Let's talk about VOOM.
- Thread starter solsen
- Start date
- Latest activity Latest activity:
- Replies 18
- Views 3K
I've only had the Voom channels for awhile (and not all of them since I currently have a 942). So far, I like them. Of course it's all personal preference and taste. Many of the channels I'll never watch - i.e. I couldn't care less about fashion or mountain biking. As far as quality, it's been a good match for my projector because it can only really resolve about 720p anyway. Those with higher resolution displays complain a lot about HD-Lite and I probably would too if I was in their shoes. So you'll need to look at the list of channels and see if theyr are worth the extra money. The only gripe I have with them is that they repeat their content A LOT. It would be nice if they would rotate their programming more.
Like Widescreen said - to each his own. I have all 15 voom channels. I watch FilmFest the most and even catch myself watching Monsters occassionally. I like soccer and CFL on Worldsport and sometimes watch Rave if the group is of interest. Even Treasure is kinda cool. The rest I really don't relate to myself. The SO watches Ultra and Equator a good bit. In general the PQ is good, not great (HDLite, etc.) but it is pretty much equal to the other HD stuff coming from the sats. The DD5.1 surround sound can be quite impressive when it's there. There is a fair amount of repeat in the programming, but I find that good; if you miss something you want to see, there's a good bet that it will come around again. There's far too much programming already for the limited time I have to watch or DVR it!
Bottom line - I think there's something in voom for everyone. And the best for last - NO COMMERCIALS...!
PS - If you sub. to a Dish metaiilc HD package, all 15 voom channels are in there at any level - no option. So in essence there's no "extra cost". (10 channels were $5/mo. extra in the old "HD Pack" days - I'll bet that's what Widescreen has - but AFAIK that package is no longer available...)
Welcome, BTW...!
Bottom line - I think there's something in voom for everyone. And the best for last - NO COMMERCIALS...!
PS - If you sub. to a Dish metaiilc HD package, all 15 voom channels are in there at any level - no option. So in essence there's no "extra cost". (10 channels were $5/mo. extra in the old "HD Pack" days - I'll bet that's what Widescreen has - but AFAIK that package is no longer available...)
Welcome, BTW...!
Last edited:
Question: I'm not too techno-savvy so could you explain the HD-Lite comment a bit more? Are you saying that the quality of VOOM isn't that good? Thanks.
Which channels are your favorites? Any good programs in particular on those channels? I'm thinking equator could be interesting.
Thanks for helping me out!
Which channels are your favorites? Any good programs in particular on those channels? I'm thinking equator could be interesting.
Thanks for helping me out!
HDLite, hmmm....anyone heard anything about that in these threads? (joking!) Just search "HDLite" (no quotes) via the search engine at the top and see what comes back. In a nutshell - it's a format the providers use that is less than what the ATSC (actually, the ITU) defines as HD in terms of lower resolution. To some extent HDLite is needed to cram many channels (HD and SD) into the available bandwidth with the available transponders on the available satellites. The balancing act for the sat. companies is to provide enough content to satisfy all subs without sacrificing too much PQ (picture quality) on any of it. More resource (ultimately, more satellites) would help alleviate the problem. Most of us are demanding a return to full HD resolution on as many channels as possible and it will take either less content or more capacity to provide that. Right now its analogous to cramming 6 lanes of traffic onto a 3-lane highway.
Most of voom is currently at 1440 x 1080 pixels, IIRC, i.e., "HDLite". At one time ( in the voom days) it was sent at a higher resolution. As I said, it's good, not great HD PQ. The purists demand better!
Full HD is 1920 x 1080 pixels, progressive or interlaced. (I believe 1280 x 720p is also listed.) HD PQ is dependent on more than just resolution, however. A fast bitrate is also required for pictures with even moderate action or else the picture degrades into "pixelation" (blockiness) and/or dropouts. 1920 x 1080i at 60 frames per second would require over 62 Mbps without compression. Since a 6MHz bandwidth allows only about 19.4Mbps, some significant compression must occur to carry a HD signal, but some providers overdo it. Better compression algorithms are needed. MPEG-4 is the current technology but it is still in it's infancy in terms of being both "efficient" and returning acceptable PQ. It is backwards compatible with the earlier MPEG-2 encoding that was acceptable, but not efficient enough to keep up with expanding content demand.
