Just a quick update.
The Sony STR-V444ES is off to my parents house to replace their Dolby Surround receiver.
In it's place is a shiny new Denon AVR3808ci!
The remote is not a good design but I have my trusty Harmony 880 set up to run the Denon.
I'm still digging into the menus, this sucker has a lot of bells & whistles as well as some nice horsepower!
It's going to be a while before I figure everything out.
Fortunately I downloaded the owners manual before I got the receiver so I'm not hunting around blind.