if surround sound for the HDTV is an issue, then you need an a/v receiver because an amplifier alone does not have the audio preprocessing to decode movie soundtracks or network television Dolby soundtracks.
Do you "need" or "want" 3D TV (HDMI 1.4a) processing in the a/v receiver ? If not than there are several good sales on receivers with HDMI 1.3 processing that should work well.
