I was trying to help a friend over the phone get his stuff hooked up properly and i think i confused him as well as my self

looking for a little clarification.
Trying to hook up a sony dav-hdx589w receiver, digital cable box, and tv......
The goal is to have the shows broadcast in surround actually come through as surround.
Since this receiver ONLY has one hdmi and it is an output, the video signal from the cable box should be sent direct to the tv either by component or hdmi. And then a coax output from cable box to receiver.
Now you should only need one wire, the HDMI going from the receiver to the tv since that will carry the video of the built in dvdchanger and all audio should play correctly?
I think this is right, but over the phone this is hard, so what is the verdict?
EDIT: Also if he only has the one HDMI atm, i could just have him connect the component video from the cable box direct to the receiver, and let that pass video from there through the one hdmi since their would be nothing to gain from direct to the tv?