I've found Denon, HK, Marantz, Onkyo, and Yamaha to all make good receivers.
I find HK, Marantz, and Onkyo have great deal where I look. Accessories4less and the HK refurb store on ebay.
For yamaha I'd buy it from the AH store.
Denon I'm unsure of. Maybe a denon fanboy can chime in for us.
By far the cheapest hdmi receiver is the HK AVR 254 around 200 off the HK store on ebay. But it's got quirks.