Foxtel is below Standard Definition quality and has shocking bitrates.
Australian FTA networks can only really have a maximum bitrate of 15mbit/sec for their HD channel, which is ok, but not perfect with the MPEG2 compression currently utilised. There are far more efficient types of compression such as H264, which at even 11mbit/sec, would result in a very nice picture. This is not gonna happen in Australia for years though.
Channel 7 is the worst of the 3 commercial networks for picture as the HD channel is only 11-12mbit/sec. The need to remove that stupid program guide channel and use their leftover 'bandwidth' to boost the HD channel bitrate.
Just because a show is in 'HD', the quality can still vary a lot at the moment, and some shows that are regularly in HD are occasionally SD even though it still says HD in guides, etc.
Also remember that the majority of shows are still not in HD, and low quality content looks like shit on a 1080i/p tv. A good comparison is watch an AFL match on ch7 when it begins again (low bitrate SD), then compare to a ch10 HD match (high bitrate HD). I believe all ch10 matches this year will be in HD, not just Sat night.
Eh? 7, 9 and 10 are 1080i (Usually 1440x1080 but 7 and 9 were messing around with 1920x1080), SBS and ABC are still 720p I believe. Ch7 used to be a measly 576p which is not HD, but was classified as the lowest 'High Definition' resolution with the previous government, despite the vast majority of other countries saying 720p is the minimum. Also, you don't need an HD player to play HD content... HTPC, 360, PS3(not utilising the Blu-Ray drive) etc can all play 1080p tv shows and movies legally purchased online.