I have been a VOOM subscriber for a month now. My installation was done on November 23, 2003 and today is December 24, 2003. Where does VOOM stands with me? Where does it stands with you as a subscriber? What is it that you like/dislike? What is it that you would love to see or not see?
21 Exclusive Channels:
The content of the 21 exclusives are repeated constantly. I was one of the first that said that the movie selection of Cinema 10 will need to change to make it worthwhile. Now a month into VOOM, movies are an endless loop that I care very little about. Being that they own AMC and IFC, I do not see why they have not selected a better movie selection or have more HD transfer by now. I am sure I am not the first to think about this and VOOM knows about it as well. Also, the OAR issue. If VOOM leaves the movies in their OAR, the movie will keep better quality. This policy of cropping their movies need to change as it will keep people that are very enthusiastic about HD away. Those of us that already have VOOM and care about keeping the OAR of movies are not very happy.
The problem with the Worldsport channel is that these events that we have been watching are all taped. There are no live feeds. Most of us care very little about events in the past unless we are told that this is a Classic Sport Channel. The model for this channel will need to change in order to be successful. VOOM needs to bring live events. I watched half of the Japanese Baseball World Series and really liked it. I wish we could see recent games and not games that were played back in October of 2003.
Newsbytes: Will debut in January 2004 and I expect this channel to be a big hit. See my links to the accuweather release they had at http://www.satelliteguys.us/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4871 and the job recruiting that VOOM was doing http://www.satelliteguys.us/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4861
Ultra-HD has potential from a modeling/Styling point of view, but it needs more content.
Animania recently started showing different series of cartoons.
Monsters-HD is a real good channel with a variety of movies. I spent a lot of time watching movies here.
Epics-HD has potential but it needs more variety.
Rush-HD I do not have an opinion yet. Have not watched a whole lot of it but the few programs have been excellent. Again right now it is an endless loop.
MOOV-HD Everybody agrees that this a waste of bandwith.
Gallery and Treasure I can live without and should be deleted from their lineup.
Rave-HD Could be a good hit but it needs content.
In conclusion, 3 out of 21 channels, iMHO, should be removed. The others have potential if more content is added.
The other HD channels, I will wait until 2/1/04. I have been waiting for E* or D* to add Bravo-HD+ since last July. E* and D* do not add HD channels as they are launch either. So VOOM at least have said that by 2/1/04, we should expect all these other additional HD channels. How about the others HD channels that will be launch? I am sure VOOM realizes that getting contract with these new HD channels and keeping and increasing HD content on their 21 (assuming they can replace those 3 channels) channels is a must. A nice addition was Starz-HD and TMC-HD.
SD programming maybe the weak link but at one point or another (and this applies to everyone) one must make a decision as to what's important to you SD or HD. VOOM will never be able to compete in the SD arena given their lack of space. I do not see how they can compete in quantity with E* or D*. Instead they should concentrate in keeping a good amount of SD quality channels.
Sears and Intalls Inc. a total fiasco. VOOM will have another 4 partners as already mentioned in January. there have been communication problems with all the parties involved as I was a victim of the installation problems. The problem was resolved. Installs Inc called me and apologyze for it and VOOM made sure that the installation procceded very smoothly.
My VOOM receiver has been working very well. My OTA has been working well with all my local mapping. No, it was not from the beginning but after sending information to Wilt. He assigned my zipcode to the people working on the OTA mapping and in three days I had all my local channnels.
In conclusion, VOOM will tweak and turn and I believe will come out with a strong hand. I am willing to stay until 2/1/04 and make a more elaborate conclusion as to whether they will fail or not on 2/1/04.
21 Exclusive Channels:
The content of the 21 exclusives are repeated constantly. I was one of the first that said that the movie selection of Cinema 10 will need to change to make it worthwhile. Now a month into VOOM, movies are an endless loop that I care very little about. Being that they own AMC and IFC, I do not see why they have not selected a better movie selection or have more HD transfer by now. I am sure I am not the first to think about this and VOOM knows about it as well. Also, the OAR issue. If VOOM leaves the movies in their OAR, the movie will keep better quality. This policy of cropping their movies need to change as it will keep people that are very enthusiastic about HD away. Those of us that already have VOOM and care about keeping the OAR of movies are not very happy.
The problem with the Worldsport channel is that these events that we have been watching are all taped. There are no live feeds. Most of us care very little about events in the past unless we are told that this is a Classic Sport Channel. The model for this channel will need to change in order to be successful. VOOM needs to bring live events. I watched half of the Japanese Baseball World Series and really liked it. I wish we could see recent games and not games that were played back in October of 2003.
Newsbytes: Will debut in January 2004 and I expect this channel to be a big hit. See my links to the accuweather release they had at http://www.satelliteguys.us/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4871 and the job recruiting that VOOM was doing http://www.satelliteguys.us/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4861
Ultra-HD has potential from a modeling/Styling point of view, but it needs more content.
Animania recently started showing different series of cartoons.
Monsters-HD is a real good channel with a variety of movies. I spent a lot of time watching movies here.
Epics-HD has potential but it needs more variety.
Rush-HD I do not have an opinion yet. Have not watched a whole lot of it but the few programs have been excellent. Again right now it is an endless loop.
MOOV-HD Everybody agrees that this a waste of bandwith.
Gallery and Treasure I can live without and should be deleted from their lineup.
Rave-HD Could be a good hit but it needs content.
In conclusion, 3 out of 21 channels, iMHO, should be removed. The others have potential if more content is added.
The other HD channels, I will wait until 2/1/04. I have been waiting for E* or D* to add Bravo-HD+ since last July. E* and D* do not add HD channels as they are launch either. So VOOM at least have said that by 2/1/04, we should expect all these other additional HD channels. How about the others HD channels that will be launch? I am sure VOOM realizes that getting contract with these new HD channels and keeping and increasing HD content on their 21 (assuming they can replace those 3 channels) channels is a must. A nice addition was Starz-HD and TMC-HD.
SD programming maybe the weak link but at one point or another (and this applies to everyone) one must make a decision as to what's important to you SD or HD. VOOM will never be able to compete in the SD arena given their lack of space. I do not see how they can compete in quantity with E* or D*. Instead they should concentrate in keeping a good amount of SD quality channels.
Sears and Intalls Inc. a total fiasco. VOOM will have another 4 partners as already mentioned in January. there have been communication problems with all the parties involved as I was a victim of the installation problems. The problem was resolved. Installs Inc called me and apologyze for it and VOOM made sure that the installation procceded very smoothly.
My VOOM receiver has been working very well. My OTA has been working well with all my local mapping. No, it was not from the beginning but after sending information to Wilt. He assigned my zipcode to the people working on the OTA mapping and in three days I had all my local channnels.
In conclusion, VOOM will tweak and turn and I believe will come out with a strong hand. I am willing to stay until 2/1/04 and make a more elaborate conclusion as to whether they will fail or not on 2/1/04.