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TVs with "HDTV built-in" means TV has built in HDTV (ATSC) tuner for use with Over the Air (OTA) antenna, NOT digital cable. In order to view HD cable programs, either get a HDTV with CableCard slot or HD cable box from your cable company. Make sure to ask if the cable box outputs CC for HD stations.
CableCard is available from your cable company and eliminates the need to use cable box. It's a small card that plugs into the back of the TV. Problem is not all local cable company provides them. My local cable company does not provide CableCard. I believe CC is inside the TV to work with CableCard, but find out first before buying the TV. Also find out if your local cable company provides CableCard before buying TV. Also CableCard is not free and you have to pay them monthly. I think it costs extra $5 a month.
Currently I use OTA antenna connecting to my HDTV with built-in ATSC tuner and all local stations (Reno, NV) provide HD and CC (including "Law and Order") and they work great. HD picture quality using OTA antenna is usually better to signaficantly better than cable or satellite because OTA uses less compression than others.
hulsw's post about CC using HDMI, components and other inputs is correct.
Pacman's first sentence is correct but partially correct in the second sentence. You cannot watch digital cable directly without a cable box or CableCard because the signals from cable company are encrypted. Cable box or CableCard decrypts the signals but you have to pay for it. But if the cable company provides "QAM" which is unencrypted digital signal and it's free, then your TV needs to have "QAM" tuner. Not many TVs come with QAM tuners. Also not every cable company uses QAM because they want you to pay them. Typical QAM channels are ABC, CBS, NBC, PBS, FOX, MyNetwork (sometimes), and CW (sometimes). You might be lucky to get premium QAM channels like Discovery but it's rare.
Peter
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