Well i think you said it yourself already, your cats are already clawing some of your equipment, they will probably claw the svs also. I have two cats now one scratches at everything the other does not. Having owned many cats over the years you tend to know thier disposition and what they are...
i bought the monster thx (low grade) for 20 bucks. Tried it on 5 different pieces of equipment and the connecter was loose on all of them making the cable worthless. I second the parts express da cables.
i have this unit as well. every once and a while ill stop getting any ouput from the digital out. go into the menu and turn of and then back on the digital output and it should come back, does for me.
You should defiantly run a firewall app on each of your pc’s connected to the internet. I have a linksys and run zone alarm pro. When I installed Zone Alarm I was really surprised to see people attempting to connect to me from the internet thru the linksys. The linksys is not really a firewall...
Another option is to use a low voltage mounting bracket. This will secure the faceplate with out a box in the back that you have to route wire thru. You can stick your whole hand in the wall to fish wire. There are many brands, one is at erico.com model# mpls. I use these and a blank faceplate...