Odd, though according to Ars Technica there is plenty of history of ISPs throttling Netflix.
Perhaps it was the material you were watching, there is some variation in source material quality. Guess we will never know. Going from watching Warehouse 13 on Netflix to watching the last few episodes on DVD I found the drop in quality on DVD quite surprising.
I have a Samsung and an LG, both look fine. I also currently have NowTV as their little box was on offer for £12.50 with three months of movies subscription. The LG TV can do NowTV natively, but even without the underpowered little 720p gadget involved you can just see that the quality isn't as good as Netflix. The three months of NowTV is about to run out, I have already cancelled as I can't imagine paying a tenner a month for that service. £4 a month with the bundled little box to play with was a good use of just over a tenner though