Sorry to say but I won't be Vooming anymore! (Edit: Totally Back)

[Lobstah]

The other thing about interference in our "world" is that we're dealing with digital signals, which is quite a bit different from analog in that it's much more of an 'on/off' situation. Yes, with interference, you get pixelation as the signal degrades past a certain point, but until then, you get a solid image. It doesn't vary from day to day. As long as you're above the magic signal quality level, it's always the same quality in terms of signal reception. It's either there, or it's not.

Lob

 

[Cliff]

Voom is in its infancy state and still cutting teeth, I think in six months they will have things in place that will force the other companies to rethink their way of doing business. Look how long their competition has been on-line and they still have somewhat buggy equipment even today. Va-Va Voom!!!

 

[vurbano]

The other thing about interference in our "world" is that we're dealing with digital signals, which is quite a bit different from analog in that it's much more of an 'on/off' situation. Yes, with interference, you get pixelation as the signal degrades past a certain point, but until then, you get a solid image. It doesn't vary from day to day. As long as you're above the magic signal quality level, it's always the same quality in terms of signal reception. It's either there, or it's not.

Lob

exactly right. Thats why it OTA is a perfect compliment for satellite HD company like voom. D* locals over sat? ugh , awful. I once complained over the phone that they were analog!! LMAO, but it was just a really bad compressed sat signal.

Id hold on to that antenna tighter than charlton Heston and his gun. Its the only thing you really have to compare how badly your provider is compressing things

 

[spudseq]

I will stay with voom for now.

 

[eschu97611]

Everyone should go to grandmas house and watch a couple hours of standard cable. Then come home and take another look? I saw some degredation early sunday evening, then the picture looked pretty good on HBO from 8-11pm. Im not ready to join the hysteria just yet. I never saw "micro stuttering", I saw isolated drop outs, isloated instances of pixelation, but I saw more of that on Directv. Thats why I came here!!!!!!!!!!!!! That and the measely offerings and the future plans to waste the new 7s on more local in local. D* says :"we are gonna double HD?" OK, 6x2=12. Adding starz HD and other pay paks along with Fox pretty much does it. Big deal. Sorry but I get all of that now.

What will Mpeg4 do for voom? Is any other reciever even capable of using that compression scheme? But the reciever is junk? I think it will enable voom to add some channels a ton of them or add a lesser amount of channels and turn the bandwidth back up. I think I will wait and see. No provider except your local OTA providers uses no compression. It is simply a matter of finding the right balance. And I think that is what voom is going through.

My guess is even if I went back to D*, id tire of going through the 6 channels in a couple of months , time enough to get tired of the reruns on discoveryhd and the insulting stretch and upconvert of espnhd.

Someone please prove to me that D* has reduced the amount of compression that they were using a month ago!! Not these constant statements that life is fine in D* land. Ive had life in D* land and all is not rosy. Infact they recently moved HD channels around and some have been having problems with it on AVS forum.

No problems here Vurbano

 

[GeneWildershair]

Hehe, Sean, I made those posts here first and then copied them over to AVS, my home court...

I only use my real name there...



I didn't get any pixelization last night on that movie, but I could have missed it since I was preoccupied with other things. If you are having a lot of pixelization problems, you might be having reception problems or your receiver is otherwise not getting a sufficient signal to lock onto the picure all the time (trees partially blocking your line of site, dish slightly off target, defective receiver, etc.).

What I found was that the sharp image and vibrant colors had returned last night, and that is why I posted this:



I haven't had a chance to watch anything yet today, but you can be sure I will be watching intently tonight to see if things get better, get worse, or stay the same.

No my signals are great. A very steady 96 quality, and 76 power. Nothing was wrong with my set up either. The pixelation wasn't horrendous. Don't get me wrong, but there were some issues when movement was fast on screen, such as the examples I gave. I am just simply saying that I saw some problems. They were'nt as major as say SHowtime HD west problems, but they were evident if you really look.

 

[GeneWildershair]

Everyone should go to grandmas house and watch a couple hours of standard cable. Then come home and take another look? I saw some degredation early sunday evening, then the picture looked pretty good on HBO from 8-11pm. Im not ready to join the hysteria just yet. I never saw "micro stuttering", I saw isolated drop outs, isloated instances of pixelation, but I saw more of that on Directv. Thats why I came here!!!!!!!!!!!!! That and the measely offerings and the future plans to waste the new 7s on more local in local. D* says :"we are gonna double HD?" OK, 6x2=12. Adding starz HD and other pay paks along with Fox pretty much does it. Big deal. Sorry but I get all of that now.

What will Mpeg4 do for voom? Is any other reciever even capable of using that compression scheme? But the reciever is junk? I think it will enable voom to add some channels a ton of them or add a lesser amount of channels and turn the bandwidth back up. I think I will wait and see. No provider except your local OTA providers uses no compression. It is simply a matter of finding the right balance. And I think that is what voom is going through.

