Voom to disable OTA tuner in STB?

[gunn55]

I wonder if they will shut us down by zip codes or time zones.

 

[jbphoenix]

I wonder if they will shut us down by zip codes or time zones.

I understand that they will shut everyone down at once. The times listed are 3:00am Eastern which would be Midnight Pacific.

 

[mukaidaf]

good bye Voom. it was nice knowing ya. btw, OTA still working

 

[SeattleVoomer1]

Still have OTAs here in Seattle at 12:20 AM.

So, at least no immediate kill for OTAs. We'll have to see what the long term brings us.

Until then sort of enjoying OTAHD under clear (but rain promised tonight!) Seattle skies, Gill

 

[hberthia]

I was watching Majestic (Big Country) when the signal went off shortly after midnight here on the west coast. OTA is still working, thank goodness. Funny thing was several minutes after midnight, the signal came back on several of the voom 21 and I thought for a minute that maybe some of them would remain working. However, after about 4-5 minutes, they went dark again. I hope DirecTV picks up the voom channels as I would rather deal with them than Dish.

 

[DarrellP]

I unplugged my sat cable as soon as the signal went out and OTA is still working. I also called Dish right away and signed up for the Voom10 but there are no channels active yet.

 

[Stargazer]

There is no incentive for VoOm to shut off the HD OTA tuner at this point.

 

[CrazyINP]

Mine are go((
No more OTA

There is no incentive for VoOm to shut off the HD OTA tuner at this point.

 

[wittangamo]

Here's my question:

If the Voom STB still functions as an OTA tuner, can it scan and pickup locals in a different DMA than the one in which it was activated?

I have a friend who lives 60 miles from D.C. and could never reliably get anything OTA. He has a spare Voom box he'd give me, but I'm wondering if I could scan my Richmond, VA, locals? I don't care about guide info, but if it will work as a free tuner I'll drive the 100 miles to pick it up.

Anybody know for sure whether it will or won't work?

 

[riffjim4069]

Here's my question:

If the Voom STB still functions as an OTA tuner, can it scan and pickup locals in a different DMA than the one in which it was activated?

I have a friend who lives 60 miles from D.C. and could never reliably get anything OTA. He has a spare Voom box he'd give me, but I'm wondering if I could scan my Richmond, VA, locals? I don't care about guide info, but if it will work as a free tuner I'll drive the 100 miles to pick it up.

Anybody know for sure whether it will or won't work?

MY VOOM STBs were programmed for the DC DMA, however I pickup scanned channels from Richmond, Charlottesville and Baltimore (Norfolk and Raleigh under the right troposheric conditions). Just as long as the receiver wasn't de-authorized then I don't see why it wouldn't still be working. Some have suggested a hidden "time bomb" would deactivate OTA function in the VOOM receiver. I don't see VOOM doing this, but only time will tell. As of right now, the OTA function is still working but I have already powered off and stacked of two of my receivers since my HDTVs already have QAM/8-VSB. I will miss how seamlessly the VOOM PG integrated OTA. Ugh!

 

[lilyarbie]

I don't think they'll shut them off.......

If they wanted to shut them down, I think they would have immediately killed all the boxes out there prior to shutdown. Since Rainbow-1 is now broadcast in encrypted DVB instead of encrypted Digicypher 2, our receivers no longer see a signal from that satellite (just check your signal quality meter on the satellite and you'll see nothing but a zero). So, if the receivers no longer recognize the satellite without having our dishes being moved an inch, I can therefore conclude that they have no way of sending us a kill signal except via the phone line. Since the phone line feature was never used by Voom's networking people, they probably wouldn't go to the money and trouble of setting that feature up. I tried the reportback feature this morning as I have several times in the past and it has never once worked. The last successful reportback was in 1980!! I don't think Voom would have went to the trouble of sending an intermittent kill signal out while the satellite was still function. If rumors are true on the smartcards needing renewal codes to stay active, then it would be a matter of time before they shut off. I've heard from experts on this forum that the smartcards no longer need renewal codes since the last software update. I guess only time will tell about this matter.

 

[madpoet]

As I have said... I left my receiver as OTA only for 45 days from November into December, and it was still ticking away fine. I think we're all safe as long as you didn't call Voom to deactivate.

 

[smeagal]

Johnalan, my thoughts exactly. If OTA continues to work I would gladly pay $200 for the box. USDTV's OTA STB sells for $199 brand new and will receive PSIP guide data from local stations so $200 is more than reasonable for a box that is 1 year old, receives OTA only, and doesn't receive the PSIP guide data.

Dude don't give them any dumb ideas I aint paying 1 cent for mine. I figure I deserve it for pain and suffering. 200 bucks?????? Heck NO I'll take free anyday!

 

[lilyarbie]

Not worth $200 bucks........

The advantage that the USDTV box has over the Voom receivers is that it has PSIP guide enabled on it and the Voom receivers do not. If somebody knew how to tweak this feature, then it would be well worth it.

 

[Sat Junkie]

I disconnected from the dish feed Saturday just in case Voom sent a kill signal and on Monday night I started having problems with the box locking on my local CBS channel. I unpluged the reciever and it rebooted just fine I still get the same locals after a rescan. The only problem is if I punch in the guide it says the unit is downloading new info and it's going to take a while.

 

[riffjim4069]

The only problem is if I punch in the guide it says the unit is downloading new info and it's going to take a while.

...a long, long, long while...