Pickupmykeys: thanks for breaking it right down to a simple statement.
HomeDad: thanks for clearly pointing out that HDMI 1.1 would be required to make my planned for set-up partially future proof. Until you reiterated, I hadn't realized that the 3805 I've looked at may not be a great choice (no HDMI).
mdrew: Have you heard any predictions on when the XA2 may get a firmware update that allowed the various HD audio encoding? The common conception seems to be that the XA2 (with Reon) significantly better upconverts regular DVD's, and given there is nowhere convenient for me to readily rent HD content movies in my neck of Vancouver, that is very important. If the issue was rumoured to be resolved soon, I would probably hold off on buying an A35.
If I had the money, I would buy a receiver with HDMI 1.3 but the only new Denon 3808 that I can afford is off ebay has no warranty (and the third party warranty isn't available to non USA residents). The price of the Onkyo 875 also makes it impractical, plus I hope to one day have an Epic M80 system and I've read too many warnings about Onkyo amps and M80s. (The dream is to have an acoustically transparent projector screen with an M80 hiding behind it as centre channel, with two others as front...though as of yet I have neither a space in my home nor the savings account to achieve that dream).
Thanks to everyone for the help.
