Now that's Voom's fate is know.

[WJMorales]

Can some Voomers tell us about the Voom 21 channels. How is the material? Original or Upconverted? Are they 720p or 1080i? How do they compare to other HD materials on Dish or DTV? How do they compare to Off Air HD?

Most important do you think Dish & DTV should add the VOOM 21 channels?

 

[Sean Mota]

Do you really believe all this time that it was upconverted material? It was excellent HD material and I would not think twice signing up again for it if someone does intent in carrying it. Read my signature about Dish said about adding new HD services.

 

[FIREBIRD81]

Can some Voomers tell us about the Voom 21 channels. How is the material? Original or Upconverted? Are they 720p or 1080i? How do they compare to other HD materials on Dish or DTV? How do they compare to Off Air HD?

Most important do you think Dish & DTV should add the VOOM 21 channels?

The VOOM originals were direct transfers from 35mm to HDTV. That would actually be a down-convert, FYI.

 

[WJMorales]

Am not a Voom customer. I have never seen Voom in action. I am intrested in knowing more about VOOM 21 channels.

 

[Sean Mota]

The VOOM originals were direct transfers from 35mm to HDTV. That would actually be a down-convert, FYI.

I once made the mistake of using the terms "upconvert/downconvert" to refer to HD movie transfers. "Upconvert" means that you are taking the 480i source and upconverting to 1080i/720p without any HD transfer. "Downconvert" means that you are taking the 1080i/720p source and downconverting to 480i. Neither of these two terms applies to VOOM HD Originals.

The 10 Cinema movies + Monsters HD were all HD transfers which requires a whole process by which a 35 mm master (with higher resolution than 1080i/720) is converted to an HD transfers.

RushHD, HDnews, UltraHD, LaBHD,EquatorHD,& GalleryHD were all captured with HD cameras.

Animania was HD transfers of Cartoons filmed on 35mm films. They go through the same process as HD movies go through. The process is a standard process used through the entire industry. Some transfer are better than others because it depends on how well the original masters has been kept.

I hope this clarifies the issue.

 

[mdonnelly]

...Read my signature about Dish said about adding new HD services.

And that, my friends, is why Dish will still be offering HD to their subs in May.

 

[WJMorales]

Sean thank you very much for your explation. I hope these channels to get added to Dish & DTV.

 

[Sean Mota]

And that, my friends, is why Dish will still be offering HD to their subs in May.

Yes, very true. But the real question is how well they will take the pressure once D* starts deploying their plan this spring/summer. That will be interested in itself to see.

 

[T2k]

The VOOM originals were direct transfers from 35mm to HDTV. That would actually be a down-convert, FYI.

Yep.

 

[mdonnelly]

Yes, very true. But the real question is how well they will take the pressure once D* starts deploying their plan this spring/summer. That will be interested in itself to see.

I agree. I expect a very aggressive scramble from both regarding HD this summer, assuming D* gets their satellite up as planned. It may be an interesting Charlie Chat on Monday.

 

[FIREBIRD81]

I once made the mistake of using the terms "upconvert/downconvert" to refer to HD movie transfers. "Upconvert" means that you are taking the 480i source and upconverting to 1080i/720p without any HD transfer. "Downconvert" means that you are taking the 1080i/720p source and downconverting to 480i. Neither of these two terms applies to VOOM HD Originals.

Oops. sorry. Not very good on the technical terms with this, just repeating like a parrot .

To the OP, contentwise, from what I've seen so far, the movie channels are comparable to HDNET movies, but more specialized per genre, nothing to exciting, unless you like older movies. But the otehr channels, like RUSH and RAVE are pretty cool and definitely fit the description of more compelling HD content, to quote a certain DBS CEO.

 

[WJMorales]

Lets' assume that DTV new birds go as planned and Dish get's Rainbow 1. This will make for a very intresting summer or 2005. Let's just hope for the best. I hope both CEO's are listening to thier peeps.

 

[dlma1]

I hope D* gets the V* channels as I have D* now. D* would then finally have the HDTV that Cuban supposedly loves but only offers a few channels!

 

[TheForce]

The question is not the technical aspects of the VOOM 21 but rather the content. Trust what Sean said, The technical aspects are in summary, just beautiful HDTV. For short periods of time, I saw issues with motion blockiness but they were constantly working to improve their compression schemes. What it was not was the lay definition of "upconverts" All were true HDTV, period, end of story.

The real question is the content. Now we get personal. Not all is for everybody but VOOM tried to offer at least a few HDTV channels that will please everyone anytime of the day. If you decided that the one channel, say Monsters was what you really wanted,. then you watched that one for the 4-5 movies per month and now what? This was the only problem, a minor one in my (personal) opinion but never the less, it is a problem when you want more and you've seen those as reruns. Each channel genre was limited in quantity. That in itself was the ONLY issue I saw with the Voom21.

So the question is, would I pay to have the VOOM21 on say D* or E*. I would pay $1 per channel or $21 a month but not more. It is worth that much to me if I can get at least 5 movies a month from it, it competes with typical DVD rentals outside of the free clubs. Personally, I would like to have VOOM21 as an a-la carte package but I'm sure that is too much to ask.


So what about Playboy Hot HD channel?
I decided to sub to this for awhile to see how it was. Quality was excellent in HDTV but the network did do quite a few upconverts using the ESPNHD like sidebars to keep you fooled into thinking it was HDTV. All the live stuff and reruns of live was shot and aired in true HDTV. Unfortunately, it came down to content again. Most of the day was the same old same old and nothing new. Same porn stars doing the same thing to callers' requests. When it dies with VOOM, I would not pick it up again with the other dbs services even if offered for $10 a month. With V* I paid 14.50 for the PlayboyHD but new subs pay $19.50. This is obscenely overpriced unless you are in need of this genre. Again, a personal issue and it boils down to "content"

 

[bratboy]

Well if somehow DTV was able to add the Voom21 & maybe a few of the other movie channels in HD they currently don't offer I would be fairly happy, or at least be able to make do. Wouldnt be quite the same as have seprate voom boxes in each of 3 rooms but before I just used a splitter and ran extra coax to other 2 rooms. Its all a wait n see deal right now tho.

 

[weagle]

it boils down to what charles is going to do with the transponders on 61.5, if it goes to dishnet it would be nice if he offered the voom exclusives and dishnet would carry the torch so to speak and then migrate everyont to dishnet, it has been done with international channels that were on kuband then switched to dishnet and dishnet migrated everyone, same can happen here but only problem dishnet views each transponder as a money making thing for SD since most watch SD, they dont like putting hd channells up much cause not many people watch them so their sub base for those channels are low. Thats the sad part of this that HD may go into oblivion again or stay in oblivion because of broadcasters looking at each transponder as money making and right now they see hd stuff isn't much money making so why bother offering more hd content, that is what ticks me off, thats the nice thing about voom charles dolan guy was targeting hd consumers and unfortunately not enough consumers were out there to support this, if they did maybe dishnet would of jumped in but i have a feeling dishnet ain't going to jump into the hd bandwagon anytime soon.