After 2 days of Voom - some musings

[grumpy1]

Well after a no show on my install that was quickly remedied by Installs Inc, I have had a couple of days of being a Voomer. I find the service is really neat and well worth subscribing to. There seems to be a worthwhile amount of HD stations in the VaVoom package. My daughter particularly enjoyed the Cirque de Soleil on BravoHD.

I am a little concerned with my signal strength. The signal power is about 51, but the satellite signal quality seems to peak at 27. Am afraid that any poor weather will knock it out. My OTA signal strength varies considerably. Four of my locals are in the yellow range and all but one of these tune easily. My local CBS affiliate is in the light green range and sometimes I can get it yet other times I can't. I guess I need a bigger antenna. Will VOOM provide this or is it up to me?

My TV has two digital [DVI] ports and I have had a chance to toggle back and forth between Voom and Dish [the 811] on the same HD channels [Showtime and HBO]. Vooms HD seems brighter though possibly not as crisp as DISH. For me the Voom feed is more enjoyable as I prefer a brighter image. No matter how much I crank up the brightness [black level] and contrast on the input to the 811 it just looks dark next to VOOM. My TV reads the VOOM digital input at 45K and the 811 at 33K. What is the significance of this measure?

 

[Sean Mota]

grumpy1,

glad to hear that everything worked out at the end. Thanks for the report and comparison. Your satellite power strength sound fine but the quality, as you mentioned, is low. I know that if mine hits around 14, I will lose the signal. I really do not know how is it that the quality seems to be going up and down. So I will not be too worried about the 27, check it again when it rains to see if it goes up or down.

What type of HDTV you have? Two DVI ports seem to be ahead of my TVs. The 45K and 33K readings - how did you get these? Maybe you should look at the manual of your TV to see what it represents. We will be interested to know why those two numbers differ.

Thanks.

 

[grumpy1]

Sean,

I have a Pioneer Elite 630HD. When I switch inputs with the remote there is a little printout in the lower corner than tells you what input you are currently watching. On the one I set up for Dish it reads Input 5 Digital 33K. On the Voom input it reads Input 6 Digital 45K As far as I can tell from the manual, the inputs are the same and the reading is related to the source. Maybe it has to do with the format, but thought I was 1080i on both. I may go over to the Pioneer forum at the sPot and ask about it.

 

[Ken F]

The numbers may refer to khz, which means Input 6 is set to 720p rather than 1080i. The default on the VOOM box is 720p. In order to set 1080i, open the door on the right of the VOOM box and press the red button until only the top bar on the box is lit.

 

[grumpy1]

Ken You are absolutely correct. Just figured it out and even went back in the threads to figure out how to change the format. The Voom manual is certainly not very complete.

For 720p the horizontal frequency is 45kHz and for 1080i its 33.75 kHz. I made the incorrect assumption that VOOMs default was 1080i. There seems to be nowhere in the menus that the current format is displayed.

Thanks