Personally, I don't think HD is all people say or think it is. Sometimes its good, but most of the time it's so so. It's better than SD. I guess my expectation is too high when you compare satellite HD to blue ray or hdvd. I know E* is working to improve the MPEG4 decoders but I think that 6 HD channels on one transponder is fine if you want the quality that's equal to what we had with MPEG2, but 5 or less channels per transponder would/should increase bitrate per channel to improve picture quality. I think I read somewhere that D* will be putting 5 on a transponder. I can't wait to see objective feedback when D* adds to its HD lineup next month. I want to give E* the benefit, but right now I can't say I'm thrilled.