Improving Television Picture

[christopheramos]

Hello,

I hope I am in the right forum.

I have a 56" Sony big-screen projection TV
(not HD or anything).

I have satellite service from Direct TV. The
problem is, the image as it appears on my TV
screen oftentimes has snow or noise or whatever.

Does anybody know if I can clean this up with some
sort of device that could be purchased? I don't even
know what such a device would be called, even if
it exisits.

Thanks!!!!

Chris

[SLK001]

Regular TV resolution is okay on screens of 25" or less. Larger screens begin to display the limitations of this resolution. It's like trying to enlarge a 35mm negative to 40" by 30" - the grain really begins to show.

[christopheramos]

Yeah, tell me about it. So is there some sort of good
device out there to improve the image?

[greymalkin]

heres a question.

If it's direcTV and it's sending a digital mpeg stream into the tv...where would interference such as noise and snow come from? I would expect maybe macroblocking but wouldn't the other noise be from a bad connection between the dish and the tv?

[christopheramos]

Well, I've tried adjusting the cables and everything, and that
doesn't help the image. I guess it might possibly be a weak
satellite signal, but I don't know.

I'm not sure what macro blocking is.

People have mentioned things like signal boosters and amplifiers. Would those help maybe?

[Krispy Kritter]

If the picture is "snowy", then you most likely have bad cabling or hardware. What type of cable are you using to connect your receiver to your TV? If it is coax, is it directly connected to the TV or is it going through a VCR first? If a vcr is involved, try removing it.

If all else fails, call DirectTV. They should be able to send out a tech to check your cabling and verify your signal quality.

[greymalkin]

i must agree..

the kind of quality loss you are seeing indicates a problem in the chain between the mpeg stream coming from the satellite to the TV