I Stayed Home Sick Today So.....

[DarrellP]

I thought I would try to watch some Voom. Man, what a dissappointment! The only channel I could find that was half way decent was TNTHD and it paled in comparison to Dish. Needless to say, I watched Dish all day. Comparing DiscoveryHD, TNTHD and HDNET/HDNET Movies VS Cinema 10 was a JOKE. It looks like Dish has their channels back to a decent looking picture again.

Those of you who say there is no or very little difference, I invite you to visit me anytime and check out the difference. The Cinema10 was so soft and full of mosquito noise it was sickening. I watched the "Thaws" program about Asian salmon on Voom since I was recording it on Dish and it was also full of mosquito noise.

The only good thing I can say about Voom was that TNTHD had a better contrast range than Dish.

Sorry guys, but Voom has a loooooooooooooooooooong way to go.

Flame suit on, fire away!

 

[rkr0923]

I almost stayed home sick today after trying to watch Voom last night. Here's why.....
101 movie 1974
102 movie 1984 (Had to Read it) in French or some BS
103 movie 1977
104 movie 1984
105 movie 1979
106 movie 1952
107 movie 1964
108 movie 1978
109 movie 1975
110 movie 1999
121 movie 1959 BW American dubbed over Chinese
Ultra...skinny girls wearing stuff you would never buy
Action...$30,000 paintings......yeah, OK

I ended up watching Howard Stern, glad I did. Jenny Jenny MacCarthy was smokin!
now if that was in HD....hubba hubba
Ultra needs girls like that walking the runway opposed to those anorexic girls
So with all this Voom HD I have watch SD........thanks Voom

 

[DarrellP]

Howard Stern needs to get picked up by HBO or Showtime so it can be aired unblurred. He has some of the hottest chicks on and we never get to see the good stuff.

 

[Seawaves]

I thought I would try to watch some Voom. Man, what a dissappointment! The only channel I could find that was half way decent was TNTHD and it paled in comparison to Dish. Needless to say, I watched Dish all day. Comparing DiscoveryHD, TNTHD and HDNET/HDNET Movies VS Cinema 10 was a JOKE. It looks like Dish has their channels back to a decent looking picture again.

Those of you who say there is no or very little difference, I invite you to visit me anytime and check out the difference. The Cinema10 was so soft and full of mosquito noise it was sickening. I watched the "Thaws" program about Asian salmon on Voom since I was recording it on Dish and it was also full of mosquito noise.

The only good thing I can say about Voom was that TNTHD had a better contrast range than Dish.

Sorry guys, but Voom has a loooooooooooooooooooong way to go.

Flame suit on, fire away!

LOL, Bum! I like how you say "I stayed home sick today", instead "I was sick today". LMAO. Can't flame ya for being right...

 

[andrzej]

...
Flame suit on, fire away!

Are you suggesting that your review is intentionally slanted?

 

[rgarbonzo]

Actually there is nothing on during the day unless you want to watch The View or Maury. I watched LOTR: FOW in HD and must say it was great!

 

[Impatient]

Ok DarrellP, what are the specs on your projector? Type, native display and accepted inputs please. I am curious as to if going with too much hardware quality is causing the distraction. I am going to do a few tests with my lowly, POS projector at home tonight.

 

[DarrellP]

I have a clone of the Sanyo Z2, it's an LCD 720p native projector, 1280 x 720 projecting onto a DIY blackout cloth screen 96" x 54 " (110" diagonal). Inputs include: DVI w/hdcp, S-Video, Component & Composite. DVD's, Dish HD & OTA HD look awesome, Voom looks OK. I was using DVI for Voom but found that due to it's sharpness, it accentuated the flaws on Voom so I now use Component for all sources.

 

[DarrellP]

Are you suggesting that your review is intentionally slanted?

No way, it is a fair, honest evaluation of what I see. I just know the people around here who don't see the issues and think Voom is perfect in regards to PQ will have a field day with this. But I guess nobody has a good rebuttal so far.

 

[andrzej]

....
DVD's, Dish HD & OTA HD look awesome, Voom looks OK. ....

Are you saying that DVDs look better than HD Voom? (DVD - awesome, Voom - OK). If so, something is really wrong here...

 

[Technut]

Are you saying that DVDs look better than HD Voom? (DVD - awesome, Voom - OK). If so, something is really wrong here...

DVD looks better than voom on my 52 inch rca

 

[DarrellP]

Are you saying that DVDs look better than HD Voom? (DVD - awesome, Voom - OK). If so, something is really wrong here...

