hard question

I would say HDMI is becoming more and more important

- with ICT on BD and HD-DVD and possibly on other stuff (cable/sat boxes/PCs....) that HDMI is becomming more important

- BD/HD-DVD also have added new better audio codecs (Dolby HD, DTS plus) that are lossless.

If he needs a receiver now, I would recommend something he does not mind upgrading in a year or two. I am guessing the new receivers that can handle 7.1 lossless through HDMI will come out sometime in 2008 and be extremely expensive.