dave weil said:

Now, I'm sorry that you don't have the most current technology
available to you, despite all of the money that you've thrown at the
situation, but I can tell you that if you ever go DVR, you'll never go
back. Now, I have no idea whether or not the DVR process itself
creates visible compression, but it certainly could be a contributing
factor in my system. I don't have a "plain Jane" box to compare it
with.

I have the impression that the picture from a DVR recording is not quite
as sharp as when you watch HDTV live. It's still miles ahead of the
standard TV picture, though.