Don't worry to much about upscaling, and the Denon is fantastic at that price, what speakers are you going to use.
Alternative to the Denon are the Onkyo 607, Yamaha with some cracking new models coming, , also Sony and Marantz.More important would be how many hdmi sockets you require, pre-outs, ipod connections, 3d ready etc.If your going for a decent sub/sat system then the Denon would be a great choice at that price.If specs are important then i would wait and see whats coming up.