Recommendations: poor college kid; NAD?

I have always been into music and movies, expescially when it comes to home theatre. That should be the first thing i say: I am looking for this more for Home Theatre than pure music. That said, I was looking online for a receiver, when i ran across a Denon THX Dolby Digital, etc, etc that got my heart pumping. In the computer lab where I work (and where I was veiwing this piece of machinery), a teacher came up and was telling me about the system he has built thus far, and then recommended NAD to me as a high quality, low frills reciever. I checked out their website and found something with THX, but still that looked like an excellent receiver. What I am wondering is if you guys have any advice on a nice receiver that will support what I want to do, which is mainly watch DVDs. I would prefer if it had that "optical digital input," since from what I hear that is the best way to transport the information, but i might be wrong on that too. Any advice you guys have would be great! thanks!