yamaha RX V3800 receiver and digital music storage & use

[JohnGalt]

I have an RX-V3800. Great receiver with *excellent* sound quality but it's less convenient than I'd hoped with for digital music playback. While it can play back files from a USB flash drive it cannot play back files from an external USB HDD, something the PS3 has no problem doing. The sound quality of MP3 playback via the 3800's iPod dock is significantly worse than the sound quality of the same file played via the PS3 (I have a Seagate Freeagent connected to my PS3). The PS3 wins hands-down for ease of navigation and playback of large directory structures as well, the interface is light years beyond what the 3800 provides but that's to be expected.