hi i got a new 42'' hdtv flatscreen for my birthday and for some reason im not yet satisfied.

some of the channels are very distorted. why is this?

and i was told by alot of people if i buy an HDTV antenna that i will get some free hdyv channels. is this true.?

and what antenna would you'* recomend from experience.?

video games look really sweet but tv is so so due to the quality not being all there like it should...

does anyone have any advice for me and what i could do .?

thanks ya'll

who is your cable/sat provider?

service electric but im switching back to rcn soon..

what video game console? get a PS3. it'* actually the cheapest blue-ray player out there right now, plus it can do games.
As far as free HDTV, the major channels (CBS, FOX, etc) broadcast their major shows in HD. I watched CSI in HD for free last night, and almost all major sporting events are broadcast in HD

Yep Free HDTV with a HDTV antenna looks great!

Your TV channels probably look crappy because they aren't HD. Do they fill up the screen or do you have black boxes? I'm going to guess they fill up the screen, so you are seeing everything stretched. That'* the major complaint with the flat screen TV'* is they look pretty crappy with standard television. What model TV is it? If it has the tuner (QAM I think?) inside you may not need an external antenna to get some channels.

Go over to www.avsforum.com to get some advice. Go to the forum, the "HDTV Area" section, then the "Local HDTV Info and reception" section. Then look for a thread for your particular area and you can get some idea as to what services are the best in your area, and what antenna is the best to get the locals over the air.

it says it has a built in tuner but i cant seem to find it or how it works.. i been looking thru the menu and nothing about it..

As Grimm suggested stop over at the AVSforum you'll be able to get a ton of information.
As for your built in tuner. It'* for over the air broadcasts (antenna). If you have one it will give you whatever locals are available in your area in HD.
Most new TV'* will lock into these channels by a programming method in the TV'* set up. In other words it will program & save ava ch'*. Once done tuning into HD stuff is not much different than flipping through any other ch but instead of saying ch 12 for example it would be something like 12.4 or something like that.
Hope that makes some sense to ya.

Oh ya, if you think about getting an antenna stay away from the Terk powered stuff that you see scattered everywhere, they don't work for crap. Get a good old big ugly roof or tower type. The ones that have bars sticking out in every other direction. And Don't buy into some special made for HDTV crap. A well made antenna will pick up your HD.