Actually these aren't stupid questions at all. I can't answer all of them but I'll give it a try...
1. Digital optical and digital coax cables are for audio, not video.
2. Analog video is either carried by a good old RCA cable (composite), a DIN connector (S-Video) or three RCAs (component). None of those carry audio.
3. Digital video is carried by DVI or HDMI. HDMI can include audio but I don't think anyone is using it yet. DVI is video only, no audio. With anything but HDMI you absolutely need separate cables for audio and video IF you need to get audio to your TV (see next point).
4. The normal setup is to run video out to your TV but not to run audio out since your receiver feeds it directly to the speakers. Unless there is some special reason why you want audio going to your TV (like you don't have any speakers
) don't worry about audio out.
5. (here's where I get off the edge of my knowledge) if your receiver doesn't have a digital out and your TV doesn't have a digital in I wouldn't worry about digital for a couple of years until the industry gets its act together. The best you can do with digital today (AFAIK) is run from a few DVD players directly to the TV, bypassing the receiver completely.
Unless someone else jumps in and explains why this is easy, I would forget about digital for now. Component analog is best, S-Video is second best, Composite is "least best"
Hope this helps a bit...
JB
