SD Channel quality

[JaydeeD]

I would like to get everyones opinion of the SD channel picture quality on Voom. I have been watching and comparing for a couple days now and I feel that its worse than bad, its horrible. I thought maybe since the Voom box wasd upconverting these channels to 1080 for me that maybe that was it, so i ran an output to a 480 input (standard video input) on my TV and still horrible.

Now I have never seen picture quality on E* or D*, but I would assume them to be impeccable

Maybe I am spoiled, I have been using C-Band (10 foot dish) for over 15 years, and the picture qulity on just a normal channel is just as good as Voom's best HD Channel (without the HD of course) crystal clear, sharp and extremely clean (they have to be great cause this is where cable systems get thier channels from so they have to have a perfect starting signal.

As far as I can see, Voom is going to have to do something about the SD channels. Or I will be getting my money back and staying with C-Band

Dish Network and DirecTV don't look this bad do they? Please let me know what these channels look like to you

One other thing Voom needs to address is sound quality and volume levels on SD channels....I know from using C-band that most if not all of these channels have a Dolby Digital level of sound, and most are volume leveled, but in scanning thru Voom, I get a level of sound (without adjusting volume) that goes from almost inaudible, to extremely loud, with Dolby Quality sound missing from most SD channels (almost all if not all of these channels DO leave the studio in Dolby, and are transmitted on big dishes in Dolby, so it must be Vooms decision that they don't care how bad they sound, or look.

Maybe since the parent company is a cable system, they are used to crappy video and sound and think its supposed to look like that.

Look at a C-band system sometime, picture and sound quality are just as good as Vooms HD channels.....on ALL channels.....I just wish they had more HD avalable there

anyway I will quit ranting.....let me know what you guys think

 

[SlicerMDM]

I don't have Voom but the SD quality you're seeing is probably very similar to E* and D*. I've had E* for 5 (or so) years (in the process of switching to D*) and the video quality is pathetic. Before E* I had Primestar and was very impressed with Primestar's image. Every channel looked DVD quality -- crisp, clean, vibrant. It's very sad that image quality takes a back seat to all the crap channels that E* and D* like to fill their bandwidth with.

 

[Sean Mota]

JaydeeD,

You are right about the quality of SD channels. I never had C-Band so I do not know how the SD channels look on C-Band. Coming from E*, I can tell you that there are some( two channels) that look much better in terms of picture quality in Voom and not in E*. Starz-HD when not transmitting HD looks much better than the SD channel on E* or SD channel on VOOM. The other was NLF-HD channels as the Game of the Week changed from HD to SD commercials. I looked briefly at those SD channels on V* and I was not impressed with them. I rated them the same way as they appear on E* or a very small percent better than E*.

You might be surprised coming from the C-Band background but that's reality in E*, D* and V* regarding those SD channels. I have not watch much of SD definition channels in VOOM to tell you about the sound quality. I also have noticed the difference in volume level even with the HD channels in VOOM. Regarding the Dolby Digital 5.1 sound. Don't expect it on SD channels. I do not believe E* or D* offers that either except premium movie channels and some movies not every movie.

 

[rudolpht]

It is better to significantly better than DIRECTV & Dish, which on an HDTV it looks crappy anyways, just a slightly better crappy.

Short of high qual upconvertor, HD Leeza like at multiple thousands of dollars you'll get only slightly better results. There is no way to create resolution (though I have seen Philips TV sets that make a good attempt).

Tim

 

[lizard20022000]

I left D* 4 years or so ago because of PQ on D* and Customer Server (or lack there of) and went to E*. E* PQ was significantly better than D* then, but has gotten worse over time.

I would say the PQ on VOOM is better than E* now, but not by a whole lot.

On the sound side, I completely agree, I think that VOOM needs to do some sound leveling. I am guessing that some of the sound issues are DD vs non-DD, but that is purely a guess.

 

[DarrellP]

Maybe it will improve when they go MPEG-4? Naw, they'll be greedy like Charlie and just cram more channels up there.

I sent VOOM an email asking about HD only and have never received a reply, do they normally respond to email?

 

[Ilya]

I don't watch SD too often, but last week there was a documentary about Stanley Kubrick on HBO Signature. Being a huge Kubrick fan, I couldn't miss that. I was really impressed with the picture quality. I didn't notice any compression at all! At the same time I saw some other channels that looked very bad. It seems to me, the SD PQ on VOOM varies from channel to channel, and may be even from program to program.

 

[klen]

I still have E* hooked up to a non-HDTV, and I think the SD channels look better on that TV than they do on my Sammy HDTV with Voom. At first I just thought that it was that the HD just made the SD channels look bad by comparison on Voom, but they are indeed noticeably worse on Voom, at least for me.

It is to the point that I can't watch SD at all anymore.

Regarding the sound, I notice that RAVE seems to be the loudest of all channels......

 

[pmalve]

I don't have voom yet, it is supposed to be installed wednesday but I had C band and there is no comparison between that and what I got with Dishnetwork. C band is the clearest picture i have seen on satellite. No compression.

 

[rudolpht]

Well HD is still compressed by definition (ATSC definition), but less repeated compression.

 

[bitwise]

SD Voom Versus D*

I have D* and Voom.

Comparing the two last night, the Voom SD looked better (a bit more crisp on the color spectrum, and a little less soft). However, from time to time I noticed more artifacts in the Voom SD as opposed to D*.

However, I am using DVI on the Voom, but only S-Video on the D*. So, that could be the reason there.

Either way, I found Voom SD very watchable. The only annoyance is the speed of the program guide. It takes way too long to change channels (compared to my D* receiver).

My TV is a Sony WEGA KF-42WE610 42" LCD rear projection.

/joe

 

[rudolpht]

Joe,

That's a good testiment for Voom as Sd usually does better with S & external scalers (including internal to sets). I remember going through macro gymnastics on Dish to route SD content that way (and also get some aspect settings for the rare widescreen SD broadcast). This was BEFORE the whacky overcomporession of locals mania, so it has only gone downhill.

The DVI on Voom is very crisp and SD usually benefits from inherent (and non-technical) smearing of anolog delivery. I still find it hard to watch almost any overcompressed SD (in sharp contrast to true OTA SD).

 

[Sean Mota]

It takes way too long to change channels (compared to my D* receiver). /joe

joe, were you installed before 2/20/04. The new box has a faster navigation through the PG. It still suffers from being slow once you tune to the channel.

 

[bitwise]

Installation...

I was installed yesterday... (March 1)

 

[Sean Mota]

I was installed yesterday... (March 1)

So which "slowness" are you experiencing. Navigation through the PG or "slow" to tune the channel?

 

[bitwise]

Slowness explained...

I would describe it this way:

Going up and down through the current page of the guide is ok. When I get to the end, and it "pages", there is a bit of a lag.

When I select a channel from the guide (move from one channel to another), there is a bit of a lag before the new channel comes up (I'm used to D*, which comes up very quicky).

 

[Sean Mota]

That is what I see too with the new box. Hopefully, it will improve with the next software push.