| |
 |
|
|
Movies Forum Index » Movie Technology Forum » MGM HD...
Page 1 of 1
|
| Author |
Message |
| Lincoln Spector... |
 Posted: Wed May 14, 2008 12:57 pm |
|
|
|
Guest
|
So Dish Network has dropped the Voom Network (although judging from Voom's
website, they don't know it yet), and added, among others, MGM HD. Although
the Voom channels were part of the reason I picked Dish, I can't say I'll
miss them. They were definitely going down hill, and by the end were
presenting all movies in 16x9, regardless of the original AR. And they
didn't do closed captioning.
So how is MGM HD? Do they get the AR right? How's their selection? It looks
like they have some pretty good stuff, but initially Voom's stuff looked
good (it took a few weeks to realize they kept repeating the same movies for
eternity). Do they ever show anything pre-widescreen?
Lincoln |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| Kingo Gondo... |
| Posted: Wed May 14, 2008 1:06 pm |
|
|
|
Guest
|
"Lincoln Spector" <notmyreal at (no spam) address.com> wrote in message
news:wKFWj.753$qH4.136 at (no spam) nlpi061.nbdc.sbc.com...
Quote: So Dish Network has dropped the Voom Network (although judging from Voom's
website, they don't know it yet), and added, among others, MGM HD.
Although the Voom channels were part of the reason I picked Dish, I can't
say I'll miss them. They were definitely going down hill, and by the end
were presenting all movies in 16x9, regardless of the original AR. And
they didn't do closed captioning.
So how is MGM HD? Do they get the AR right? How's their selection? It
looks like they have some pretty good stuff, but initially Voom's stuff
looked good (it took a few weeks to realize they kept repeating the same
movies for eternity). Do they ever show anything pre-widescreen?
Lincoln
I was glad to see MGM HD. Some interesting films there (Drum!).
Voom is in real trouble. Check out:
alt.dbs.echostar
http://www.satelliteguys.us/dish-network-forum/ |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| DanG... |
| Posted: Wed May 14, 2008 4:26 pm |
|
|
|
Guest
|
"Lincoln Spector" <notmyreal at (no spam) address.com> wrote in message
news:wKFWj.753$qH4.136 at (no spam) nlpi061.nbdc.sbc.com...
Quote: So Dish Network has dropped the Voom Network (although judging from Voom's
website, they don't know it yet), and added, among others, MGM HD.
Although the Voom channels were part of the reason I picked Dish, I can't
say I'll miss them. They were definitely going down hill, and by the end
were presenting all movies in 16x9, regardless of the original AR. And
they didn't do closed captioning.
So how is MGM HD? Do they get the AR right? How's their selection? It
looks like they have some pretty good stuff, but initially Voom's stuff
looked good (it took a few weeks to realize they kept repeating the same
movies for eternity). Do they ever show anything pre-widescreen?
Lincoln
No VOOM channels have ever stretched SD content, ever. That aside, so far
what I've seen on MGM-HD is nothing to get excited about. Not even close to
the quality on HDNETMovies. |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| Derek Janssen... |
| Posted: Wed May 14, 2008 4:45 pm |
|
|
|
Guest
|
DanG wrote:
Quote:
So how is MGM HD? Do they get the AR right? How's their selection? It
looks like they have some pretty good stuff, but initially Voom's stuff
looked good (it took a few weeks to realize they kept repeating the same
movies for eternity). Do they ever show anything pre-widescreen?
(Got the same problem with our Comcast On-Demand cable, which
mysteriously never shows any hi-def movies that aren't already avaible
on Blu or former-HDDVD.
It could just be that not very much *is* mastered for hi-def yet.)
Quote: No VOOM channels have ever stretched SD content, ever. That aside, so far
what I've seen on MGM-HD is nothing to get excited about. Not even close to
the quality on HDNETMovies.
Voom, like the original-programming HDNet, existed independently BEFORE
most cable systems started jumping on this "HD broadcast" thing, before
more corporately franchised networks (or even studio-tied ones, like HBO
or Starz HD) started upgrading their productions--
Not sure if that makes Voom an outdated "AOL of HDTV", as I've never
seen the channel, but certainly doesn't portray it as a current industry
leader.
Derek Janssen
ejanss1 at (no spam) verizon.net |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| in Technicolor®... |
| Posted: Wed May 14, 2008 10:57 pm |
|
|
|
Guest
|
"Lincoln Spector" <notmyreal at (no spam) address.com> wrote in message
news:wKFWj.753$qH4.136 at (no spam) nlpi061.nbdc.sbc.com...
