Projectors and HD Cable

[Nathan Arizona]

I'm looking for some opinions on using projectors with HD broadcast receivers.

I just picked-up (thankfully I rented) a HD box from our local cable provider Shaw and hooked it up to my projector (EPSON Powerlite 720) and man does it look poor, like an upconverted DVD -- soft with muted colors and some artifacting.

I've used this projector for the past year and half just to watch Movies -- blu rays, HDdvds and normal DVDs, and the high quality sources look excellent. I was blown away with how good A Serious Man looked this weekend.

Watching LOST last night via my HD box on an HD channel and hooked up via a DVI to HDMI cable; looked nowhere near as good as a nice blu ray. I actually turned it off and went up stairs and watched it SD on my old tube crt as it looks better, but way smaller.

Is this normal with HD cable? Are projectors just not suitable for the quality of HD broadcasters are now using.