Is there anyway to make a satellite signal look better? (1 Viewer)

[Jeff Adams]

I have directv. I don't have hd directv. My question is that I am pretty dissapointed with directv's picture quality. There are alot of artifacts, everything looks compressed and I see alot of jagged edges. Is there anything that can be done about this? Is there a scaler that I can connect in between the directv reciver and my tv? Please help. Thanks.

 

[James L White]

Any trees in the way? That might affect the signal enough to give it that digital look., Mine looks kind of compressed too but watchable.
You could always go back to cable or rabbit ears

 

[Robert_J]

Calibrate your TV or at least turn the sharpness down.

-Robert

 

[Bob McElfresh]

First, you should be using SVideo to feed your TV, not composite. That alone will improve the picture.

If you have a HDTV, your television is now doing a LOT of processing on the video. It is:

- De-interlacing the video (to make it progressive)
- Line Doubling the video (to make it 520/720/1080)

A lot of the processing can create the digital artifacts you describe. So it's really your TV and not the Direct signal that is the problem.

Some people have bought the IScan Pro unit for $600 that does the de-interlacing/doubling. But this unit was popular 2 years ago before televisions included decent scalers/doublers.

You may be stuck because your TV is a much more sensitive/high resolution device that you are feeding with a fairly low-resolution signal. (Kind of like reading the newspaper, then using a 5X magnifying glass - the 5X will show you more grain/defects/flaws in the newspaper than the naked eye.

 

[Kevin. W]

Bob,

Would using an S-video cable be better than cable for Digital Cable? If yes does the quality of the s-video cable matter?

Kevin