Need budget HT Receiver with extreme convenience

I'm looking for the following and hoping you all have some recommendations. This is for the TV in the family room, and since it's my wife's primary watching venue, the priority is convenience and ease of use, not sound quality. My wife would be content to just listen to the sound from the TV, however, for my sake sonics are important. I've tried many a HT receiver and couldn't bear the sound quality. I have been using a Sony STRDA555ES receiver that sounds good, but it just died and wasn't the easiest to operate.

Budget: $500 or less. The more "less" the better

Must haves:
Remote controllable using the Verizon cheapie remote control (so I assume this means it must be consumer brand/model).
- Power on, volume +/- , and source switching
HDMI switching
3 HDMI inputs
automatic input signal detection and mode switching

Like to haves:
Good sound quality
resonably compact
S-Video to HDMI upconversion

Don't really need:
7 channel power (only need 5.1)
high power output
AM/FM Tuner

thanks in advance.