Harmonic Encoder Improvements? (Feedback Need it)

[riffjim4069]

:clap Great post, I was ROTFLMAO at this one.

Vicki, I would love to be in on a chat and see if we can come to an agreement to what we are seeing on Voom.

Scott!! Whip it up, Dude. I will have to run between my HT and bedroom though to post, it's about an L shape and about 40' but I can manage.

Thanks! Superficially, VOOM provides pretty good PQ, but it is certainly far from stunning given the right equipment and a trained eye. I have accepted the PQ and, until they break free from Cablevision, I am more than happy with the status quo since Va Va VOOM and OTA (gotta love that CBS lineup!) are meeting my needs. However, I am certainly expecting PQ to improve after they start migrating channels over to Rainbow-2...and I am expecting my jaw to drop on every channel when they implement MPEG-4.

 

[gutter]

However, I am certainly expecting PQ to improve after they start migrating channels over to Rainbow-2...and I am expecting my jaw to drop on every channel when they implement MPEG-4.

You must of heard my bedtime prayers to the patron saint of HD.

 

[riffjim4069]

You must of heard my bedtime prayers to the patron saint of HD.

After recently editing my signature line, I get the feeling St. HD will be the only one listening. :dev

 

[SeattleVoomer1]

Sorry, Patrick, couldn't find your post but agree with...

Digital is digital, regardless of how it's received. The bits do not reorganize themselves into a different pattern based on how you receive the signal. I am in the Pacific NW using a 24" dish and though it is raining cats and dogs this morning, my signal strength remains around 84. The signal will NOT degrade until it reaches 72 where it starts breaking up.

I still hold to my belief that those having no issues are new to HD or just ignorant of what they are seeing. There's nothing wrong with that, it just makes Voom believe they have a great picture if people are posting that and they do not have a great picture ALL THE TIME. It varies all over the board and has not been consistent lately.

Patrick, I like your idea. Scott should have a live chat just for this purpose and we can all tune in the same channel and report back what we see.

What do you say Scott, can you arrange a live chat for this purpose?

this great idea of having a live chat about one channel! We've seen PQ all over the place as well although my partner, Alex, said that the PQ was better last night, particulary so on the VOOM exclusives as the motion artifacts had virtually disappeared. He's the one that picks apart PQ (I do it on the audio side).

Still listening to the music (I know it is hard to believe that there is anything but HDTV but with a new hi-rez stereo preamp!...) under cloudy Seattle skies, Gill

 

[DarrellP]

It's now 6:36 PST and I am about ready to go fire up my pj for the evening. I will browse around and see what I can find.... for the moment. I say that because the PQ seems to be all over the map everytime I checkout Voom lately. For one, DiscoveryHD has been rotten since day 1, at least with the shows I have caught on it. I'll see "what up" and report back later.

 

[riffjim4069]

If you want a good example of the current encoders, take a look at the HD Sideshow currently on 101 - the images in front are excellent, while the background images and red curtain and darker shadows are all washed out and grainy. It wasn't like that before. Actually, I've noticed this on all the HD Sideshows.

 

[DarrellP]

Here's my take after an hour of surfing:

The Voom 21's are all I can vouch for and they are about 80% there, close but no cigar. The only channel I was impressed with was Rave while Micheal McDonald was playing. EquatorHD was the best I have seen to date, but that still does not mean it looks good, there is still lots of noise in the background and with fine detail, but the skeeters were almost none existent (yeah!)

The Cinema10 looked pretty good but still saw a lot of softness with movement, but hardly any pixelation. Background suffers from lack of detail.

Worldsport had soccer that was actually watchable but still suffers from noise in small detail.

I think they are getting close, the HD is to a point to where I can at least watch it and not be pissed, yet I will not be happy if it does not improve further. Smart Travels was on Equator and it is still a far cry from HDNET.

Keep it up Voom, don't stop now.

