Building HT in US to bring back to India

[khatarnaak]

I am in a similar place like others on the forum. Putting together a home theater in US to carry it back for parents to India this Christmas.

Usage: My parents want to setup a HT with projector, primarily for watching movies occasionally, TV/cricket in HD occasionally and music

Setup: They would need to connect a DVD player, cable box, ipod and a laptop. For that, my plan was:

• Buy projector from US and carry it in my carry-on on the flight. I bought Epson 8350 projector for $999 shipped (no shipping, tax) from visualapex.com. Hope it fits in the carryon, else will have to check it in.
• Buy receiver and speakers from US. Check them in in the box they shipped in for protection.
• Buy a DVD player locally, to avoid region/PAL issues

I am looking for suggestions for speakers and receivers to complete the HT. Since its for occasional use for my parents, it doesn't have to be absolutely over the top. eg. I took the $1k Epson 8350 over $2k Epson 8700. Any recommendations for speaker+dvd+receiver combo in the $300-$600 range in US?

My concerns:

• Should I simply checkin the speaker/amplifier box as one of the luggage on my flight, in it's original box? Any experiences with damage? theft in transit?
• Customs at Delhi airport? how do they judge the INR 25k limit v/s for personal use. eg. I could bring the projector back to US? Any best practices?
• Voltage and DVD region issues? Would a decent step-down transformer suffice? I am guessing the DVD player would be region 1 not 5. Any recommendations for multi region players?

I would appreciate any advice, or any pointers to existing threads. Have spent quite a bit of time researching the projectors and HT.