An open rant against premium HD Channels

[Dvlos]

You know what, the whole point of premium channels is they don't air commercials, in exchange they charge you a subscription fee that they use to acquire movies, original programming, events for you to watch at home.The whole point of buying their HD channels is, you guessed to do all of that in HD.

So what's the deal with HBO and Cinemax swapping movies constantly and calling them "New movie premieres"??? What incentive is there to subscribe to Cinemax when all of it's programming moves over to HBO anyway? HBO gives you a reason, in their original series, what does Cinemax offer?

Showtime makes a stab at original series and sporting events, but they update new movies at an even slower rate. Last week between Starz/TMC/Encore I have been completely shocked and dismayed. K-19 Widowmaker has not fallen off the face of premium programming, no, it's been moved to TMC! Mississippi Burning that was showing on our Voom premium channels, is now on TMC... AND ON ENCORE.. yesterday at one point in the day.. Encore and TMC were showing that movie AT THE SAME TIME.

Are you freaking kidding me?

Ok, you guys swap movies around to save on licensing fees and making a deal with bringing in new movies... that sucks in and of itself... what about:

Shoddy upconverts with no Dolby Digital 5.1?

First of all if the DVD has 5.1 then what you show on the premium channels better be 5.1 there is NO excuse. What's with the upconverts? I subscribe to your HD channel for 1080i movies, there is equipment out there that do 1080i transfers of movie, so make sure you do a HD transfer or find a different movie to air.

Why show movies like the Shining, Batman, and other known movies and forget about not having it in DD5.1 you air it in 4:3 standard?! What?!? what's the point of having an HD premium channel you a-hole execs? HBO if you make a series like Taxi Cab confessions, Entourage, 9/11 tributes, etc.. and they are in SD, why not air them on HBO SD? Why must it always be simulcast, considering that people who have HBO HD also have HBO SD!!!

Premium cable companies get your freaking act together.

 

[Orlando Vol]

HBO if you make a series like Taxi Cab confessions, Entourage, 9/11 tributes, etc.. and they are in SD, why not air them on HBO SD? Why must it always be simulcast, considering that people who have HBO HD also have HBO SD!!!

I agree with your argument, however regarding the simulcasts...

Why is it that when I go from HBO-HD showing Entourage (4:3) to HBS (SD) showing it (4:3) it looks much better on HBO-HD? My box is set to 1080i so I am assuming that HBO is upconverting entourage for the HBO-HD signal.

This is also the case when I flip between ESPNHD and ESPN(SD) when they are showing something like the World Series of Poker... Don't channels upconvert when they simulcast??

 

[DarrellP]

Voom does the same thing, they show a movie on CinemaX then 2 weeks later move it to CinemaY and call it a Premier just because it hasn't aired on that particular channel yet.

 

[Sean Mota]

Voom does the same thing, they show a movie on CinemaX then 2 weeks later move it to CinemaY and call it a Premier just because it hasn't aired on that particular channel yet.

Not true. The premiere on HD Cinema are well defined. They may end up in another HD Cinema but they are not shown to be premiere. As a matter of fact, the only time I saw HD Cinema stating premiere is during the Premiere HD Summer promotion. Other times, you will need to check this listing or know from your knowledge of previous movies that something was not shown before.

New HD content on VOOM exclusive channels...

Also, if you look at VOOM's website Cinema HD channel, they are pretty good to tell you which premieres are coming.

May 2004 48 new movies added
June 2004 62 new movies added
July 2004 84 new movies added
August 2004 57 new movies added
September 2004 48 new movies added so far.

These are unique movies not shown the previous month. HD Cinema in this list also include Monsters-HD. This is an average of 60 movies per month or 2 movies per day!

 

[Dvlos]

I don't care if Voom does it, you know what for the 21 channels and I dont watch like 5 or 6 of them, they are a great value. I love Rave, Rush, Worldsport and Monsters especially. I've caught some movies on Cinema10, and this weekend I even found a purpose for Moov - I had some guests over and I through on Moov and put the music low for some "atmosphere" people were digging it.. the thing is they are "free" so how can you rag on them too much?

