Two Questions: 1) Samsung Upconvert DVD Connection 2) Component Cable Quality?

Howdy all. Firstly, thank you Larry for all the help.

1) I am considering the Samsung HD960 upconverting DVD player to go with my 50" Samsung 5088 (1080P) DLP. My Denon receiver does NOT have HDMI. TV, DVD and Rcvr all have optical. The DVD says that it will not upconvert to 1080P without HDMI .. which my rcvr doesn't have. Should I even worry about that and just hook it up via component cables (video) and the optical (audio) to the rcvr or go optical to the rcvr and HDMI to the TV? Seems to me that upconverting to 1080P won't even make a difference in this case? Which begs the question about upconverting to 1080P in the first place. Thoughts on this?

2) Because my rcvr doesn't have HDMI I will be using component cables. I have heard lots of banter that the quality of the component cables do and do NOT make a difference. Which is true and which would you suggest?

Thanks all.

Jeff

My situation was similar so here's what I did:

I hooked up my DVD to my TV via HDMI for video only. Then I hooked up the DVD to my receiver via optical cable for the audio.

That way you can take advantage of 1080p and listen in surround sound and if you don't want surround sound you can use the TV for video and audio because of the HDMI cable. You will notice a difference between Component and HDMI. HDMI is a much greater picture when it is in use, however you will not get much use out of the 1080p function even with HDMI. The 1080p setup is for BluRay Discs (BD) and seeing as your only getting an upscaler then you wouldn't notice the difference. As most AV receivers do not have HDMI, people should still take advantage of HDMI. Let HDMI transfer the video. Then, use optical to transfer the audio. HDMI is digital and component is analog. That is where the quality difference stands out.