Voom Overall Review First Few Hours

[Guest]

weather jpg

great pictures One question concerning vooms rf output....are the HD channels downconverted to enable one to watch on a regular tv in another room?

thanks

don

 

[Sean Mota]

Re: weather jpg

great pictures One question concerning vooms rf output....are the HD channels downconverted to enable one to watch on a regular tv in another room?

thanks

don

Yes, it is possible. There is a red button in the receiver that allows to change to 1080i, 720p, 480p, 480i, or use the auto feature. The auto feature will switch automatically to the native resolution you are watching. Also, you can use the composite and S-video input. These downconvert to 480i. I am trying to find out if there is a way to control this red button from the remote control. I have only tried using the manual button in front of the receiver. I will try to give you a picture of this tonight.

 

[Sean Mota]

Officially, the "upconvert" generally means the source tape is digi betacam or other StdDef. digital tape source dubbed from the telecined master which is usually D5 today after down conversion. A sub master may also be on HDCAM. The digi betacam is the distribution media. Then this is played through a box that upconverts it back to what Mike said is electrically HDTV.

Sean- Can you confirm that the Cinema 10 are really upconverts by this definition or are they really D5 or HDCAM masters and of just poor transfer quality? You'd probably have to ask someone at VOOM programming, a technical person to be sure. Additionally, you might ask if the airing program is from tape or from a server to air.

PS you made a very nice report. I appreciate it.

Don,
Thanks. According to Wilt at VOOM, all of these movies are true HD transfers. There has not been more details than this. We will need to research this more.

 

[Sean Mota]

Here is a response from Wilt at Voom.

We try to get the stuff we get at the highest quality available, short of going back and refilming it in HD, I don’t know how to change history.
Then, we transfer rather than upconvert in most cases.
Wilt

 

[johnpete]

Overall their programming is not that great, but I am sure that will change. What was the deciding factor for me is bandwidth. 39 HD channels (all 1080i) one dish pointing in one direction. And I've got 4 more months to make up my mind. By then the 921s will be all over the place and I will know what satellite to point to, and I can use the money back from Voom to pull the trigger on the 921 if that's the best.

HD is fantastic!

So far Voom looks like a no loose deal.

"Show me the channels"


John

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

For me VOOM is like a BIG HD DEMO Channel, lots of HD with no real content.

You have 10 movies showing on 10 channels that you wouldnt have wanted to see when they were playing in the movie theaters.

The rest of the VOOM exclusive channels are also all filler and repeat often.

What are the plans to ramp up the VOOM Exclusive channels with real content?

I can't see spending that kind of money for a handfull of glorified demo loops.

 

[johnpete]

You are absolutely correct. Nothing but demo.

But, they are in Beta and things are improving.

It is up to the marketplace (us) to tell them what we want and how much we will pay for it. Hopefully... this "start-up" will listen and won't let quality suffer. Every time E* adds more channels the quality suffers. I actually considered getting a smaller monitor because the picture quality has gotten so bad.


Voom has the bandwidth! Let hope they use it wisely.

John

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

John,

I must say that VOOM does deserve a round of applause, (especially Wilt) they have been working round the clock to improve things.

I wonder why they rushed to launch this year?

I am looking forward to reading VOOM's 10K statement next year, going to be some good reading in there.

 

[rudolpht]

Re: Previous channel

Previous channel

Use the back button to do this (left long slender key)

Except it doesn't really work. Shuttles me back to last OTA channel vs last channel viewed. Also the guides don't start from where you are, they start from top of favorites or 100 depending which guide. This can't be too hard to fix I hope.

 

[rudolpht]

For me VOOM is like a BIG HD DEMO Channel, lots of HD with no real content.

You have 10 movies showing on 10 channels that you wouldnt have wanted to see when they were playing in the movie theaters.

The rest of the VOOM exclusive channels are also all filler and repeat often.

What are the plans to ramp up the VOOM Exclusive channels with real content?

I can't see spending that kind of money for a handfull of glorified demo loops.

Scott,

I would agree with your conclusion if your contention was true. I have watched more HD movies on Voom than HDnet/HDnet Moview over half a year. A good black & white transfer is stunning & regular, not like the one time I remeber Sho had Hell is for Heroes or a movie like that.