My guess is even if I went back to D*, id tire of going through the 6 channels in a couple of months , time enough to get tired of the reruns on discoveryhd and the insulting stretch and upconvert of espnhd.

Someone please prove to me that D* has reduced the amount of compression that they were using a month ago!! Not these constant statements that life is fine in D* land. Ive had life in D* land and all is not rosy. Infact they recently moved HD channels around and some have been having problems with it on AVS forum.

D*'s HD is far from perfect, but it looks better than VOOM's right now. D* may still have the same amount of compression it had a month ago, but the difference I am seeing may be VOOM's compression getting worse. Look, Vurbano, some folks may see exactly what I see with VOOM, but don't really care about it as much as I do. I report it often, because I really want good quality in my picture, (what I used to get thru VOOM btw). That's all. I don't want to start any flame wars here, we *all* are here for the HD, and that's why I really like VOOM, they have the most HD available, and despite what most folks say about the content, I still enjoy a lot of it. But at the same time I'm just really not happy with them, because they have changed the pq.

 

[eschu97611]

D*'s HD is far from perfect, but it looks better than VOOM's right now. D* may still have the same amount of compression it had a month ago, but the difference I am seeing may be VOOM's compression getting worse. Look, Vurbano, some folks may see exactly what I see with VOOM, but don't really care about it as much as I do. I report it often, because I really want good quality in my picture, (what I used to get thru VOOM btw). That's all. I don't want to start any flame wars here, we *all* are here for the HD, and that's why I really like VOOM, they have the HD available, and despite what most folks say about the content, I still enjoy a lot of it. But at the same time I'm just really not happy with them, because they have changed the pq.

Totally agree Jay-D* does display pq issues once in a while-but certainly not common at all-we all just would like Voom to get back to the pq it once had, that's all, plain and simple. For those happy with the pq-Wilt has already admitted that the pq issue will be looked into-obviously there IS the potential that the pq has degraded-what's wrong with, as Wilt said, "looking into it" instead of discounting those who complain as "whiners" as has been done on this and other forums.

 

[Carbo]

What should be done is that someone like Voom should work it into their contracts that they don't need to broadcast the standard Def channels they carry in HD. For D*, E* and Cable they have to but Voom only has one box and they don't need to waste bandwidth on channels like HBO East SD.

 

[mdanderson]

I've only been with Voom for a few days nows but overall I am pleased with the picture quality of the HD and SD channels as well as the OTA ones. Channel 27( local indep station) is the only OTA channel I can't get a signal on. Customer service has also been very good whenever I have called-very helpfull.

 

[Vaggeto]

I am not fed up per se, I just don't think the $40 a month charge is worth it considering I only watch one channel.

I don't need the SD Channels which they are forcing us to take.

I am not leaving VOOM yet. But After another month VOOM has some serious decissions to make and they need to make some imediate changes or I could be gone as well.

You can be sure (well at least hopefull) that tommorow there will be a huge meeting about this. If you look here at SatelliteGuys or the VOOM group everyone is upset, and VOOM is not saying a thing.

I would like to see VOOM succeed, but they need to do some major fixes now before its too late.

I'm in the same boat as you.

I only watch RaveHD and RushHD. Occasionally the Monsters HD channel, and very rarely the Cinema 10s. The rest is a waste IMO, including Bravo. I already get Discovery HD, HBOHD and SHO-HD on D*.

They will need to give me the free Starz pack they offered me when I signed up (the whole mess has been escalated countless times, and they say they will call back, but never have), and add InHD or I'm cancelling very soon.

The main reason is the simple fact that now that we have an easy way to switch between D* and V*... we still watch D* at least 95% of the time.

 

[JWK]

What should be done is that someone like Voom should work it into their contracts that they don't need to broadcast the standard Def channels they carry in HD. For D*, E* and Cable they have to but Voom only has one box and they don't need to waste bandwidth on channels like HBO East SD.

That's a great idea -- and I'd love to see Voom do it (although it's probably too late right now, since I'm sure all those contracts in question will be in force for a while).

We're here for the high def. I understand Voom needs to carry most of the regular cable channels since each one has adherents (who wouldn't be willing to switch to Voom without it) However, I don't think there are really all *that* many die-hard deal-breaker fans of HBO2W, say.

 

[vurbano]

Can you spell Cinema5? Hello VOOM?

 

[vurbano]

That's a great idea -- and I'd love to see Voom do it (although it's probably too late right now, since I'm sure all those contracts in question will be in force for a while).

We're here for the high def. I understand Voom needs to carry most of the regular cable channels since each one has adherents (who wouldn't be willing to switch to Voom without it) However, I don't think there are really all *that* many die-hard deal-breaker fans of HBO2W, say.

that is a great idea, I dont even check whats on, on those channels. But I bet their contracts require them to carry everything. Just as ESPN's will require them to carry some worthless channels, IMHO. no offense classic sports fans, latin fans etc.

