Was just given a Panasonic TH42PW5 Plasma monitor and I need some very basic help.

A co-worker just gave me a 42" Panasonic TH42PW5 plasma monitor. What's the most economical path to use this thing as a television? I'd like to get the most out of what I think is a pretty nice plasma display with out dumping a bunch of money into this. Is a cable box all I need?

FYI, the backstory here is that I don't watch much television but when I do its on a 14 year old 12in Hitachi tube television. I've been talking about buying a nice TV at work. My co-worker (a really nice guy but the kind of person who walks into BestBuy, lets the salesman tell him what the "best" TV is, buys it and has them install everything) told me he had this "TV" sitting in a corner unused and said I could have it. He didn't seem to know much about it and I didn't ask too many questions. But, he told me it was a television. I just got it home and realized that it was just a monitor i.e. no tuner. Bummer. What can I do now?

Also, although I'm not versed in the high-end television world, I'm not an idiot. I'm fairly tech savy but not in the video realm.

Apologies if this is the wrong area to post. Any help will be much appreciated.

So, how did you get reception on the 12"? OTA, cable, sat? If it be OTA, you can get an OTA HD receiver now days for under $100 bucks. Of course it all depends upon your antenna on what you recieve. If you are getting good reception today with basic rabbit ears, chances are that you will get good reception with a basic indoor antenna. Hd that is. If you have a cable connection, you will need their box to receive what ever package line-up they offer,,,and up to as much as you want to spend. same goes for sat.

That plasma is what is called an EDTV. It is not a HDTV because it only has a resolution of 852x480p. Still much nicer than a 12" tube TV IMO, but just get a SD cable box to act as a tuner and use the S-Video connection between them along with stereo RCA type plugs (RED/WHITE) for the audio.

Hope this helps!