Other Voom content - TMC-HD, MAX-HD, STARZ-HD

MichaelG

SatelliteGuys Guru
Original poster
Jan 19, 2005
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Sugar Land, Texas
Now that I am getting the Voom 10 via the Dish dedicated 61.5 dish, I was wondering why E* doesn't use the Voom sat to continue to provide TMC-HD, MAX-HD, STARZ-HD to Dish users?

Doesn't all of the uplink facility and provisioning still operate? Wouldn't bandwidth be a non-issue since they wouldn't have to down-link the redundant SD content?

Excuse me if this had been covered elsewhere.
 
I expect there are both some money and technical issues here. These folks probably want old Charlie to pony up a few more dollars for the HD and if he did, his present subscribers that can't get 61.5 would probably howl. I sure would like it he did though!
--Doug
 
DarrellP said:
Don't forget about bandwidth, why do you think we only have 10 Voom channels?

is it not the same staellite that voom used to send 37 hd channels? the rumor I heard was the other transponders are currently being used for mpeg4 testing! its not a question of space just a question of where they want the resources to go to, I dont think we will see much movement in the Hd department until mpeg4 crossover this fall, then I think in January the tide will come! just my opinnion from reading different things.
 
stuart you're right, plus they have to preserve the 3 transponders they are currently using to continue simulcasting channels as they make the switch to MPEG-4. Once the transition is complete they can use those 3 for more programming.
 
DarrellP said:
stuart you're right, plus they have to preserve the 3 transponders they are currently using to continue simulcasting channels as they make the switch to MPEG-4. Once the transition is complete they can use those 3 for more programming.

Ok but if they are going to add the other 11 Voom channels "soon" where are they going to get bandwidth from? Seems to me it would be 61.5.

Voom carried all 5 (HBO, SHO, MAX, TMC, STARZ and.....ENCORE plus the Voom 21 PLUS all the SD stuff on ONE satellite. All that bandwidth capability for JUST testing?

I just think that it would cool if they left off 3 of the Voom channels and added TMC, STARZ, MAX HD like Voom had. Oh yeah and they had EncoreHD too. ....seems like a long time ago ....
 
well to tell you the truth, everything I have read about those channels is you are not missing much as all those are just upconverts and not done at a good job. I know there is a big push at getting hd channels, but it has to be something that has to planned out and executed to perfection, as if they do it wrong they cant go back and get a mulligan, or they risk losing everyone, trust me I am sure dish knows what they are doing, I mean really have they let us down so far, do we not have the most Hd channels avaliable?
 
stuart628 said:
well to tell you the truth, everything I have read about those channels is you are not missing much as all those are just upconverts and not done at a good job. I know there is a big push at getting hd channels, but it has to be something that has to planned out and executed to perfection, as if they do it wrong they cant go back and get a mulligan, or they risk losing everyone, trust me I am sure dish knows what they are doing, I mean really have they let us down so far, do we not have the most Hd channels avaliable?
Maybe - but that's still less than half the HD that was availalble from Voom DBS.

Take away the Voom 21 and the Voom DBS HD lineup STILL killed Dish's offering.

It's sad :(.
 
Voom used mpeg-4 for all of its' channels. Dish does not use mpeg4 yet, so the 10 Voom channels take up a lot more transponders.
 
Tmc-hd, Max-hd, Starz-hd

MichaelG said:
Now that I am getting the Voom 10 via the Dish dedicated 61.5 dish, I was wondering why E* doesn't use the Voom sat to continue to provide TMC-HD, MAX-HD, STARZ-HD to Dish users?

Doesn't all of the uplink facility and provisioning still operate? Wouldn't bandwidth be a non-issue since they wouldn't have to down-link the redundant SD content?

Excuse me if this had been covered elsewhere.

These channels had nothing to do with Voom. They belong to Showtime, HBO and Starz. They would have to be negotiated for and would be available with the respective packages of the owners.Such as, TMC-HD would be in the Showtime unlimited package, MAX-HD would be in the Cinemax package and STARZ-HD would be in the Starz! Super Pak package. You would have to subscribe to each package to get the HD channel of your choice. Like you do now to get HBO HDTV or/and Showtime HD.

I miss Voom tooooooooo.......
 
jerryez said:
Voom used mpeg-4 for all of its' channels. Dish does not use mpeg4 yet, so the 10 Voom channels take up a lot more transponders.
Voom had not yet switched to MPEG-4, they had just switched over to the Harmonic Encoders which compressed the MPEG-2 a bit more.
 
voomvoom said:
These channels had nothing to do with Voom. They belong to Showtime, HBO and Starz. They would have to be negotiated for and would be available with the respective packages of the owners.Such as, TMC-HD would be in the Showtime unlimited package, MAX-HD would be in the Cinemax package and STARZ-HD would be in the Starz! Super Pak package. You would have to subscribe to each package to get the HD channel of your choice. Like you do now to get HBO HDTV or/and Showtime HD.

I miss Voom tooooooooo.......

