So, after having my system for a week, thinking my random but frequent problem where my Samsung LN52a650 tv couldn't get a signal from the dvd player it turned out that the culprit was the Samsung AS720 A/V receiver. I fiddled with it for several hours over the past week power cycling each device repeatedly trying to find a path that would always yield a working result but in the end it was futile.

I took it back to Fry's where I purchased it and bought the Onkyo S7100 to take its place. I ended up spending more, since there weren't any acceptable options (S6100 was my original choice)... and in the car it went. I had everything put back together in about an hour with enough time to watch some DTV and part of a movie to see how things worked after I used the "auto setup" feature. It works like a charm! Turn everything on and I am ready for action...

Alright, I almost have everything set up and I am starting to calibrate it for the best experience.  I ran across a post on avsforum.com containing multiple "optimized" calibration settings for the LN52a650.  Here are the urls, I ended up choosing the "ISF calibrated A750" option for now and I am considering trying out the zerog one in the next few days.  Changing these settings make such a huge difference that if you're not calibrating your LCD you're probably missing out on a lot!

zerog
ISF calibrated A750
Gmo0ve
CNET
Evil4Blue

Source: 

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showpost.php?p=14602315&postcount=6

I decided to buy a new audio / video system for my bedroom... so far I have purchased the following components:

TV: Samsung LN52a650 LCD
DVD: Panasonic S54K
A/V Receiver: Samsung AS720

The tv and upconverting dvd player completely blows my mind. It makes older dvd movies look unreal (in a good way) using Samsung's Auto Motion Plus 120hz! I had considered putting together a set of speakers and Onkyo receiver but decided against it since my room is only 10 by 15.   The AS720 HTIB (home theater in a box) has worked beautifully for me... I'm very satisfied.  I will post pictures once I have cleaned everything up.