As a Home theatre noobie, I got some simple questions (simple for someone besides me) about setting up my system.

Firstly, I have
-SD Shaw PVR (Only RCA and Optical outputs),
-Yamaha 6050 receiver,
-HDMI upscaling DVD Player,
-a TV (yet to be purchased, but lets assume Dual HDMI)
- Athena 5.1 LS-50 speakers

What's the proper setup configuration, Including What Cable/wires will I need????

This is probably wrong but:

HDMI Cable from DVD player to receiver input?
Optical or S-Video from PVR to Receiver?
HDMI from Receiver Output to TV?


With these assumptions the cables I will need are:
2 HDMI and One Optical Cable/S-video?

If I get a spool of 14 Gauge Speaker wire, can I easily attach banana plugs to them as well?

I was planning on buying in one order from monoprice or electronicsforless

Any other thoughts or ideas??

I hope someone can help with my clueless audio knowledge... THANKS

anyone? thanks in advance

I would say that you are probably looking for the following:
HDMI from DVD player to receiver
HDMI from receiver to TV
(probably) Optical from DVD player to receiver
Optical from PVR to receiver
S-Video or Composite (yellow RCA cable) from PVR to receiver
S-Video or Composite from receiver to TV

You'll also need speaker cable (as you mentioned), and 14 AWG should be fine. Just make sure you get enough. You shouldn't have a problem connecting bananas to the cable, unless the cable you buy had an extremely thick jacket (which is unlikely, unless you're shelling out for "designer" cables).

The list above should be sufficient to connect you based on a couple of assumptions. First, that your receiver won't convert S-Video or Composite to HDMI (most don't, but some do). Second, that your DVD player won't output sound over its HDMI output, and/or that your receiver won't decode it even if it did. This is why the optical cable is needed from your DVD player to receiver--you don't lose any functionality this way anyhow. Anyway, hope that helps. If you have any questions, feel free to ask!

Great! That helps a lot thanks!

A couple more questions if you don't mind...

To hook up my sub woofer to Receiver, would this cable work?:

http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=102&cp_id=10236&cs_id=1023601&p_id=2743&seq=1&format=2

And are these the right Optical Cables you are talking about?:

http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=102&cp_id=10229&cs_id=1022901&p_id=2763&seq=1&format=2

Again, I appreciate all the help!

Those should work just fine. I don't know if you've used toslink (optical) cables before, but I want to give you a heads-up that has tripped up a number of people before. Toslink cables only fit into the hole in one way, and you just press in until you feel it click, but what throws a lot of people off is that there is usually a little plastic cap (often clear plastic shaped like a mushroom) over the end of the cable. You have to take that off before putting it it--otherwise it won't fit and won't work. Just thought i'd try to save you some frustration. Hope that helps! Enjoy!

cheers!