Quote: So Dish Network has dropped the Voom Network (although judging from Voom's
website, they don't know it yet), and added, among others, MGM HD.
Although the Voom channels were part of the reason I picked Dish, I can't
say I'll miss them. They were definitely going down hill, and by the end
were presenting all movies in 16x9, regardless of the original AR. And
they didn't do closed captioning.
So how is MGM HD? Do they get the AR right? How's their selection? It
looks like they have some pretty good stuff, but initially Voom's stuff
looked good (it took a few weeks to realize they kept repeating the same
movies for eternity). Do they ever show anything pre-widescreen?
Lincoln
I kind of agree with most of what you mentioned above, Lincoln. Voom was
THE REASON I wanted Dish. There was not much else they had in HD that was
appealing when I signed up about 2 years ago. Since then, I now the Hilter
Channel, Discovery, A&E, Dan Rather Reports, and the SciFi Channel as
additional eye candy to choose from. I could give a rat's ass about the 50
NFL and 50 NHL channels. Most of my viewing was tied up with Voom and the
OTA signal from Portland's PBS affiliate. With Voom gone, I do not see any
reason not to take advantage of the Verizon FiOS offer (TV, Phone and ISP)
for $105 a month. I already have Verizon phone and ISP service and have
hesitated on the TV because of their lack of Voom.
My wife and I do not watch alot of television and so the valid criticism of
Voom's repetitiveness doesn't apply to us. We barely have time to watch
what is on the DVR now. Not to mention the stuff we get from Netflix (3
movie option) and the stuff I download and stream directly to the HDTV.
Voom, to us, made the difference on whether to dump Comcast or not, and
DirecTV wanted too much for too little. I think Voom was basically the
gateway drug to get new subscribers signed up since Dish had very little to
offer. Voom's business f***up as a network gave Dish that "difference" to
get going, but now that they have more HD product to deliver, they have no
need for them. I will probably have no need for Dish now. With a BluRay
player imminent in our household (HTTWW is coming) what's to keep me. |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| ... |
| Posted: Thu May 15, 2008 5:01 am |
|
|
|
Guest
|
Yeah there were way too many repeats on the Voom channels but
ironically just as they added a substantial number of new titles to
their library they got yanked. Unless you are paying extra for the
premium channels (HBO, Showtime, etc.) there are very few places on
cable or satellite where you can see movies uncut, let alone in HD,
so I'm going to miss Voom. Even with all of the repeats there were
still lots of good titles I hadn't had a chance to see or record. Lots
of older titles, foreign films, independent films that appealed more
to my tastes than those of the premium services too. My favorite HD
movie channel is still HDNet Movies and now I pray that one won't get
yanked or begin to interrupt their films with commercials.
HDNet makes a point of showing all films OAR. Voom was a mixed bag and
recently more and more Scope films have been cropped to 16:9. "The Big
Country" and "Trapeze" for example were cropped and with the added
grain looked terrible. It seems to be pretty much the same policy
with Cinemax...you never know whether it will be OAR or not,
especially with Scope films.
MGM HD appears to be OAR from my limited channel surfing since it
appeared on Dish earlier in the week. The MGM films are of course the
more recent ones (post 1986?), not the MGM classics from the golden
age. MGM also owns the post '52 United Artists films (some good titles
here!), the Goldwyn library, Orion films, and some other independently
produced titles. This service was at the top of my list of wanted HD
channels (aside from TCM HD which hasn't even been announced yet!) but
I was disappointed to see the MGM HD "bug" (logo) stays throughout the
entire feature. Don't get me started on those goddamn things! |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| Anim8rFSK... |
| Posted: Fri May 16, 2008 10:30 am |
|
|
|
Guest
|
In article
<d1abfb2a-f868-4159-a0b3-52c5d7422533 at (no spam) 8g2000hse.googlegroups.com>,
jwr2000 at (no spam) earthlink.net wrote:
Quote: It seems to be pretty much the same policy
with Cinemax...you never know whether it will be OAR or not,
especially with Scope films.
With HBO-HD, you were guaranteed it would be the wrong aspect ratio,
whether they had to cut off the top and bottom or cut off the sides or
show just the titles right and mangle the live action. Which is why we
got rid of them.
--
Star Trek 09:
No Shat, No Show. |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| |
|
Page 1 of 1
All times are GMT - 5 Hours
The time now is Fri Nov 21, 2008 6:15 pm
|
|