A decoding apparatus for carrying out decoding of a Low Density Parity Check, LDPC, code, comprising: decoding means (155, 166) adapted to carry out LDPC decoding of an LDPC codeword using an MxN parity check matrix, the LDPC codeword including information bits and parity bits and having a code length of N = 16200 bits, a parity length of M bits and a code rate of r = (N-M)/N = 4/15; wherein the information bits include image data and audio data, the LDPC codeword having been formed in accordance with said MxN parity check matrix, and said MxN parity check matrix includes a parity matrix of dimension MxM and an information matrix of dimension MxK, with K = Nxr, in which the parity matrix corresponds to the parity bits of the LDPC codeword and has a stepwise structure, in which the elements of "1" are arranged in a stepwise manner, said MxK information matrix corresponding to the information bits of the LDPC codeword and being represented by a parity check matrix initial value table, which shows in its ith row, 1 ≤ i ≤ K/360, the positions of elements of the value 1 in the 1+360(i-1)th column of the information matrix, and wherein based on each 1+360(i-1)th column, 1 ≤ i ≤ K/360, columns 2+360(i-1) to 360i of the information matrix are determined by cyclically downshifting the respective preceding column by M/360; and the parity check matrix initial value table is formed as follows: 1953 2331 2545 2623 4653 5012 5700 6458 6875 7605 7694 7881 8416 8758 9181 9555 9578 9932 10068 11479 11699 514 784 2059 2129 2386 2454 3396 5184 6624 6825 7533 7861 9116 9473 9601 10432 1101111159 11378 11528 11598 483 1303 1735 2291 3302 3648 4222 4522 5511 6626 6804 7404 7752 7982 8108 8930 9151 9793 9876 10786 11879 1956 7572 9020 9971 13 1578 7445 8373 6805 6857 8615 11179 7983 8022 10017 11748 4939 8861 10444 11661 2278 3733 6265 10009 4494 7974 10649 8909 11030 11696 3131 9964 10480. decoding means (155, 166) adapted to carry out LDPC decoding of an LDPC codeword using an MxN parity check matrix, the LDPC codeword including information bits and parity bits and having a code length of N = 16200 bits, a parity length of M bits and a code rate of r = (N-M)/N = 4/15; wherein the information bits include image data and audio data, the LDPC codeword having been formed in accordance with said MxN parity check matrix, and said MxN parity check matrix includes a parity matrix of dimension MxM and an information matrix of dimension MxK, with K = Nxr, in which the parity matrix corresponds to the parity bits of the LDPC codeword and has a stepwise structure, in which the elements of "1" are arranged in a stepwise manner, said MxK information matrix corresponding to the information bits of the LDPC codeword and being represented by a parity check matrix initial value table, which shows in its ith row, 1 ≤ i ≤ K/360, the positions of elements of the value 1 in the 1+360(i-1)th column of the information matrix, and wherein based on each 1+360(i-1)th column, 1 ≤ i ≤ K/360, columns 2+360(i-1) to 360i of the information matrix are determined by cyclically downshifting the respective preceding column by M/360; and the parity check matrix initial value table is formed as follows: 1953 2331 2545 2623 4653 5012 5700 6458 6875 7605 7694 7881 8416 8758 9181 9555 9578 9932 10068 11479 11699 514 784 2059 2129 2386 2454 3396 5184 6624 6825 7533 7861 9116 9473 9601 10432 1101111159 11378 11528 11598 483 1303 1735 2291 3302 3648 4222 4522 5511 6626 6804 7404 7752 7982 8108 8930 9151 9793 9876 10786 11879 1956 7572 9020 9971 13 1578 7445 8373 6805 6857 8615 11179 7983 8022 10017 11748 4939 8861 10444 11661 2278 3733 6265 10009 4494 7974 10649 8909 11030 11696 3131 9964 10480. 1953 2331 2545 2623 4653 5012 5700 6458 6875 7605 7694 7881 8416 8758 9181 9555 9578 9932 10068 11479 11699 514 784 2059 2129 2386 2454 3396 5184 6624 6825 7533 7861 9116 9473 9601 10432 1101111159 11378 11528 11598 483 1303 1735 2291 3302 3648 4222 4522 5511 6626 6804 7404 7752 7982 8108 8930 9151 9793 9876 10786 11879 1956 7572 9020 9971 13 1578 7445 8373 6805 6857 8615 11179 7983 8022 10017 11748 4939 8861 10444 11661 2278 3733 6265 10009 4494 7974 10649 8909 11030 11696 3131 9964 10480.