Cinema 10 HD - Reviews of Film Transfer

[Sean Mota]

I am starting this thread to track all the movies in Cinema 10. I am hoping to find.

(1) How is the PQ of the transfer?
(2) How often is repeated?
(3) Much is loved or hated or don't care about this movie based on users opinions.
(4) Mention Screen Size, TV model, and input video you are using (Component or DVI).

Cinema 10: is 10 HD channels out of the 21 exclusive channels in VOOM. So half of the exclusive channels can be reviewed in this thread.

I will encourage every VOOMER to pick a movie that they like and share their review with us. This way will know how good the transfer is.

 

[Sean Mota]

Dirty Rotten Scoundrels

Here is the first movie that I want to review on Cinema 10 - Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. It is playing on Cinema 5 all day today. I loved this movie in SD and when the DVD was out, I was one of the first one that bought it. I have watched this movie so many times that I think I know it by heart by now. Now, since it's in HD with DD5.1, it was a great experience! The HD transfer was excellent for a film that was released in 1988. The DVD was also great but the HD transfer here wins. Do not miss it if you want to laugh for almost 2 hours.

I watched this movie in my Sony GWII 60" TV. I am using DVI only with DD5.1

P.S. the pics that are provided are to be used as a reference ONLY. The picture through DVI looks much better than this.

 

[Sean Mota]

Easy Money

Cinema 2 - Easy Money - A 1983 film with Rodney Dangerfield. I will have to give a below average transfer to this film. You can see white spots popping up in the beginning and through out the movie. At the race scene there were small patches of film breakups. This was no pixelation but it looks more a characteristic of the film transfer. The picture looks very grainy although the details are excellent in most of the movie. At the wedding party scene and playing cards more scene breakups. Then after this in certain scenes the picture seemed to have moments of slow motion effects. This slow motion started happenning after the middle of the film and continued to the end of the film as well as the breakups. I would say a below average transfer. This is maybe how the original source was...

I watched this movie in my Sony GWII 60" TV. I am using DVI only with DD5.1

 

[Sean Mota]

Cinema 1 - Enemy Gold - A 1994 film. Good transfer overall but not the WOw effect! However, in dark scenes (night and dark rooms) it shows the picture to be grainy. The film itself is not that good, in my opinion. Also, the left side of the picture did not completely filled my 60" screen. I checked to make sure that it was not my TV that was out of alignment and it is the HD film.

 

[Sean Mota]

Tea for Two

Cinema 9 - Tea for Two - A 1950 film. Very good tranfer but white small spots popped up throughout the film. They are very annoying. Also, it does not look like it is a 16x9 film. It does not completely fill the screen on the left or the right. If you like these types of movies, this one is for you; not for me...

 

[AndyMon]

My God, Sean. Get some sleep. How many movies can you watch in a row? Your eyes must be bugging out of your head, hehehe. :shock: :shock:

 

[Sean Mota]

My God, Sean. Get some sleep. How many movies can you watch in a row? Your eyes must be bugging out of your head, hehehe. :shock: :shock:

Andy,

Hey! It is VOOM...I can't stop myself going from channel to channel and seeing all these Movies... I wished they had better selection it will be fantastic...

 

[Sean Mota]

The Usual Suspect

Cinema 1: The Usual Suspect: a 1995 film. The film transfer is very good with occassional white spots on the film. There were some scene breakups. At this point I do not know if it was due to pixelation or it is the film (this am there was no PG information and the signal has been dropping from time to time). The film transfer looks very grainy in dark rooms and night.

 

[rudolpht]

Wow. I'll need to go to Zap2it. Usual suspects isn't just crap as some folks have been saying is on Cinema 10.

 

[Matt_Stevens]

Was Usual SUspects 2.35:1 or 1.78:1? The film was shot 2.35:1 and should NOT take up the entire 1.78:1 HDTV viewing frame. It should have black bars top and bottom.

I'm interested in Voom, but not if they are cropping content.

