I have phobia to phones. Good thing there is lucky bamboo to calm my spirits.

I just talked with Apple (thank goodness for "Apple Support," see link below). I already had an Apple TV I didn't use (didn't know how to) and they walked me through the steps to view my photos on my TV. Very simple with Apple on the other end of the phone. I highly recommend this as well as their "One to One," when buying a new Mac or Laptop. I call them ALL the time. Ginny Here is a link that might be useful: Apple Support - a great buy!

You're not feeding an antenna signal to your TV, so you don't need Ant1 or Ant2. Video1/2/3 are all the same; there's just three of them. Colorstream HD1/2 are, I would guess, high-definition inputs (which your Dell most likely is not). DVI, at least in my experience, is only for computer monitors (for example, if you were to connect a bigger external monitor to your laptop). I'm guessing (without having seen either the laptop or the TV) that you want Video 1, 2, or 3, and then will have to make the same choice on the front of the TV (or the remote). I'm not sure if Dell switches around some keys, but on my IBM ThinkPad and my Apple PowerBook, fn (Function) and F7 are the keys to press to get laptop and/or external display working. Find the icon that looks like one rectangle on top of another.

Since HDMI uses digital RGB or YUV signals over three separate conductors to carry the video information, a break in one of those conductors within the HDMI cable can cause problems like you describe. First thing is to try another HDMI cable. If the problem is still there, do you have another laptop, or another HDMI source, to try on your display using the original cable? Do you have another display with HDMI input that your can connect your laptop to, again using the original cable? The picture settings menus usually only affect the individual input that you have set them to. I'd say chances are the cable since it sounds like it gets a little more flexing from connecting/disconnecting to your laptop.