Is the box the problem?

[niteshade009]

I recently switched from digital cable to Voom. So far I've been pretty happy with the service. I definately feel like I'm getting more for my money than with cable but I too notice the soft picture that people here have been talking about. What I'm wondering is how much of it is caused by the Motorola box itself. Cable used to provide me with my locals in HD. The picture I got was noticeably sharper than what I'm recieving with the Voom box. Even the lettering on my PBS channel logo was more defined through cable. Since these are locals and not off the sat and STILL soft it leads me to believe that the box just isnt really up to par. I tried adjusting the settings on my tv but no matter what I do I could never get the sources two to look the same. I don't know if this is a hardware issure or something that can be fixed through a firmware update but I'm guessing not since we've had so many and none have made any changes in picture quality. I guess what I'm trying to say is that I dont know if they are even able to do much about the sharpness of the picture unless they replace our boxes. Any thoughts on this?

 

[Gr8Reb8]

Is your TV HD? What signal is preferred? 1080i, 720p?

It seems that Voom would like you to call their help desk to let you know that you can change the setting on your new Voom receiver. On the front right of the Voom STB, there is a door you can open. Inside is a red button. Press it once to see what the STB currently is set to.
If there are 4 lights that light up, it is set to native mode and will send out 1080i on HD channels and 480i on SD channels. Press the button again and when the top light is lit, the box will send everything to your TV at 1080i, second light is 720p, third 480p and fourth 480i and then back to all lit and native again.

If it were me, I would include this little info with the manual....

Oh, and did the "professional" installer connect the STB to your TV? Did he use composite cable instead of component or DVI?

 

[andrzej]

Hmm. I still use Sammy 160 STB for D* (and cable) and occasionally I do A/B comparisons. I don't see any significant difference on OTA channels between Voom STB and D* STB both via component. I use native mode for Voom and 1080i for HD OTA on D*.

 

[gutter]

I notice the same. I think it is an inferior OTA module in the Motorola box.

 

[Gr8Reb8]

Component or DVI will pass 720p and 1080i. Composite/Svideo is 480i only.

Also, since the Voom STB will tune to DIGITAL channels only, when you have it set to native mode, you will most likely be sending 1080i and/or 720p to you TV (as long as you are using component or DVI).

 

[andrzej]

Component or DVI will pass 720p and 1080i. Composite/Svideo is 480i only.

Also, since the Voom STB will tune to DIGITAL channels only, when you have it set to native mode, you will most likely be sending 1080i and/or 720p to you TV (as long as you are using component or DVI).

All true but I am not sure what you are saying in response to my post.

 

[Gr8Reb8]

Better? Sorry about that.

Also, I no longer see much difference between my D* HD receiver and the Voom receiver when watching local OTA HD channels. It was pretty much fixed with the last software download (version 6.10).

 

[niteshade009]

Actually, I didn't let the installer touch anything inside the house. Nobody touches my setup but me The box is connected through component video and fixed at 1080i. I am sure of this because my tv will not allow me to change stretch modes at 1080i. Its locked at full. I did A/B comparisons of the Motorola Voom box and the Moto cable box (which I don't have anymore). Discovery HD theater AND my locals looked sharper over cable no matter how much tweaking I did on my tv settings. Its not a night and day difference and not really enough to make me mad but just an observation. I'd like to see an improvement soon though. The SD channels are much better than the over compressed cable though.

 

[Ilya]

Try DVI connection if your TV set supports it. It looks much sharper than component.

 

[voomvoom]

What I find strange on my MITS... is it will upconvert 720p to it's 1080i resolution with the antenna and built in ATSC tuner, but won't upconvert 720p from the STB from OTA or satellite... of course at present their's nothing on the satellite side in 720p (Voom sends it all in 1080i) I think... also I can get 9 HD channels from my C-Band system, but they're all 1080i... makes me wonder if my DTV input on my MITS will recognize 720p or if the problem exist in the Voom STB...

 

[Ilya]

makes me wonder if my DTV input on my MITS will recognize 720p or if the problem exist in the Voom STB...

It should be mentioned in the manual. What's the model number of your Mits?

 

[niteshade009]

I wish I could try DVI but I dont have one. My tv is a Toshiba 57HX81. 2 component inputs only.

 

[voomvoom]

It should be mentioned in the manual. What's the model number of your Mits?

Ilya, it's a WS-73711

 

[voomvoom]

It should be mentioned in the manual. What's the model number of your Mits?

Ilya... I just looked in the manual and it says combatible DTV signals are SDTV 480i, 480p and HDTV 1080i. All other DTV signals, such as 720p, need to be converted by the DTV reciever to one of the compatible signal types... Thanks, I would not have looked without your suggestion...