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Last reply · posted in Old VOOM CHIT CHAT Archives
the main reason I think that voom is failing so badly is since they dont offer standard def only packages, most people dont have hdtv. If voom offered sd they would do much better.
24 Replies · 4527 views
VegasVoomer
I totally agree with the above posts about not being available in C.C. or B.B. If they had an area with an HD tv setup with Voom and the picture setting were correct and had a pile of STB's sitting next to it so people could see it in person, pick it up and buy it then and there, take it home and install it themselves if they wanted to, Voom would be VOOMIN.
jame_g
Voom did make several missteps. I wasn't initially interested due to the cost and channel offerings despite having a HDTV only hooked up to a DVD player and SD and hating it.

They are finally close to being on the right track with their install offer, recent channel additions, and March announcement about new channels and elliptical dish.

We're also at a turning point with respect to HDTV. There are more sets being offered at better prices, and most mid-size and larger markets now have most network TV available in digital. More people can now see a reason to go HDTV, and it will only increase in the coming months as the HDTV monitors/receivers decrease in price and more programming is offered in HDTV.

Voom needs to get their name out there more and do more to improve service and counter bad publicity. Plus I think they do need to improve their package offerings, and maybe this will occur once they implement the additional channels in March (and get the DVR in production).
TuxCoder
DarrellP said:
How much is PQ and a widescreen format worth to you?
Add to that Dolby Digital 5.1 sound (when available) and you've got almost all my reasons for enjoying HD without actually owning an HDTV display yet. My other reasons don't matter much to other people. ;)

I took my Hisense receiver to my parents' house Wednesday to watch Lost and they liked the picture quality and widescreen display. This was on a 48" Mitsubishi SD television. I just keep repeating to them, without it being an HDTV display, this is basically the best picture quality they will see on their "old-fashioned" TV screen. :) They don't have a digital audio capable stereo system, but the Dolby Pro Logic track in Lost was very good.

Edit: On a slightly related, marginally on-topic note, I just thought of another plus for HD on a SD screen: at least in my area, the digital HD local stations do not scrunch up the screen with snow closings / polls / whatever bulletin info at the bottom. It's gone entirely, leaving the display untouched so you can watch your show the way it was meant to be. That scrunching info bulletin stuff is left for the analog channel and the SD digital multicast subchannel. :up
M
Uplink said:
the main reason I think that voom is failing so badly is since they dont offer standard def only packages, most people dont have hdtv. If voom offered sd they would do much better.

Why VOOM is failing and why I switched to Cox


  1. No HD DVR. DirecTV has one. Comcast has one. Cox Communications has one. What's so hard about getting one? Oh you're waiting for Ucentric? They're still trying to hire people to create the whole home solution.
  2. No reliable way to get locals. OTA sucks if you live out in the boonies or behind a mountain. Transmit locals over the satellite, or at least regional locals. You say you've got the bandwidth, so get to it!!! :mad:
  3. Cinema 10 sucks. :mad: Replace this either with more interesting programming or modify the marketing to say the most (boring) HD channels than any other.
  4. The boxes suck. I'd have to reset my box at least 3-4 times a week. If this was a DVR box I'd never be able to reliably record my shows. Also the program guide was never accurate--another DVR show stopper.
  5. PPV choices are very limited. How about being able to PPV stuff you can go to Hollywood Video or Blockbuster at a cheaper price? VOOM needs a HD video on demand service.

VOOM does have very nice HD channels (RAVE, ULTRA HD, etc), but this doesn't make up for the problems above. If VOOM can fix the above and keep a good price I might think about coming back. But Cox is cutting me a package deal on my internet and phone access along with the HD cable, so VOOM is going to have to get competitive with price too in order to win me back.
DarrellP
malexgreen said:
- PPV choices are very limited. How about being able to PPV stuff you can go to Hollywood Video or Blockbuster at a cheaper price?
What provider do you know who offers PPV movies (in SD mind your) that are cheaper than a DVD rental? Dish charges $3.99 and rarely offers widescreen or DD with it. :mad: It would be nice if we could get HD PPV for $2.99. :yes
Scott Greczkowski
Staff member HERE TO HELP YOU! Cutting Edge
Last reply · posted in The Chit Chat Club
Sometimes a thread gets so many posts in it that is can cause issues for the server so that why today we introduce The Song Name Game Part 3!

So let the game continue!

The last song was added by Bobby who posted...

One Meat Ball - Andrews Sisters

CONTINUE ON AND HAVE FUN! WELCOME HOME TO SATELLITEGUYS.US!

Here are the original rules for the game as posted by WebbyDude back in 2006. http://www.satelliteguys.us/threads/68645-Song-Name-Game

Just name a song title and the band who performed it. The next person does the same thing, but needs to list a song title or band name which includes a word from the previous entry. Pick songs from any genre.

Example:

Long Live Rock and Roll -- Rainbow

Rainbow in the Dark -- Dio

Another example:

Ride the Lightning -- Metallica

Lightning Strikes -- Ozzy Osbourne


Get it?


