Recommend a receiver around $250?

[repete66211]

I finally sold my Polk RM6750 speaker set to a buddy. I got him talked into a home theater of his own, so I'm helping him buy items and set it up. We're going with the Panasonic 60 Blu-ray player from Newegg, cables and such from Monoprice, so now I'm just stuck on the receiver part.

HD audio decoding isn't what I'm looking for so much as something that handles everything via HDMI. I have been happy with my Onkyo, so I'm looking at the TX-SR507 (since the 607 is probably more than he needs). Yamaha, Pioneer, Denon, Sony, whatever... The 507 is around $300. Can that price be beat by the other brands?

I see the Yamaha 663 for $330 on Amazon, but that's beyond the budget. I've already told this guy to budget $250 for the receiver (my bad!), so I think even the $300 is pushing it a bit. Yes, I know, you get what you pay for. But this guy really doesn't need much.