The problem is that technology was pretty static until the late 90's. Then it took off almost on an exponential basis. This is why I no longer buy the top of the line for anything (electronics..anyway) It's just not worth it as technology changes too fast.

I'm eying the 4520 myself, but may wait until a new version of denon comes out (making the 4520 a bit cheaper)

Mark, if you do go with a new receiver, consider the Onkyo 818(with XT32)for about $700 at A4L , rather than the 3313 or X4000.

You should be able to get Dolby Digital and DTS if you run optical from player to receiver. If so, then you could run a seperate optical from TV to reciever to stream from your TV. I'm in the same boat with my older Denon-when I watch 3D movies, I have to compromise the audio.

Optical is limited by the AC-3 Spec to 5.1 with compression so no 7 channel or lossless formats will work. Probably the player will automatically downconvert.

For sure, but he would at least get 5.1 from a disk. Running player to TV to receiver via optical is only giving him 2 channels which can only be upgraded to PLII or Neo:6

After getting my VP160 and adding room treatments, I really starting trying to improve the sound of my 3808. I found a Denon to English dictonary on the web here: http://batpigworld.com/wp/
with it I was finally able to understand all the functions of my AVR. With littel effort I managed to get it to sound better than it ever had before. It was like I bought a totally new system--speakers and all. I recommend giving it a read.