I am about to migrate to a home theatre arrangement for my HD TV. Right now my cable box is connected directly to the set (Sony XRB3) via HDMI.
I intend to purchase a good AV receiver and Blu ray player and connect my cable box to the receiver via HDMI and from the receiver to the TV via HDMI.

My question is this: will I degrade the picture quality by first passing its signal through the electronics in the receiver as opposed to the direct rout from my cable box?

I am about to migrate to a home theatre arrangement for my HD TV. Right now my cable box is connected directly to the set (Sony XRB3) via HDMI.
I intend to purchase a good AV receiver and Blu ray player and connect my cable box to the receiver via HDMI and from the receiver to the TV via HDMI.

My question is this: will I degrade the picture quality by first passing its signal through the electronics in the receiver as opposed to the direct rout from my cable box?

I run mine through a Pioneer Elite 92 and didn't notice any degradation and it sure simplifies the switching between my cable box, PS3, DVD player and yes, a VHS player (lol).

I believe most AVRs are just pass through for video. Meaning PQ shouldn't be affected (although it does depend on how nice your AVR is). Mostly it act as an HDMI switch.