Just going to make a suggestion - when everything is set up and working properly, make sure you have all your connections and settings written down somewhere. That way if you need to take the system apart, or if you add or swap out components, you’ll be able to put everything back together again easily.
When we bought our new TV I looked at all the available connections on every component and drew a diagram of how I wanted things hooked up (we have a lot of stuff). It’s saved me a lot of time.
My 3-year-old TV has multiple HDMI ports as well as a set of composite/component ports. Only one set each of the latter, but I don’t really remember ever seeing a TV with multiple sets of composite/component ports even before HDMI came along, so I’m not sure I’d call it a conspiracy on the part of TV manufacturers.
HDMI has been around in consumer electronics since about 2003, it isn’t exactly brand spanking new. Like any other technology, manufacturers start pushing out old connections/ adapters when the market begins to turn over into new machines. While I certainly understand the frustration, using the proper cables for your device isn’t really some vast conspiracy. You can work around it, but it takes time and a little know how. It is a LOT easier to ensure that you have the up to date cable boxes (usually free from your cable CO), and the proper hook ups to your other devices, sound (HDMI or component) DVD/R/Videogames (HDMI or Component/ occasionally you might see USB). MOST problems with cable set up stem from trying to use old stuff in the wrong way. This case doesn’t sound like it though.
Tcha. This is not the can opener scenario you were looking for. There are at least five devices in my house that will play a DVD. (Though, as it happens, none of them are actually DVD players.)
Of course, it’s possible that I’m a bit more techology-obsessed than the OP. 
Once you start talking about a smart TV is it get more complicated. You have to know about encryption and then you are going to want to set up your Netflix connection and then you need to know how to set up the DLNA connections around your house. Also does you TV have USB? What about VGA? I helped a friend of mine set it up so he could use Skype through the laptop to the TV.
You can ignore the bell and whistles and just plug the HDMI cable from the cable box to the TV, but when someone spends over $1000 for a TV, then they probably want the bells and whistles to work.
If there’s enough room, you can also tag the cables.
My current setup isn’t perfect, but it works. The cable comes in to the TiVo, where it goes to the TV (HDMI) and the receiver (audio only). The DVD player runs to the receiver, then out to the TV. There’s also a big CD changer hooked up to the receiver. The original setup was worse; at one point I had a VCR/DVD combo thrown into the mix. And before I got the cable card/adapter issues ironed out with the cable company, I was using their cable box in addition to the TiVo. This involved a cable splitter, with the main box being run to the TV’s cable input and the TiVo being run to the HDMI input. (The cable box could receive all channels at that point; the TiVo could not, but the shows it needed to record were on the “basic” channels.)
I’ve thought about getting a digital antenna, but I can’t think of any local or network programming that would make the purchase worthwhile. 
If you’ve been trying for that long, I’d say there is a good chance it’s a problem with the lessons, and not the students.
We have a rooftop antenna and still can’t bring in anything worthwhile, though of course living out in the semi-sticks has a lot to do with that. We’d get nothing on a consistent basis but the CW and a crappy independent religious station these days if it weren’t for satellite.
Family Guy, Simpsons, Grimm, Community, NCIS, Person of Interest, reruns of numerous sitcoms like Seinfeld & Dick Van Dyke. With a Tivo, picking and choosing stuff off the broadcast TV isn’t hard.
TBBT, HIMYM, 2.5Men, American Dad. Also reruns Friends, 30 Rock, TBBT, HIMYM. With the Windows Media Center, all you need is a USB tuner to watch and record the shows.
Go here to figure out where to point the antenna.
Let’s fix that link.
You don’t need a “digital” antenna. Anymore than you need digital earbuds, digital speaker wires, etc.
I recently upgraded our system. New TV and DVR. The hardest part was setting up the M-card on the DVR to tune the encoded cable channels. The options were spend $30 and wait for a cable guy to come out and do it (with no guarantee of success). Or DIY over the phone with Steve from Bangalore. I did the later. It took quite a while, reading a bunch of numbers off the screen, etc. FtGKid1 recently had to do the same and just paid the $30. I can see that. OTOH, what would have been easier is if I could have done it over the Internet. But that’s way too sophisticated for a cable company to deal with.
I did a lot of other stuff that’s non-trivial, but that’s because of my long time tech interest. E.g., setting things up so that the DVR output could be viewed on 2 other TVs. But that kind of stuff is not of interest to most people.
It’s the DVR/Cable Box/Satellite stuff that’s the most complicated. Cabling from those to the TV is easy(ish). Menu stuff is all over the place in terms of ease of use.
The worst for me was aspect ratio. Hey, TV and DVR makers. If the video is 4:3, I want it in “panel mode” (black bars on the side). If it’s 16:9, then full screen. Why is it impossible to have a setting that does just this? (Odd aspect ratios I can see a problem with a good default, but for these 2? Why is it an issue?)
And of course there is no known menu setting to cure sound effects/explosions being 10 times louder than dialog.
is a good place for USA and Canada over the air tv info. you can find out what type of antenna and where to point it.
I don’t see why you can’t do this already - unless your problem is that when you watch a 16:9 show on an SD channel, it shows black bars all around.
If this is the case, then I think the problem is that, as far as the TV is concerned, it is a 4:3 picture that just happens to have black bars along the top and bottom (the way widescreen movies appeared on TVs in the days of 4:3 TV screens), so it adds its own black bars on the sides “just as you requested.” There is no way for the TV to know that it is really a widescreen show. Perhaps there should be; they could include the aspect ratio along with the closed captioning info.
Somebody correct me if I’m wrong, but aren’t all SD signals 4x3 and all HD signals 16x9?
No, for example a DVD or the Wii can output 480i or 480p “widescreen” that is correctly 16:9 when stretched (albeit the actual number of pixels are 720x480).
It’s fine that everyone here is all happy about their HDMI crap, but that assumes the DVD player isn’t also very old. My flat screen is probably five years old, and while the cable box does hook to it via HDMI, the DVD player and other components use RCA cables. I’m not sure what the problem is with the OP’s TV, but I can only assume it is a physical connection issue, or else she hasn’t found the right input screen. Between the directions for the TV and systematically trying every menu option, I’d think you’d be able to get anything to work, assuming there isn’t some kind of PAL/NTSC incompatibility or region specific issue with the DVD player.
I’d be willing to bet that it’s not the connections that are messing you up (that part should be easy) but rather the remote is giving you a headache. (as in, you not knowing how to use it properly.)