HDTV: It’s Good (and Getting Better): Voom Adds Volume (Both Kinds) and Quality

HDTV: It’s Good (and Getting Better)
Voom Adds Volume (Both Kinds) and Quality

By The Carmel Group’s Jimmy Schaeffler

For a couple of years now, our family has been watching HD. Often, when we turn on our TV set, we go to the HD channels first. We have learned to check what’s on the CBS Network HDTV broadcasts of linear (or real time) programming, as well as the sports, such as ESPN HD, and basic fare, such as Discovery HD. Like a lot of HD viewers, seeing something in HD makes a lot of sense, because it takes normal analog or standard definition video up several levels, adding quality and making most programming that much more enjoyable, and making some programming truly remarkable. 

Recently, my wife and I added the set of 15 Voom channels to the DISH Network subscription we use in our living room for our big screen HDTV. Voom’s 15 HD channels now compliment the 16 DISH Network HD channels we use, totaling 31 HD channels we can watch on DISH Network. 

Even though I’m one of those who has seen the Standard Definition (SD) and Enhanced Definition (ED) vs. HD comparisons (which make many doubt the need for HD relative to its higher costs), and even though I’ve always been quite skeptical of the value of HD and the motivations of the legislators and the consumer electronics guys who pushed digital and HD on us, I must say most HD today is pretty impressive. And the Voom channels do an awful lot to take it there. They are that much unique.

Speaking specifically about the Voom addition, perhaps the best introduction was accidental. We were browsing the channels and read a definition of a show we weren’t looking for or were not aware existed. The HD show that caught our interest was the Voom channel, “Gallery,” and its hour-long show without ads (of course), about the American painter, John Singer Sargent. Put shortly, the Singer profile show was great. We both loved learning about, and seeing, in crystal sharp photos and video, an American master neither of us had known before. The production wasn’t especially sparkling; more so, the paintings he created—shown via millions of separate pixels—got us very interested in his art and life. 

Another Voom channel, called “EquatorHD,” introduced me and my sons to a 43-minute long tidal “unofficial world record” wave ridden by a surfer up the mouth of the Amazon River. The tidal bore is called the “Pororoca.” Again, the fact that it was a new bunch of video footage, of a place I’d never seen before, was but half the greatness and enjoyment; the other half was the pureness and detail of the image presented. As an old surfer up and down the CA coast, I still love that stuff (even if mostly I now only experience the sport vicariously). 

After that positive experience, we each took alternating turns checking out what was on that HDTV channel and the others. Another Voom channel that has caught my attention is the “RAVE” channel, which has a motto of “This Channel Should Be Played Loud” and features a strong variety of modern music concerts. Taking my in-home education another step further, I was particularly taken by a production of an hour-long concert by another performer I had never heard of before. The NJ-based group called “Fountains of Wayne” had me humming songs I didn’t know existed. Later, I added a Chris Isaak, Queen, Fleetwood Mac, and Phil Collins HDTV performance to my viewing collection.

The impresario of Voom, John Sapan of Long Island-based Cablevision, was once the focal point for an interview done by The Carmel Group for a magazine story about HDTV, back in late 2003. Sapan noted then, “The Voom channels will need to be distinctive, they will need to capture the attention and, if you will, the imagination of people. And I think they will need to marry content opportunity with the specifics that HD allows. If what they see on Voom is different than what they see on the other channels that are doing HD, and if it sparks their interest and engages them, then I think we met with success.”

Without any express effort to appear solicitous toward the Voom programming, other than to say I think it’s worth the money, I thought it might help the reader to see the list of Voom channels that are listed below and on EchoStar’s website, http://www.dishnetwork.com, at the following link:  http://www.dishnetwork.com/content/programming/dishhd/programming/pricingandpackages/platinum/index.shtml

Further, now that the egg has decided that it precedes the chicken—meaning HDTV sets are creating enough sales volume so that HD programmers like Voom can rationalize spending on more HD content – the HD offerings will improve significantly. In my book, it’s an inevitable progression toward what Sapan sought early on: distinctive, imaginative programming that makes viewers want to see more…and my wife and I sure do.

Showtime HD
Starz HDTV
HBO HD
Animania HD
Family Room HD
GamePlay HD
Discovery HD Theater
Equator HD
National Geographic Channel HD
DISH Network PPV in HD
Film Fest HD
Food Network HD
HDNet Movies
Kung Fu HD
Monsters HD
World Cinema HD
HDNews
Rave HD
ESPN HD
ESPN2 HD
NFL Network HD
Rush HD
WorldSport HD
Gallery HD
HDNet
HGTV HD
TNT HD
Treasure HD
Ultra HD
Universal HD