Take a Photo Tour of the Voom Facility

[DarrellP]

Marty, any word on when the 'sparklies' will be fixed? That's my only gripe with SD PQ right now (aside from the few channels that look bad). For the most part, your SD channels look great. I use a projector on a 110" screen and I could not even watch Dish SD because the image was so fuzzy. Your's are actually sharp and have good picture detail.

Is there any reason why channels like BET & Travel are compressed so bad?

 

[marty2112]

Marty, any word on when the 'sparklies' will be fixed? That's my only gripe with SD PQ right now (aside from the few channels that look bad). For the most part, your SD channels look great. I use a projector on a 110" screen and I could not even watch Dish SD because the image was so fuzzy. Your's are actually sharp and have good picture detail.

Is there any reason why channels like BET & Travel are compressed so bad?

We are still playing with the optimum settings to get every channel looking great! Sometimes however, if the source is bad (i.e.: BET) then it will look bad on VOOM.

 

[DarrellP]

Thanks Marty. The Travel channel was one of the better looking channels on Dish, that's why I'm surprised that it looks so fuzzy on Voom.

 

[rang1995]

Marty: any idea on what is causing the split second Black screen on say HBO 1-2 times an hour(i do not have a DLP 720 or DVI cable) and many others have seen this ..is it HBO or a Voom problem
also the Infamous studders" which we all guess is the STB becaise it happens on SAT channels as well as OTA..(has gotten better since it's worse days)...thanks much

 

[marty2112]

Marty: any idea on what is causing the split second Black screen on say HBO 1-2 times an hour(i do not have a DLP 720 or DVI cable) and many others have seen this ..is it HBO or a Voom problem
also the Infamous studders" which we all guess is the STB becaise it happens on SAT channels as well as OTA..(has gotten better since it's worse days)...thanks much

We havent seen this at the uplink. Doesnt mean it doesnt exsist. I will have the folks here keep and extra eyeball on it. Thanks.

 

[Ilya]

marty2112, thank you for posting your comments. Nice to be able to talk directly to people who make it happen!

Here are some sound-related questions. Does the TOC monitor the sound quality as well? I noticed there is a significant difference in sound volume between different channels; there were also some sound noise/distortion problems lately on certain SD channels, including CNN; and as you probably know, HDN had sound problems from day one, though this might be beyond your control.

And a general question. What would be the quickest way to notify the TOC if we see a problem on one of the channels? Is there any way to bypass the Customer Support and shoot an email or send a page to the TOC directly? I understand, people there may not be able to reply to each call or email, but even a one-way communication would work.

 

[marty2112]

The only phone number we would give out it the VOOM number. As you can see, we monitor the forums, so that is a good method of communication. As for the audio, we don't adjust any audio levels coming in. If we hear a problem, we will call the source and have them look into it on their end. HDN had some problems and we worked with them to try to correct it. We monitor every single voom channel and it is hard to always catch when there is an audio problem. It takes a while to go through the entie box!

 

[Ilya]

We monitor every single voom channel and it is hard to always catch when there is an audio problem. It takes a while to go through the entie box!

And that's exactly why I think a quick wake-up email from one of us could be very helpful. Give it a thought. We have much more eyes and ears in the field, than you can possible have in your TOC

By the way, there was a severe sound distortion yesterday night on Rush and Auction channels, and a vertical colored line in the middle of the screen on various SD channels.

 

[bbtkd]

And that's exactly why I think a quick wake-up email from one of us could be very helpful. Give it a thought. We have much more eyes and ears in the field, than you can possible have in your TOC

By the way, there was a severe sound distortion yesterday night on Rush and Auction channels, and a vertical colored line in the middle of the screen on various SD channels.

Somebody clever with a web page could build us a page that allows us to fill in a channel and a symptom. It would append each entry to a log file which the TOC staff can watch when they can. We would fill in the time, or if time is left blank it would fill in the current time. That way we're not interrupting them, but there would be a decently accurate log of what problems happened when. Multiple reports of the same problem would perhaps alert them somehow. They could even use a web page to monitor the log - flagging multiple reports.

Another thought - I suspect that a significant number of problems that we encounter are due to signal strength issues. To help us get a handle on that, it would sure be nice if the main Voom menu page displayed the signal strength/quality of the current channel. That way when we experience problems, we can quickly determine signal strength without having to go through several menus and put up with the beeping. Signal strength would be another field we would fill in on the web page mentioned above. I think we'll be able to identify antenna issues more easily also - if I am suddenly getting low signal strength I may run outside to find birds sitting on the feed!

Just a few thoughts...