Maybe you should try renting the Blu-ray version of Happy Feet as well and then flip back and forth between inputs. They have the same VC-1 transfer, so they should look the same. If they looks drastically different, then somethign is wrong.

Bottom line. If you see Black Hawk Down as "looks very poor" then there is something wrong in your setup.

Also something wrong that you see that as worse than any other you mentioned. That makes no sense, with all things being equal.

(and why did you feel the need to mention never buying a game for the PS3? why does that matter?)

Open Season=amazing
Black Hawk Down=very poor

FILM GRAIN is intentional!

Hmmmm, I thought my output was set correctly, but I guess I will check it again. I am in the same camp as not being terribly impressed yet.

More questions:

What kind of display? (DLP, CRT, LCD, Plasma)

Is it straight HDMI-HDMI, or are you using some kind of HDMI-DVI adapter or cable?

Are you going through an HDMI switch?

Just for reference, I've got an HD-A1 and PS3 both connected through my Denon receiver via HDMI and they both look outstanding. I don't think I could tell the difference if someone put the same movie on both players and flipped between the inputs. I think Casino Royale is a fantastic BD movie and probably my most used reference disc.

I am using a DLP with an HDMI connection to the back of the TV.

Turned out my settings were set to 480. That's annoying, especially after waiting to watch a few show that I wish I could have seen correctly the first time. But thanks for the help.