Bought a digital TV... can't see local channels?

"I plugged it into the cable coming out of my wall..."

Where is that cable going? To the cable company or to an antenna? Or nowhere?

"I thought I could at least get local channels without having an antenna..."

No. You can't get over the air TV without an antenna of some kind. At least try the rabbit ears with the UHF hoop. Don't plug it into the cable in the wall. I bet that's either connected to cable, which is not subscribed or to an antenna that is no longer on the house. If the cable is not terminated with an antenna, it will not work. Coax cable is shielded. It's not like radio antenna wire. Unless there is a rooftop antenna at the other end, you will get nothing. Connect the TV to an antenna!

I'm confused. Or you are. Or maybe both of us. You receive your TV signal via antenna right? That a completely separate issue from the kind of physical TV set you have. So I think the answers are... 1) No, you will still need the antenna to pick up the signal and transmit it to the TV or you will have to get cable or some other subscription service that carries your local channels. 2) No one really knows. It's my understanding that even if everything does go 100% one way or the other there are converters you buy so that you aren't forced to get a new TV. You'll still need an antenna, cable subscription, etc in order to watch TV but you can buy a converter instead of an whole new TV.

It will not autotune over air channels like the older sets, you need to go in and manually set it to over air / cable etc. At least that is how mine was.