that the day will come that you replace that 14ish year old TV, & that will further justify upgrading, & therefore validating a bit more budget.

When these things happen, you will want a basic A/V receiver which has the HDMI 1.3a connectivity which has only become available in the past year & a half. HDMI is the connector of choice in the future because it provides high quality potential for both video & audio in one cable.

Your needs do not appear to be very complex. Receivers have become better overall & great value over time. You will probably not need any more than a basic receiver (around $250-$275) unless you get caught up in new speakers which might be a difficult load; i.e. drawing substantially lower than the most common 8 ohms.

Yes, the newness interlude can easily lead to new paint disease for intriguing new speakers (yes, it happens.) Justice would then involve a newly thought out, higher budget.

I guess you have some kind of DVD disk player now. If it is either quite cheap or several years old, a moderate price replacement will grant you a oh so nicely, newly crisp picture. My choice of brand for disk players would be either Denon or the directly sold Oppo. About 200 bucks tops will do.

You probably regard your speakers as quite sufficient. Same with me, then I slowly developed the bug. In that event, remember the speakers are the source of most all you sound difference. Each brand has its own sound character. The receiver is meant to be neutral & for practical purpose, they do.

Feel free to post back with more specific things.