VOOM's high-def channels make your eyes pop

By FRAZIER MOORE

The Associated Press

NEW YORK -- Maybe it's best to just say no. Avoid temptation. Avert your eyes in the electronics store.

Dangerous? One glance, and you're seized by desire. That's the threat of high-definition TV, however determined a viewer may be to stick with his old TV set a while longer.

Now, as of February, VOOM has made it even harder for high-def holdouts.

VOOM (as in va-va-voom) is made up of 15 channels of all high-def all the time, commercial-free, and (watch out!) eye-poppingly seductive. Sonically seductive, too, with Dolby 5.1 surround sound accompanying the pictures.

The "suite" of VOOM channels (chiefly available on the Dish satellite network as part of its DishHD package) addresses a range of interests with specific themes.

The Equator HD channel roams the planet. Gallery HD savors the visual arts. Rush HD dives into extreme sports. Rave HD presents concert performances. Gameplay HD invades the virtual worlds of video gaming. Treasure HD indulges viewers' passion for collecting (even with live auctions). Worldsport HD provides sports coverage from around the globe. And HDNews has round-the-clock news, sports and weather.

The VOOM lineup also includes six film channels devoted to general fare, horror flicks, martial arts movies, world cinema and animation -- plus Family Room HD, with its family-oriented movies.

These films (VOOM has more than 1,000) have all been converted to high-def from their original negatives, according to Greg Moyer, general manager of VOOM HD Networks.

Seeing them (or anything else originally shot on film) in high-def can be likened to an ideal screening-room experience. Here is crisp, sharp resolution, with the added blessing of nary a scratch or dust speck.

As for high-def video ... well, that almost defies comparison. A skier or a sunset or the brush strokes of a painting seen in high-def video is a thing apart from film or conventional TV -- and even apart from real life.

Treated to a sample of VOOM programming at its Manhattan headquarters (regretfully, I'm still not among the nation's 15 million high-def households), I just couldn't help myself: I was inventorying beads of sweat on Phil Collins' face in mid-song. I could pick out grains of powder in a snow bank etched against a lustrous sky. No slush there! But I was thrilled most by Ultra HD (VOOM's 15th channel, celebrating high fashion and high living) with its luscious displays of food. You have never seen food -- on the vine or on a plate -- until you see it in high-def. At least, I hadn't.

"HD is about enhancing your sense of experience," says Moyer. "With HD, your vision is taken up by image rather than a picture in a box that you focus on."

Amen! High-def is panoramic (rather than the squarish shape of a conventional screen). It's high-res (packing about five times the visual detail of a standard TV). And it's digital (consider the crystal-clarity of a compact disc versus your long-retired LPs, which, like traditional TVs, are analog).

More and more high-def content is being made available to viewers. Showtime, ESPN, HBO and Starz offer HD channels. There's also HDNet, Discovery HD Theater and National Geographic Channel HD. Meanwhile, broadcasters are increasing the number of high-def shows on their schedules. But VOOM bills itself as the nation's largest and most diverse collection of round-the-clock high-def programming.

VOOM began in 2003 as a satellite TV service. Then, under new owner Rainbow Media (which also owns AMC and WE: Women's Entertainment), VOOM sold its satellite last spring and was reborn as a content source, with Dish currently its main subscriber outlet.

VOOM means to become synonymous with high-def, says Moyer.

"We're designing our channels to take full advantage of what high-def offers," he said.

And as VOOM continues to acquire and commission new content, the intent is to give the world a whole new look: "With this level of clarity and resolution, and with the surround audio, you can go back and re-vision the world -- to re-see things and capture more excitement and intimacy."

Moyer acknowledges that, at some point, the novelty value of high-def will be gone, just as it was with color TV, which almost overnight in the mid-1960s became standard issue.

"When there are 100 HD channels to choose from, just being in HD won't be a big deal," Moyer says. "By 2010, or maybe before, our channels have to stand on their own for their editorial merit. But we are fully up to that task."

As one example, he cites Gallery HD as "a wonderful way to experience the arts on television because of its programs, and not just because you can see the brush strokes on a Monet."

But at this stage of the game, those brush strokes will knock your eyes out. You've been warned. The best way to spare yourself from high-def hankering is: Don't look.