I am trying to make a similar decision. Have a Yamaha 1400 right now with Oppo 970, WII, and Comcast DVR/Cable. Since it only has 2 components the WII components go to the TV. Got a new Panny 58" 800U Plasma on the way. Thinking maybe it is time to cleanup my A/V setup and get and HDMI received. Would be nice to just run one cable from receiver to TV and one cable from Comcast box and Oppo to receiver.
I was going to order a Yamaha 663, great value, but then decided I would probably later regret only having 2 HDMI inputs and don't want the clutter of an HDMI switch for when I upgrade to a different video game system.
The 863 is great but I agree with most that it is not strong as far as bang for the buck. I can get last years Yamaha 1800 for $700, that's a bit more than I want to pay. Then I started reading in depth about the Denon 1909. Everyone really seems to love the Audessey (sp?) features both EQ and volume leveling. In fact a guy that was troubleshooting a problem with his DVD player who had an 1800 when out and bought a 1909 Denon to rule out the receiver (it wasn't the receiver) but ended up keeping the 1909 and selling the 1800 because he liked the 1909 so much!
So keep the 1400 and wait for prices to come down on the 1909? Or spring for it now and stretch a little beyond my budget seems to be my dilemma. But if I fork this kind of money out and have HDMI handshake issues and have to use component, I'll be SO pissed that I just didn't keep my 1400 and just swap the TV out and be done with it.
