I've been living with the new HD channels for a few weeks now.
I really notice the compression lately, but only on some channels. As most of us know, the compression can be seen in two ways. The first is a loss of resolution. I am seeing that across the board as a noticable softening of detail. Leno and Letterman are noticasbly softer lately where they used to be almost painfully sharp.
The bigger problem for me is loss of motion bandwidth. Stuff is reasonably sharp when standing still, but goes soft when moving. This bandwidth seems to be applied unevenly across the channels. The sports channels are pretty good, as is broadcast. Some of the lifestyle stations are horrible. I have noticed on Food Network that even when the chef reaches across the table to pick up some item, it is accompianied by a full second of macro blocking. Sorry, but macroblocking is never acceptable, and it is happening so regularly on Food, HGTV, and others that this is a concious decision and not a transient or something that was overlooked.
This could be the killer issue for me unless they get a handle on it soon.
