Funniest thread in a long time. Skipped over some of it but who am i to turn away from an old mates post......
Having over 30 HD flims (dont ask) i have mixed feelings, some of it is great, superb indeed other stuff isnt, why?
TS streams will come from broadcasters so your at the mercy of the quality of material that is used. Yes indeed a lot of HDTV from cable/satellite is possibly bite rate limited or upscaled, what i cant confirm is if the broadcaster or the studio that does this upscaling.
Overall quality can differ quite a lot. This material is more than likely recorded via DVCR using i1394 your also at the mercy of the users machine, its settings and even condition of the tape used, needless to say it could be one reason why quality is so up/down on such files.
Notable mentions
CSI 1080i / LOST 720p approx 4GB per episode can look great
Victorias Secret Catwalk Show 1080i
.Bev version of Gladiator 1080i (approx 20gb monster extend ver)
LOTR 3 1080i and 1080p conversion from 1080i source
WOTW 2005 1080i
Phill Collins Farewell Tour 1080i
Problems like Mpeg compression are still visible, also grain on 1080i can be quite aparent "WOTW 05" (quality of recorder note above) but detail and sharpness is the main differences with HD particulary visible on skintones.
Colour richness can also be greater as can detail in scene background.
Do remember HD uses higher videorates ie 1080i can be approx 16mb/sec to the best DVDs approx 8mb/sec and everything is at least 5.1 even Tv episodes like those above with HDTV you get 5.1 so its not all just about vision.
Summary
When proper disc formats arrive they will show of the material in better light no different to comparing say a DVD movie now to a Sky broadcast. Broadcasts even if they use the full HD source may not broadcast at the full quality of that source because of bw restrictions. Sky HD we will see? Further example is available if you go download a recent 720p/1080i/1080p trailer many can look excellent.
Finally also remember because the resolutions are higher any HDTV or display does not need to scale the video as much as conventional sources, this gets overlooked.
Hope its helped