I just purchased a 50" Vizio Plsama TV . It has intergrated surround sound and the price was a steal.I was able to obtain it on sale from Sears at $1,099.00 I spent another $300 on a in home 3 year warranty. From what I've been reading on this TV all the reviews are giving it 4 1/2 out of 5 stars and claims that a comprable TV would run about $2,100.00 My ? is it seems like I need to get HDMI connection ability to gain the full potential of this TV . With my current connection coaxial cabling Iam not getting the HD I should be getting the Dolby Digitial 5.1 surround sound which is also not working correctly the manual says a red lite diplaying 5.1 would lite up on one of the speakers located on the set. The surround sound consist of 3 speakers located at the bottom of the TV then two sattlelite speakers and a subwofer a wireless set up ,I've yet to see the red lite go on to let me know Iam recieving the surround sound ? I have a set top digitial cable box however it does not have a HDMI connetor located on the back ,the TV has three HDMI plugs located at the rear of the set , do I need to contact Comcast and get a differant set top box and pay for HDTV ? Any input greatly appreciated ! Thanks ,Nick "I rather be hated for who Iam then loved for who Iam not" Author Unkown

The cheapest way to see the full HDTV capabilities of your TV is to use the built in ATSC tuner and find a HDTV broadcast. This would only be the new and popular TV shows and many sporting events. Most of the daytime and late night broadcast TV is still just DV. Cable and satellite transmissions are compressed and upconverted by the receiver box. They vary in quality according to the provider, some are pretty close to broadcast quality, but you need a better connection to the box than coax. If the HDMI isn't available from your provider, then at least get a component connection (4 plugs-rgb) that'll be a big improvement over the coax and probably as good as the source signal anyway. Then, the absolute best would be a blu-ray DVD player connected with the HDMI and a disk that has been recorded in HDTV. Ideally, look for one that claims 1080p.

"do I need to contact Comcast and get a differant set top box and pay for HDTV ?" ================================ Yes. You MAY be able to set up an antenna and grab a few over-the-air HD stations depending on your area, but for the most part what is coming through your cable now is standard digital TV and you need to order the box and the channels from Comcast.

Thank you for the information and your replies ! Iam going to call Comcast cable service ,apprently they are having a special right now on HDTV and my first step would be to get a more up to date set top box. However the one I do have I just updated a couple of years ago ! I do have On Demand and Pay Per View ! Thanks Again ,Nick "I rather be hated for who Iam then loved for who Iam not" Author Unkown

If you new HDTV has a built in QAM tuner then you can connect the cable directly to the TV (leaving the cable box out of the setup), run a scan and you will have basic cable but including the Free over the air channel broadcasts in HD. On mine I find ABC on channel 4-1, NBC on 5.1 etc. You have to go to the sub-channel to see the HD broadcast. I get 2, 4, 5, 7, 9, 25, 38 and 56 all in HD. Your numbers may be diffreent but they are PBS, ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, UPN and I don't know what they call themselves outside of their local designation but that is where Family Guy and Two and a Half Men are on Mon-Fri between 6 adn 8pm. They are in 1080i on my 720P capable TV (FOX ususally broadcasts in 720P) Then, if I go to 82-1 through 82-12 I get the comcast's digital broadcasts of those same channels showing in 480i. Of course, if the channel is not broadcasting an actual HD program while watching then it is in NTSC format but better at 480i on the corresponding channel up in the 80-x channels. This information provided while you wait for your HD cable box with the HDMI connection on it. Hopefully you also get the DVR with it as it is really good. I actually used an A-B Switch box (plus a splitter) in order to switch between the cable box and direct line to the HDTV so that I could continue to watch On-Demand without having to keep moving the cables. Note: If you do not already have an HDMI cable then be awre that they run between $30 and $80 at store but can be had online for less than $10. Get two and free shipping. For example: http://www.mycablemart.com/store/ca... HTH Bryan

Thanks for the informative reply about my new TV and the connection I have and trying it without the set top box . I will go ahead and hook it up directly to the cable leaving out the box ! I want to see if I can get the true HDTV that has been avoiding me so far ! Thanks Again, Nick "I rather be hated for who Iam then loved for who Iam not" Author Unkown