I've decided to invest into a home theater system. here's what I have:

1 xbox360 w/ component ( i would like to use digital audio out for 5.1)
1 PS3 w/ HDMI
1 Comcast reciever w/ HDMI (motorola silver model)

I'm not a huge audio nut, but want cool surround sound, want to keep it under $1000.

My TV has 2 HDMI inputs, so I probably just need a receiver w/ two HDMI inputs.

I'm pretty ignorant about this stuff too, if I get a 7.1 system, will it take 5.1 input from my xbox 360? It appears that PS3 outputs 7.1 over HDMI, is this correct?

The comcast box will output 5.1 over HDMI too won't it? Do most STB's do this? I'm not opposed to a 5.1 system instead of a 7.1 since my media room is a little small.

I use 360 for HD-DVD and PS3 for Blu-ray so any system for that is not needed.

Thanks for your recommendations

Hi, if you are looking for a cheap receiver check out the Onkyo TX-SR605. This one has 2 HDMI inputs and even upconverts the analog picture to 1080 using a faroudja scaler.

Price is around 470 Euros here. I don´t know the price in the US, but it shoud be the same.

http://geizhals.at/deutschland/a253662.html

It also supports the new formats: DTS®-HD Master Audio™, DTS®-HD High-Resolution Audio™, Dolby® True HD™, Dolby® Digital Plus™

Regards

Another series of affordable upconverting HDMI receivers is the Pioneer Elites. However, you still need to spend > $500 to get analog->HDMI, which leaves precious little for speakers. You probably also want some bass traps. Sure you can't find another $1000 somewhere? :-)

If you run dual cables to your TV, analog and HDMI, and can live with switching inputs on the TV as well as the receiver, you might get away a bit cheaper, but not much.