO run out from the TV-out using the good old fashioned RCA L/R cables to my receiver. I call this "In-Law" mode. When they come over to watch the kids or something, I leave the receiver on "In-Law" input and no matter what device they switch to it is heard in 2.1 (The TV downgrades the signal, as expected). They don't have to fiddle with the receiver except for volume.

When I use it, I change input AND the receiver to optimize sound.

Great idea DallasSF... I will be doing just that...I wonder if my upgraded Denon avr-4806ci upgraded will drop my Panny's th50pz800u and dmp-55 brdp video capabilities since my avr just barley got 1.2a "snuck" into it..seems blu-ray will Eventually support the xxyyy and "Deep Color" right? :)