The VOOM Countdown has started 23 days 'til 2/29/04

[Sean Mota]

The VOOM Countdown has started 14 days 'til 2/1/04

The Voom clock started ticking. January should be an excited month for VOOM.

Look for the following HD channels to be added to their lineup. In the following order...

1 - 201 HBO HD East & 202 HBO HD West

2- 221 Cinemax HD East & 222 Cinemax HD West

3- 501 Bravo HD+

4- 281 InHD & 282 InHD 2

5- 321 NBA-TV HD
6- 301 ESPN HD


We know that Playboy is under contract so we should get that very soon; I assume even before the others. Will it be on channel 701? that remains to be seen.

701 Adult PPV HD

Newsbytes really goes lives: no more weather maps. News/highlights all in HD.

Suprise channels? ---> HDnet and HDnet Movies

SD channels: a bunch of them. I do not want to go into details.

A new software release: should take care of most problems and give us the flexibility of manually scan for digital channels.

Surprise Hardware:

1- PVR recorder. Wouldn't that be something?
2- Firewire upgrade?
3- Multi-server PVR unit?

Finally, CES on January 8th will give us some light to what's coming. It is all good and we'll see what happens this month.

 

[Kickor]

Actually, if you look at the Voom site under "compare" ... it says that the 39 HD channels will be as of 2/2/04. I hope this doesn't mean they all will appear on the 1st.

 

[Wally]

Well, when a CSR called last night to "survey" me, I gove them my feedback about Cinema 10, HBO etc. ... and this guy says yeah, there are negotiations going on about HBO and we hope to have that up in March or so. I though WHAT?! What happened to Feb.?
I'm just gonna think he was uninformed, and 2/2 will still stand. Besides it sounds like that conflicts directly with what some CSRs have told others.

 

[Sean Mota]

TNT just announced that they are going HD in May 2004. Is VOOM going to go after it? TNT will have the rights to televise the NBA All Star game in HD as well as playoff games in HD. I am salivating as I am writing about all these channels going--voom, HD.

TNT-HD launching in May 2004

I WANT MY TNT-HD in May--

 

[Acerone]

Another channel in HD Now let's just hope Voom picks it up.

 

[dcbag]

Seeing is believing, and I have yet to see. Time will tell. I still have my doubts.

 

[Sean Mota]

If TNT-HD is just a mirror image of TNT-SD, Voom should try to just get TNT-HD and not the SD version. It sounds like a good idea but the Turner Broadcasting might have another idea in plan.


BWT, it's very quiet in VOOM country lately...CES starts tomorrow and there will be announcements flying out the door... Let's hope we get all good news between tomorrow and Monday (the 15th! like I did not know about that date!)

 

[Sean Mota]

CES 2004 has come and gone. From the various reports (thanks to Tim and Don), we can see that in the programming phase we may see new additions soon. Maybe the 1/15 date will hold and by Thursday we will be watching additional channels (hopefully, there will be surprised channels that we do not know about).

In the hardware front, some dissapointment as a lot was revealed but at the same time it will not be for the short term but for the long term (summer 2004). Those of us with two providers (E* or D* or cable) will be faced with decisions. Do I go and purchase a 921 because it is available now and I can record the HD stream? Do I go and buy a Direct HD Tivo? Cable is offering me an HD DVR solution? All of these will be available before summer 2004. VOOM offers a lot of HD content but there is no way to record the HD stream for later viewing or archiving through firewire. The 921 will offer both of these before the Summer. HD Tivo will offer only one of those. Again decisions, decisions.

 

[jabroni]

Wow, is Voom really going to be able to make this all happen over the next three weeks? I am looking to install VOOM in May and I really want to be able to drop all the premium and HD channels from Direct.

I think what will be the deciding factor for me is ESPN HD. They are really picking up the pace with their HD offerings and also, Sportscenter will be HD soon. If VOOM can't get them, I will have to retain Direct's HD package.

 

[Sean Mota]

Hey,

I was just watched the Charlie Chat on E* with other E* subscribers. E* does not have HD plans in the immediate future. Charlies response as to why E* does not add Cinemax-HD or Starz-HD. He said that there is not enough HD content on these channels to add them to E*. At leas this time he recognized that the channels do exist; So, why am I posting here at the VOOM forum, because at least in VOOM there is hope to see these channels by 2/1/04. That is Cinemax-HD because we already have Starz-HD and hopefully more. So for at least the immediate future E* or D* are not planning to have these channels.

 

[Sean Mota]

Will we be happy tomorrow with a smile form ear to ear or just another CSR false alarm? We sure sound desperate but VOOM will do the right thing and we will have the HD channels by 2/1/04. How many of them will be added? All of them? a few and another extension? It remains to be seen.
Now if the 39 channels are not added by 2/1/04, VOOM must give us another extension in order to evaluate the whole package.

 

[Acerone]

Why would we be happy? What did the CSR say?

 

[Sean Mota]

Two different CSRs said that we should see a bunch of HD channels added either the 1s or the 15th of January. The 1st is gone and nothing! now the 15th is tomorrow and so far nada! So the next question will these be added between now and the 2/1/04 or all of them will be added on 2/1/04 or an extension is given.

 

[Sean Mota]

1/15 is upon us and no new channels.

 

[jabroni]

Wow, only two work weeks left and I am still hanging in the balance. What to do, what to do?

Will Voom offer their PVR this summer as an upgrade or will we have to pay full price? I really, really like the concept of their HD PVR as it beats the pants off the competition.

Come on Voom, give me HBO and Showtime so I can make the switch!

 

[rudolpht]

See CES report. DVR this summer (hopefully). Voom working on an upgrade policy.

Tim

 

[Sean Mota]

15! days to go... and With all that is happening today -- new VOOM initiation fee, Sears no longer exclusive dealer (read about tweeter), I will not be surprised to see some new channels added today or this weekend. I am not saying that it will happen but let's hope that it is. I believe some channels are already under contract and they are already being uplink for transmittion. Get ready, VOOM will deliver...

 

[jabroni]

Sean - What is "Tweeter"? I live in Ohio and have never heard of them.

 

[Sean Mota]

Sean - What is "Tweeter"? I live in Ohio and have never heard of them.

http://www.tweeter.com/home/index.jsp

is a chain of Electronic store. They do not have as many stores as Sears does (at least in NY where I live) but when it comes to High End Tvs, their csr are more knowledgeable (I am sure you find somebody that will tell you that's not true). They also have big contracts with Samsung and Sony and others electronic manufacturers and usually get the first shipment of consumer electronics (the case with the new Samsung DLP models last year). They are big and very sophisticated and their price is reasonable. So I think this is a good move for VOOM. I am sure that they will find other avenues of selling VOOM as well.

 

[rudolpht]

Tweeter is a higher quality electronics vendor. Trained staff and actually good prices. Much closer to the Voom target demographic, and less likely to reflect poorly on Voom based on incompetence.