SatelliteGuys.US is proud to give you the first look of the upcoming VOOM Whole House DVR with an exclusive video demo from this years CEDIA EXPO!

To view the video please CLICK HERE! (http://www.satelliteguys.us/demo/)

We hope you enjoy this sneak peek of what just may be the most powerful DVR ever made!

Nice video, Scott! Or is this Ilya's work?

This is basically the same demo I saw back in May at the HE 2004 show in New York, with a few minor added features. The big question that I'm sure is on everyone's mind is:

WHEN?

Yep, nice video, thanks for putting that up here! Looks like a great product for guys like us, but I don't know if it will compel a million people to sign up. Still, I applaud Voom for the bold move. It will be fun - no question about that!

Nope I shot the video. :) I was actually surprised how well it came out becasue I forgot to bring my MIC, so all sound was via the camcorders mic. :)

Yes....wonderful video.....but it means absolutely nothing until we finally get a date. Good job though. It was really nice having direct coverage of the convention.

I sure hope that Voom and Dish hook up now. :D

Some features look nice but one thing that worries me is the "thin clients", it doesnt say for sure that they can actually replace a real receiver and watch live tv just like a real receiver.

I think he said that the thin clients can access one of the two tuners, or stream down a program at the time. However if a thin client is using a tuner to watch live TV, then the tuner cannot record while watching something else, or, it bumps the thin client.

So it has limitations, but 2 DVRs for 4 TVs instead of 4 full STBs is an option that some people will like, am I right in how this works?

Some features look nice but one thing that worries me is the "thin clients", it doesnt say for sure that they can actually replace a real receiver and watch live tv just like a real receiver.The clients themselves don't have tuners. The video stream comes from the server to the client and it originates either from the hard drive in the DVR or from one of its four tuners. So, you can watch up to four different live programs at the same time: 2 OTA and 2 satellite.

And as Dvlos pointed out, you can add an extra server: double the number of tuners for your house and double the disk storage at the same time.

"For the purpose of this demo, just for you guys out there, we're using one HDTV and two SDTV's, standard definition TV's. Obviously, when this ships in '05 this will be full HD everywhere."
"Initially it's probably going to have a 160 gig hard drive, it's really to hit a cost point."
These qoutes really make me wonder if it is going to be quite a while before this is a sellable product.

"Leveraging this IP based platform, Voom is also going to be enabling other features in '05."
Will the coax throughout the house be able to function as the connection for this?

It looks pretty sweet though, regardless of when it finally comes out.

I wanted to believe I didn't hear the '05 comment... *sigh* I'm guessing I'll be using my cable DVR long before then. Ah, Voom. I loved you best.

I wanted to believe I didn't hear the '05 comment... *sigh* I'm guessing I'll be using my cable DVR long before then. Ah, Voom. I loved you best.
On the bright side, October 1st is technically FY '05 in the business world. Maybe that is what he was reffering to? :)

On the bright side, October 1st is technically FY '05 in the business world. Maybe that is what he was reffering to? :)Let's hope. Anyway this does look like a very flexible setup. Thanks Scott for the video.

Again, Motorola could have a working DVR ready before then, judging from the demo, the software looks set, probably just continual beta testing on it as it seems it can do just about all they set out to do. They may not have everything in place to have installers come out with Ucentric boxes ready to wire your house if need be. Also maybe all these dates we are hearing have some truth. Maybe in November the DVR hardware with software will be unveiled, and sent to a select few for more testing with actual shipping to occur in early '05.

Voom's gearing up for MPG4/WM9 distribution AND DVR, AND Whole House, AND Elliptical dishes all from now to '05. Looks like they are going to slam everything at once?

"Hi I'm you're Voom tech today, Loopy, I have your modules, your DVR, and your elliptical dish!"

You have got some fat pipes on your web site. I downloaded this 19.4MB file in under 28 seconds. DAMN! I know I have really fat pipes, but I normally don't get those kinds of speeds unless I am downloading from Microsoft, Norton or somebody huge in tech like them.

Initially it's probably going to have a 160 gig hard drive, it's really to hit a cost point.

Did I hear him say elsewhere something to the effect of "can access music (or pictures) from you PC's hard drive"? Will we be able to provide additional storage space for recording on our terabyte servers? That would be too good to be true.

Did I hear him say elsewhere something to the effect of "can access music (or pictures) from you PC's hard drive"? Will we be able to provide additional storage space for recording on our terabyte servers? That would be too good to be true.
Yes he said that...it makes sense since it is IP based.

Ehhh... he said music and pictures. He didn't say anything about video. And if they really did take out firewire, then they certainly aren't going to let you copy off to outside storage.

