So true Matt, I believe many people will take that stance. I cant even convince my boss to add a bit of sound to his 50" flat screen and he like music as much as the next guy, so I hardly think this is going to appeal to any but the most dedicated hardcore theater guy. My parents have 2 flat screens one plasma and one lcd and they couldn't care less about anything other than how big the screen was and the price and my dad is the one that got me crazy about audio. I even offered to send them my Yamaha receiver but they didn't want any of it. They have a great area in the basement that would make a great home theater but have no interest. About 2 yrs ago I bought them their first bluray player. I think more needs to be done to get people interested in HT. This is still an expensive hobby despite how cheap receivers are these days. I use the money I would have spent on beer to satisfy my HT addiction LOL
As someone, until recently, who was involved with installing and setting up A/V systems, even the ones that liked the idea of a sophisticated set-up and were willing to spend considerable money to do it, I would estimate a significant majority of those buyers still wanted essentially a "turn-key" HT system that they could turn on, turn off and make the necessary changes with as little complications as possible. As we all know, in recent years AVRs having been getting more sophisticated AND more complicated and most of the masses out there don't want to deal with "complicated".
As much as we "A/V geeks" know logically that adding additional equipment to a large screen television would be a far superior viewing and audio experience, I believe your parents and boss fall in to the category of my last sentence in the previous paragraph.
