New House, New Equipment

I recently moved into a new house.  The original owner i guess really didnt like to see equipment.  The TV mounts on the wall and there is a power outlet, HDMI wire and coax wire.  They all run down the hall into this closet thats probably 20ft away.  There are also three speakers in this wall, and two seakers on the wall directly accross from it (surround sound).  He also put speakers in the kitchen, formal living room and outside.  Everything runs into this closet.

First thing i know i need is a decient receiver that will allow me to utilize all this stuff.  I have a DVR receiver with HDMI outputs, i also have a computer (media center) that plugs into the TV.  I've seen many receivers that will do HDMI switching but my concern is that maybe i'll want to add a device that only does SVIDEO or RCA.  I know that the receiver i currently have (no hdmi) will only allow you to output on the same type of interface that you inputed.  so for example, if my input was RCA, my output to the TV had to be RCA, i couldnt use svideo as a output.  Are there any receivers that will allow inputs of RCA, SVIDEO, etc and simply output via HDMI? (yes, i know the quality wont be HD).

Another thing is that i have all these speakers all over the house.  I would like to have a receiver with zones so i can enable only sections of the house.  One of my buddys has a receiver that allows him to play a seperate source on each zone (so he can watch TV and still have music outside).

And then comes the remote.. The cox DVR box is in the closet... So will be the receiver.. So will be the infard computer remote.  How can i control all of these with a simple remote.  The remote i guess would have to be bluetooth or wireless because there is no line of sight.

I'm good with electronic stuff, just dont know much about home audio equipment , whats good, what sucks.  I'm not looking to spend a ton of money but would like some decient equipment.  I have no idea what type of speakers are in the walls because they dont say.

Hopfully some of you guys can help me out!

Thanks!

~Shaun