I pay extra money that goes directly into HBO, Showtime, TMC, and Starz's pocket, like I can rag on Voom regarding PQ and no DVR, I can give my two cents on HBO and Cinemax's blatent money saving options by swapping movie premiers every other week.

Instead of having 4 new movies every month, this month HBO is essentially bringing in 2. Same as Cinemax, Bruce Almight and X2 were whored to death on those channels, and now they've SWAPPED and called it "New Movie Premiere!" That's just rediculous and just hurts themselves, what incentive do people have to get all the premium channels? or even 2 or 3?

I agree with OrlandoCane (hahah) that SD PQ through HD looks a little better, must be how it's sent, but it's still a SD show so I want no part of Entourage or The Wire.. I won't watch them I don't care... I have other HD I'd rather see. I'd rather watch Fleetwood Mac... AGAIN... on Rave 5 more times than watch Entourage. So I say, instead of showing Entourage in SD on HBOHD.. show an episode of the Sopranos, Deadwood, or Six Feet Under. If I really want to see it, I can switch to HBO SD and watch it.. and so one. It's real simple to do considering all HBO originals are pretty much an hour long, if it's two hours, put a movie on instead.

Also if you're going to swap movies around fine, don't call it a premier, and don't over do it because it's already been OVERSHOWN on the first run.

I also don't think that Starz/TMC/Encore have any reason to be showing upconverts, what's the deal? If Voom can find and show Three Stooges in an HD transfer why can't Starz how Cold Creek Manor in HD? If you have no source to purchase an HD transfer from at least do it in DD 5.1 I can't stand the occlusion and echo effects in Pro logic, even when using DSP effects, I end up putting it on ALL CHANNEL STEREO just to have some peace of mind and understand what they are saying, without all the sound effects or music drowning out the speech.

These are PREMIUM movie channels I'm paying they should be delivering a product that's "PREMIUM" don't you think?

 

[DarrellP]

I disagree Sean, I have seen this happen many times on Voom. Next time I notice it, I will bring it to your attention.
Take a look at this page, every one of these movies has run before. Or are these not premiers? If not, why are they even listed? Enquiring minds want to know.

 

[Sean Mota]

I disagree Sean, I have seen this happen many times on Voom. Next time I notice it, I will bring it to your attention.
Take a look at this page, every one of these movies has run before. Or are these not premiers? If not, why are they even listed? Enquiring minds want to know.

Listed where? You are correct these have been shown because these are the ones that some of us have reviewed. Where do you see them listed are premiere?

 

[andrzej]

Why does it matter if a movie I want to watch for the first time is a "premiere" or not on a particular channel or satellite service? Bragging rights? I don't get this. There are many movies that I haven't seen yet, and they are all "premiere" movies for me. Is the PQ worse or the viewing pleasure lessened if it is not a "premiere"?

 

[DarrellP]

Maybe they are not Premiers, but why are you listing them all the time if they are not a Premier? I could have sworn I've seen reruns being listed as a Premier, as I said, if I notice it, I will alert you to it. Please excuse me if I'm wrong, it's the first time this year. ;-)

 

[Sean Mota]

If you're referring to this thread: VOOM High Definition TV DAILY Listing ALERTS!!

I listed everything that is HD but there are designations that clearly states what is new and what is not.

For example:

This one means "Premiere" shown for the first time:

This one means "New this month" as opposed to be shown last month

This one means "Live"

and so on... Big difference between "New" and "New this Month"

 

[vurbano]

Id suggest just 2 designations.. NEW meaning new(NEVER SEEN BEFORE ON CINEMA10) and repeat meaning repeat. No games with new this month or new for this channel just NEW or REPEAT. Honest and simple. IN FACT ID SUGGEST IT FOR ALL 21 CHANNELS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Dvlos]

New and Repeat is fine for Cinema10, like I said they are "free" and "commercial free" I don't care about those "premiers" a "Premiere" is supposed to be "First time on that channel" which HBO/Cinemax abuse because they can say "Well it IS the first time on HBO, and then next month it IS the first time shown on Cinemax" Since they are both pretty much the owned by same company, that's pretty cheap.

Same thing with Starz/Encore.