what settings are best for the best picture. I have alot of settings on my cable box and more on my tv itself. The cable box has the following picture formats: "pass through", "fixed" "upconvert 1" and "upconvert 2" they also have diff picture formats as 480istd, 1080i, 720p, 480p wide and 480i wide. I have no idea what these things mean...please help me out...im a noob at these things

Usually pass through means the box will send a native resolution signal to your TV (i.e.if channel "x" is sending a 480i signal that is what gets sent to your display. When you change to a HD station that is sending a 720p signal then the box sends 720p to your TV) Your TV will then scale the input to your TVs resolution. The reason this is best choice is because the scaler is usually better on your TV then on your cable box. It also prevents situations where the cable box does the scaling and then the TV re-scales the image (more processing is bad).

like Digital Video Essentials, to get the most out of your new setup.

grab any of your movies with a THX logo, go to the movie's menu, click set-up, click THX and follow instructions. Can be found on Finding Nemo, Monsters Inc, Me Myself & Irene, Pink Floyd - the Wall.