Voom Box Version V00.05.08. Bugs/Problems/Feature Request

[bestspartan]

Here's a couple other feature requests:

-working programing timer to coordinate with my DVD recorder

- prev. channel buttom on remote

 

[JaydeeD]

prev. channel buttom on remote

The "Back" button works perfectly as a previous channel button for me

 

[Sean Mota]

The "Back" button works perfectly as a previous channel button for me

Does it work changing from an OTA channel to a non-OTA channel? mine has never worked doing this.

 

[rudolpht]

It never works OTA to Sat & vice versa & only arbitrarly works sat-sat.

 

[JaydeeD]

Sorry guys, I never noticed cause Voom never got around to installing MY OTA antenna, so I don't get any of those channels

 

[Ilya]

Bugs in Parental Control

I don't think this was reported before. Not in this thread, anyway:
There are several bugs in the Parental Control feature.

1. If an HD channel is locked and you navigate to it from an SD channel, after unlocking, the HD channel becomes squeezed to 4:3.

2. Digital sound output is not blocked on locked channels. Only analog sound output gets blocked.

3. Sometimes after unlocking a channel, the channel gets locked the moment you switch to another channel. Sometimes it stays unlocked.

The first two problems are easily reproduced. The third one only happens from time to time: I didn't have time to establish a pattern.

And for the wish-list: it would be nice to be able to unlock a channel (or all the channels) for a specified number of hours. Something that many STBs can do.

 

[Brent]

Voom first impressions / receiver technical manual?

New member, glad to find some Voomers!
Got connected last Tuesday, it's great to put my DLP set to use. I was an early DirecTV adopter also, but I have to say Voom is a little rough around the edges. My 7 year old Sony receiver with it's original firmware is still ahead of the Voom unit with respect to intuative menu functions and channel surfing capabilities. I am hoping this will be updated soon. This is a disapointment for me because I really expected a "best of breed" receiver with all of the lessons learned on the DirecTV and Dish network units out there. I will also miss my RF remote, as we redistribute the RF output from the reciever though out the house and just drag the remote to the other room.

Here's a few issues I've noticed so far,
-If I use the back function on my remote when in the channel menu, it takes my receiver all the way back to the top level menu.
-The page button does not always page forward, sometimes it even pages back wards.
-The small picture that appears at top right in the menu screen, is usually out of sync (black bar in center, picture split in half), especially if it is a SD picture. I have not seen this happen from a HD source.

Is there a technical manual available for this reciever? The literature that comes with it, well... sucks!

Overall, I didn't expect the moon and I didn't get it. I was really sitting on the fence about keeping the unit, but with the newly added channels and the $300 credit on future programming I will most likely keep it now.
Brent

 

[Sean Mota]

Brent,

Welcome to the board. I know what you mean about the above. We have documented a lot of it and I will add your observations to the list. See this thread: http://www.satelliteguys.us/showthread.php?t=2466

This box is a first generation box with a lot of bugs. There is supposed a new software download that will resolve a lot of these problems. Wilt said to expect it next week.

 

[Ilya]

I have to say Voom is a little rough around the edges.

Yes, it's a new company and a new product.

This is a disappointment for me because I really expected a "best of breed" receiver with all of the lessons learned on the DirecTV and Dish network units out there.

That would be good, but unfortunately people usually learn on their own mistakes The good news is that most of the problems are software related, and there is a hope that they will be fixed eventually.

I will also miss my RF remote

VOOM's STB has a port for RF remote, so this can be expected in the future.

Here's a few issues I've noticed so far,
-If I use the back function on my remote when in the channel menu, it takes my receiver all the way back to the top level menu.

Yes, the BACK button behaves strangely sometimes. This should be fixed in the future software updates.

-The page button does not always page forward, sometimes it even pages back wards.

"Page" button actually works in two directions: you can press it up or down (I too had problems with this button, until I've figured this out)

-The small picture that appears at top right in the menu screen, is usually out of sync (black bar in center, picture split in half), especially if it is a SD picture. I have not seen this happen from a HD source.

This is strange. Certainly not normal. What type of connection are you using (component or DVI)? Does it happen all the time? On all SD channels? Try rebooting your STB and also switching the output resolution.

 

[tlrowley]

I'm having a problem on HDNews - I'm missing the top couple of inches on the screen. This is especially noticeable on the weather screens - the top of the text is actually cut off. I truly don't remember this happening before (Voom was installed 29th of Dec) - perhaps it started with the change from weather only to full news.

I've seen others complaining about this, so I know it's not just me.

Any ideas?

