Researching surround sound stereo system equipment

My wife and I recently purchased a new home and will be moving in shortly after settlement. She is in charge of decorating the new premises. This home is much larger and includes a separate entertainment area. Our current equipment won’t do justice to this space. I have suggested to my wife to start investigating surround sound stereo system equipment with the view to building a home entertainment system. We have an extensive DVD collection of unwatched movies so I’d love to be able to watch them in their full pristine glory. Major sporting events are also a must see and a larger screen setup with full surround sound is much more preferable than the smaller system we currently have.