I have to say that in my side by side observations of both sd channels on both western arc and eastern arc on two toshiba hdtvs, eastern arc looks better on sd channels in mpeg 4. There is less compression and artifacting in the backgrounds of the sd channels for shows like Golden Girls on Hallmark channel. I have both arc dishes set up on poles out back of my house. I have three coaxes run into my house in three rooms. So I can flip back and forth between either arc and just change the coax leading into the receiver and then run a check switch. I even recorded a tv show on each arc in sd and compared the same show in side by side comparison using pip screen and you can definitely see a difference. My wife said the same. The bonus is that eastern arc has a strong powerful brand new satellite at 72.7 and the recordings in mpeg 4 take up less room on your hard drive.