About time to replace my 6 year old Pioneer receiver in an eventual path to upgrade my home theater setup. I would like HDMI switching (and up conversion would be nice too). I would also be interested in a future 7.1 setup, but 6.1 would also do the trick. Also partial to Sony, but not married to them either. I would like to spend no more than 500 bucks on the receiver(preferably around 300-350).

So I'm thinking

Sony STR-DG810

or even the Sony STR-DG910 when it is fully available,but it's at the upper limit of my range.

What else to be concerned about? HMDI 1.3?