[mousepod]

If I were you, I'd go to radio shack and grab an off-the-air HD antenna for <$50. If you're in the right place, you'll be able to get most of the off-air network HD programming.

Or......

If your TV is cable-card ready, you could get a card from your cable TV provider for minimal extra cost - you can't record the shows, but at least you can watch them "live" in HD.

(Note: once we went HD, we dumped the TiVo and went with Comcast's HD-DVR box, which, compared to TiVo, sucks. However, it does allow time-shifting of all programming.)

I'm also not about to choose between HD-DVD and BluRay either, so we bought an Oppo player, which upscales SD DVDs to HD. The reason that the Oppo is the best SD DVD player, IMO, is because it will also convert from PAL->NTSC, and play DiVX files. Since your TV is on the smaller side, you could get the DV-970HD.

And as far as component cables go, you might get away with using analog audio RCA cables for component video, but since component video needs 75 ohm and analog audio cables can vary from 50-110 ohm, your mileage may vary.