A smaller tube TV or iPod may seem like it looks great because the small resolution is being compressed into a small frame, hiding any artifacts. Unless you converted a 1400 kbps double pass mp4, it's not gonna hold up to an HD broadcast on the same large screen. The thing is, anybody who has actually seen an HDTV broadcast usually has their mind instantly changed, because there IS groundbreaking detail. Especially in a movie like transformers, I'm pretty sure you won't see Megan Fox's cleavage sweat (that's beside the point however) on an iPod.
So either something was wrong with the hookup between the blu ray player and the TV, it wasn't really a blu ray player, the TV had a weird ratio/filter dragging down the quality, you can encode 1900x1000+ movies into 1900x1000 mp4's on your iPod, you have bad eyesight, or just don't mind about things like these. Personally, I have a hard time watching anything that's not HD on a screen bigger than 30 inches just because it feels so harsh on the eyes.
Sorry to sound like an HD fanboy, but when I first saw an HD broadcast in my house I was pretty amazed. I imagine it gets the same response out of most people. However this may not seem to be the case.