....expanding from car audio into home...need help

i certainly need help...tons of opinions desired...

alright...i've spent about 3 years forming great and wonderful opinions on car audio.

however, none of the brands that i use in my car make home stuff.....well, i take that back...nakamichi does. i'm sure that car audio stuff wouldn't work as well in the home as home audio would....

however....i don't want to jump into the higher end stuff for my apartment that i have in my car.

i'd like to get a *decent* reciever/tuner (i don't even know what the difference is) that i can hook up to my new bigscreen. (my roommates and i went in on a new toshiba 50" projection)

so...about what would i be looking to spend for a quality, low priced *thing* that will get me surround sound (and i assume that the new digital thingy is better than 5.1 surround?)

so...help me out guys. :) i know that it's all INCREDIBLY subjective....but, i'm pretty sure that i don't want to buy anything that they sell at best buy or circuit city, so i gotta get on the web to get help.

i appreciate it. :)