Tech Support Question

Ok, I've been doing my research regarding my upcoming purchases, and I have a question regarding HDMI cables. Apparently, with new components, HDMI cables are the cat's ass, making the jumble of red-yellow-white RCA cables obsolete, and also doing away with the need for fiber optic digital audio cables, S-video, and all that other nonsense that's been driving me nuts every time I try to hook up my home theatre system.

Anyhow, very soon (well, at least sometime before football season kicks off), I will be purchasing a new HDTV and also a new home theater system, too. My old TV still works like it's brand-spankin' new, but it's almost ten years old, and while it was nice back in 1999, well, it's pretty also on the trailing edge of technology--HD was just a glimmer on the horizon when I brought this baby home from Best Buy. And my Pioneer system, well, even though I got it on sale and got free financing and all that, I've never *really* liked it that much. First of all, it's silver, and I prefer black, second of all, it's bulky and old-school looking, third of all, it's very tempermental with DVDs--sometimes they just get hung up and don't play correctly (the most egrarious infraction is that every time I watch Ocean's Eleven, it freezes up on the scene where Matt Damon gets out of the elevator after they steal the pinch). It's not the DVD--it's the player, and no amount of cleaning the optic reader has helped. And fourth, my surround system/receiver/DVD player does not have HDMI outputs. So it's going to the pawn shop.

(In the meantime, I spent $40 on a Phillips progressive-scan DVD player at Walmart several months ago, and it works like a champ!)

So here's my question--once I get my new HDTV and surround sound home theatre system, my understanding is that to hook it all up and get awesome picture and sound is that I'll only need to use two (or is it three?) HDMI cables. Is this true?

From CNET:

HDMI is typically used to connect a high-definition device--such as an HD DVR--to an HDTV. To make the connection, you simply put one end of the cable into the HDTV's HDMI input slot and the other end into the device's HDMI output slot. And that's it--just one cable and you're all set for the high-definition experience. If you have an AV receiver, just put it in the middle of the signal chain. The output of the AV receiver goes to the HDTV and you connect your high-definition device(s) to the AV receiver's input.

Anyone have any experience with this stuff?

Mikey