Benefits of HTIB w/ HDMI

As of right now, you won't be losing anything as long as you are using optical cable but in feature *maybe* HDMI will be the standard for audio too.

The only downside for me was I had to run 2 cables to my projector since the dvd player will only upconvert over hdmi. I ran a component out of the AVR for everything else. From what I hear cable boxes with hdmi out are a pain anyway, most of them don't work through a receiver. Something to do with copywrite protection, once they are hooked to a receiver they won't output.

Benefits... well first of all it's convenience. Then the quality over any other type of cable, upscalling up to 1080p, and the ability of switching between hdmi component source, without the hassle of changing multiple cables.

I use my S790S mainly with my projector. My setup includes only 1 cable back to the projector with all the video components going into an HDMI switch. Optical cables going to the receiver. Everything works great! Bought the 5 x 1 HDMI switch from Monoprice for 112.00. When I was looking for a Home Theatre system for < 500 I couldn't find a receiver that had 5 HDMI inputs so I decided to go with the HDMI switch and it all worked out well.