No, but given the resolution of a DVD vs the resolution of Voom, DVD wins. I'm not talking purely in a sense that the DVD looks better, they don't, but given the difference in resolution beetween the two and how good a DVD looks, the DVD wins most of the time. I've seen HD on Voom that looks worse than a good DVD.

 

[txdude]

DVD looks better than voom on my 52 inch rca

I have the same model of TV as you Technut and 1080i HD on Voom through component connection looks much, much better than a DVD on my progressive scan/component DVD player.

Are you using component or DVI for Voom STB?

 

[Technut]

I have the same model of TV as you Technut and 1080i HD on Voom through component connection looks much, much better than a DVD on my progressive scan/component DVD player.

Are you using component or DVI for Voom STB?

im using both
im not complaing 1080i looks goon on voom but dvd for me is crisper

 

[Neutron]

When I had Voom, DVD's looked much better than Voom. I have the same TV that Technut has, the RCA 52" D52W20. I had mine hooked up through DVI, Voom that is.

 

[Technut]

When I had Voom, DVD's looked much better than Voom. I have the same TV that Technut has, the RCA 52" D52W20. I had mine hooked up through DVI, Voom that is.

what did u switch too ?

 

[Impatient]

I have a clone of the Sanyo Z2, it's an LCD 720p native projector, 1280 x 720 projecting onto a DIY blackout cloth screen 96" x 54 " (110" diagonal). Inputs include: DVI w/hdcp, S-Video, Component & Composite. DVD's, Dish HD & OTA HD look awesome, Voom looks OK. I was using DVI for Voom but found that due to it's sharpness, it accentuated the flaws on Voom so I now use Component for all sources.

Ok. Obvious question: Are you driving the projector at 720p or 1080i and letting the projector do the scalling? On my (little) Nec LT81, driving at 800x600 produces a noticebly better picture than feeding it 1024x768 and letting it scale (computer DVD src). Do you see a noticeable difference in the two scalers? Voom STB vs projector? Could it be Voom's STB is generating the noise as it downconverts? IIRC, Voom is transmitting 1080i for almost everything. It would be an interesting data point if the most vocal people about mosquito noise were running 720p.

Tonight, I am going to go do a little rearranging with my mediocre equipment so I can get the same magnification that you have. Currently I am only showing a 48" screen and overdriving my projector to do it. It is not rated for 1080i in, but it will take it 95% of the time. One of my OTAs looses video sync and the bottom 1/3 of the screen cascades right. Since it is the bible thumper channel, I don't miss it.

I agree Voom needs to give us more bandwidth per channel. I am just curious as to what hardware combinations show/hide their imperfections the most.

 

[ram1220]

If I may chime in here. I've had Voom since March. Back when I was installed the PQ was terrific. As the months went by, the PQ suffered. I have to agree that lately I too have seen better PQ on a DVD than Voom. I do know the difference with source material and this is not the problem I'm seeing with Voom. I tried to watch a show the other night on Discovery HD and I gave up. The picture actually looked like SD to me. I went to several other movie channels, not Voom originals, and the PQ was so bad I gave up totally on Voom that night. I put a DVD into my progressive scan DVD player. The pictured looked much better than Voom.
Now today I'm finding the PQ on Voom to be really good again. But I'm experiencing picture and sound breakups every 3-5 seconds. I have a 95 on the signal meter.
Voom really needs to get their act together. I'm holding out until WM9 or whatever comes. If the PQ doesn't improve I will dump Voom like a hot potato.

Bob

 

[Sean Mota]

When I hear that DVD looks better than VOOM, this statement makes me nausea because what is it that you are comparing.

If you take any DVD on your collection right now at 480p are you telling me that it looks better than Rave-HD concerts or HDnews or Rush-HD or WorldSport or Starz-HD. What is it that you are comparing? Which DVD to which channel and programming are you comparing. I really don't understand what you are comparing?

 

[Seawaves]

When I hear that DVD looks better than VOOM, this statement makes me nausea because what is it that you are comparing.

If you take any DVD on your collection right now at 480p are you telling me that it looks better than Rave-HD concerts or HDnews or Rush-HD or WorldSport or Starz-HD. What is it that you are comparing? Which DVD to which channel and programming are you comparing. I really don't understand what you are comparing?

If I had any DVD's (or could rent) that looked as good as the best channel HD on Voom or DTV, then I'd only buy and rent DVD's. DVD's always have great sound but the PQ sure is a letdown after you watch some decent HD.