Sony BRAVIA KDL-40W3000 40" HDTV LCD TV

I too am not a technophile and had been in the market for an HDTV before the holidays.  I am limited to a 41" space in my living room and thus only considered the 40" HDs.  Since I don't know much about electronics, I wanted something that was easy to connect to my Sony home theater- since that too is a Sony, I gravitated to that manufacturer.  I also looked at Samsung and Panasonic 40" HDs but the Sony HD TV that I got from Costco came with an additional internet box that connects the TV to the interent (I'm not certain if the other manufacturers HD TVs within this price catagory had a similiar function).  Since the Costco Sony (with internet connection)  was similiarly priced as its competitors (Best Buy, Sears, Circuit City, Target) around town, it was a no brainer.  But I should point out- that after some simple research on the internet, I discovered that Sony makes eight (8) different versions of the 40" HD.  Some have the same features but the case is in stainless steel or a brushed metal rather than the black plastic.  So model# is important if you want features.  You will find Sony KDL-40S4100 & KDL-40V4100 HDs for under $900 in stores and on-line but they are not the 1080 HD 120Hz motion flow that has the internet capability with four (4) HDMI jacks. The S and V series are not 120Hz with Sony's Motion Flow (controls pixilation on fast moving scenes) but are 1080 at 720Hz (sellers don't point this out to you).  If you don't care about all that- then no problem.  If you do care, then you really have to watch the model numbers.

For the install and hook-up,  I simply hooked the HD TV into the home theater, Sony Blu-ray and digital cable box with no problems at all (read - connect HDMI cable from tv port into HDMI cable into Blu-ray and plug Blu-ray into wall socket.  Insert Blu-ray disk and you're watching Blu-ray).  However, since this TV is a 1080 HD, Sony doesn't provide the necessary 1080 HD cable to use from the cable source to the TV so you need at least one 1080 HDMI cable in order to make it work as you would expect.  You can use a 720 HDMI cable or a regular coaxial cable but you won't get the picture quality. Plus, you also need to have a digital cable box (or satellite box) and subscribe to digital cable in order to get the HD channels.  Apparently, my provider (Cox) tells me that you need a digital box for every TV (which they charge for).  It's not like the old days that the TV is the cable box.
  
Also, be prepared that you'll need an additional 1080 HD cable if you are hooking up the Blu-ray player as well.  I paid ~$120 apiece for the 1080 HDMI "Monster" cables from Circuit City.  I am told you don't need to get the Monster cables and other manufacturers of 1080 HD cables will work, but that's all Circuit City had and I didn't want to wait or shop around for a cheaper set of cables.  

I have found that stations that are not broadcasted in HD are nowhere near as clear and pixilation is very evident on text. 

I also had to buy an additional home networking piece (a "Bridge")to connect the interent box that came with the HD TV to my router.  The "Bridge" is a piece gizmo that is basically a "sender" and "reciever" from your router.  It works by plugging the "sender" into your router (via CAT 5 cable) and then into a nearby 110 outlet and then plugging the "reciever" into an another 110 outlet and whatever you are connecting to the internet (via another CAT 5 cable).  In my case it was my HD TV.  I got my "Bridge" from Best Buy for $99.99. Other than ordering movies and getting a few updates, not sure what can be done with the TV hooked up to the internet but I'm sure more will come out on this within the next year.