Best Diagram for hooking up home theater

Can someone explain to me step by step or direct me to a diagram for the best way to hook up the following, using the highest quality connections, TV, RECEIVER, and Blue Ray will be brand new.

I'm a newbie and I'm going to attempt this on my own.

Receiver
Plasma HDTV
DIRECT TV BOx
5 channel Speakers
Power SUB
Blue Ray player
VCR
Cd Changer

I see some diagrams recommend the HDMI run from DIRECTV box to receiver, where others show HDMI from DIRECTV box straight to TV.

Is Digital Fiber optical best for Audio?

GREATLY appreciated,
J

You asked for it, so here it is!

http://www.highdefforum.com/speakers-surround-sound/83182-surround-sound-system-speaker-placement-guide.html

Cabling schemes are dependent on the specific capabilities of each piece of equipment, not generic categories such as "receiver" or "Blu-ray player". You first need to determine what kinds of connections your equipment supports and then put together a cabling diagram based on that list. For example, if your AVR handles audio over HDMI, then you would likely want to run the DirecTV box through the receiver. But, if your receiver does not do audio over HDMI, then you would run HDMI from the set top box to the TV for video and a separate optical or coax connection from the set top box to the receiver for audio.

As a general rule, try to run your devices through your receiver, which will act as the hub of your entertainment system. So, you should start by learning the capabilities of the AVR. If it does HDMI audio and has enough HDMI inputs for all of your components, then the cabing scheme will be fairly simple. If not, it gets more complicated.

The one simple part is that the speakers will be attached to the speaker terminals on the receiver and the powered subwoofer will be attached to the SW preout on the receiver. The receiver manual will spell all of that out for you.

I'm guessing that the best diagrams are contained in the owner's manuals of your various pieces of equipment.
BD