I've been using Voom since nearly the beginning. And, before anyone starts in -- no, there's no problem with how I've got my Voom box hooked up. I use component inputs (my TV doesn't have DVI inputs) and they allow for a very beautiful picture, generally speaking.
Unfortunately, especially of late, I've been seeing some nasty compression artifacts on some channels. Particularly on HBO-HD. Watching The Rundown last night the compression artifacts were so bad they reminded me of the POS local PBS feed here in Baton Rouge (they split their digital space between FIVE channels, the jerks) at times.
Yeah, it was lame back when the SD channels were so horrendous, back in the day. Yes, I didn't much enjoy the sparklies on Nickelodeon (and other channels) that made it look like every show had been enhanced with bargain-basement special effects to make it appear as if it had been recorded during a sleet storm.
Still, I wouldn't mind going back to crappy SD channels, if it'd mean we could get some beautiful, compression-artifact-free HD feeds from Voom.
Of course, bumping up the bandwidth assigned to SD channels probably hasn't contributed as much as expanding the SD channel lineup before adequate bandwidth was available. Sure, I missed some channels back then, like the SciFi network -- still, I chose Voom because I made the conscious decision that I'd rather have fewer, higher-bandwidth, higher-resolution channels, than a couple thousand muddy, muddled, crappy channels like I'd had with Dish Network.
All of this is doubly frustrating, as it has taken place while my locals seem intent on robbing me of any decent material I could get out of them. The CBS affiliate, which used to have the benchmark feed for just how beautiful HD *could* be decided that what the world needed was a couple of lame 24-hour-a-day local spew channels... And now any time you watch a football game (or much of anything else in HD on that channel) there's blocky pixelation every time the camera moves quickly or the scene changes drastically. PBS, of course, has been participating in the "let's put enough channels out there that the PQ will actually be *worse* in HD than good old-fashioned SD PQ had been" experiment for a very long while -- at least as long as I've had an HD set, anyhow.
To those of you who claim the Voom PQ hasn't dropped, I say this: Fiddlesticks.
Sure it has. If you can't see it, you're fooling yourself. Even DiscoveryHD has had some pixelation with Voom the past couple months. Not a ton -- but it's been visible. When I originally got Voom, towards the start of 2004, DiscoveryHD never had even a hint of pixelation. It had that "3-D" pop that totally blew you away. Now, it's merely pretty, and every time there's a shot taken from a helicopter moving over jungle, I cringe a little, wondering whether the vagaries of bandwidth allocation are going to choke the picture just enough to trigger some noticeable artifact.
The trend which disturbs me more than anything else from Voom over the past year has been that of adding all these regional FoxHD stations. Voom didn't have enough bandwidth for what it was already providing. Adding channels which only a FEW customers can even SEE was absolutely assinine.
The absurdity of providing local channels via satellite was part of the reason I left Dish Network. Watching Voom start down the same path nauseates me.
Unfortunately, especially of late, I've been seeing some nasty compression artifacts on some channels. Particularly on HBO-HD. Watching The Rundown last night the compression artifacts were so bad they reminded me of the POS local PBS feed here in Baton Rouge (they split their digital space between FIVE channels, the jerks) at times.
Yeah, it was lame back when the SD channels were so horrendous, back in the day. Yes, I didn't much enjoy the sparklies on Nickelodeon (and other channels) that made it look like every show had been enhanced with bargain-basement special effects to make it appear as if it had been recorded during a sleet storm.
Still, I wouldn't mind going back to crappy SD channels, if it'd mean we could get some beautiful, compression-artifact-free HD feeds from Voom.
Of course, bumping up the bandwidth assigned to SD channels probably hasn't contributed as much as expanding the SD channel lineup before adequate bandwidth was available. Sure, I missed some channels back then, like the SciFi network -- still, I chose Voom because I made the conscious decision that I'd rather have fewer, higher-bandwidth, higher-resolution channels, than a couple thousand muddy, muddled, crappy channels like I'd had with Dish Network.
All of this is doubly frustrating, as it has taken place while my locals seem intent on robbing me of any decent material I could get out of them. The CBS affiliate, which used to have the benchmark feed for just how beautiful HD *could* be decided that what the world needed was a couple of lame 24-hour-a-day local spew channels... And now any time you watch a football game (or much of anything else in HD on that channel) there's blocky pixelation every time the camera moves quickly or the scene changes drastically. PBS, of course, has been participating in the "let's put enough channels out there that the PQ will actually be *worse* in HD than good old-fashioned SD PQ had been" experiment for a very long while -- at least as long as I've had an HD set, anyhow.
To those of you who claim the Voom PQ hasn't dropped, I say this: Fiddlesticks.
Sure it has. If you can't see it, you're fooling yourself. Even DiscoveryHD has had some pixelation with Voom the past couple months. Not a ton -- but it's been visible. When I originally got Voom, towards the start of 2004, DiscoveryHD never had even a hint of pixelation. It had that "3-D" pop that totally blew you away. Now, it's merely pretty, and every time there's a shot taken from a helicopter moving over jungle, I cringe a little, wondering whether the vagaries of bandwidth allocation are going to choke the picture just enough to trigger some noticeable artifact.
The trend which disturbs me more than anything else from Voom over the past year has been that of adding all these regional FoxHD stations. Voom didn't have enough bandwidth for what it was already providing. Adding channels which only a FEW customers can even SEE was absolutely assinine.
The absurdity of providing local channels via satellite was part of the reason I left Dish Network. Watching Voom start down the same path nauseates me.
