mda1957,

As far as the sound quality "you want", that is ultimately up to you. If you have a surround sound system available to you, I'd definitely consider hooking it up to take advantage of that feature.

If you connect the Cinemate system, check to see if it has an optical input. When you watch 5.1 broadcasts or 5.1 movies, the optical will carry the signal to your surround sound speakers.

If you only have RCA inputs, then you'll only be able to get surround sound out of the DVD player (if it is included in the system). To get surround sound capabilities from other sources, it will require an optical cable.

Hope that helps!

--HDTech