I listed my voom favorites above. Equator is a bit like Discovery in terms of content: world travel, foreign cities and cultures, etc...
Most of voom is currently at 1440 x 1080 pixels, IIRC, i.e., "HDLite". At one time ( in the voom days) it was sent at a higher resolution. As I said, it's good, not great HD PQ. The purists demand better!
Full HD is 1920 x 1080 pixels, progressive or interlaced. (I believe 1280 x 720p is also listed.) HD PQ is dependent on more than just resolution, however. A fast bitrate is also required for pictures with even moderate action or else the picture degrades into "pixelation" (blockiness) and/or dropouts. 1920 x 1080i at 60 frames per second would require over 62 Mbps without compression. Since a 6MHz bandwidth allows only about 19.4Mbps, some significant compression must occur to carry a HD signal, but some providers overdo it. Better compression algorithms are needed. MPEG-4 is the current technology but it is still in it's infancy in terms of being both "efficient" and returning acceptable PQ. It is backwards compatible with the earlier MPEG-2 encoding that was acceptable, but not efficient enough to keep up with expanding content demand.
I listed my voom favorites above. Equator is a bit like Discovery in terms of content: world travel, foreign cities and cultures, etc...
Last edited:
So far I love the Voom channels! And as far as quality, I think they are AWESOME! I am watching on a Toshiba 32" HDTV.
I have had the VOOM channels since February and, for the most part, we enjoy most of them (IMHO, a few are real crap). The biggest complaint that I have is that there are WAY too many repeats on many of them. They need a LOT more HD material.
I like equator hd; and world sports hd.
I don't care about the fashion and art gallery ones.
I occasionally catch a flick on one of the movie channels.
I think Voom provides a nice way to round-out the HD channels; but I watch HdNet; Universal HD, National Geographic HD, and Discovery HD Theatre more than the voom channels. HdNet is one of my favorite channels. I have the HD Platinum, so I also get the HD premium movie channels. Its a nice package of 30 channels, although the price is a bit high. $120 with locals/superstations, dvr fee.
I don't care about the fashion and art gallery ones.
I occasionally catch a flick on one of the movie channels.
I think Voom provides a nice way to round-out the HD channels; but I watch HdNet; Universal HD, National Geographic HD, and Discovery HD Theatre more than the voom channels. HdNet is one of my favorite channels. I have the HD Platinum, so I also get the HD premium movie channels. Its a nice package of 30 channels, although the price is a bit high. $120 with locals/superstations, dvr fee.
Let me throw in some good comments for Gallery HD (the art one). This was not a channel I thought I would enjoy, but really I have. They go indepth as to the background on lots of different masterpieces, most of which you'll recognize. I've also enjoyed a new show they have on there "The Art of the Heist" that talks about famous thefts in art history (most since 1990). If you're one that makes sure to check out the art museums when you visit a large city (Chicago, New York etc.) then you'll enjoy some of the shows.
I like equator, but anything on it I can get just as well from Discover HD or PBS HD. So it offers nothing new.
FilmFest is fun as it shows some great old movies. If you like Kurosawa you'll enjoy the Kung Fu station.
FamilyFest is a waste. I enjoy family fare in general but I've had difficulty getting behind this show.
I like equator, but anything on it I can get just as well from Discover HD or PBS HD. So it offers nothing new.
FilmFest is fun as it shows some great old movies. If you like Kurosawa you'll enjoy the Kung Fu station.
FamilyFest is a waste. I enjoy family fare in general but I've had difficulty getting behind this show.
bhelms said:
I am fairly certain, but could be wrong, that the current VOOM channels are being sent at 1280x1080, not 1440x1080.
Last fall when a few of them were at 1920x1080, the video quality was excellent.
It got worse when they were down-rezzed, but has since improved a bit as Dish has tweaked their compression algorithms and bit rates. It is still not near the equal of where they were, but they are okay most of the time. Some here have recently stated that the quality has returned to very good levels, well, I've been watching several of these channels and I haven't seen that yet. Better yes, high quality, no.
