Sounds like a good start. I look forward to hearing how the weekend turns out.

I did fiddle around more this morning with setup and kind of like the fact that you can watch any movie while the receiver is on standby. The Outlaw guide did state that a little more power is being use to control the hdmi switching. This is capability is great for the wife. She doesnt have to call me before she watches a movie she like.

I've done quite a bit of listening with my CDs and watching Bluray movies using the SR5005. The stereo imaging is not the same as the 950 it's replacing but when switched to NEO:Music format, it more than compensate for the imaging I was looking for (NEO6:Music format use the center channel). With the Marantz, I finally experienced the air that most REF 3 owners talk about. I kind of like that airy presence which is new to me. Movies in Bluray are fantastic!! The clarity of the picture is so much better than when the player is directly hooked up to the TV. I'm not sure why that happens. All I did is move the output from the Blueray Player (BP) to "BD" input of the SR5005 and of course the HDMI output to my TV. All I can say is the HDMI switching is AWESOME!! It's really very convenient for me to own this receiver. My BP, DirectTV and PS3 are hook up to their respective HDMI input and HDMI out to the TV. I can leave the SR5005 on standby and watch direct TV without turning the receiver on. That's PRICELESS!! My wife just like to watch regular TV.

I contemplated on returning this receiver and emailed Scott for an RMA... Scott took a while to send me the authorization due to the Hurricane power outage, that gave me more time to play around and come to conclusion to keep the Marantz. I like the airy sound, the HDMI switching, the not so perfect Audyssey and HD Audio. The two things I didn't like (the receiver gets hot and the stereo imaging) I can live with. I'll keep playing with the settings and hopefully someday without upgrading to AV7005 I'll figure out the right settings to get that stereo imaging that I seem to miss.

With the BP hooked directly to the TV it is doing all the decoding. If it was not outputting at full resolution it may have looked a little worse than if the SR5005 is upscaling to 1080P. You should check the settings on your BP and the SR5005 to make sure they are set for maximum your TV can handle.

I replaced my Polk RT55i surround speakers with RS750... Now I'm quite satisfied with my theatre setup. My SR5005 is not bad after all...