Voom Pq

[squicken]

Gotta agree with Wonka on this one. If I wanted alot of channels and bad pq I'd get E*.

 

[Walter L.]

Jay,
My understanding is that the current PQ problems with VOOM don't have to do anything with capacity. I ask the same question and was told that:

"Wilt posted on the Yahoo groups that all channel allocations were pre-made on the transponders and all transponders are running at a full load even if there is not a channel assigned, so what we see is what we get, there is no overcompression or picture problems due to adding additional channels. The number of channels that Voom had allocated prior to MPEG-4/WM9 will not be exceeded until they have the capacity to do so"

 

[ram1220]

I just got home and turned on the TV. Voom PQ today looks like crap. It has gotten a lot worse since last night. Soft, grainy, and now a little blurry. And to top it off 261 is gone. And on 4 out of 6 channels changes I just did, there was no audio. Everyday it's some new problem with Voom. I'm sick of it and am cancelling.

Bob

 

[Walter L.]

I just got home and turned on the TV. Voom PQ today looks like crap. It has gotten a lot worse since last night. Soft, grainy, and now a little blurry. And to top it off 261 is gone. And on 4 out of 6 channels changes I just did, there was no audio. Everyday it's some new problem with Voom. I'm sick of it and am cancelling.

Bob

I'm still at work (Pacific time) so I haven't watch VOOM today, can somebody confirm the PQ problems today.

 

[neo0285]

no problems here!

 

[ram1220]

261 is now back. Guys I'm wondering if I just really have a bad receiver. I have constant problems and a new one everyday. A lot of you say that you don't see the problems that I am seeing. I promise you they are there for me. I really want Voom to succeed and I want the system to work. I am just so frustrated right now. I called Voom and requested a new receiver and I was denied. As frustrated as I was, I was very nice on the phone. I'm paid up until May 9. After that if things don't improve for me, I'm dumping them.

Bob

 

[Walter L.]

Bob,
I remember a case similar to yours and it turns out to be a bad cable. Can you check yours?

 

[ram1220]

Discovery HD looks great right now as do most of the Voom exclusives. But all of my premium movie channels look like crap. Much worse than last night. I do know the difference in HD material, ie film, OAR, etc. And this is not what I'm seeing. For me they have really degraded since last night.

Bob

 

[ram1220]

Thanks Walter for the reply. I have tried 2 DVI cables and have now switched to component just to see if there's a difference. I'm seeing the problems with all cables. My TV is HDCP compliant. I think it's the receiver but Voom won't help me out. I'm going to reset the TV and see if it helps.

Bob

 

[eschu97611]

i see micro stuttering on D*

I see dead people!!!!lmao

 

[eschu97611]

Dont expect great picture quality on espnhd when it comes to voom:


quote:
"Real bad this early morning on ESPNHD on D**.
Lots of green flashes and a few blackouts.
Seems to be happening a lot recently."

Could say that about ALL VOOMchannels right now-lol

 

[eschu97611]

Folks like you tend to scare me a bit. You would take quantity, over quality? I'm sorry but I cannot stand by your logic at all. I think D* is doing the smart thing by not adding more and compressing the hell out of what they've got now. Instead they are waiting til they get more room to add any more HD content. I actually applaude D* for doing it the right way. I care about quality, and could do without several of the VOOM exclusives if that would make the PQ go up. If more and more folks thought like you we'd head down a bad path in the HD world my friend.

Couldn't agree more Jay-D* seems to be handling the HD additions in a more cautious manner, and as a result, pq is much stronger than Voom right now(even though there are those who refuse to acknowledge that fact-i.e. oh never mind-no names)

 

[Walter L.]

Guys again, unless Wilt was lying (which I doubt) ALL channels are fully loaded in all transponders from day 1. That means that the bandwidth of each channel was pre-allocated. Everytime that VOOMS adds a new channel, they simply start transmiting real-data (as oppose to dummy data) in the added channel.
Yes, VOOM has been experincing some PQ problems, but it has nothing to do with the fact that they are adding channels.

 

[GeneWildershair]

Guys again, unless Wilt was lying (which I doubt) ALL channels are fully loaded in all transponders from day 1. That means that the bandwidth of each channel was pre-allocated. Everytime that VOOMS adds a new channel, they simply start transmiting real-data (as oppose to dummy data) in the added channel.
Yes, VOOM has been experincing some PQ problems, but it has nothing to do with the fact that they are adding channels.

I'm not disputing Wilt's claim. What I'm arguing is the quantity over quality mentality, and helping others realize why we don't need that type of logic within the HD community.

 

[GadgetRick]

Missed my point...