It is certainly incomplete w/o other "Paks," but just having Sho HD & East & West (why have the SD channels too, I don't know) is a good start. When Cinemax, Bravo, Starz come on line ahead of the big guys there will be a change in mindshare. DIRECTV is out of room and the smart move of Dish away from StupiDish also leaves marginal growth.

If it were just a demo it would be cool, as is it is compelling to me. It will likely not stop me from getting a 921 & keeping min Dish commitment to keep archiving after the 5000 goes quietly into the night, but that will not make me get rid of Voom either.

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

And why are you watching those movies?

Its just because they are HD?

Now honestly I don't believe you would go see those movies in a theather if they offered you free admission and free popcorn.

Again I say the content on VOOM, while nice looking is nothing better then Demo Material.

Now also understand me on this, VOOM is making strives to add content, yesterdays Boxing / Don King announcement shows that fact.

VOOM is just not where they should be yet. It will get better.

 

[rudolpht]

And why are you watching those movies?

Its just because they are HD?

Now honestly I don't believe you would go see those movies in a theather if they offered you free admission and free popcorn.

I would pay to see The Vikings on the big screen and pay double the ticket price for popcorn too. (Well maybe they have only had a few great epic type movies for guys like me that like action/adventure/war flicks, but then again I bought tickets for the LOTR all day athon too).

Tim

 

[Sean Mota]

ps can the set-top do a full screen display of the program guide?

no, it cannot.

what type of fittings did the installer use (compression or crimp)?

Do you mean the fittings at the end of cable?

 

[rtt2]

Yea what type of cable fittings did the installer use? compression type or the crimp on kind.

 

[Sean Mota]

Yea what type of cable fittings did the installer use? compression type or the crimp on kind.

Crimp

 

[Guest]

John,

I wonder why they rushed to launch this year?

I don't think they had a choice... it was that or lose the licenses they had for those slots.

 

[Sean Mota]

Here is the front of the receiver. It shows the red button compartment and the different resolution lights plus the smartcard compartment.

 

[Sean Mota]

I got home and the local mapping was working. Here are some pictures. The sub-channels are also showing up. The only missing is 7-2 and two spanish channels 40 and 53. The PG does not have information about locals. I guess it will take some time to download the information. Even channel 4-1 showed up and that was just recently added.

 

[TheForce]

Sean-

Thanks for the research on the "upconvert" vs. HD transfer.

I took a look at many of your screen shots and need to ask-
Are you sure you have a good connection between your STB and your monitor? I am seeing quite a bit of picture graininess that looks like video noise on those solid colors in the screen menus. It's either a bad cable in your system or that VOOM STB outputs quite a high level of video noise (low signal to noise ratio). Look closely at the Green or Y cable. This would be for analog connection only. If those were taken using DVI then I'd complain about the grain in the picture. Even my old Dish 5000 looks cleaner than those images and I always thought the 5000 had a low signal to noise ratio on it's output.

The picture of your equipment rack is clean so it's not your digital camera that is making the noisy picture.

 

[Sean Mota]

Sean-

Thanks for the research on the "upconvert" vs. HD transfer.

I took a look at many of your screen shots and need to ask-
Are you sure you have a good connection between your STB and your monitor? I am seeing quite a bit of picture graininess that looks like video noise on those solid colors in the screen menus. It's either a bad cable in your system or that VOOM STB outputs quite a high level of video noise (low signal to noise ratio). Look closely at the Green or Y cable. This would be for analog connection only. If those were taken using DVI then I'd complain about the grain in the picture. Even my old Dish 5000 looks cleaner than those images and I always thought the 5000 had a low signal to noise ratio on it's output.

Don, it has to do more with the camera. The room where one of my TV is located, is dark and does not have good lighting. If I use the flash, the flash will reflect back to the TV. I am yet to capture a good picture. All of those I posted will suffer from that.

The picture through DVI looks very clear and compact... I will try my best to get better resolution and get more ligthing and angle to see if I can capture some pictures... for the equipment picture I used the flash and it came out good without reflecting lighting back. The TV is another story is reflects the light of the flash back and creates a darker effect with grainy picture.