Just purchased the Panasonic TC-P60ST30 Plasma and need some help with designing a surround system for my room.

I was planning on purchasing a Panasonic Blu ray player w/HDMI out but I also want to record some weekly shows. I read somewhere you could build a "Home Theater" PC for cheap and get the surround from the PC as well as record to DVD/hard drive.

I have some great speakers and rack power amps for the sound... so I'm thinking a receiver is redundant as far as power/speakers go.

1. Is the HDMI (HDAVI control 5) via ARC a more robust connection vs the optical?

2. Should I just go the PC route and build in a nice HDMI Grafx card, surround sound card and Blu ray drive/DVD burner?

The TV already has WIFI/LAN connectivity along with Viera Link/Tools.

Thanks for any suggestions!

Pep