An additional note: we all know that song titles, sometimes, use profane words. Because this is a family friendly website it is advised that you clean up that title up a bit. This is accomplished by using something like sh!t instead of the real word. Thanks....
68655 Replies · 2680128 views
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gms49ers
Jet City Woman - Queensryche
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FTA4PA
Detroit Rock City - Kiss
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sdfntx
I Care About Detroit - Smokey Robinson & the Miracles
dishstaller
I Wanna Talk About Me - Toby Keith
Bobby
98.6 - Keith
R
Last reply · posted in Computers and Gadgets
Lately my eight year old Dell laptop has been shutting off even when I have a full battery. I have had to keep it plugged up all the time to keep this from happening. Any idea what is causing this? I replaced the battery about three years ago.
2 Replies · 34 views
arlo
A recalibration might be needed. Even if it shows full, the individual cells may have become unbalaced. And the BMS chip in the battery reports false information to the pc.
Try this. Start it up in the bios/uefi and leave it there until the battery dies and it shuts off.
It might just keep running longer than in Windows. Or run for a short while and shut off.
If it's the first case. Probably just needs a balancing. If the latter, the pack might just be dead.
Not throwing stones but perhaps just a cheaply constructed battery with substandard cells. Could be.

Patience. Keep restarting it in bios/uefi until it won't fire up anymore.
Then plug the charger in and let it complete a full charge. And see what happens. If it's better.
Do the same thing one more time. Run it until it dies dead-dead. Then just let it charge, pc shut off.
When charged, it might be better. It might not be.

There are bench jigs that read the actual BMS and override it to let a tech manually monitor and charge the separate packs. They can also reset any "time bombs" in it that cause an otherwise good pack to show bad.
Maybe Santa will be good to me some year.

You might just need a new battery. Maybe the PC power management chip is going. A Dell common thing.
Leaving a laptop plugged in with a full battery is known to reduce the life. Asus for one recommends that you don't leave the charger plugged in all of the time even when shut down. And setting Windows to charge the battery to 85% instead of 100% increases life.
That's all I got.
dishstaller
That's all I got.
That was quite enough....I definitely learned something from your post. Thanks
TRG
TRG
Pub Member / Supporter
Last reply · posted in Computers and Gadgets
I set up a music server for my brother a few years ago. It's basically a small headless computer but it needs to have a DHCP IP address reserved for it in the router settings. This was easy to do in his DSL router. He's switching to Starlink now and I was wondering if these setting are easily accessible in the Starlink router. I'm pretty sure he will be getting the latest V5 router.
5 Replies · 273 views
b4pjoe
I set up a music server for my brother a few years ago. It's basically a small headless computer but it needs to have a DHCP IP address reserved for it in the router settings. This was easy to do in his DSL router. He's switching to Starlink now and I was wondering if these setting are easily accessible in the Starlink router. I'm pretty sure he will be getting the latest V5 router.
If you can't get into the router to reserve an IP address just don't use DHCP on the device that needs connected and assign it to a specific IP address in the network settings.
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HipKat
I set up a music server for my brother a few years ago. It's basically a small headless computer but it needs to have a DHCP IP address reserved for it in the router settings. This was easy to do in his DSL router. He's switching to Starlink now and I was wondering if these setting are easily accessible in the Starlink router. I'm pretty sure he will be getting the latest V5 router.
They are not. Your best bet is to set up a third-party router, attached to the Starlink for your server, that you can get into, like a Linksys, etc
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Foxbat
…it needs to have a DHCP IP address reserved for it in the router settings. This was easy to do in his DSL router. He's switching to Starlink now and I was wondering if these setting are easily accessible in the Starlink router. I'm pretty sure he will be getting the latest V5 router.
The Starlink V5 Install Kit I just got comes with the Mini Router. It is pretty limited in what it can do. For example, it can provide only one IP subnet at a time, no Guest Network, but it does support the pass-thru to a third-party Router. You can also split the Wi-Fi into separate 5 GHz & 2.4 GHz SSIDs to help some IoT devices that don't support 5 GHz bands to work.

The larger Starlink Router that still comes with the V4 Kit does support a Guest Network with separate IPv4 Subnet, but it's $120 from Starlink. And it still won't do DHCP Reservations.
harshness
If you can restrict the DHCP address space to assign addresses to one end of the subnet (i.e. x.x.x.50+), you can manually assign the IP address on pretty much any operating system. This is a default behavior on several popular routers. As the Router Mini only supports 235 devices, I expect that's already done.

Another option is to use a router that supports PoE to power the antenna. This article discusses that option (under PoE Power heading):

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Foxbat
Now that I've had the v5 kit with the Mini Router, it's not as bad as I first thought. Yes, no DHCP reservations, but you can set up multiple SSIDs that have separate IPv4 subnets, and like the big brother, you can select from 192.168.x.0/24 or 10.x.0.0/16 (where "x" is 1-4).

You can also split a subnet and have different SSIDs for the 5 GHz and 2.4 GHz channels to handle some IoT devices. I haven't discovered what subnet the 2nd NIC on the router assigns, I'm guessing it's the first subnet.
dishstaller
Pub Member / Supporter Lifetime Supporter
Last reply · posted in The Chit Chat Club
2 Replies · 43 views
dishstaller
Sorry for posting the wrong link. Just corrected it.
dishstaller
Pub Member / Supporter Lifetime Supporter
Last reply · posted in The Chit Chat Club
Terrible tragedy. You would think that they would have safe guards in place that would prevent something like this from happening. I guess if you are going to ride in a passenger train it might be best to get a car near the rear.

2 Replies · 47 views
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Jimbo
Terrible tragedy. You would think that they would have safe guards in place that would prevent something like this from happening. I guess if you are going to ride in a passenger train it might be best to get a car near the rear.

They will have to look at the switching sections to determine WHY 2 trains were on the same track ... at the same time.
dishstaller
Thought this article might be of interest to some of you who might travel via train.