i have a 990, and am buying a new Samsung LCD (LN52A750) - and a new Blue ray (dont know which one yet) to feed it... i am assuming i can sumply buy an HDMI to DVI cable for the Blueray => 990 conection , and a DVI => HDMI connection for the 990 to LCD connection, but should i use an optical connection from the Blueray to the 990 for the audio? or buy a Blueray that "decodes" to "lossless, blah, blah, blah" thru the 5.1 analog inputs on the 990? i'd truely appreciate advice or opinions.. thanks!

You will need to make an audio connection of some sort. Depending on the player, you will want to either use optical/coaxial or multichannel analog. A few newer players will decode the new audio formats internally and output them as analog (Panasonic BD50, Sony S550, a couple of upcoming Pioneers, and Denon's big expensive one), and for those you'd be best served to use the multichannel analog. For other players, the optical/coaxial route would let you hear the core DD/DTS tracks contained within the new format bitstreams.

Thanks!