Lawdawg14,
Thanks for your purchase!
Something came to mind: What resolution was your last television?
Background picture is usually considered a very detailed, and often delicate, part of the picture. Most people would expect a 1080i picture to look better than a 720p picture, and for obvious reasons. However, the signal compression necessary to broadcast such a picture can actually reduce the quality of the overall picture, particularly in details - background, fast action, or a combination thereof.
The jagged edges are a common symptom of this very issue, so it may be that the signal - while it can be a strong signal - is still compressed and more artifacting is a result of more resolution (data) being sent through the same pipeline as a smaller resolution that wouldn't require as much compression; and would thus look better.
AMP will process the signals, but only the information that comes through. It can compensate by "filling in the blanks" with processing, but when those blanks are compressed data packets processed by the cable box, it will process whatever quality of picture is given. Considering the variances of signals, it can either have a significant effect, or not, result with the post-processing picture.
As far as colors go, you can adjust those, however, it seems to be inherent with the individual broadcast, and not uniform; that's something that would be difficult to control as an end user.
I hope that helps. Keep me posted.
--HDTech
So I got my set on Saturday and have a question.
My last Tv was hooked up to the cable box via component cables and since this TV has HDMI I thought I'd utilize it. The cable box's setting is and has been set to 1080i.
I was watching a couple of different football games this weekend and had a question or two. I know that different stations broadcast using different settings. For example, ESPN broadcasts in 720p and NBC broadcasts in 1080i. For some reason when watching the NBC broadcast, the background PQ when the camera was panning was not the greatest. Reds were the worse color but there was a lot of blurriness and jagged edges too. Whatever the camera was focusing in on looked great. I adjusted settings to no avail. I thought that turning the AMP on would help but it had virtually no effect.
Does this sound like an issue with the TV, cable box, or connecting cables?
Is there anything I can do from the menu to help this if it is the TV?
It is by no means a deal breaker, but my other TV seemed to do better with background images when panning. (It can't come close to comparing with the forground detail though)

Chowhound
Comic Vine
GameFAQs
GameSpot
Giant Bomb
TechRepublic