An HDMI plug/hole, but, no HDMI 'channel'?

Hmm...

The TV is HD, 1080p, about five years old. Should I try to connect an older DVD player? Hmm ...

And yes, there is an HDMI outlet/plug. So what am I missing??? :(

Not "channel", but "input". Your tv has a display (the screen) and a sound system (the speakers). It can use these outputs (almost ALWAYS) together, from the same source, the same A/V (audio/video) source. If your dvd player has an hdmi output, the audio and the video are both being transmitted over the same cable. If your tv has an hdmi input, it will get the audio *and* video from that input. The inputs, sometimes called "source" are selectable from the remote for the tv. You might have a range like "cable", "a/v", "hdmi (1/2/3)", "line 1/2", "tv", "antenna", etc. Your tv almost certainly won't have all of these, but it's just like in the olden days when you had to tune your television to channel 3 to watch the tape from the vcr. Or maybe you tuned the tv to "line input" or "line 1". That "tuning" is the is the same as the input selection or the source selection.

You already have this figured out because you can find the video for the dvd player. But, mysteriously, you don't have the audio that you know should be coming out of the tv along with the video. This is a good puzzle.

What I'd do is to simplify the problem. Try to conquer it by dividing it. Does the tv output sound all by itself? Check. Does the dvd player output sound to a different tv? Unknown. Can you check this? Does the given cable transmit audio and video from other known good sources? That kind of troubleshooting will isolate the problem.

I know you know most of this, probably all of it, I was just thinking out loud. The novelty of the sound of my own voice is an appealing change, now that I have my finger out of my ear.

The dvd player sends its audio and video OUT to all outputs all the time. What outputs does the dvd player have besides the hdmi?

Try turning it off and then back on. lol!

Have you tried speaking to it with a stern voice?

All right! Thanks for thinking out loud, V, because in practical terms, at least, the problem is solved ...

I have a smaller TV that has HDMI input, and an older non-HDMI DVD player. I checked out various combinations of connections between the two TVs and the two DVD players, and behold: my big, more expensive TV does not get audio via its HDMI input. It does work, on a different input, with an older triple cable from either DVD player. The smaller TV works perfectly, video and audio, via HDMI cable from the HDMI-capable DVD player. I can play the same DVD on the two TVs at once using the two different cables. (I'm enjoying Iron Man II on two TVs right now. :p:)

So my big TV isn't getting audio via HDMI, for whatever reason; my small TV is fine with HDMI input; and I can at least watch DVDs using the older cable on my big TV. It doesn't use the bigger TV's potential to its max, but there's a problem with its HDMI input so I'm not going to get that potential no matter what.

I'm practical. I'll take what I can get ... and now I get audio with my DVDs! Hooray!!! :D

(This is my exciting Friday night ... but hey, I'm happy :) )

Does it say that in the manual, or is that an observation? Doesn't sound right.

But, at least you're working now!

BTW, any of you suffering from insomnia might want to check out this Wikipedia article on HDMI.

Wow.