OK, build quality is obviously important, too. Customer service - is'nt that more an issue of where you buy it from, than the manufacturer?
More and more, if you have any problem with some electronic gear, the seller refers you to the manufacturer. This is especially true if you buy from an online seller.
I doubt it, see this
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-bandwidth_Digital_Content_Protection
The other thing that bothers me about the Marantz is that tiny porthole display. I know my aging eyes won't see squat from the couch. But maybe I should just assume that front panel displays are generally useless? (I'm mostly thinking about the bother of having to turn on the TV just to switch sound modes, like from (5.1) movie to (stereo) music mode.)
All this sounds like the analysis paralysis I encountered when I first bought a home theater receiver 15 years ago. I was making the transition from a much older home stereo receiver where all its features were simple and intuitive, to the brave new world of digital sound processing. The web pages from the receiver manufacturers talked about a bewildering amount of features that I did not understand. I didn't know if I would benefit from them, or if I would even use them.
I found the TV display (instead of the receiver's front panel display) very useful when I first installed the receiver and did the initial setup. After I got used to things, I often didn't bother with it.
After about a month or two of use, I finally got used to it (a mid price Denon AVR with an absolutely terrible owner's manual) and learned that the most important interface was in the remote control and not on the receiver's front panel. Most AVR web pages give the remote control little or no attention.
I've now owned two different AV receivers, the original Denon, and about 7 or 8 years later I bought used a B&K AVR507. The second time around, learning the receiver's "operating system" was simpler, even if it was more capable and complex than the older Denon.
The Marantz receiver you mentioned seems like it is a reasonable product. It claims 100 wpc, and does have preamp outputs available for all the channels if you ever decide to add an external amplifier(s). In the long run, I think those are the most important features to have. If you mentioned the speakers you have or plan to use with it, I don't remember them, but this receiver will
probably drive most speakers.
Maybe you might benefit from reading the owner's manual for the Marantz receiver to see how you might actually operate it once you've done all the set up.