You do have a bewildering amount of choices out there setting up your first decent HT. Some basic philosophies you may want to be guided with:
(1) Three components will form the very heart of an HT system. The video monitor, the AV processor and the speakers. I'd concentrate on these three very much and maybe put the szieable part of my budget on any of them.
Just a note on Plasma TVs. They're very attractive in terms of size and color brillance, but are said not to last long to be a good investment. LCDs are better in that department but are not known to give off the same brillance and sharpness.
Regarding players, most decent brands share much of the digital processing circuitries and player mechanisims. So within the same price point, there are very few edge from one to another. There's a good chance I'd get excellent audio and video from a decent entry-level player than from an entry-level receiver, amplfier or speakers.
(2) What is good for music is good for HT. But not the other way around. If you plan to have a separate music system, this may not matter much. But if you do want your HT multi-channel system to eventually play multi-channel high resolution DVD-A and SACD, or even play a stereo subset from it, it makes senses to follow this guide.
There are musical HT receivers such as ARCAM and ROTEL among your list that I have heard. You may want to check out NAD and Harman Kardon.
(3) Use speakers of similar if not identical sonic timbre or coloration all throughout. Speakers of the same series in a brand is the easiest to attain this. Again, what is good for music is good for HT, not the reverse. So you may want to consider speakers pairs or sets that are geared towards musical playback and filter out those cubes and satellite systems that can sound impressive on HT but are awful in music.
From your list, I don't think I can go wrong with a B&W paired to a ROTEL. Afterall, B&W uses Rotel as its official amp to voice and design their speakers. Not that either brand won't sound better or similar with other brands. But I'd consider it a safe match at the very least.
(4) Go separates. AV processors are the most vulnerable to obsolescence. Like Dolby prologic 10 years ago supplanted by DD and DTS today. And there are new formats like DTS-EX, DD-ES, DTS96/24, DTS neo , DPLII, DPLIIx. Soon there could be SDDS and height channel encoding. And then there is 5.1, 6.1, 7.1, etc. You will probabaly have to set your own limit as to what you want to have.
At any rate, going separate can give you the advantage of future upgradability. Dispose the AV processor, not the power amps. In a receiver, you may have to dispose all of it. If you have to get a receiver, get one with pre-amplifer outputs for ALL the channels and/or main amplifier inputs for ALL the channels. That way, you can upgrade to a more feature-laden AV processor or a more powerful mutli-channel amp later on.
(5) Do some work on your room where you plan to put your HT. There should be the least light reflection on the monitor screen from where you sit. Bass traps are ideal to get a smoother bass response. As far as possible don't let any two parallel reflecting surfaces sandwich your listening position to preclude standing waves. Treat one side to be absorptive or diffractive, not necessarily both. Thick carpeting, canvass paintings and draperies can give a much better reverb decay quality so you hear more from the speakers than secondary reflections.
(6) Don't get bogged down on which to use in audo, digital or analog. The former is pretty simple relatively speaking. In fact, most DVD-video players out there prefer this route as they don't sport the multi-channel 5.1 analog outs that universal, DVD-A or SACD players have.
In video, the digital out is preffered using the DVI termination of your player and screen. Not all receivers and players in the mid-price point sport DVI connection. But most recent plasma screens have this. So you may want to consider this in your purchase. Otherwise, the analog progressive scan via component connection would be the next best thing. Followed by interlaced component video connection. Followed by s-video. Composite video is last in terms of quality pictures.
Just my thoughts.
