New HD Channel on VOOM: Equator HD to start 6/15

[Tvlman]

But when are they going to show what they promoted? They promote the channel with fantastic visuals yet all we are getting is re-runs from Gallery on a 3-hour loop. Not a smart move VOOM. It insults your viewers.

 

[Dvlos]

The problem is money, it costs money to produce HD and for how many viewers? By far there are still more SD sets than HDTV sets out there, but as the HDTV sales keep skyrocketing more demand for HD content will drive more funding which will drive more programs. Hey you never know maybe Discovery will be able to produce more of their programs in HD after they start showing HD quality commercials?! I'm surprised Discovery or Voom don't strike a deal with the BBC to convert many of their nature and science specials into HD content for their channels. Personally shows like the recent Blue Planet would be a smash on HD.

 

[Sean Mota]

But when are they going to show what they promoted? They promote the channel with fantastic visuals yet all we are getting is re-runs from Gallery on a 3-hour loop. Not a smart move VOOM. It insults your viewers.

Right now the only new program for today is : France: Provence (Travel).


I have looked at the programming until the end of June and it will remain the same. It will probably get more programming in July and August.

 

[Tvlman]

Just saw France: Provence. It was terrific although many of the scenes looked as if they had been "bumped up" from 480. Hope we get some more travel shows. But a 3 hour loop! Even PBS-HD doesn't do that and it has a lot of repeats.

 

[Walter L.]

Right now the only new program for today is : France: Provence (Travel).


I have looked at the programming until the end of June and it will remain the same. It will probably get more programming in July and August.

Yeap. I just found this on the web site:

"COMING IN JULY ...

Elsewhere
Reindeer herding in Finland, Nintendo in the African bush. Visiting one exotic location per month over the course of a year, award-winning documentary filmmaker Nicolas Geyerhalter set out with a high definition camera crew and plan to let people speak for themselves. The result is a stark, revealing and often stunning portrayal of life in our planet's most remote locations "


source: http://www.voom.com/vhdo/equa/index.jsp

 

[vurbano]

the novelty will wear off quick. Anyone going to watch the loop over again?

 

[pederb]

So is Epic gone?

 

[Sean Mota]

No it is on 108

 

[rudolpht]

No it is on 108

Unfortunately.

Anyone get guide data on Equator yet?

 

[Walter L.]

Unfortunately.

Anyone get guide data on Equator yet?

Last night I had the program names but no description, except for one of the programs which simply read "Produced in HD and DD 5.1" (don't remember which one).

 

[Walter L.]

Hey Guys,
What do you think of the PQ of this channel so far? It looks superb for me

 

[vurbano]

Hey Guys,
What do you think of the PQ of this channel so far? It looks superb for me

Overall very good. Close ups look great. Some of the edge detail on the buildings looks a little soft in the distant shots. But I think its just the nature of the shot. No break ups, or pixel events. No macro blocking. Some material looks a little grainy at times but again its the camera or film I think.

 

[wasch_24]

Boy, it sure would be nice to enjoy this new channel...........0 signal quality and power since Monday night. At least the three hour loop is still new to me

 

[barth2k]

You know, so far I haven't seen anything that looks really good. I don't know where people get the "superb PQ" from. For example, most of the "Eye on ______" it is long shot and doesn't look anywhere near as good as the "Over ______ " series on hdnet. I don't mean the scenery (though that has been less than spectacular) but the PQ isn't like wow. More like a nice dvd.

 

[Walter L.]

Boy, it sure would be nice to enjoy this new channel...........0 signal quality and power since Monday night. At least the three hour loop is still new to me

Wow, what's going on at your place? T-storms, earthquates, tornados or what? Are you sure that you dish is still on the roof

 

[Walter L.]

You know, so far I haven't seen anything that looks really good. I don't know where people get the "superb PQ" from. For example, most of the "Eye on ______" it is long shot and doesn't look anywhere near as good as the "Over ______ " series on hdnet. I don't mean the scenery (though that has been less than spectacular) but the PQ isn't like wow. More like a nice dvd.

If you don't see any difference between a DVD and this channel (or any other HD channel), I'll say that something must be wrong at your setup. Are you sure that your STB is not at 480p or 480i?

 

[Sean Mota]

You know, so far I haven't seen anything that looks really good. I don't know where people get the "superb PQ" from. For example, most of the "Eye on ______" it is long shot and doesn't look anywhere near as good as the "Over ______ " series on hdnet. I don't mean the scenery (though that has been less than spectacular) but the PQ isn't like wow. More like a nice dvd.

Barth2k,

again you are comparing HDnet to one of VOOM's channel. That is not a fair comparison. Let me ask you why does ESPN-HD on Dish Network or DirecTv does not look like HDnet (when HDnet used to do baseball)? I am not saying that HDnet does not have excellent quality but if you are measuring every single HD channel out there by HDnet standard, you should start with ESPN-HD, TNT-HD, HBO-HD, SHO-HD and let's demand Dish or DirecTv to put every single channel at 19mbsp; they will probably laugh and walk away.

When HDnet is on VOOM, we all can make the comparison.

 

[wasch_24]

Wow, what's going on at your place? T-storms, earthquates, tornados or what? Are you sure that you dish is still on the roof

Yeah it's still there. I don't know what's up with it. My ladder is to short, it was a hand me down, to go up and look at the dish so I am waiting 'till the local tech comes out and looks at it. Voom has prorated my account at least. It's so weird, OTA still works through the diplexed line so if it's a loose connection it's between the dish and the diplexor. The little satellite on the STB blinks between red and green, three seconds green and eight seconds red. When I go into the menu to check the signal it stops blinking and stays red!? So, I wait patiently for the tech.

 

[occammd]

I see macroblocking on this channel when there is moderate to heavy picture movement. Stills look excellent, but a lot of mosquito noise around text . I really started to notice blocking in a slow dance feature from India I believe, the girls necks would macro block a lot as they moved around.
Equator is obviously over compressed. This reminds me of when our PBS OTA went from 1 to 3 subs. At first they had a beautiful picture, perfect, but then they added subs and compressed the HD to fit the digital SD's in. Equator looks like the result of the latter.

 

[Walter L.]

I see macroblocking on this channel when there is moderate to heavy picture movement. Stills look excellent, but a lot of mosquito noise around text . I really started to notice blocking in a slow dance feature from India I believe, the girls necks would macro block a lot as they moved around.
Equator is obviously over compressed. This reminds me of when our PBS OTA went from 1 to 3 subs. At first they had a beautiful picture, perfect, but then they added subs and compressed the HD to fit the digital SD's in. Equator looks like the result of the latter.

Over-compression shouldn't be an issue with VOOM. Wilt Hidendrand (at the Yahoo group) has indicated previously that VOOM pre-allocated all channel in all transponders from day-1. In other words they are running at full channel capacity from day-1. Therefore, every time they add a new channel they don't need to mess with compression on the existing ones (like D* does).
I don't see the macro-blocking that you refer to. Anybody else seeing such problem?