Terrible SD picture quality

[JEFFinINDY]

I've had Voom since July, and when I first got the service I couldn't believe how bad the standard definition channels looked. They improved for a few weeks during the summer, but for the last 4 to 6 weeks it's been really bad again.

I'm wondering if anyone "in the know" knows if Voom is planning on doing anything to improve their picture quality on the SD channels. Namely, the channels that suffer from the "sparkles" seem to be as bad as they've ever been. Trying to watch channels like Headline News, VH-1, The Weather Channel, etc. on Voom is a very unpleasant experience.

Due to a mistake at the cable company, I'm getting the full basic lineup right now instead of just locals, so it's easy to flip back and forth and compare. I'm shocked to say that analog cable is giving a much cleaner, sharper picture than Voom's digital SDs right now, even on the channels that don't have the sparkles.

Hopefully someone at Voom is doing some quality control of their picture, and this is old news to them. Truthfully, if I didn't have the cable channels by this configuration fluke, I'd be trying to find a replacement for Voom at this point.

Hoping for a solution...

Jeff

 

[negreenfield]

I've been pretty happy with SD, compared to Comcast it is right about the same or better. Definitely better than analog Comcast (which is what I use now for the entire house connection).

 

[techweb]

Due to a mistake at the cable company, I'm getting the full basic lineup right now instead of just locals, so it's easy to flip back and forth and compare. I'm shocked to say that analog cable is giving a much cleaner, sharper picture than Voom's digital SDs right now, even on the channels that don't have the sparkles.

The SD PQ on all satellite providers is pretty bad right now, usually worse than analog on a good cable system. It's pretty bad when we have to use a 50+ year old NTSC standard as the hallmark, but Voom and the others are more interested quantity than quality. It wasn't always that way. I was an early Dish subsriber, and back then PQ was very good, often approaching DVD quality. Then came the locals and all the other national channels on the same number of transponders, and things went downhill from there.

Most cable companies have invested large sums of money to upgrade their systems to increase bandwidth for digital, and in the process improved the quality of analog channels as well.

 

[Dvlos]

I had cable before Voom, and D* before, I think VOom's SD for most channels looks great, except for like 2 or 3 channels, I think it's as good as SD is going to get anyway.

 

[JEFFinINDY]

The Comcast analog cable in my area must be better than most. Even on the channels where Voom doesn't have the sparkles, the Comcast equivalent is slightly sharper and has better color tone than on Voom. My biggest complaint with Voom, however, is the sparkles.

 

[DarrellP]

When Sci Fi first launched, I tuned it in and it looked pretty good, but this weekend it sucked, don't know if it was the source or what since I never watch SD.

 

[rasecane1]

Comcast is better

I have VOOM and Comcast and the Comcast SD's are clearly better and more watchable than VOOMS.

 

[patrickpiteo]

D* ain't no better maybe even worse in some cases...

 

[ROLLZROYCE]

Have you ever had Dishnetwork? SD looks absolutely horrible! Voom is about as good as SD can get, even over DirecTV.

HDTVs are simply not made for SD programming, My parents have a 60" Sony TV that is about 7-8 years old with digital cable and it looks pretty good, IMO SD looks much better on an analog widescreen TV than on an HDTV.

 

[DarrellP]

I agree that Dish SD sucks, but my OTA Analog channels look pretty damn good on my projector. When I have a good reception day they beat the pants off any SD signal, including OTA digital SD.

 

[voombot]

i was watching the debates last night and the brightness just seemed to drop on the picture, did anyone else notice this. It happend on OTA and on voom's sd channels.

 

[SpringsGuy]

SD on VOOM, Looks alot better than crappy adelphia's digital cable in my area, and also tried direct for a couple of days because it came with my house i bought 3 months ago. The previous owners left their direct boxes and dish behind, so i watched Direct and have seen first hand its poor SD quality. Voom's SD is much better than Adelphia's and Direct's. I think the guy that started this thread needs a new TV, or glasses.. Because VOOM IS THE WINNER in clarity for SD channels, when comparing to the other providers that are out there.

 

[jimmykce1]

Voom's SD is better than my local cable provider, Cox.

 

[Chris Walker]

VOOM's PQ isn't bad. Currently I'd rank the satellite providers PQ wise:

1) Dish
2) VOOM
3) Direct

 

[DarrellP]

WOW, you think Dish is better than Voom in the SD dept? What kind of TV are you viewing on? If you're talking HD PQ, I agree, but not with SD.

 

[Chris Walker]

WOW, you think Dish is better than Voom in the SD dept? What kind of TV are you viewing on? If you're talking HD PQ, I agree, but not with SD.

It's close, but after watching VOOM at another location, I see sparklies and compression problems I don't see with Dish.

 

[smasuch]

The sparkles are the worst I've seen since June. They were virtually gone in August but have progressively gotten worse since then. I noticed that they mainly affect the red and green color channels.

 

[Jahbig]

I've had Voom since July, and when I first got the service I couldn't believe how bad the standard definition channels looked. They improved for a few weeks during the summer, but for the last 4 to 6 weeks it's been really bad again.

I'm wondering if anyone "in the know" knows if Voom is planning on doing anything to improve their picture quality on the SD channels. Namely, the channels that suffer from the "sparkles" seem to be as bad as they've ever been. Trying to watch channels like Headline News, VH-1, The Weather Channel, etc. on Voom is a very unpleasant experience.

Due to a mistake at the cable company, I'm getting the full basic lineup right now instead of just locals, so it's easy to flip back and forth and compare. I'm shocked to say that analog cable is giving a much cleaner, sharper picture than Voom's digital SDs right now, even on the channels that don't have the sparkles.

Hopefully someone at Voom is doing some quality control of their picture, and this is old news to them. Truthfully, if I didn't have the cable channels by this configuration fluke, I'd be trying to find a replacement for Voom at this point.

Hoping for a solution...

Jeff

I don't know the type of TV you own, but try this: Lock in 1080i at the
Output Resolution screen; press OK.....if the bottom left corner says
"Press OK to continue in 1080i" you're at the right step. Remain at that screen.
Open the red button door, push the red button until all four line lights illuminate....
you must be at the screen that says in the left bottom corner, "Press OK to continue in 1080i".....after the four line lights illuminate,
press OK,....then back out of the menus, press WATCH. By locking 1080i
through the remote and allowing the STB to control the channels through
Native Resolution Mode, hopefully their's improvement on all channels.
Your HD channels should display 1080i and your SD channels should display
improved PQ. If your TV is 16:9 format use the letterbox format. If it's a
4:3 set then you should have full screen on the SD channels.

Good Luck....................

 

[DarrellP]

I get worse PQ doing this, as I can't control the image for a 1080i picture. If I leave it in Native then I can watch an SD pic at it's Native size, which makes it much smaller on my screen, thus it looks better.

 

[DarrellP]

I get worse PQ doing this, as I can't control the image for a 1080i picture. If I leave it in Native then I can watch an SD pic at it's Native size, which makes it much smaller on my screen, thus it looks better.