 

[shanewalker]

StarzHD and CinemaxHD both suffered from motion artifacting over the weekend as I was watching ('Matrix Revolutions,' 'LOTR:The Two Towers', etc.). Fire/explosions and big horizontal movement of any kind looked horribly pixellated. I can't record these channels in HD right now and by the look of things, I wouldn't want to. I did a quick A/B compare of 'T3' in Voom HD to the a previous SD DVD recording (recorded off D* pay-per-view, mind you) and while the detail was lacking, it was more pleasant to watch due to all the mosaic/breakup on motion on Voom. All I can say is, "Please, please, please, work this out...I'm rooting for you Voom, but I want to be able to wholeheartedly refer friends, not feel compelled to do so with big PQ caveats."

 

[gutter]

"Please, please, please, work this out...I'm rooting for you Voom, but I want to be able to wholeheartedly refer friends, not feel compelled to do so with big PQ caveats."

My feeling exactly.

 

[kennyboy3]

I agree that the PQ really took a nosedive when the switch was made. It has been getting progressively better for me though, and think it has been excellent for the past 3-4 days. I was watching RAVE this weekend and I thought it was the best it has ever looked. Was on EQUATOR for a little while last night and it even looked excellent, and it seems like it's always been one of the most problematic channels. I think the VOOM engineers are definitely getting the kinks worked out.

 

[JimP]

Like I said before, I have a problem referring people to sign up with Voom when the current picture quality.

Fix the picture quality and I'll actively solicit new subscribers, but not until then.

 

[RPacion]

Watched "Smart Travels" this evening on Equator HD and I thought the picture quality was incredible. No mosquito noise at all, no motion blurring or pixelation, and the image was very sharp, detailed and colorful.

 

[jagouar]

Ive noticed it getting progressively better as well.... Equator, Worldsport and Rave are already better now than they ever were on the old encoders.

Im still convinced they are doing vbr now more agressively where some shows are much less (why you see people here complaining a certain show sucks).

 

[JimP]

O.K., I'll bite. What's "vbr"?

 

[shanewalker]

I think the previous poster is referring to variable bit rate encoding, that is, a dynamic varied bit-rate based on content analysis (i.e. higher bit-rate allocation during fast motion/complicated gradients, lower when the scene is more static). The way it's being applied in the poster's sentence seems to suggest a more general usage of the encoders by Voom to apply different bit-rates to different channels (and perhaps at different times of day). On that, I concur, I do believe they are allocating shifting bitrates to different channels/times. I say this because last night I started watching 'Shawshank Redemption' on HBOHD and remarked that the quality was a bit soft but quite good, then, as I to the SciFi Channel, in order to catch a repeat of last Friday's Battlestar Galactica, and the quality was horrible. Much more compressed than I remember it from Friday night. I think they're definitely bailing from one bit-bucket to another as they see fit. Again, I hope this is VERY temporary.

 

[APorter]

I still hold to my belief that those having no issues are new to HD or just ignorant of what they are seeing

Well I'm not new to HD or ignorant to what I'm seeing and the number of post I have means nothing. From my experience with Voom it all depends on what you are watching, on what size tv (throw distance if applicable), and what your room conditions are. I would be more than willing to join in on the chat to look at two sources at the same time. I have Voom and TW Cable(INHD, HDNET, DiscoveryHD, TNTHD, ESPNHD).

 

[shanewalker]

Would somebody who can do such a direct comparison do so on SciFi...as I said abov,I just watched Friday's Battlestar Galactica repeat on Monday night and it looked very compressed. Worse than Friday. I think they may have bit-rates on an adjusted cycle and are really squeezing some channels hard at times.

Is there any way to check bit rates on a channel through the service menu or the like, BTW (and sorry if this has been covered elsewhere)?

 

[screech]

Just watched EquatorHD and now Rave. Both have outstanding PQ tonight. IMHO

 

[DarrellP]

I tuned in Equator breifly during Kumay? last night and it was so soft and lacking definition that it was no better than a DVD. Maybe it was just this one show?

Rave looked awesome though.

 

[shanewalker]

I watched parts of a couple of flicks last night on Showtime and Starz, PQ looked better than a few days ago. Hopefully this is a good sign of continuing improvements. If so...good work VOOM.