I currently have DIRECTV and a fairly old 40" Mitsubishi NTSC TV and am about to spring for a 70" JVC 1080p HDTV. So I have a real interest in SD quality and what we might be able to do to improve it.
In my case, the SD signal from DIRECTV looks super on my 40" Mits so there is nothing that DIRECTV is doing compression-wise to mess up the signal. I have seen that same signal on a $6000 Mits 70" DLP and it doesn't look as good no matter how far back you stand. I would venture to say that I could make the same comment about a 40" DLP if there was one.
My point is that you cannot explain the poor SD quailty away with arguments just based on signal quality (after all, it looks good on my Mits NTSC) or size. There is something more to it than that. I'm still waiting for a good explanation of why a digitial signal (from my DIRECTV STB) fed into a digital TV doesn't look as good as one that has to go through an D/A converter before it is displayed on (for example) a 1974 TV.
We're missing something somehow. It's not the compression. It's not just the size either although that is a factor. It has to be the HDTV processing that is screwing up the picture. I just don't understand how or why.
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