Beware, not all High Def is created (or transmitted) equally. Channel compression can play a big role in your picture quality.
Getting the Most Out of Your HD Experience
Start by purchasing the right HDTV for your viewing scenario. Too many consumers rush into the box store and buy the biggest screen displaying the biggest picture. For 1080p, you should be sitting 2.5 to 3 picture heights away from the screen. For 720p, it’s around 3.5 picture heights away. (For more tips, read “Angle, Distance Key to Home Theater Design” or “Ten Tips for Buying a TV.”) Make sure you are using HDMI and not composite cable or coaxial.
When choosing a service provider, find someone you know who is currently subscribing to a provider’s HDTV, and decide for yourself if the image on all the channels is acceptable. Be sure to watch HD channels that feature a lot of motion – these are the channels that usually suffer the most from HD compression and content alteration. Remember, more is not necessarily better. More HD channels can mean creative compression and bit-rate shaping, which can result in a degraded image. Consumers with fiber-delivered content (like Verizon’s FiOS) seem to be standing by that provider’s HD quality, although service is still limited to only 13 states in the U.S. If you don’t currently like the HD quality of your current provider, say something about it. If nothing changes, take your dollars elsewhere. The race for more HD channels means quantity over quality, and the race will continue so long as consumers flock to the provider with more HD, not better HD.
Feel like your cable or satellite provider isn’t delivering true HD? Are some HD channels much worse than others? Let us know in the comments forum below.

I have noticed a marked depreciation in the quality of certain PBS HD broadcasts recently.
Tonight I was watching Tavis and couldn’t be sure if I was actually watching HD or had selected the wrong TV input by mistake and was watching it through my DVD recorder downscaled to 480i (I run my HD set top box’s extra SD output to the recorder).
I checked the input and, no, i was watching “HD”. When I a/b’d the two signals there was hardly any difference.
Maybe it’s all those sub-channels they are broadcasting on the same feed?
See the AVS thread if you have any doubts that Comcast has moved my cheese:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1008271
Brings to mind the old Zenith tag line, with a twist:
The HD quality goes out when the HD quantity goes in.
The simple fact appears to be Comcast changed quality mid-stream,
without notice or acknowledgment of any kind. Isn’‘t this a consumer
protection issue?
Cablevision’s QoS sucks. I can’t wait for Verizon FIOS TV to be available in my area. I already have the FIOS Internet service, so it is only a matter of time.
There is so much macroblocking and other compression artifacts in my HD content through Cablevision that calling it HD is a joke.
I’m not so sure that DirecTV dropped HD LIte last fall for those new channels. The company still will not answer any technical questions about this (I’ve asked), which is not a good sign. It is possible that the switch to MPEG-4 (with its improved compression) has resulted in a much better image quality than can be achieved with the MPEG2 compression DirecTV previously used. Comcast uses MPEG2 compression to generate their HD Lite — and it shows.
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Cablevision compresses their HD and SD channels. Rumor has it that they compress MORE, channels not affiliated with them (i.e. MSGHD (owned by Cablevision) will have a broader bitrate than let’s say NBCHD.)
Can’t say my name, work for the company. The only way it will change is if customers complain.