STEP 1-Choose the amount of power of your receiver.
Make sure that the receiver has enough power for the speakers you'll be using it with, and the room you'll be using it in. In general, the larger the room the more power you'll need.

STEP 2-Choose the type of decoding you want.
For basic home theater decoding you'll need Dolby Digital and dts decoding. To stay up on the latest in Movie Sound technology you might want to get a receiver with 6.1 or 7.1 channel decoding.

STEP 3-Decide if you want multi-room capability.
Another option to consider is dual-room/dual-source capability. This allows you to enjoy surround sound in your main room while someone else listens to a different source in another room.

STEP 4-Choose the amount of input options you'll need.
Make sure you get a model with enough inputs to handle all of your audio and video components.
Digital Inputs-allows a direct digital connection between your source and your recorder for maximum fidelity recording.
Composite-to-S-video conversion-it lets you send a variety of A/V sources to your TV through a single S-Video connection. It works with any signal entering your receiver (composite or S-Video)
Component video conversion-is more flexiable, letting you send signals from composite, S-video and component video inputs to your TV via one component video connection.