Looking for tips on building a decent home theatre system.

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I recently got a raise on my job, and I also recently paid off most of my medical bills. Now I'm thinking it's time to invest in replacing my 22" TV with something more substantial, and also getting a decent speaker system to go along with it.

I am thinking of upgrading to 45" in terms of the TV. As far as the surround sound goes, I'll have to be careful. I will need a system that is durable, but I will also need something that my apartment neighbors won't be horribly annoyed with. Then again, I'm usually in bed by 9pm, so they won't have to worry about me watching Saving Private Ryan at 3 in the morning.

I will need to figure out some solution for my multiple gaming consoles (I currently own a GameCube, a PS2, a 360 and I have a PS3 that I'll pick up on September 17th). Not to mention, I also want to invest in a region-free Blu-Ray player.

I could be silly and state that I want to find a working laserdisc player so that I can pull out all of the anime I watched as a teenager that will never get a DVD or Blu-Ray release at this point, but that would just be silly. (OK, I really do want to do that eventually. I really do have a large box of anime LDs sitting in my closet.)

So, I am thinking of putting together a good home theatre system in about two or three months from now.

Anybody have any words of wisdom?

there is nothing silly about wanting a laserdisc player for your beloved old media. if you want something that is no muss-no fuss, you can't do better than what I use, a bose sr1 cinemate system which is a two-box system [soundbar and bass bin]. it uses a proprietary ear-fooling mechanism to convince your ears that the sound is issuing forth in at least a 120 degree arc from any position in the room. it does this partially by bouncing lateral directional sounds off of the side walls. in any case, the effect is highly enthralling [IOW amazing to "hear" sound from way beyond the physical boundaries of the soundbar, on either side of it in fact, out to the side walls!] if you've never heard it. I bought mine used for a third off of the new [$1500] price [which I think is overpriced just like everything bose sells]. so my advice is to buy used. it is easily the best-sounding bose product [most of which, IMHO, sound mediocre] I've heard, and I've heard them all. granted, for the money [even used] you could find something more conventional [receiver, wires, 5 satellite speakers plus subwoofer] for less money that would sound just as good [plus give authentic directional sound from the rear] but setting up such a system requires far more care [in addition to more boxes in the room and having to string wire to the 4 corners of your listening space] than just using the sr1 system.
if you're curious about the overall sound quality, i'd say [from listening to mine with a variety of musical test signals] that it is surprisingly neutral/flat in terms of not accentuating any one part of the frequency spectrum. the bass is musical and tight but with usable extension down to the low 30s, sufficient to give some gravity or weight to the 16' pipes of organs] and the trebles are clear and proportionate to the rest of the sound, with extension past 18k cycles [beyond most people's hearing acuity]. as long as you put the bass bin within about 4' of the soundbar, the soundfield from bass to treble will remain cohesive, but there is some localization of the bass bin as a separate entity if you exceed the 4' limit. it is just loud enough to convey the excitement of most Hollywood cinematic product [with equivalent sound quality of typical shoebox cinemas at your local mall, at least in a frontal direction] but not too loud so as to break your lease. it accepts analog, optical and digital inputs. you may want to invest in a switcher box from radio shack, to connect all your ancillaries.
the sr1 cinemate system also has a subtle but effective dynamic range compression scheme which as you turn the volume down, applies both a proprietary loudness compensation curve to the bass and [to a lesser extent] treble in addition to boosting the quiet parts so as to be audible above the ambient noise of your living space [IOW heaters/air conditioners' roaring, and refrigerators humming]. so you won't have to turn it up as loud as a typical system in order to "hear it all." it comes with a universal remote control that I can't tell you much about other than the fact that I supposedly is programmable to work with your other equipment, though I've never used that part of it. I plug mine in to the analog audio output of my tv set, setting the tv speakers to the "off" position. it is very important to position the unit so as to enable sound reflection off of side walls, there can be no obstruction to the sides, so it has to have clear space to the sides. it can be placed either horizontally atop a table or vertically on a wall beneath the tv set. it adjusts the sound automatically in each instance.
my advice is to avoid the bose 1-2-3 system as it is relatively colored and lacking in deep bass. the cinemate sr1 is about the only home theatre in a box system [must add DVD player] that bose sells, that sounds decent to my ears.