Input for Dish on possible VOOM Changes Being Made

[Tom Bombadil]

I just had a double-take.

I recorded the movie "Goulies" last night, I don't know why. Anyway, I called it up on the 942 and was watching it. After a few minutes I thought to myself, "Gee, this is pretty good SD, much clearer and artifact-free than usual." I thought I had gotten it off of Starz.

Then I looked at my info screen and I couldn't believe my eyes. I recorded it from Monsters HD! It was high-def, not SD. In looking at it again, I had to acknowledge that it had much better detail than SD, but it was very shoddy for a HD film. That beautiful clarity, like on facial detail, was gone. Perhaps this wasn't a good transfer, as some aren't, but it looked much more like DVD quality than HD.

 

[dfergie]

I just had a double-take.

I recorded the movie "Goulies" last night, I don't know why. Anyway, I called it up on the 942 and was watching it. After a few minutes I thought to myself, "Gee, this is pretty good SD, much clearer and artifact-free than usual." I thought I had gotten it off of Starz.

Then I looked at my info screen and I couldn't believe my eyes. I recorded it from Monsters HD! It was high-def, not SD. In looking at it again, I had to acknowledge that it had much better detail than SD, but it was very shoddy for a HD film. That beautiful clarity, like on facial detail, was gone. Perhaps this wasn't a good transfer, as some aren't, but it looked much more like DVD quality than HD.

Thats what I see on D* HD... all HD channels, we cannot go that route...

 

[Stargazer]

Is it safe to say that the HD-Lite you guys are getting is close to what the best SD quality used to be?

 

[Tom Bombadil]

No I would not say that. This is still better than DVD, and E*'s SD quality has never been that close to DVD. Even on PPV movies, which is the best SD you can buy from E*.

 

[Gary Murrell]

no this is not anything close to SD, but I would say that is fairs very well against DVD, the movie material is a little better than DVD, but the HD video stuff(like equator) is worse than DVD

none of it compares to how my beloved MonstersHD was a week ago that is simply the 1280x1080i vs 1920x1080i issue

-Gary

 

[Gary Murrell]

Let me check some stuff and give a update here, I haven't checked my 942 today either, I have been out all day today in the cold trying to hit 148

be back in just a minute

-Gary

 

[Gary Murrell]

Zip has been done to anything Voom, nothing

-Gary

 

[BrettTRay]

I agree with Gary. With what i watched on equator and a few others I would say they are very close with DVD 480P as far as picture quality. I've never seen something that was meant to be HD look so bad. Its ridiculous

 

[Tom Bombadil]

I don't understand why the image quality is as bad as it is. Even if it was down-rezzed to 1280x1080, it should be much sharper than it is. And given that the reported bitrates are in the 14-15 range, then that too should be much sharper.

 

[jmcgee_jr]

Can I ask a question would you guys be willling to live with 1280x1080i if it was fairly sharp and had good bitrates? just to be able to get more channels? I mean I only have the standard hd package right now so I cant tell you if I can tell the difference or not wiating for my voom to get in on the 21st. And most people here complain about ESPN HD I have no problems with it I dont watch it much cept for sportscenter and sunday night football and the quality then is great. Now TNT is another story most of it is just bad stretchy vision but the NBA games are good. I like discovery when they go other places and it looks great most of the time. I ahve a sony 43" RPLCD in torche mode. (Vivid) I cant watch tv without it that way no matter what if I put in movie mode its to dark for my liking. I have been using Vivid for about 2 years now and no problems.

 

[Minsk1]

Can I ask a question would you guys be willling to live with 1280x1080i if it was fairly sharp and had good bitrates? just to be able to get more channels?

Yes, if only Dish and/or DirecTV or any other provider stops calling it HD and call enhanced widescreen and also reduce charges for that content

 

[gutter]

Can I ask a question would you guys be willling to live with 1280x1080i if it was fairly sharp and had good bitrates? just to be able to get more channels? .

Absolutly not. I Quality way before quantity. one y ou start accepting less you will get less everywhere. For me, and for a few others from what I have read, I did not pay out $3,000 to watch something that was just a tad better than DVD. I want to be wow'd. DISH please Wow me!

 

[JH1949]

Absolutly not. I Quality way before quantity. one y ou start accepting less you will get less everywhere. For me, and for a few others from what I have read, I did not pay out $3,000 to watch something that was just a tad better than DVD. I want to be wow'd. DISH please Wow me!

I was wow'd by Voom for 2 years. HDlite is an unacceptable alternative for me.

 

[NightRyder]

Absolutly not. I Quality way before quantity. I did not pay out $3,000 to watch something that was just a tad better than DVD.

Same here.


NightRyder

 

[sampatterson]

I agree also, for HD I want quality above quantity.

 

[grb]

Unfortunately, dish is going to go with the numbers as a business decision. HD subscribers probably make up less than 10% of subscriber total -- maybe less than 5%. Adding SD channels is going to be a priority over maintaining true HD for many years to come because SD subscribers still pay the bills.

What we need is a service that is dedicated to HD, but we had that (Voom) and it couldn't establish a subscriber base anywhere near what it needed to exist. They were just too far ahead of their time. We are in the minority and in sound business judgement, the majority rules, so I can't blame Dish for doing what they need to do to stay in business.

One thing Dish (or Direct) could do to meet the (slowly) increasing HD demand is to make an HD receiver that will display HD programming on non-HD tv's (this is what Voom did). If they started swapping receivers over time, eventually they could discontinue the SD version of channels that are also offered in HD (e.g. -- ESPN/2, TNT, HBO, etc.) At least this would provide some bandwidth to add new HD channels.

I am truly grateful to Voom for installing my OTA antenna and providing me with powered receivers to allow me to get several OTA HD channels (especially the networks). I am afraid these channels may soon be the only true HD I will receive.

 

[FreddyvsJasonvsAsh]

what we all should do is call in on Dec 12 for the Charlie Chat....let the bombing begin LOL

 

[voripteth]

My Sony SXRD's native resolution is 1920 x 1080 so it seems such a shame to waste half that resolution on a HD-lite picture.

I would really like to see a bunch of screen captures so we could compare HD versus HD-lite. I did see one small snapshot which was too small for me to clearly see differences. A few full screen examples would help greatly.

Frankly there is so little true HD on now that it seems ludicrous that there is a desire to scale down what little there is. For example most of what TNT HD shows is a standard definition picture that they stretch and broadcast as "HD". Why waste that bandwidth? How about the VOOM channels which repeat the same two shows for the entire day?

 

[Hall]

I did not pay out $3,000 to watch something that was just a tad better than DVD. I want to be wow'd. DISH please Wow me!

You have an interesting definition of "tad better"...

 

[jsb_hburg]

You have an interesting definition of "tad better"...

Voom HD Originals on Dish is on average almost as good as DVD quality since the down resolution fiasco. And that is being charitable.