i have hdtv (sony 36" wega not xbr) and ive used direct tv for about 4 years now (since way before end of H cards, OPJOSE prolly knows what i mean if he had letter from dtv, btw i got no letter coz i Never been a sub :)emulators ruled!)
and dtv regular is kinda boxy sometimes like a divx on the comp, not bad, but in the shadows and blacks it kinda loses detail and goes that greenbalck color like a divx, and fire and the like u can definetly see the boxies, when i got the HDTV sat box about a year ago (old rca DTC100) the hidef shit looks AMAZING, but with the better tv the regualr broadcast looks worse to me, like the tv is so good it shows more defects in the signal (artifacts?), but overall the whole setup is WAY better than anything cable can offer, even in their hi-def package...xbox in hi-def is awesome (even games that aren't hi-def look alot better patched to progressive scan)
so i guess my opinion is that cable is for internet not tv, and dtv is good, better with hidefinition especially football, but still not worth paying for, hehehe j/k, but all u freetvers out there know what i mean!