My point isn't that I'd rather have, "quantiy over quality," as I mentioned, I'm just like the rest of you who want the best. However, imo, DTV is NOT the best because they have chosen to NOT offer much in the way of HD programming. It wasn't because they want to offer GREAT HD pq, rather, it's becasue they want to offer as many NON-HD channels as humanly possible which sucks up the bandwidth for the HD channels. That's my problem with DTV and Dish.

Now, I DO want to see the best possible quality on Voom. But what's, "the best possible quality"? From what a lot of you Voom oldtimers have said, it is certainly better than it is today. That's cool. I want it to get better, too. But other than the stuttering (or whatever you want to call it), for the most part, the pq is at least acceptable for normal viewing. Can it get better? Yes. Do I want it to get better? Of course. But some people around here (and I don't mean most of you of course) are ready to throw Voom out because they feel the pq sucks and they'd rather give that up for the handful (if that) channels DTV and Dish offers them. My point is I'm cool with Voom as it is but I DO want it to get better. I want the manufacturer of my car to make it better but I'm more than happy with it for now.

As an example, I like my car as it is. However, I don't like the fact that it suffers from torque steer. Are there other cars out there that don't suffer from this? Sure but I'm not dropping my car off on the side of the road to get one because I'm looking at the overall picture (no pun intended). For my money, I'm happy enough with my car. Now, when it comes time for me to get another car I'll take this into consideration but, for now, I like the overall package I'm getting. This is just like Voom (alright, a car isn't EXACTLY satellite TV service) for me in that I like the overall package. Where it's really different is they (Voom) can change something to make it better without me making a large purchase or change in the way I'm doing something. I truly hope they do but I'm not ready to throw out Voom because of it.

With that said, I did notice the pq on DHD to be iffy on Arctic Mission (is it?). I'm guessing they haven't worked out the compression issues yet. Anyone else notice this? <----see, I DO complain about pq.

The Rickster

 

[slffl]

I noticed yesterday on TDCHD and RUSH that the picture kind of shimmered. Everything looked like it had been oversharpened or something. I had just watched 'Rampage Utah' the night before and it didn't look like this. However, I now know VOOM will not keep the PQ like this and it's not worth cancelling over like some other people are threatening to do (like it's going to get them to fix it any sooner).

 

[cameron119]

I'm not disputing Wilt's claim. What I'm arguing is the quantity over quality mentality, and helping others realize why we don't need that type of logic within the HD community.

D* actually packs 2 HD channels on one QPSK transponder. I'll look up the numbers in a bit...but I seem to recall that D* actually transmits HD at 1-2Mbps less than Voom. This pretty much invalidates the quality/quantity argument. Voom has more capacity/transponder, their channels are at a higher bitrate, and there is simply more to choose from on Voom.

E* places 2 HD channels on an 8PSK transponder. That puts E's HD's at about 19.x Mbps. Naturally they're going to have to start putting 3/transponder before too long if they intend to be "the HD leader (Bullsh!t)"

Voom currently has the highest capacity transponders (50 or so Mbps). Thus, when E* moves to 3/8PSK transponder, Voom will be the bitrate champ of all three major DBS providers.

 

[Walter L.]

I'm not disputing Wilt's claim. What I'm arguing is the quantity over quality mentality, and helping others realize why we don't need that type of logic within the HD community.

Completely agree: I want more channels but not at the expense of lower quality. I was trying to clarify that, to the best of my understanding, VOOM has not taken bandwidth from existing channels to add new ones. Yes, there are some PQ problems, but it is not related to the added channels.

 

[vurbano]

D* actually packs 2 HD channels on one QPSK transponder. I'll look up the numbers in a bit...but I seem to recall that D* actually transmits HD at 1-2Mbps less than Voom. This pretty much invalidates the quality/quantity argument. Voom has more capacity/transponder, their channels are at a higher bitrate, and there is simply more to choose from on Voom.

E* places 2 HD channels on an 8PSK transponder. That puts E's HD's at about 19.x Mbps. Naturally they're going to have to start putting 3/transponder before too long if they intend to be "the HD leader (Bullsh!t)"

Voom currently has the highest capacity transponders (50 or so Mbps). Thus, when E* moves to 3/8PSK transponder, Voom will be the bitrate champ of all three major DBS providers.

Thats correct. They have 50Mb/s on each transponder. And when WM9 is implement the quality should increase as well as the quantity.

 

[GadgetRick]

Another thing...

Another thing I'd like to point out is I've compared non-HD channels on Voom with my DTV and Voom looks better on those channels. Now, I do want to see the sparklies go away but I've compared The History Channel (what can I say, I'm a Modern Marvels junkie) many times and it's always looked better than my DTV feed. Sometimes it looks a LOT better than others, which indicates they are still mucking around with stuff. But then again we've known this.

The Rickster