 

[PBHDinSD]

considering the Drop

Right now I am considering dropping Voom.
Main reasons
- HD sports. I am a hockey and fan I want HD playoff Hockey (The lack of ESPN is really hurting)
- I can not get Local ABC and CBS OTA, I may get them with a monster antenna. I just don't where the hell I am going to put it.

My Main reasons to stay
- I may not have a choice since my southern sky exposure is limited

Does anyone know how many degrees elevation I need for Directv or dish? I am in San Diego.

 

[DarrellP]

Go here and download the azimuth calculator.

 

[Ilya]

- HD sports. I am a hockey and fan I want HD playoff Hockey (The lack of ESPN is really hurting)
- I can not get Local ABC and CBS OTA, I may get them with a monster antenna. I just don't where the hell I am going to put it.

ESPN should be coming soon, as for antenna, VOOM will pay $60 or more toward the upgrade. Go to www.antennaweb.org and enter your address to see what kind of antenna you might need and in which direction it should be pointing to.

 

[Dan Berndt]

I've been a strong supporter of VOOM. I have to say I did some real soul searching after Sean announced he was bailing on VOOM. I finally have come to the conclusion that I just can't beat VOOM.

I joined up in December but, except for the initial $1000 I paid for my two receivers, I havn't paid a dime since. I was willing to kick loyalty for services render out the window and get my $1000 if a better offer came along. But even looking only forward I can't see any cost benefit in leaving.

VOOM is giving me $300 back on my initial payment so, with the basic VOOM package, I'm still not going to be paying anything until NEXT December. Since I'm a charter member I'm getting Starz for free (with THREE HD channels that no one else offers) which I'm putting a value of $150 on. Then I've got 18 months of my VOOM service contract left that I'm putting a value of another $150 on. That leaves about $400 that I'm going to be paying for my two receiver VOOM service.

If I go back to DirecTV I will have to pay at least $200 for a new HD receiver since I bought a second HDTV when I went to VOOM. Then I'm going to pay for the minimum HD package (which I'm placing a value of $100 on comparable to how long I keep the Starz package) in addition to the basic package. So I would only be coming out ahead by maybe $100 which is hardly worth the trouble of changing over (Plus I can sell my old DirecTV for about $250+ bring me out ahead with VOOM).

Cable is a joke. I'd have to pay $45 per month for 100 analog channels (YUK!) then $12/mo for two digital receivers then another $15 for the minimum HD package. VOOM gives me a payback on these prices in a little over a year and with the sell of my DirecTV equipment that payback erodes to only a couple of months.

So cost wise I can see no benefit in leaving VOOM. As much as I would like some improvements in VOOM today, I'm sure I would greatly miss VOOM if I left. And there is plenty of very clearly defined changes coming in the future of VOOM that keep my interest peaked.

With the MPEG-4 upgrade planned for next year we could get as many as twice the channels we currently have. And with the DVR technology VOOM is pursuing (to come out later this year) I'm only going to have to buy one DVR for my two HDTVs instead of two like all the other service providers would want me to do. I know of no other service provider that has been as forthcoming with their future plans as VOOM has.

I'm going to stay with VOOM for now. My decision is based on my conditions and I understand that everyones conditions differ. I hope VOOM will not make me regret my decision as I hope none of you regret your decisions.

Dan B.

 

[PBHDinSD]

Thanks for the Info.

D* says the elevation is 48 degrees. I believe I am go to go If I need to switch. I understand about the $60 for the antenna. I already had an installer out to do it but he brought a cheasy antenna with him that did not work. They really screwed up because for the first appointment for a new OTA Antennna the installer never showed. I wasted .5 of vacation day for it.

These OTA antennas are not small. I am going to need a good size mast.

Also the installer combined my cables so i guess I am losing signal strength on the channels I do get.

I have not switch yet I am just considering. I give it a few. ESPN news would be great.

 

[vurbano]

Thanks for the Info.

D* says the elevation is 48 degrees. I believe I am go to go If I need to switch. I understand about the $60 for the antenna. I already had an installer out to do it but he brought a cheasy antenna with him that did not work. They really screwed up because for the first appointment for a new OTA Antennna the installer never showed. I wasted .5 of vacation day for it.

These OTA antennas are not small. I am going to need a good size mast.

Also the installer combined my cables so i guess I am losing signal strength on the channels I do get.

I have not switch yet I am just considering. I give it a few. ESPN news would be great.

D* locals will not hold a candle to your OTA locals which will be HD in primetime. D's wont. They dont look much better than analog. Even if you choose D* I would advise to go ahead with the antenna. With D* it doubles the HD. CBS, NBC, ABC, PBS, UPN,WB,(FOX sort of )all do HD and all look spectacular in SD OTA. (if your local affiliate is up to snuff)