Cables are a huge money maker for many retailers as you just discovered. Obviously you're no sucker or you wouldn't be questioning it.

I personally buy my cables from Monoprice.com for significantly less and have never had a problem....we're talking HDMI and optical for the $10 range.

I personally am not a fan of power conditioners, just not a need in most US environments. You may wish to consider a surge protector if in a lightning prone area, again they are all over the price scale at the local retailer, but can be had for much less....always do a Google "shopping" search on any item of interest....try it using the items in your quote.

Curious why you are interested in Plasma...currently the LCD panel is the HDTV of choice.

You can usually beat any local retailer on big items like Flat Panels; at Amazon.com...they usually come with free "white glove" delivery that unpacks and places the unit right in it desired location just like a local delivery from any retailer would do. Oh and no sales tax most places.

Here is a link that might be useful: Monoprice.com

yep as long as you do not buy garbage cables you will be ok a lot of people think the more the cable cost the better ,this is not true at all ,monster cable just has really good makiting, and they bank on the average consumer not knowing any better,as for the fiber optic cable when they do the connection of the connectors"who ever built the cable" you are only allowed a certian amount of db loss or the cable has to be reterminated so no matter what cable you get you will be ok the only thing with the fiber optic cables is to try to choose one that has a more rugged looking connector this will be the point where the cheap one may fail if abused.other than that personally even if you did have a decent size db drop you would be ok it is only your stereo system .fiber optics can handel way more info than that,as far as i know we have not maxed it out yet with our technology,but i did take my fiber course a while ago.lol.

Yep they really get you with those cables in the big stores. Monoprice is a good one to buy from. Another place where I buy all my cables is Blue Jeans Cables. Have been buying from them for a couple years and never had a problem.

Here is a link that might be useful: BlueJeansCable.com

Went to monoprice. Got 3 HDMI 1.3a category 2 cables for 15 bucks. THREE of them! 3 6' cables for less than 1/3 of what they wanted for 1 cable at BB!

I got all of my cables (optic, HDMI, a couple of others) from monoprice.com and would do it again.

Also, I have a 50" plasma and wouldn't trade it for LCD, DLP or anything else, regardless of size.