How to imporve low bit rate signals?

[scook17]

We have a 1.5m satellite dish in our back garden which we use to receive Sirus from, as well as Hotbird. The channels we watch are NTV and ORT, both of which seem have have a low bit rate for their transmissions. We use a STRONG decoder with built in positioner. We get around 75% signal quality. LMB is currently 0.7db.

Is there anything we could do to get a better picture? Perhaps some post-processing of the signal? Perhaps a better decoder? Perhaps a bigger disk or lower noise LMB would work?

Any advise much appreciated.

Kind Regards,
Shane Cook.

 

[Starburst]

Nothing you can do on your end to improve the picture generated by a low bitrate signal, you can get 100% perfect reproduction but if the picture that's transmitted is s**t then the picture you see on the TV is going to be the same.

Come to think of it there is one thing you can do, view it on a as small as monitor/tv as possible, the blocking and smearing will be so small you won't notice them

 

[scook17]

We have a 56" TV!

Kind Regards,
Shane Cook.

 

[Starburst]

That's is the problem with mpegII material, if the bitrates are too low then the picture really does suffer as the image size is increased. DVD's which use the same technology are for the most part encoded at bitrates that allow enough information to be stored in the picture so that there is no noticeable difference in quality as the image is increased in size (Allowing for scan lines and refresh rates).

 

[MartinImber]

>>The channels we watch are NTV

Straight from Crinkley Bottom?

 

[scook17]

Actually NTV and ORT are Russian channels. My wife is Russian and likes to watch her news from back home.

Kind Regards,
Shane Cook.

 

[MartinImber]

Damn I though Noel Edmonds was back!

Mind anything is better than Phillip "poncy" Scofield or the great grinning ninnie whose name I have forgotten but has been Ronsealed and is also very camp.