As to the content, I enjoy some of the VOOM channels - most notably FilmFest, Equator, Gallery, Monster and occasionally RAVE and World News. I had higher hopes for World Cinema but have been disappointed thus far. So out of their 15 channels, I'm glad to have 6 of them.
of all the channels I watch RAVE the most.. the video game channel when I'm bored and the News sometimes..
I probably stand corrected. It's like trying to follow the proverbial bouncing ball.Tom Bombadil said:
Let's get our full HD rez. back and there won't be any confusion about it...!
A 720p set will downconvert 1080i material to its native resolution. The lower quality the 1080i source, the lower quality the downconversion will be.
Let's say we take a movie that was converted to a 1920x1080i digital format, then strip out 1/3rd of that digital information & send it out at 1280x1080i. When your 720p's electronics receive the digital stream, it has only 2/3rds of the original information. The resultant downconversion process will yield a picture that is less true to the original image when fed this down-rezzed source.
This is not simply a theory. If one has a good quailty 720p set and has an opportunity to compare the picture from a high quality 1920 picture vs a 1280 source, the difference is obvious and easy to see. I have seen this many times.
Some erroneously believe, and I think Dish hopes they believe, that since their set is 1280x720p, that a 1280x1080i image is all they need in order to see the best picture. They think the 1280 horizontal pixels will map 1:1, and then the 1080 vertical pixels will map the same as from a 1920x1080, so there is no difference. However, that's not the way it works.
And then, of course, there is the issue of whether sufficient bandwidth is being provided.
Let's say we take a movie that was converted to a 1920x1080i digital format, then strip out 1/3rd of that digital information & send it out at 1280x1080i. When your 720p's electronics receive the digital stream, it has only 2/3rds of the original information. The resultant downconversion process will yield a picture that is less true to the original image when fed this down-rezzed source.
This is not simply a theory. If one has a good quailty 720p set and has an opportunity to compare the picture from a high quality 1920 picture vs a 1280 source, the difference is obvious and easy to see. I have seen this many times.
Some erroneously believe, and I think Dish hopes they believe, that since their set is 1280x720p, that a 1280x1080i image is all they need in order to see the best picture. They think the 1280 horizontal pixels will map 1:1, and then the 1080 vertical pixels will map the same as from a 1920x1080, so there is no difference. However, that's not the way it works.
And then, of course, there is the issue of whether sufficient bandwidth is being provided.
Last edited:
What I would like to see VOOM offer is another English-language movie channel.
Right now they have World Cinema and Kung Fu, which are predominantly foreign language channels.
They have a horror channel, Monsters.
And they have one general purpose, all other genres except horror, movie channel, FilmFest.
I believe that they must have more movies in their "vault" than can be distributed out through the FilmFest channel alone.
Right now they have World Cinema and Kung Fu, which are predominantly foreign language channels.
They have a horror channel, Monsters.
And they have one general purpose, all other genres except horror, movie channel, FilmFest.
I believe that they must have more movies in their "vault" than can be distributed out through the FilmFest channel alone.
solsen said:
I do watch a number of the 'Voom' channels and there is often good stuff on one or more of them. I saw an offbeat movie tonight on the World movie channel: "Easy Money", a kind of send-up of the "The Thomas Crown Affair"; the dialog was in chinese with english subtitles but it was just off-beat enough to have numerous laughs and clever action sequences.
They are all pretty good for their individual program types. The only real problem is the repetition. This isn't quite as bad as it used to be. It's also exaggerated because of the lack of HD channels. ALL cable/sat channels are pretty darn repetitive. The difference is, when you've got a new HDTV, you really want to watch an HD program, so you just look at the HD channels and you notice how repetative they are. When you're looking at 200 channels instead of 20, the repetition doesn't stand out.
The main thing to look at is, are you interested in the channel topics/themes? Monsters is one of their best channels, but if you don't like horror movies, it doesn't matter. Same for Kung Fu.
