El Kabong

I keep seeing the commercials where they say they have 39 HD stations including local. Does anyone have any info? It looks like they show a Disney HD station. How would a new provider get so many exclusive HD stations (ad says 21 or 22 are exclusive)? Also (like Disney) are these stations HD-only or do they show regular shows with bars on left & right sometimes? And do only certain areas have local stations available? Between DirecTv & my antenna I get about 13 HD stations now, but 39 would be pretty great. I have a feeling that many of the stations are probably lame like DirecTvs HDNet that shows a pretty weak selection of specials & sports & old tv shows converted into HD (Hogan's Heroes, Square Pegs & Charlie's Angels). The ad shows what looks like HD music videos, but with bands I've never seen and some obscure sporting events which makes me think a lot of the HD stations are probably not worth having.

Chew

It's been discussed a couple times before:
http://www.dvdtalk.com/forum/showthr...highlight=voom
http://www.dvdtalk.com/forum/showthr...highlight=voom

Plenty of info at their website:
http://www.voom.com/index.jsp

Michael T Hudson

I had a buddy at work that got and has had all kinds of problems. I do not think it is going to make it but time will tell.

El Kabong

Thanks. I guess it would have been hard to find info since I had the name wrong. I think I'll wait for a while on that. The install sounds expensive since I already have the decoder & an expensive antenna for the locals. And the list of HD channels seems suspect. Soap (opera) station in HD? Only the 12:30 CBS soap is in HD, so unless they keep showing it over & over most of the programming is probably not in HD. And F/X? None of their shows have been letterboxed on dvd so I doubt their made in HD also. I'd like to know how much of Nickelodeon & Disney are in HD as well. I doubt they animate their kids shows with 16x9 in mind. Most of the exclusive stations look like the crap I thought it would be- lame sports & museum tours. Does anyone have this that knows how much of these stations' content is actually IN HD. Like, I have the local UPN HD station, which is an HD station, but I've never seen one show that was actually in HD. Everything is 4x3 with bars on the left & right. I thought the latest Star Trek might have been upgraded to HD (it was always letterboxed), but I haven't seen it yet. So I have to wonder how many of these stations are like that?

k_lodge

I may be wrong, But I don't believe that the picture has to be widescreen in order to be considered HDTV.

I recently got a 46" widescreen HDTV and have Comcast HD box. While many of the shows on the networks aren't listed as HD, the picture on the HD channels is 10 times better than those on the regular ones.

El Kabong

They upconvert the standard signal on the HD stations, so they will look better than a digital cable station. But if it's not 16x9 then it's most likely not HD. It's just being upconverted, but wasn't filmed in high definition- which is why they aren't listed as HD. That's my point about all the HD stations VOOM has. Are they actually 24/7 HD or just the standard signal upconverted? You have to notice a difference between an upconcerted 4x3 show & a 16x9 HD show don't you. While they look better than digital, a real 16x9 HD show looks much clearer & detailed.