Advice on first HT equipment and setup.

These should match your L&R
Chorus CC700 S Center-Channel Speaker, $450
Chorus 706 S Bookshelf Speaker, $495/pair
Chorus SW700 S Subwoofer, $695

This receiver has a room correction and it is one of the best bang for the buck.....together with Onkyo stuff.
Pioneer Elite VSX-91TXH AV Receiver ($799 new here)

This DVD will keep you up to date with the latest and greatest in Hollywood Production.
Toshiba HD-A20 1080p HD DVD player - like new ($200-$250)

About $2700 Total.....but you can shop around for less.

Good Luck Freddy

This DVD will keep you up to date with the latest and greatest in Hollywood Production.
Toshiba HD-A20 1080p HD DVD player - like new ($200-$250)

I would not recommend going HD-DVD - at this time it looks like HD-DVD is a dead duck.

Go Blu-Ray if you go High Def...or go cheap DVD and wait for Blu-Ray to come down in price...

You really think it is over.......I don't know.
I wouldn't be so quick and buried HD DVD (just not yet). I have seen it, time and time again. If there is money to be made.....both formats will coexist. Eventually, one will win over. Untill new format.

Freddy50; A couple of things :
1. Do not omit the center channel speaker ! It is , IMO the most important speaker for HT . Probably 75% of the movie will come from this speaker !
2. You said that you don't want to break the bank so here goes... try Axiom center channel and rear dipole surround speakers . I had these mated with my Electra 926's and they matched rather well ! Quite inexspensive and work well for HT , just don't try to use them for music .
I bought these from this Canadian company's "blem" stock .
They are only a wood look vinyl laminate but it is quite nice and I could not see any blemish ! These three speakers should be in the 600 - 700 dollar range total new .
I was driving them with an Onkyo H/T receiver . The Onkyo was A/B'd against Pioneer and Harmon Kardon , in my system , and sounded the best . The new ones will offer HDMI connection and work with HD and Blueray DVD formats . They start at around $550 and go up giving you more power ,
HDMI connections and other features . That would leave you with @ 700 dollars for a DVD player , cables ( rat shack , blue jean etc.) and shipping .
3. You have not mentioned a sub-woofer . Again , IMO this will be an important speaker for H/T use . You will need that chest thumping , dish rattling effect to round out your H/T experience ! It does make a difference . If you didn't go crazy on the DVD player you might have enough left to purchase a 12" sub on the used market .

Good luck .

The good news is there's no need for you to switch the interconnects between receiver and stereo amp. All you need to do is hook the front L/R preamp outs from the receiver into an open input on your integrated amp and you're done (you just need to set a "reference" volume level on your integrated if you don't have an HT passthrough -- I used the half way mark on the volume control to make it easy -- so the volume level remains balanced). Best of both worlds without having to change interconnects. The receiver stays out of the system until you switch to HT and your 2-channel rig stays pure.

I'd recommend doing this in stages. Start with something like an Onkyo HT receiver. If you can spring for the 875 as it can upconvert and upscale all your video sources like TV, VCR, DVDs, etc., which is nice if you need it. If you don't care or don't need it buy one of the cheaper models with the features you need. The Oppo would be an excellent and cheap DVD player, but either LG or Samsung makes a Universal hi-def player so you don't have to worry about HD DVD vs. Blu ray.

I'd start with that and hold off on the center channel to see if a phantom center works for you. If you or others don't have to sit off to the side too much you may find this more than acceptable (I did, and by definition it's a perfect match for your L/R speakers). If not you can always add a center later, but with your L/R speakers I bet it would work pretty darn well without a center channel speaker since they're probably set up properly already with a solid center image of their own. Oh, and you'll save a good bit o' cash to boot.

For the rears anything from Athena, Axiom, Gallo, Paradigm, PSB, etc. should be fine at least to start.

A bonus is you can start playing around with surround recordings as well, which I find really fun even though I'm a 2-channel guy myself.

Best of luck.