OT: Home Theater for dummies

[Slick]

Long story short, my old receiver wasn't working right and I got a new one I am a little confused on the best way to set it up. I used to be very much into A/V and knowledgeable about such things until about 10 years ago when some of the new technology and terminology started to overcome me. I still wouldn't rate myself as a total dummy, but in the last several years, I haven't kept up with reading all the latest stuff like I used to. I can get everything to work (being an engineer and all) but I am pretty sure I don't have things hooked up the best way (after all, I am not an electrical engineer). I'd rather not go into all the gory details here since I have lots of specific questions regarding both video and audio setups also for my specific equipment.

I don't have state of the art equipment basically because my family room is not built for home theater so I'd lose the high-end effects anyway due to ambient noise, light and speaker configuration. I just want to configure my system for the optimum set-up and I have too many questions to be sure if it is. I also think I may have some components that can't use the newer features on my new receiver and I really don't want to upgrade any other components just now.

The question is: Is there a good on-line, or not, A/V reference for dummies? I can easily find out definitions of terms and such, and what connector to poke into what hole on each component to make it work. But what I am looking for is a discussion on the various ways that things work together, which is better, and why.

Thanks.