It's all about resoloution. The problem is upconversion. The salesman was correct. The Samsung (and almost every other TV on the market) attempts to upconvert the analog signal to the native resoloution of the TV. The problem is less pronounced on Sony sets (for example) because Sony's native resoloution is 1080I (*on the KF50we610, the direct competitor to the model you have). Sets like the Samsung (whose native resoloution is 480p) have issues with this conversion process, because they're attempting to convert interlaced into progressive scan, and the pixelation that is introduced is tremendous. This is the same problem scores of dvd players incur when they attempt to upconvert interlaced dvds to progressive scan for output to your tv, however, the problem is compounded by the fact that DirecTV's average signal is below 400 lines interlaced, whereas DVD is typically closer to 500 lines.

Fear not, however, because the salesman was correct. The vast majority of television programing will be converting to digital broadcast over the next 2 years, so if you're content with the picutre you get from an interlaced DVD movie, you'll be more than happy with the resoloution you will receive from broadcast. If you can't bear it. Consider switching your television service to the one provided at www.voom.com. They've got 21 HD channels at the moment and are promising 39 by the end of Feb, not counting your locals (assuming you can get your locals in HD). Currently they're running a pretty decent promotion with some free programming, installation, and 3 year service plan. If you're curious, Voom is a product of cablevision.