Signal Increase This Weekend??

[fireman1000]

I spoke with a Voom CSR yesterday and told them how I lose my signal in southern TN with only light drizzle for hours at a time and how an installer has come out twice and says this is a voom problem. The CSR informed me that Voom will be increasing their signal strength this coming weekend and that I should see a noticeable improvement after that. I also asked about a larger dish and he verified that they are testing a few 30" dishes at the moment but that I couldn't get one for now. Can anyone confirm the news on the signal increase???

Thanks--fireman1000

 

[DIGITAL~DAN]

If this is true that would be great for everyone I hope you are right .I have herd nothing about the increase in siginal but they really need to do something.

 

[Ken F]

I hope they aren't reducing the FEC (error correction) ratio. That will mean more compression (picture degradation) on existing channels.

As noted in other threads, you can buy a 24" or 30" dish for about $30 + shipping that will largely eliminate the rainfade issue. It takes three minutes to order and 30 minutes to install -- a lot less time-consuming than sitting on hold with Voom or waiting for an installer to show.

 

[DIGITAL~DAN]

Thats right ken by reducing the FEC(error correction) This means more compression on voom but they may have to do this to accomadate the upcomming espn,espn2,espn classics,espn news,and ESPNHD that are subject to be added very soon.I really dont think it will be very noticeable looking at it in a enginering point of view but,we shall see.If they do this I think it will really help the "raidfade" that many people are getting.I think most people would give a little quality to gain a more reliable siginal until they are ready for mpeg4 later this year...............DIGITAL~DAN

 

[GeneWildershair]

If they start compressing more channels just to fit ESPN HD, and reduce the FEC, I'm out. Sorry, but there is more pixelation on the premium movie channels ever since they brought EncoreHD, and PLayboyHD. It's getting ugly folks, and if it gets any uglier, I'm gonna have to cancel. this sucks, because I really want to keep all this HD, but if it's watered down HD, what's the point?

 

[Vince2]

I can confirm the 30" dish testing. They are installing one at my house next week. I don't think it is necessary now that I temporarily fixed my 21"er, but they want to test it out. The customer service at Voom, particularly at corporate, is some of the best I've ever seen. Now if they could just get Installs Inc. up to par......

 

[wbuffetta]

At Least As For All The HD Channels That V* & D* Have In Common, I See No PQ Difference. In Fact V* Might Be A Little Better.

 

[Ken F]

Dan,

I really dont think it will be very noticeable looking at it in a enginering point of view but,we shall see.If they do this I think it will really help the "raidfade" that many people are getting.I think most people would give a little quality to gain a more reliable siginal until they are ready for mpeg4 later this year

Won't be very noticeable? They are using 5/6 FEC right now, which gives them ~50.6Mbps usable, minus some overhead. The next highest setting supported by their Motorola receiver is 3/4, which would give them 45.6Mbps. That's a reduction in bandwidth by over 10%. The SD is already overcompressed as it is, and some of the HD signals are borderline.

I already fixed my rainfade issue with a larger dish that cost me $30. If they are going to reduce HD picture quality further, which is why I left DirecTV in the first place, then I might as well go back to Comcast. As Gene notes, there are more quality issues with the premium movie channels since the recent additions, and if they have to compress everything another 10%, plus make room for ESPN-HD and the four ESPN SD channels, there is going to be a big hit in quality.

 

[GeneWildershair]

Dan,


Won't be very noticeable? They are using 5/6 FEC right now, which gives them ~50.6Mbps usable, minus some overhead. The next highest setting supported by their Motorola receiver is 3/4, which would give them 45.6Mbps. That's a reduction in bandwidth by over 10%. The SD is already overcompressed as it is, and some of the HD signals are borderline.

I already fixed my rainfade issue with a larger dish that cost me $30. If they are going to reduce HD picture quality further, which is why I left DirecTV in the first place, then I might as well go back to Comcast.

Ken, I still have D*, and got HBOHD up and running to comapre between VOOM's feed, and D*'s, and I have to say D*'s looks a bit more sharp with more detail, and without the stutter issue. And yes I have 2 different inputs calibrated for VOOM, and D*. It's not a huge difference, but it is noticable. When I first signed up with VOOM, before they added new channels, the HBO HD feed was every bit as good as D*'s.

