HDMI cable made a difference in picture quality??

Yes, HDMI is better. Monoprice is the way to go. Difference in HDMI cables, only if they are defective, meaning they do not meet the HDMI spec. The IEEE rules on what the spec is. If the manufacturer brands his cable 'HDMI' they are claiming it meets spec. Recently the IEEE did a sampling of some cables and did find about 15% of those tested were defective, not meeting spec. So differences are often related to a defective product.

Agreed, I use the $7 ones from partsexpress. A hdmi cable is a HDMI cable.

HDMI looks much better to me than component video. But, I have not been able to tell the difference between HDMI cables. The inexpensive ones I bought from Fry's look/sound as good as the Audioquest one the I bought to test.

as to your question of hdmi and standard def pics, the real differnce is that most home theater receivers and universal players will only upscale those pics through the hdmi for compliance issues. big differnce in quality.

Riley804, Regarding the non-HD channels, I guess I mean the analog channels like Ovation, American Life Network. Ovation offers interesting music and visual arts programming. ALN offers reruns of Hill Street Blues, St. Elsewhere and Mission Impossible. Elsewhere and Blues look fair to poor; also some digital non HD channels seem slightly out of focus. LG makes a very good TV, so I don't suspect a problem with it. Though, my cable provider often announces it has transmission problems; I live in a high rise apartment building which offers cable hookup which probably further degrades the signal. If I move the TV to the other side of the room, I will be able to take advantage of my Audio Prism power line conditioner which I also use for the stereo system. That might help. I look forward to your answer. Thanks Jim