The root of your picture quality difficulty might lie with the inherent suckitude of standard-def digital broadcasting.

If I recall correctly, back in Alaska, you were recording analog over-the-air broadcasts. Now you're on a digital cable service where every channel is data compressed. (And the Tivo is data compressing even more on top of that.)

Rant: Once upon a time, digital picture meant better quality. Until the digital broadcasters (cable, satellite) discovered that they got more subscribers if they could offer more channels. Subscribers didn't care about picture quality as much as channel selection. To cram more channels onto the same digital carrier, they have to increase the amount of data compression. In addition to obvious MPEG blockiness, increased data compression causes fuzzier pictures and flatter, smearier colors.

The orginal idea of high definition TV was to elevate television to a new level of amazing picture quality. At first, it truly was amazing. Now? The HD channels are the only ones where the picture quality is anywhere near as good as it was back in the days of analog broadcasting. And even that's starting to slip.

Sigh.