 

[Fleance]

I just had one of the 30" dishes installed as part of my initial install yesterday. The installer said the numbers he was getting (69 signal strength) were the highest he has seen yet.

He said he almost didn't want to show me the dish as it is just so HUGE, but if it gives me better signal and I can't see it from the street anyway why not...

 

[SeattleVoomer1]

Jay, concerning pixelatin on premium movie channels...

although I can't say we're glued to watching these channels from our viewing we seem to be getting less pixelation than before the last software upgrade and the additon of Encore and Playboy doesn't seem to have had an impact either.

Watching HDTV under cloudy Seattle skies, Gill

 

[DarrellP]

Someone posted somewhere around here that Voom had allocated all of the channels that they were going to get on each transponder so they would not have to juggle things around and overcompress the signals. I don't really believe this because if this was true, all of the SD channels would look the same and the Travel channel and BET look awful right now, I can't even watch them on my projector. Other channels like TCM look fantastic, I wish all the SD looked that good.

 

[GeneWildershair]

Someone posted somewhere around here that Voom had allocated all of the channels that they were going to get on each transponder so they would not have to juggle things around and overcompress the signals. I don't really believe this because if this was true, all of the SD channels would look the same and the Travel channel and BET look awful right now, I can't even watch them on my projector. Other channels like TCM look fantastic, I wish all the SD looked that good.

yeah I really don't believe it either, Darrell. I am seeing a hit on HD too. I wasn't doing this much complaining when I firstg ot VOOM, and I was watching a lot of premium movie channels in HD, and never noticed all the pixelation that goes on now with fast movement. about the only thing I ever complained about was the stutter/frame skip issue, and that's about it.

 

[DIGITAL~DAN]

Ken F..... Have you ever thought that they were going to compress the sd channels more and leave the hd channels alone?They do have the capibility to do this I no because this has been used in the television ind. for years.I used to work with WRALTV5in raleigh,n.c..We were the first all digital tv station in the country and were granted the first experimental lincese to adapt the Hd signal.If you get a chance sometime stop by wral.com and see what we have to offer....................DIGITAL~DAN

 

[Ken F]

Digital Dan,

Have you ever thought that they were going to compress the sd channels more and leave the hd channels along?

I don't think there's much additional savings to be had unless they make them unwatchable. A few SD channels already border on unwatchable, but these aren't channels I watch.

 

[mike528]

Eliminate the duplicative channels?

This might be a dumb question, but if Voom needs to free up some bandwidth, could they eliminate the SD versions of premium channels that broadcast the same material as their HD counterpart? For example, there is no reason why I would watch a movie on HBO-East when the same thing is playing in HD on HBO-HD East. The same is true for Showtime, Cinemax, Movie Channel, Starz, and Encore. They would still need to keep HBO2, Showtime too, etc., which don't have HD counterparts, but eliminating the duplicative channels would free up some space. Or is there some reason why they have to keep the SD versions in place?

 

[pOiNTBLaNK]

I dont think this will happen just to be able to adapt to people that subcribe to VOOM without having HDTV's.

 

[DarrellP]

The whole point is, though, that you don't NEED a HDTV to view the HD channels since all outputs are live at the same time. I think this is a great idea but they may be required by the content providers to carry them.

 

[fayrich]

I agree with eliminating the duplicates. It's a pain in the butt when surfing.

 

[GeneWildershair]

This might be a dumb question, but if Voom needs to free up some bandwidth, could they eliminate the SD versions of premium channels that broadcast the same material as their HD counterpart? For example, there is no reason why I would watch a movie on HBO-East when the same thing is playing in HD on HBO-HD East. The same is true for Showtime, Cinemax, Movie Channel, Starz, and Encore. They would still need to keep HBO2, Showtime too, etc., which don't have HD counterparts, but eliminating the duplicative channels would free up some space. Or is there some reason why they have to keep the SD versions in place?

I read somewhere, where VOOM has to broadcast all the feeds, sd, and HD with the premium movie channels, as part of their deal with them. They won't be getting rid of those any time soon. I would love for them just to get rid of all of their SD content, to free up bandwith for HD personally.