Dish messing with Voom, All are now HD-Lite 1280x1080i: Discuss this issue HERE!

Tom Bombadil said:
It is puzzling to me why they would bother to cut the resolution down to 1280x1080, and then give the channel a lot of bandwidth anyway. Anyone know of any reason to do this?

That's something I was wondering about too. Intuitively, it seems like the high bitrate would eat just as much bandwidth regardless of what res. they were transmitting. I'm sure there must be more to it though, otherwise Dish wouldn't be pissing off their customers the way they are.
 
it's basically about bitrate taking up Tp. space, they lower the resolution to 1280x1080i so less bitrate can be used thus freeing up more space

16 Mbps can run a 1920x1080i HD channel very well, a movie channel like Monsters with telecine flags could use 14(Showtime and HBO often average around 11/12 Mbps, and look at them)

-Gary
 
Gary Murrell said:
it's basically about bitrate taking up Tp. space, they lower the resolution to 1280x1080i so less bitrate can be used thus freeing up more space
16 Mbps can run a 1920x1080i HD channel very well, a movie channel like Monsters with telecine flags could use 14(Showtime and HBO often average around 11/12 Mbps, and look at them)
-Gary

So if I'm understanding you correctly, its the transponder or portion of a transponder that is set to a particular data rate. 1920x1080 channels might use half of the bandwidth but a 1280x1080 channel would take a third less. This is making more sense now, particularly when I think of posts talking about putting 3 channels on a transponder vs. 2.

Thanks for the education. :)
 
Could they also be pushing those HD lite channels out at the high bitrate simply to fine tune the stat mux equipment? I wouldnt think the statmux hardware would care about resolution, just bitrates. I know, probably being too optimistic, but who knows. Maybe they are tuning the bitrates first, then going to flip the switch back to full res? Just a thought.
 
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Kirby Baker said:
Could they also be pushing those HD lite channels out at the high bitrate simply to fine tune the stat mux equipment? I wouldnt think the statmux hardware would care about resolution, just bitrates. I know, probably being too optimistic, but who knows. Maybe they are tuning the bitrates first, then going to flip the switch back to full res? Just a thought.

That would only work if the number of transponders per sat stayed constant. If they are going from 2 to 3 channels per transponder, I don't think the logic holds. It's kind of interesting that they're going from 10 to 15 channels. I don't know what transponders have what channels, but if they were say adding the 5 new channels to the same transponders being used by the original 10 then it might explain why they're doing this.
 
they can do 3 1920x1080i Voom per transponder by putting a movie channel on each with 2 HD video, it isn't perfectly ideal bitrate wise, but it looks worlds better than 1280x1080i garbage

-Gary
 
Gary...you really have given all of us an additional education and maybe DISH a headache. We knew what I eyes told us but not all of us knew the reason why. Thanks again.
 
Guys I have a sort of weird finding here to tell and (actually show you), I have been watching MonstersHD over the past few days and it has been looking pretty darn good, well I seriously think that MonstersHD is back at 1920x1080i, so I pulled up a old capture of "The Wicker Man" from MonstersHD when the channel first started on Dish, it is 1920x1080i

The MonstersHD channel is still listed as 1280x1080i in the headers, we all know this is useless info

so this evening at 10:30 I captured some of MonstersHD, from "The Wicker Man"

I would almost be willing to bet that MonstersHD is 1920x1080i and not 1280x1080i

Want Proof, the screenshots below are virtually identical and my display and eyes are agreeing

here is a screenshot to compare:

1280x1080i from this evening from Monsters HD:
wicker1280.JPG

1920x1080i from 5 months back on MonstersHD:
wicker1920.JPG


Zoomed in area:
wickercompare.jpg


I started a new thread about this here in the HDTV section

-Gary
 
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I have not watched Voom in about a week. I will sample the channels.

Do you happen to have a screenshot of the Monsters HD graphic, then and now? It's a very basic test; however, the graphic went from sharp, crisp and highly defined to soft, flat and lacking punch.
 
The "harbour" text in the older screenshot looks clearer than same in recent screenshot. But this might be a function of the screenshots looking identical but not the same frame.
 
Hum don't know if I have that or not, yep it is not exactly the same EXACT frame

I posted another shot in the thread I started, the guys sweater is all I need to see ;)

-Gary
 
For the mathmateically inclined among us the PSNR of the 1280x1080i/1920x1080i? capture from today compared to the 1920x1080i capture of 5 moths ago is 33.78 dB.

Here's a visual of the differences:

 
Well I think I have been fooled then if mpeg headers don't lie, I have never seen that little of a almost imperceivable difference between 1280x1080i and 1920x1080i, I compared Wicker when Monsters first went HD-Lite and it was nothing even close to what it was last night, bitrate was almost identical as last night's viewing

if you want to see a HD-Lite channel look at Equator

-Gary
 
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The Voom signal for me became downgraded once Voom migrated to Dish: washed out colors, video noise, etc.), but I haven't noticed any more recent shift.

Does anyone have screenshots comparing pre-Dish Voom images with the ones we received after the migration? Apologies for entering this conversation late; if you're already discussed this, I would appreciate being pointed to the right thread and discussion.

Thanks,
Marty
 
Many of us were very fortunate to see HD from VOOM. Some said that when VOOM went under that we had seen the future of TV and that it would be years before we would see true HD programing with 39 HD channels, again. I had hoped that they were wrong, but realize now they were correct in their predictions. Others here that saw the original VOOM, will never forget the picture quality when it was at it's best. The WOW that some see now comparing SD to HD are not seeing the same WOW!!!!! that we saw. It is like comparing Apples to Oranges, but if you never ate an Orange how would they know that? Still enjoy VOOM programing from DISH and wish it a Happy New Year, but the WOW!!!!! is gone.
 

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