Samsung tvs are good tvs. It is highly unlikely but possible the tv is defective. More than likely it is a signal related or picture adjustment issue.

Digital cable isn't a performance increase feature it is a compression method designed to fit more channels into the mix. HDTV cable is a performance increase.

Have the cable company test your line for a proper amount of line voltage. If the signal coming into your home is too low it can cause picture problems. So can having too many splits in the cable signal inside your house.

Also, check the picture controls on your tv. Make sure the picture settings are in the standard position not vivid.

Many tvs are shipped with the contrast and sharpness settings at maximum. In most homes those controls should be set about in the middle.

I'd recommend getting a disc that will help you calibrate your HD Tv. Two of them are AVIA and DVE. Take a look at the second post in this thread.

Here is a link that might be useful: Caibrating a HD TV

You haven't provided any information which we can use to assist you.

Samsung arguably makes the best LCD monitors available. I doubt it's the TV.

How do you have the cable connected? Are you using high quality HDMI cables? Did you properly set up your cable box to put out the correct signal and monitor to receive that signal?

We need more information.

An interesting fact I have heard is some people who have high definition televisions do not even realize that they are not receiving the high definition signal properly because of user set-up errors.

Get that Avia disc and adjust the picture properly. When I got my Panasonic plasma 5 years ago and set it up fresh out of the box, I was not impressed, thinking "I paid $6000 for that?" I bought Avia and adjusted it ... MUCH better.

And *don't* use the stretch modes to watch a 4:3 picture. That's just goofy!

For a beginner...

1. Where do you buy the Avia?
2. How much is it?
3. What is a 4:3 picture?

Thanks!
Susan

Do a search for "avia home theater." You should be able to find at online retailers such as Best Buy, Amazon, Buy.com, etc.

IIRC, it's a bit expensive for a DVD. $35, $39, something like that.

4:3 is a standard "square" television picture, not wide-screen. "Full-screen" in DVD jargon (meaning the picture fills a regular TV screen). LCDs and plasmas typically have one or more display modes that s-t-r-e-t-c-h the square picture to fill the wide 16:9 ratio screen and eliminate the blank sidebars. It makes people, buildings, objects look fat and squatty. Many viewers don't like the sidebars and would rather have a distorted picture that fills the entire screen. The only legitimate reason to do that is as protection against burn-in, but burn-in isn't as big a problem as it's made out to be ... and there are other ways to reduce the risk that don't involve a goofy-looking picture.

Don't you think you're jumping the gun a bit? She didn't even tell us how she has the televsion hooked up. It could be hooked up with a coaxial cable for all we know!

You calibrate AFTER you hook it up correctly.

I think dadoes was answering my question, and I appreciate it very much. I bet most people would agree that yes, hook it up right first and then calibrate.