Regardless of your claims, maybe it's this so-called "motionflow" that is skewing your viewing experience, considering that it can in fact itself cause artifacts.
Were BOTH sets calibrated? Exact same viewing distance? 1-2ft further back makes a big difference in PQ.
Reports is ESPN has gone to MPEG4 backhaul and many people including myself have noticed the better PQ over the last couple weeks. Is it great, no, but much better than before. to be the picture has less artifacts now, but still a bit soft which my guess is additional compression by E*.
