Found a great deal on a Yamaha YHT-497BL

My wife gave me a choice of getting a new coffee maker, or home theater system. She just made it clear the system would have to be what we need. So, I went the way of a home theater. Our coffee maker is fine, no need for a k-cup, or whatever...
So, I made my way here, started looking at multiple threads and reading everyone's opinions/experiences. I checked Amazon, NewEgg, Frys, Tiger Directs,... the list goes on and on. Almost exhausting, but I enjoyed it.
I made a list of receivers, speakers systems, and also HTiB units. I had my list of must-haves, and wants. So, with my list, along with general prices, and my Droid, I went out with my daughter today and found an open boxed Yamaha YHT-497BL for $290. Nothing missing, no damage. A customer must have had the box opened to check it out, then didn't want it. Lucky me.
I'll come back and update with my setup experience, and general thoughts later on. From what others have said, I think the only thing I need for it right now is either 14 or 16 gauge speaker wire.
Now, I'm anxiously awaiting my wife to come home from work. I'm going to make sure I have a coffee waiting for her...

OK, so I haven't taken a whole lot of time to play with the new system, but I did use the YPAO, and it was quick and easy. Even my wife says she can hear the difference compared to our previous system, and it's nice that it doesn't have to be as loud to sound better. We have a very open layout downstairs, so I'm going to research some more on speaker layout and setup, but TV/movies sound good so far. I haven't listened to music on it.

There is one issue, though. When turning all of my components on to watch TV, there is static on the TV for about 30 seconds, then perfectly clear. Audio is fine. I haven an XBox 360 and DISH Network ViP 722k both going to the receiver via HDMI. Then, HDMI out to a Vizio plasma. We never had this issue with our previous system. I've changed HDMI cable around, and no change. I contacted Yamaha Technical Support, and he claims it is a "hand-off" issue with the DISH box. Since then, I've played around and there was static even when using the 360, and the DISH wasn't even on. I have another TV in my game room I can carry down and see if there is a difference, but if this turns out to be a receiver issue, hopefully Yamaha or Best Buy will correct it; I'm not sure my wife can live with the static.
Has anyone experienced anything similar to this? Maybe I can contact DISH and see if we can get a newer box.