ESPN HD Poor Picture Quality?

I'm fairly new to the HD scene. I have a Dish 811 receiver. I am impressed with all of the HD channels except ESPN - the image quality is so poor that I have to switch to SD to remove what I believe would be termed the "screen door effect". But what puzzles me is other sporting events on TNTHD or HDNet are perfect, so I'm not sure if I am really experiencing the "screen door effect". I am running component cables, should I switch to HDMI or could it be the receiver? Any thoughts or input would be appreciated. Thanks.

I had some issues with my HD content but it was all channels. Doing a reset fixed it, hold the button in for about 10 seconds. Are you sure it was HD content on ESPN HD?? Not all of it is.

ESPN-HD often upconverts SD content. Anytime a station does that the quality will remain no better than the source.

I think the PQ of TNT HD is usually really bad on DISH, was ok on Voom, but is never as stunning as HDNET

Voom had wider bandwidth as it was set up for HD, not SD with an HD add on. I think E* and D* are limiting the 1080i to 1280 horizontal pixels, whereas Voom would send the 1920 pixels.

Voom had wider bandwidth as it was set up for HD, not SD with an HD add on. I think E* and D* are limiting the 1080i to 1280 horizontal pixels, whereas Voom would send the 1920 pixels.

I have a side question: What do E* and D* mean? I'm kind of a newb to HDTV slang. I can usually figure out internet abbreviations, but I'm stumped by these. :o

Since this is a Dish Network thread, it should not matter. But to minimize confusion many like to say E* (for Echostar or maybe Ergen?) for Dish network. And D* for Direct TV.