Darth Simon, a 10.2 setup is simply 2 x 5.1 and not 10 channels and the sub. It's putting each discrete data for a channel to 2 speakers each, including 2 subs. This is not necessary, a huge waste of power and the effect is probably disasterous if your an audiophile, cool if your a techie maybe. If you want that room filling sound get those omnipositional speakers that are high-end and not just twice as many speakers...again, twice the wiring, twice the wattage and God knows the result of how you are positioning these things. What's the point of discrete channels. Anyway, yes, the key to a system first is the receiver. As Rikter and I have mentioned things progress, evolve and there is different options (DD, DTS, 2.0 stereo, pro logic, 5.1, 6.1, 7.1). Rikter mentioned THX which is pretty good to get a THX certified receiver...it passes criteria namely low THD (total harmonic distortion) and measures of power, clarity and separation. THX Ultra 2, as Rik mentioned is whole other level and is the audiophile's goal for a home theater setup. This costs $$$. thousands. Depending on what you can afford I would give you different advice. Onkyo has really incredible receivers and this is a huge step, swapable cards in the back for software, connections, etc. Basically its future-proof. That's big. Think about Component was the big thing 4-5 years ago, DVI and optical 2 years ago, and now HDMI (which PS3 will sport 2 of to do side by side 16:9 for 32:9 aspect...sick) is all the rage as it does digital picture and sound in one clean connection. Guess what most recievers that have HDMI at the moment are typically 2000+ dollar (and thats the low end). A cheaper system (in terms of price) can still sound great, but it needs to be wired right, set up right (programming) and the speakers need to be positioned right, oh and wiring is huge and often overlooked. This is where a guy like Rik, can tell you some funny stories of incredible systems that sounded and looked like crap because those things weren't done right. As far as DVD players the rage right now is something again with HDMI and is upconverting (to 1080i). HD-DVD is coming this Christmas with nearly 100 titles, X-Box360 is still guessing of whether to go with it or not as they are coming out late fall and its a huge gamble at this point in the game. Blu-ray is the other format (and in my mind as well as Rik's the better one) that sony has and is coming in spring along with the PS3. No one knows who'll wins, early adopters will pay big bucks for dual format players. Personally I will get the ps3 and have one (with HDMI, DVI, bluetooth, etc). As far as resolution 1080 is king for HD, but 1080P (progressive) is hitting and a number of screens Aquos, Apple's Cinema Display are supporting 2k or 3k resolutions. Many of the company's filming now are doing 2k or 4k stuff that's giving them room for the future. Many hollywood types are pushing for 4k in the coming years. Even more disgusting than that they have digital projectors that support 8k resolution that I can not even fathom. Sony showed a version of spiderman 2 in hollywood this way with many terabyte files...again can't even imagine what it looks like. So if you want cheap, do that I can give some advice. If you want expensive futureproof as best as you can.

This was a long explanation, but hope it helps. Rik can give lots of advice on the installation and execution, he's an expert/professional.