I don't feel that buying an upconvert dvd is worth it when HD DVD players are hitting the market now. Many movie makers have already publicised that they are going to start making movies and HD DVD and Blueray till the market decides which format they are going to use. As for cables. The cables in your home theater system should cost around 10% of the total price of your setup.

I bought all of my cables off of ebay. I found a lot of Acoustic Research cables very cheap.