Thanks
Tracey

 

[Sean Mota]

I'm having a problem on HDNews - I'm missing the top couple of inches on the screen. This is especially noticeable on the weather screens - the top of the text is actually cut off. I truly don't remember this happening before (Voom was installed 29th of Dec) - perhaps it started with the change from weather only to full news.

I've seen others complaining about this, so I know it's not just me.

Any ideas?

Thanks
Tracey

Can you provide a picture of it? I noticed that the bottom of my screen in GWII is not completely filled. I do not know if it's overscanning the top. I also have to check my DLP as well.

 

[tlrowley]

Can you provide a picture of it? I noticed that the bottom of my screen in GWII is not completely filled. I do not know if it's overscanning the top. I also have to check my DLP as well.

Sean - hard for me to get a picture, I'll see if DH can do it when he comes home tonight.

I'm seeing the same problem on the score-bug on World Sport - the Sochaux/InterMilan game.

I'm having a hard job believing that it's overscan on my TV (70" XBR) Judging from what appears in the sub-window on the VOOM screen we're talking 2 or 3 inches missing here!

 

[Sean Mota]

So is it cutting off the timer on top of the scoreboard on the game.

 

[tlrowley]

Yep - sorry I wasn't more clear.

BTW, Sean - thanks sooo much for getting me hooked on yet another sport - just what I needed [/end sarcasm] Oh well, at least it's pretty!

Tracey

 

[Sean Mota]

Yep - sorry I wasn't more clear.

BTW, Sean - thanks sooo much for getting me hooked on yet another sport - just what I needed [/end sarcasm] Oh well, at least it's pretty!

Tracey

Did you ever calibrate your Sony GW 70". Is it the GWII or a GWIII? Did you have a computer connected through DVI before? The only reason I am saying this is because I had a pc connected and in order to see the desktop I had to reduce the overscan to see the computer screen. I disconnected the pc and put back the original settings on input 7 (DVI) and it was overscanning. I had to go to the service menu and adjust vertical image. Have you ever gone inside the service menu? not the user menu.

 

[tlrowley]

I'm not using DVI (have a pc on that input) - I'm using component. We have tweaked the service menu - but only for video 7 so the desktop displays correctly.

I've seen others complain about this (maybe on the Yahoo group) and they had different tvs.

Tracey

 

[Sean Mota]

I think it is our sony that it is overscanning. I just went to my samsung dlp and the overscanning is not there. Yet on my sony I can see a little bit of the bottom of the screen not filling the screen.

On another note. You know that when you tweak video 5-7 on the sony GWII the vertical and horizontal alignments are not independent of each other for each input. That is whatever changes are made on video 7, it will affect video 5 and 6.

 

[tlrowley]

Wow, Sean - that's not what I thought, obviously. I tried searching on avsforum and couldn't find anything right on target with what I wanted.

Do you know for sure if that's the case with the GWIII XBR's?

I appreciate all your help,

Tracey

 

[Sean Mota]

Wow, Sean - that's not what I thought, obviously. I tried searching on avsforum and couldn't find anything right on target with what I wanted.

Do you know for sure if that's the case with the GWIII XBR's?

I appreciate all your help,

Tracey

I know it is a fact with the GWII XBR's. I do not know about the GWIII XBR's. I worked with UMR on the GWII XBR's and did a lot of the final resolution to use with the GWII and a PC. Ask UMR if it's the case. I have not kept in touch with the GWIII XBR's but from what I know there's not much difference between the two.

 

[Ilya]

Bugs(s) in satellite channel mapping

I've found another bug (or two) in the satellite channel mapping. Here are the steps to reproduce the problem:

1. Tune to one of the following channels: 204, 206, 226, 229, 261, or 262 (any channel with 1309.375 frequency).
2. Using the usual "9-8-8" trick, get to the hidden menu (where you do factory resets).
3. Select the first menu item "manual tuning."
(For a moment you will see "Left_Horiz" polarity selected, and then the check-mark will jump to "Right_Ve". I believe this is a bug itself: It looks like most of the VOOM's channels are set to "Right_Ve" polarity, except for these select channels, which are set to "Left_Horiz" polarity, but the program doesn't show that.)
4. Without changing anything, highlight the "Tune" button and press "OK". A wrong channel will be shown! For example, channel 261 may show HDN, channel 206 may show Discovery, etc.
5. To restore the proper channel mapping, select "Left_Horiz" and then "Tune" again. Also, if you change the channel with your remote, it may restore itself.

Some people reported their STBs showing BravoHD or HDN on channel 261. And voom_csr from Yahoo Groups mentioned that this could be caused by channel polarity. I think this might be right! If you are still experiencing this problem, try changing the channel polarity, as described above.