I watched the first episode tonight, and like the preceding seasons it's absolutely spectacular. That being said, it continues to stun me how poorly encoded the HBO on Blu-Ray ad that opens the disc is. Frame rate issues, banding, blocking -- it doesn't make the case for HBO Blu-Rays at all. You would never know how good the actual episode encodes are.
It's a shame HBO has dropped making the BR/DVD combo packages (I have no use for the "digital" copy). I don't yet own a BR player (yes... that's correct... I have my reasons) and have been picking up the dual format releases for the day I make the purchase. That way I could watch the DVD now and have the BR for later. Sadly I went for the DVD instead so I can watch it now. It *still* looks very good...