Didn't E* acquire all of Voom's product including the existing facilities, equipment, PROGRAMMING, etc. They could have easily kept all 40,000 Voom subs running as was but that is not what they did and doesn't need to be part of the discussion here.

My question is simple. V* was broadcasting HBO, SHO, STARZ, MAX, TMC and ENCORE in HD. They also had the Voom 21. There was bandwidth left off for a good number of SD channels. They offered all of this BEFORE the Harmonic decoders were activated in March.

So ..... IF.......E* can add 10 of the Voom Originals on a second dedicated
dish without a major hardware change-out.....Why not add the other 16 channels remaining from the original VaVaVoom package....is it not still "there" on Rainbow1? (l left off Encore since it is not broadcast in HD anymore)

As as upconverts goes, almost everything in the movie vaults has to be converted in some way anyway since it was mostly shot on film. Quality will vary for sure but at least meets the eye as an HD film.

All I can say to E*, get going, you got a gift on a deal on some sweet equipment. I know because I saw Voom in operation (it was awesome) and looking at the BEST that Dish has to offer now......well it just is silly and no comparsion. Though the 942 is cool but is crippled with a tiny hard drive.
 
MichaelG said:
Didn't E* acquire all of Voom's product including the existing facilities, equipment, PROGRAMMING, etc. They could have easily kept all 40,000 Voom subs running as was but that is not what they did and doesn't need to be part of the discussion here.

My question is simple. V* was broadcasting HBO, SHO, STARZ, MAX, TMC and ENCORE in HD. They also had the Voom 21. There was bandwidth left off for a good number of SD channels. They offered all of this BEFORE the Harmonic decoders were activated in March.

So ..... IF.......E* can add 10 of the Voom Originals on a second dedicated
dish without a major hardware change-out.....Why not add the other 16 channels remaining from the original VaVaVoom package....is it not still "there" on Rainbow1? (l left off Encore since it is not broadcast in HD anymore)

As as upconverts goes, almost everything in the movie vaults has to be converted in some way anyway since it was mostly shot on film. Quality will vary for sure but at least meets the eye as an HD film.

All I can say to E*, get going, you got a gift on a deal on some sweet equipment. I know because I saw Voom in operation (it was awesome) and looking at the BEST that Dish has to offer now......well it just is silly and no comparsion. Though the 942 is cool but is crippled with a tiny hard drive.

I would refer you to Post #5 in this thread. Dish is using the transponder space as mpeg4 testing, we will see these channels at the beginning of next year, they are coming, just waiting for the switchover, or thats the plans now, things could change! :)
 
They probably don't have contracts yet with the companies involved.....

At the time that Rainbow-1 was taken under control by Dish Network, Dish Network probably didn't have any contracts with the companies that own these channels to distribute them. Of course they have contracts on the SD channels or otherwise they wouldn't be currently distributing them. I imagine, however, that it would cost more than its worth right now to distribute those HD channels. You can't imagine how many people are not up to par with their HD sets. I've had several cases where I work of people who have bought HD sets and are only running regular SD receivers on them. They don't fully grasp the concept of HD. I also believe that there are many out there who are doing this simply because they "think" they have a good picture. Another thing is that if you compare the number of SD subscribers to the number of HD subscribers on Dish Network, there is a much higher percentage of those who are subscribing only to SD than those who subscribe to both HD and SD. If you were an executive in the company and concerned more with profit than better quality channels, then you'd probably not give in as much to expanding the HD line-up as you would your company's SD line-up.
 
lilyarbie said:
At the time that Rainbow-1 was taken under control by Dish Network, Dish Network probably didn't have any contracts with the companies that own these channels to distribute them. Of course they have contracts on the SD channels or otherwise they wouldn't be currently distributing them. I imagine, however, that it would cost more than its worth right now to distribute those HD channels. You can't imagine how many people are not up to par with their HD sets. I've had several cases where I work of people who have bought HD sets and are only running regular SD receivers on them. They don't fully grasp the concept of HD. I also believe that there are many out there who are doing this simply because they "think" they have a good picture. Another thing is that if you compare the number of SD subscribers to the number of HD subscribers on Dish Network, there is a much higher percentage of those who are subscribing only to SD than those who subscribe to both HD and SD. If you were an executive in the company and concerned more with profit than better quality channels, then you'd probably not give in as much to expanding the HD line-up as you would your company's SD line-up.

Remember Dish hasn't yet acquired Rainbow 1. But has made a deal to use the facilities pending the actual approval by the FCC of the deal. Not sure if its Dish employees or Voom actually doing the work at this time.

Clearly Dish doesn't have contracts with the non-voom HD channels (except those they already carried) at this time. And they don't want to tie up the all the frequencies and facilities at this time. They want to use some of them for other things. They apparenly prefer to wait for MPEG4 to essentially double the capacity of the frequencies currently used for HD.
 
Good suggestion. I would jump on any service that gave us back Cinemax HD, Starz HD and The Movie Channel HD. Also while you're at it how about Universal HD?
 
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