[VOOM] Becoming disenchanted with SD channels

[Steve Brightman]

For those of you who only care about the HD content no point in reading
any further!

Until such a time as everything is available in HD many of us will have
to watch some of the SD channels for the content we like. My question
is, why is the quality so poor? I've noticed the Bio channel is full of
macro-blocking and Fox Soccer Channel is the epitome of over
compression. Seems like Voom's differentiator is superior picture
quality so why not give a bit more bandwidth to the SD channels as
well? SD can look quite good, as anyone watching ESPN can attest. Watch
ESPN-HD when they are showing SD content (i.e. with the vertical bars
at the sides). Then compare to the regular ESPN channel.

As big screen TVs become more widespread more people will notice the
overcompression typified by DirecTV and Dish. Voom could attract many
customers away from them just by showing clean SD channels.

I guess in some cases Voom would not be able to do this because the
programmers themselves only make an overcompressed feed available to
them, but ESPN at least shows what could be possible.

Until Voom cleans up its act I find that beyond the HD channels my
trusty BUD (big ugly dish) still reigns in terms of PQ.

Any comments?

Steve Brightman
Dallas, Texas
MSN: steveweb@sbcglobal.net
AIM: ElLotus
Skype: amigasteve


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]






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[thegrod]

Steve,
Widescreen is not a prerequisite for a signal to be in HD although it is
normally a good indication with live sports and sports replays. My local
evening news is in narrow screen but is still HD. With ESPN HD the vertical
bars usually indicate a SD source. I do think when you compare ESPN HD to
ESPN SD and the vertical bars are in place on the HD channel, the picture
quality is still superior onthe HD channel. Whether this is just because
the SD channel is more compressed or the fact that the broadcast of the SD
source is at a higher resolution on the HD I am not sure but I ususally
watch ESPN on the HD channel because it looks better to me. Do you share
the same feeling?
Bruce
Thegrod
----- Original Message -----
From: "Steve Brightman" <amigasteve@sbcglobal.net>
To: <VOOM@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Wednesday, March 30, 2005 7:41 AM
Subject: [VOOM] Becoming disenchanted with SD channels


>
>
> For those of you who only care about the HD content no point in reading
> any further!
>
> Until such a time as everything is available in HD many of us will have
> to watch some of the SD channels for the content we like. My question
> is, why is the quality so poor? I've noticed the Bio channel is full of
> macro-blocking and Fox Soccer Channel is the epitome of over
> compression. Seems like Voom's differentiator is superior picture
> quality so why not give a bit more bandwidth to the SD channels as
> well? SD can look quite good, as anyone watching ESPN can attest. Watch
> ESPN-HD when they are showing SD content (i.e. with the vertical bars
> at the sides). Then compare to the regular ESPN channel.
>
> As big screen TVs become more widespread more people will notice the
> overcompression typified by DirecTV and Dish. Voom could attract many
> customers away from them just by showing clean SD channels.
>
> I guess in some cases Voom would not be able to do this because the
> programmers themselves only make an overcompressed feed available to
> them, but ESPN at least shows what could be possible.
>
> Until Voom cleans up its act I find that beyond the HD channels my
> trusty BUD (big ugly dish) still reigns in terms of PQ.
>
> Any comments?
>
> Steve Brightman
> Dallas, Texas
> MSN: steveweb@sbcglobal.net
> AIM: ElLotus
> Skype: amigasteve
>
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>
>
>
>






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