FilmFest is one of the few "general interest" channels. The quality is good- both picture and programming- and it's not overly repetitive (unlike the channel it replaced-"The Majestic".) However, World Cinema has been a bit of a disappointment for me- I just haven't seen much I've been interested in. I suspect if you are a hardcore foriegn film fan, you might like it better. I personally fall in the middle on foreign films- I certainly enjoy a good one, but I'm not the snob type who watches everything that comes along in another language. I think the problem is, they don't show particularly well known films, so I don't know what's good and what's not and I don't have time to experiement.
The only other movie channel is Family Room- it's lacking a little in good movies, although some of the old TV programming is a kick (Flipper, Thunderbirds!)
Rave is an excellent music channel, but again, they need more programming. Plenty of variety, although it skews a little older- you're not going to see Disturbed on there.
WorldSport is good for Soccer fans, or displaced Canadians, but not much else.
Rush is the "extreme sport" channel, but it does have some stuff of general interest, if only for beautiful scenery.
Ultra is mainly the "fashion channel", but they do have some programming on fine food.
I found Gallery interesting too, but surprisingly, Treasure has some good stuff as well.
HD News is good quality, but obviously you're not going to turn there first for breaking news. It's a good place to catch up on world events for 10 minutes or so, and has probably replaced Headline News for that purpose in my house.
Gameplay is strangely fascinating in tiny doses, but basically only of interest to hardcore gamers. Animania is fairly useless to me (and I love cartoons), but I might feel different if I had a 5 year old. (The Toons LOOK great though.)
And that just leaves Equator- a decent alternative if you don't like what's on Discovery.
Really, they're all good, not great. Good picture quality, not great...good programming, not great. If you aren't interested in any of the special interests represented, you might not care much,as there are only 2 or 3 "general interest" channels.
The main thing to look at is, are you interested in the channel topics/themes? Monsters is one of their best channels, but if you don't like horror movies, it doesn't matter. Same for Kung Fu.
FilmFest is one of the few "general interest" channels. The quality is good- both picture and programming- and it's not overly repetitive (unlike the channel it replaced-"The Majestic".) However, World Cinema has been a bit of a disappointment for me- I just haven't seen much I've been interested in. I suspect if you are a hardcore foriegn film fan, you might like it better. I personally fall in the middle on foreign films- I certainly enjoy a good one, but I'm not the snob type who watches everything that comes along in another language. I think the problem is, they don't show particularly well known films, so I don't know what's good and what's not and I don't have time to experiement.
The only other movie channel is Family Room- it's lacking a little in good movies, although some of the old TV programming is a kick (Flipper, Thunderbirds!)
Rave is an excellent music channel, but again, they need more programming. Plenty of variety, although it skews a little older- you're not going to see Disturbed on there.
WorldSport is good for Soccer fans, or displaced Canadians, but not much else.
Rush is the "extreme sport" channel, but it does have some stuff of general interest, if only for beautiful scenery.
Ultra is mainly the "fashion channel", but they do have some programming on fine food.
I found Gallery interesting too, but surprisingly, Treasure has some good stuff as well.
HD News is good quality, but obviously you're not going to turn there first for breaking news. It's a good place to catch up on world events for 10 minutes or so, and has probably replaced Headline News for that purpose in my house.
Gameplay is strangely fascinating in tiny doses, but basically only of interest to hardcore gamers. Animania is fairly useless to me (and I love cartoons), but I might feel different if I had a 5 year old. (The Toons LOOK great though.)
And that just leaves Equator- a decent alternative if you don't like what's on Discovery.
Really, they're all good, not great. Good picture quality, not great...good programming, not great. If you aren't interested in any of the special interests represented, you might not care much,as there are only 2 or 3 "general interest" channels.
Tom Bombadil said:
Agreed- especially since AMC used to have a tremendous film library. I assume Rainbow still has the library, they just don't show them.
Does anyone know if the other 6 channels are being shown anywhere yet? FIOS? It appeared that as many as 4 more VOOM movie channels were in the works...Coda, Sizzle, Renew, and Cosmic. And of course, 6 other ones were removed from the old VOOM service...Divine, Gunslinger, Vice, and HaHa- plus Majestic and GuyTV. Of course, we don't really know what the plans were.