I still want to know what the transport medium will be? coax, cat5e, wi-fi? how will it get to the other rooms. Course if you really want this to work as they want it to, you must have a receiver and unit in EACH room.... your rental cost just quadrupled. good way for Voom to get money

I still want to know what the transport medium will be? coax, cat5e, wi-fi? how will it get to the other rooms. Course if you really want this to work as they want it to, you must have a receiver and unit in EACH room.... your rental cost just quadrupled. good way for Voom to get money
The transport medium in the demo display was phone-line (rj-11). (http://www.satelliteguys.us/showpost.php?p=191419&postcount=26)

You must have missed something in the last few months. The multi-room distribution is via 'thin clients' not standard STB's.

Kudos for the video! I couldn't watch all of it though, had some major buffering problems.

Two suggestions, however, how about making them a QuickTime video? Remember, most of the world out there is using QT for videos. I had to go and download Windows Media Player--something I really don't care to have--to view the video.

Also, I understand you want to make sure we all know it's from this site but, I think we'll all agree here, we complain about TV channels which put their logo in the corner. How about setting an example and not putting the SatelliteGuys.com plug? Sorry, it annoys me when they do it on TV, it's just as annoying when it's done on the Web.

Ok, off my soapbox and sorry. Didn't mean to trash the great thing you guys did.

I only got about halfway through. I'll have to check out the rest later. I'm very excited about the DVR. Just hope it gets here soon...

The Rickster

Sorry no quicktime at this time.

THe reason we put SatelliteGuys in the video is because in previous videos we have done, other sites have downloaded them and put them up at their site and claimed them as their own.

The SatelliteGuys logo is in there twice for about 10 second each. :)

BTW I edited the video on my laptop, I finnally got a chance to watch it last night and was amazed with the sound, it had a good stereo mix it sounded like you were sitting there in the convention. :D

This video was not in HD, what a let down... ;)

This video was not in HD, what a let down... ;)At least it is in OAR! :p

Hey it was also 100% Digital. :D

I guess my buffering problem didn't allow me to see the logo go away. Sorrry about that. :cool:

I'll have to go back and try again.

The Rickster

Rickster, after you have viewed the entire video, you can save it to your hard drive then it should play normally.

If you right click on the file you can save it to your hard drive as well. :D

Wow, it looked real impresive I cant waite.

Scott, since you were there, do you know if he meant '05 as in 2005 or '05 as in their fiscal '05 which starts in 5 days?

I am pretty sure they meant callendar '05. The person doing the demo was actually from Ucentric. He wouldn't be thinking in fiscal years, I think. ;)

It sounded like the media "client" modules were in 05, but maybe they meant the whole shootin' match.

160GB seems on low side, particularly if no FW.

160GB seems on low side, particularly if no FW.They might have more than that by the time it's all released.
Also, keep in mind that 160GB with MPEG4 is like 240GB with MPEG2!

i hope it's a rental first because i am sure the first one will be a BETA more or less as is our regular BOX

Kudos for the video! I couldn't watch all of it though, had some major buffering problems.

Two suggestions, however, how about making them a QuickTime video? Remember, most of the world out there is using QT for videos. I had to go and download Windows Media Player--something I really don't care to have--to view the video.

Also, I understand you want to make sure we all know it's from this site but, I think we'll all agree here, we complain about TV channels which put their logo in the corner. How about setting an example and not putting the SatelliteGuys.com plug? Sorry, it annoys me when they do it on TV, it's just as annoying when it's done on the Web.

Ok, off my soapbox and sorry. Didn't mean to trash the great thing you guys did.

I only got about halfway through. I'll have to check out the rest later. I'm very excited about the DVR. Just hope it gets here soon...

The Rickster


Seeing as the "Grand Scheme" for Voom is to use Windows Media Player 9 with its super-compression to give us twice the content over the same pipe, I think providing this video in WMV format was *totally* appropriate.

And, it's a good habit to put your logo on an online video, because online videos have a way of proliferating wildly. The reason the logo in the corner on a broadcast channel is unforgivable is twofold:

1) Unless you live in a cave, you have a program guide -- which means that you already know which channel you're watching (which makes the tag totally pointless)

2) The tags on many channels cause burn-in.

You won't get burn-in from a ten or fifteen minute online video clip on your computer screen, and it is *very* possible for an online video to get (re)distributed so that its origin is entirely unknown.

Wish we didn't have to wait so darned long on the PVR box, and I hope it isn't just because they're working on all that network nonsense. I don't want any of that crud -- all I want is to be able to record shows on ONE tv, and watch 'em when I want to. My wife and I decided years ago that while we were true TV junkies, having only 1 TV would ensure that we watched things together, rather than finding one more activity to each do alone. It's actually worked out nicely, with everyone having to balance one another's needs and wants (I'm including the kids in this equation, too)

Anyhow -- simply being able to program in and record shows, ala TiVo is something we desperately wish we could do. Only being able to put in program reminders -- and having to re-enter them because you can't make recurring ones -- is very annoying.

Ahem. Sorry about that, everyone -- I'll get off my soapbox, too, now :D