Rip DA777ES - time 4 upgrade

[dalemissen]

Hi, my first post on these forums.

My Dad used to be a valued member of many forums and pretty sure he was here too. He passed away in February and left me his DA777ES and speakers SS-X9S (four plus centre and sub). Unfortunately the receiver couldn't hanle the stress of loosing Dad and being put into the hands of a noob. First the right rear channel then last week all went.

I am now looking at replacing the receiver, keeping the speakers and building a Home Theatre PC. A set up that he will look down on me and smile!

My main use of my home theatre is gaming on PS3, secondly, watch bluray, then free to air tv, then DVDs. I use my PS3 as source mainly and can not stand the audio through the tv.

I am pretty dollar concious, but don't want any less than what I had with the 777ES. I have been looking at the 5300ES, but have some questions.

Is the video from PS3 enhanced through receivers to tv? Is it better (and possible) to split HDMI and plug HDMI from PS3 straight into tv then audio into receiver or just use optical? (if that makes sense?)

Is the 5300ES more than what I need? Anything cheaper that will do similar job?

Lots of questions (I know... noob) hopefully you can help?

Thanks