A few newbie questions

[Reznik]

Hello everyone. This is my first post, though I have been lurking for a couple weeks.

Let me start off by saying that I don't know a lot about HD. For example, when you guys are talking about bitrates and codecs and such, I'm just completely confused. All I know is that Blu-ray is technologically superior to HD-DVD.

So, here goes.

I currently have a Samsung LN-T4061F 40" 1080p TV. (you can see it here: http://www.onecall.com/ProductDetails.aspx?id=87209) ..or should I say, my parents have it.

I'm looking at purchasing a PS3 in the near future (price drop + me having a job + $100 Future Shop Gift Card = PS3), both for the gaming (I own a PS1 and PS2) and for the Blu-ray movies. Now, I'm just wondering what is required for the best viewing that I would have to buy seperately from the PS3. Also, I would like to know what certain settings need to be at, and what I should avoid doing in order to.. well... not break the TV. The TV manual says that it should be set to 'game mode' whenever playing video games. I'll quote it directly:

"When connecting to a game console such as PlayStation or Xbox, you can enjoy a more realistic gaming experience by selecting Game mode."

I've noticed, though, that it makes certain games really hard to see (I was playing Final Fantasy X and in a dark area that I could see fine in normally on my SDTV, it became way too dark to see in the HDTV in game mode). Will this be different on a PS3 with the proper setup? Do I really need to use Game mode anyway?

Sorry for all the (probably stupid) questions, but the whole HD package is a big investment so I want to make sure I don't screw anything up.

Thanks for the help!