Possible VOOM new encoders

[mkwillia]

Okay, I don't claim to be a expert in these things but ch.999 looked a little crisper to me last night. Being that this is the demo channel, I think that the UltraHD fashion clips were equal on both. The clips that stood out to me were the snowboarding HD footage (some footage was not in HD). Ch.999 showed these clips with more detail to me.

Mike

 

[DarrellP]

I agree, when I first posted, I had seen the snowboarding and Ultra clips and they looked fantastic, but later when I saw the Equator clips, the Skeeters were back.

Do the Engineers at Voom have a clue? Why can Dish put 3 HD channels/transponder and have a decent picture? Is the 8psk that much better? I thought Voom had more bandwidth/transponder than Dish. Someone please help out my poor little pea brain before it explodes.

 

[Walter L.]

I also took a close look at 700 yesterday and I agree with most of you in that it looks great. Let's hope all channels look that good when the migration is completed

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

I just got a note from one of my contacts...

The encoder being used for channel 700 has not been tweaked or optimised yet. It is mainly up at the moment to ensure that the new encoders work with the DSR-550 boxes. As testing goes on you will see the picture on channel 700 will get worse and better as they tweak things. Please do not judge the encoders on what you are seeing now.

We are very lucky VOOM is letting us see them tweeking the system like this, VOOM could easily turn off channel 700 except for those in engeneering. Please dont flame them if the picture on 700 is not good. With that said though if you do notice good and bad changes you are welcome to post your observations here, but again please do not complain about this channel.

 

[hoganlo]

I second that...It's very easy to armchair quarterback!!! (Not trying to dogpile you DarellP ;o). Let's let them work this out but appreciate that we get to watch and that Scott has a contact that is willing to inform us. I appreciate them "pulling back the curtain". That kind of visibility and communication to the customer will retain me whereas the opposite will drive me away.

 

[txcruiser]

With that said though if you do notice good and bad changes you are welcome to post your observations here, but again please do not complain about this channel.

You are welcome to post bad changes but can't complain?

 

[cmurray]

I have to agree with Voom sharing their testing to their customers and more so for us that are more techical and into this type of stuff. Now only if we had more direct contact on other testing, even if it was just a little information on things like the PVR. Not to get off the subject.. it could have been my imagination lastnight, but it seemed like the PQ on all the channels were excellent, but I never sat there and examined each channel before. I didn't see any mention of it from anyone else, so probably just me. I flipped each channel one by one about 11pm PST and just thought to myself how great the quality was and I don't recall it being that way across the board. Possible tweaking on the existing encoders?

 

[DarrellP]

Great news, Scott, you betchyer bootie I am more than happy to give some feedback to them. All the channels have been a mixed bag for me, I stay away from Equator because most of the time it just downright stinks, but DiscoveryHD has been incredible lately and some of the Cinema10 have looked very vibrant (though a tad bit of Skeeters still flying around).

It would be great if they could keep in contact with you Scott and ask for specific feedback when they do some tweaking. Hell, you can give them my number and I'll sit on the phone with them while they do it. You guys know what a PQ fanatic I am and I so want Voom to have great PQ.

Let the tweaking begin.

 

[jimmykce1]

Scott:

What format is the the new encoder running? Is it MPEG4/WM9? I was just wondering since the rumor is that Voom is going to be going to one of these new formats sometime next year.

 

[Walter L.]

Scott:

What format is the the new encoder running? Is it MPEG4/WM9? I was just wondering since the rumor is that Voom is going to be going to one of these new formats sometime next year.

The encoder is currently running MPEG-2, it is upgradable to MPEG4 (and possibly to WM9 as well). However, our STB's would need the MPEG-4/WM9 decoder card before they can migrate.

 

[Dvlos]

Has anyone downloaded Mpeg 4 files and watched them yet? I can't remember how but I got a 1 hour clip on my PC and I was astounded comparing it to and MPEG 2 layer on a DVD, it's about a fourth the size with better picture quality. I just hope when Voom plays around with MPEG4 they don't go "WOOOW A FOURTH THE SIZE! Let's make it a FIFTH!"

 

[dankgus]

About the new compression....

I have seen at least one mention that with MPEG4 compression, compression is only about 20% better (by file size) than current compression. If so, this doesn't allow for more channels because there is a 3 channel per transponder limit. Is this correct? Is the new compression for picture quality only?

Thanks!

 

[DarrellP]

Even if they only achieve a 20% increase, that's all they need to achieve stellar PQ. They are starving the signal right now at around 12 MBS, 20% should effectively bump it up to about 14 MBS which should be about right. BYE-BYE Skeeter noise.