As a long-time Dish subscriber, I was elated to be able to add VOOM's 10 high def channels for five bucks. I love the old b&w sci-fi and horror films, many of which haven't shown up on DVD yet. Here's a question though: I read the note that says the film has been mastered in standard quality, then upconverted to 1080i. Judging from the quality, though, isn't there a better way of doing this? Relative to a DVD, say, the image is dramatially inferior and actually seems quite compressed. If VOOM is mastering from original 35 mm prints, shouldn't the result look a little better than it does? Just wondering...
Quality of VOOM Old Monster Films
- Thread starter David Scott
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Ohh Yes it is NOT up converted at all Charles paid a lot of money for the films to be redone to 1080i.... And you think a DVD looks better?? U better re check your Hook up from your sat Box to your HDTV
Which film? Sean Mota would be a better authority on this, but I believe that the vast, vast majority of films shown on Voom are mastered directly into 1080i from film. Perhaps the film you saw actually was upconverted, thus the note.David Scott said:
I've seen shows on Animania where the note said "optimized" for high definition, which did indeed look upconverted and not true HD.
This brings back so many fond memories of the Voom forum for me. First time poster trashing the Voom movies.
All movies in HD Cinema (Guytv/Majestic now) are HD transfered from the Master Film. Sure some of these (like Godzilla movies) look very different than the Spiderman (today's version). When comparing the HD transfer of the movie one must compare to the DVD of the movies. In all cases where I have made comparison of the mastered HD transfer to the DVD, the master HD transfer has won without any doubt. As far as I have seen on VOOM movie channels all movies have been remasterd to HD from the original.
Whoa! Folks, the comment of "vurbano" nothwithstanding, I am far from "trashing" VOOM movies! I'm likely to watch "Invasion of the Saucer Men" at practically any quality level and be grateful. But my hope is that I'm seeing these films in the best quality possible. To my eyes, some of VOOM's older films don't seem as crisp as I would expect on a high def service. I absolutely understand that aging, low-budget, b&w classics seldom will compare visually with modern products. But I'm convinced that the resolution on some of those I've seen on VOOM could look a little better. For example, it has been my experience that when a major studio releases an oldie on DVD, the quality generally is very impressive. The image is sharp, clear and dramatically better than, say, public domain versions heretofore available. I would assume this is because the studio has access to orginal film elements. So far, VOOM versions including "Invasion of the Saucer Men", "The Flesh and the Fiends", "The Amazing Colossal Man" and "Earth vs. the Spider" look - on my high def 64-inch Pioneer 720 Elite - softer and with less contrast than material of the same vintage issued by the copyright owners on DVD. (I wish now that I had caught "Fiend Without a Face" on VOOM so that I could directly compare it with the Criterion disk. Perhaps it will roll around again.) Furthermore, one or two appear to be 4:3 but "zoomed" to accommodate 16:9. For the record, I'm delighted that I can get VOOM and regard $5 as a real deal for 10 channels of HD. I'm also very pleased with a non-commercial monster and sci-fi channel that's in high def, to boot. But I have yet to see on VOOM a 50's b&w example that doesn't look inferior to studio DVD releases of similar material. I've been collecting movies on video since the 70's and have an embarrassing number of DVDs. I'm discriminating when it comes to quality but always allow for the age and original budget of a film. I am overjoyed that many of old sci-fi/horror shows are showing up in surprisingly good quality on DVD but find VOOM's examples visually a notch below what I was expecting. In fairness, most everything else I've seen on the channels looks terrific. Anyway, viva VOOM!
I agree!David Scott said:
There are bad transfers on Voom, no question. Some of the kung fu movies look like they were telecined through an old jelly jar. So the quality varies. But there are some good b/w HD transfers. Voom shows clips of Gilda that are very nice. And although it's not that old, the b/w transfer of Manhattan is to die for.David Scott said:
Amen! Last night I watched an excellent transfer of "Delicatessen". It was superb, as are most of the VOOM films. Having just acquired VOOM via Dish, I'm really giving my 921's recording feature a workout. Now it Dish would just turn on the DVHS-out feature...
OK. I jumped the gun. I've had an opportunity to watch - in full - several more VOOM vintage b&w monster and sci-fi films. While I stand by my original contention that "Invasion of the Saucer Men" and "The Flesh and the Fiends" were not as crisp as I'd hoped, I confess that "Earth vs. the Spider", for example, looks pretty darn good. Excellent, in fact. The trailer that precedes it is not so hot but that's to be expected. So, I apologize for maligning in an earlier message the "Spider" transfer before giving it a fair chance. I am extremely happy with Dish's addition of the various VOOM channels. I watched Elmer Gantry tonight and it visually was superb. My 921's hard drive is nearly full of VOOM films that I'm anxious to watch. So, my hat is off to VOOM for presenting these films and to Dish for resurrecting them and making them available. Perhaps my initial disappointment with "Saucer Men" and "Fiends" was due to the inaccessability of first rate elements to VOOM. But I'm through nitpicking and, instead, will spend my time watching the films...