 

[Sean Mota]

They are...

 

[Sean Mota]

Better yet; I have yet to watch a movie with black bars top and bottom...

 

[Sean Mota]

Star 80

Cinema 6: Star 80 - a 1983 film. A very good film and a good HD transfer. There a still few white spots and grainy scenes from being an old film but overall a good transfer.

 

[rudolpht]

It seems like a mixed bag. There have been some films in proper aspect ratio, but most do seem to have matts removed or "blown up"

 

[Matt_Stevens]

Sean, they are what? They are cropping? If they are, they can kiss my HD wanting behind.

 

[AndyMon]

Wow........ Usual suspects isn't just crap as some folks have been saying is on Cinema 10.

That's for sure. Usual Suspects is one of my favorite all time movies!
Now, let's see if they broadcast Excalibur in HD...

 

[rudolpht]

Matt,

We know you are Dish 921 bound with little interest in Voom. (I'm 921 bound and very interested in Voom). I'm also a big OAR fan, and there are some options for aspect ratios. We'll see if you have the same tude if Starz or Cinemax or TMC crop a subset of movies, and can only assume you don't have HBO because of there slash and hack policy. For Cinema 10 you can blame Voom, but most other feeds blame the originating content providers.

Thanks for trolling by
Tim

 

[Sean Mota]

Cinema 4: The Sheltering Sky - a 1990 film. This has to be the best transfer I have seen so far. Clarity of the picture; very little white spots and I saw no problems.

Cineama 9: Gay Purr-ee - a 1962 animated film. This was a very good transfer as well.

Most of these films on Cinema 10 are not shown with bars (top and bottom) if that was the way it was originally filmed. Cinema 10 is doing what HBO does with the films.

 

[Matt_Stevens]

Matt,
We know you are Dish 921 bound with little interest in Voom. (I'm 921 bound and very interested in Voom). I'm also a big OAR fan, and there are some options for aspect ratios. We'll see if you have the same tude if Starz or Cinemax or TMC crop a subset of movies, and can only assume you don't have HBO because of there slash and hack policy. For Cinema 10 you can blame Voom, but most other feeds blame the originating content providers.

Thanks for trolling by
Tim

OK, let's get something straight. Never assume anything because assuming is dangerous. For reasons I won't get into here I became very interested in Voom. I started reading up on it and became excited by it. But when I heard they were cropping material for their channels that interest turned to anger. And now I won't even consider adding Voom to my home. I won't pay for a company stupid enough to do the exact opposite of what most HDTV owners want.

I have HBO and refuse to watch any cropped content. I would drop them if they did not get the vast majority of the good films. Anything shot 1.85:1 or Super35 will look fine on HBO and won't be butchered by the loss of a 3rd of the image. I have written and faxed HBO numerous times about their cropping policy and not once have they responded. Cinemax is owned by HBO and will also crop their films. I am not getting the channel when it hits E* since it's just HBO on a different channel.

If Starz crops their broadcasts then we HD lovers are screwed because pan & scan will become the HD standard and that will be a travesty.

 

[Sean Mota]

This was posted at avsforum but the original posting was at Here

Posted by: Scooter McCrae , 11/04/2003, 13:44:02
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I'm doing some work with VOOM, and due to some idiotic upper management choices, a number of square and 1:66 aspect ratio films are being chopped off on the top and/or bottom of the frame to neatly fit onto the screen without any black bars remaining visible. I was told this was an "aesthetic" choice; they didn't like the way the black bars looked on both sides of the image. When I argued with a technician that they were effectively cropping off neccessary picture information, I was told that in extreme cases they would adjust the top or bottom to make sure they weren't cropping off important information. I told them that what they were effectively doing was panning-and-scanning up-and-down instead of left-and-right. The technician strongly objected to me calling these "pan-and-scan" transfers, but that's exactly what they are, dammit! Wish I had better news for you concerning this. I'm continuing to complain to my superiors, and I'm hoping to see some changes made (though I'm not expecting too much).