giving voom a shot

[jsms928]

I'm getting voom on the ninth, gonna cost 53 dollars a month for the basic package, exactly what i'm paying now for Direct tv. I barely watch TV, and I don't think these voom exclusives look all that bad, plus they have all the SD channels I watch and discovery HD, also an OTA antenna also is installed. Good thing about it is no contract, and can cancel anytime. I think it's worth giving it a shot. I really think Dish,Direct, etc are lagging in proposing HDTV programming and package deals. voom is at least on to something. Plus I heard of plans they plan to offer an HD DVR built into there future models. I will let you know how things go, anyone else have this service and what do theey think of it?

[cmslick3]

I am having mine setup on the 5th of March. I am also going with the monthly rental fee. I think it's a great deal because when/if I ever get rid of Voom I don't want some crappy receiver sitting around collecting dust. I am going to have that situation with my existing Dish stuff. where am I gonna put a receiver and 2 dishes?? If you figure out the price of the purchase plan, which is now $499 for the receiver, off air, and dish,it comes out to 4 years of paying the 9.50 per month.

It's totally worth it.

[jsms928]

So How is it?

[cmslick3]

In one word "EXCELLENT!"

The HD channels are great! I can't wait until EVERY channel is put together in HD, it's so much easier on the eyes it's unbelieveable.

Discovery HD was on almost all weekend, and the Rush channel is the only sports channel we care about.

The HD cinema channels are cool, a new movie every day and the upconversion looks great on 99% of the movies. If the original is really bad it looks pretty grainy.

Getting digital surround sound from a satellite and off air just boggles me but it sounds great.

I don't feel any regrets for going to Voom. Especially when it's only 15 dollars more than I was paying for Dish network.

One more thing worth mentioning is DON'T BUY CABLES! They are included in the package, yes even the DVI, but no digital audio so just grab a piece of good quality video cable and away you go.


So for I have only a few minor complaints, some are out of Voom's hands as far as I can tell.

the locals come in a 4:3 format with black bars on side, however some programs are 16:9, so it appears that is how they are being sent. It would be nice if the receiver could correct this for 16:9 only but oh well.

The local off air antenna is ok but I live in heavily wooded area in a single story and when the wind blows the trees cause BER. The tech said to call and complain to try and get a better antenna. If not I will put the 60 bucks down on a good one.

The box is slow and jerky sometimes but I have heard others have the same problem with different providers. I have had to reset it once but it has been fine since.

The regular cable channels give me little black dots all over the screen depending on the channel. Mostly in Red areas, this never happens with anything else so it's not the TV.

Oh and the program planner does not work as of yet...

[jsms928]

Well I do enjoy voom, and it seems very fresh and nice to have something a little different. The setup isn't that bad also, I enjoy there exclusive channels. The HD looks awesome, and the standard channels look better than they did with direct TV (not sure if it has anything to do with the DVI input). But I am satisfied so far after one day. It does seem to be a little buggy with a few things, but nothing totally annoying. I had that dot effect thing with my direct tv, only on reds, also had it on my other regular sets in red. all sets are Sony. ????

[ruthiesea]

Everybody that I know who has a small dish has weather related problems. It rains, the dish goes out. I have a c-band dish (6.5') and get eight HD channels. I don't want to change if Voom service doesn't work in the rain. Has anybody experienced problems with Voom when it rains?

[cmslick3]

I have not had any problems with rain and satellite reception except in cases of severe storms, but at those times I could care less if the TV worked. To me it's just a minor annoyance that does not sway my opinion of sat tv at all. I will not ever go back to cable. I had more problems with rain with cable than now, they never fixed the problem when they said they would.

[Knight]

In my neighborhood, the satellite is the least of my problems in the rain because the Sattellite not working makes no difference when the power is out LOL. friggin utility companies!

[ratamiguela]

I have had rain fade with my 18" dish here in CA. Over on the SatelliteGuys forum, there was a thread about all of us getting upgraded to larger, oval antennas. This is to allow reception from two satellites. Many posts have indicated that larger 24" or 30" antennas have minimized or eliminated their rain fade problems. You may want to be patient with any rain problems as free antenna upgrade may take care of it.

http://www.satelliteguys.us/showthread.php?t=14271

[Ferdball]

I noticed that VOOM is ending their free promotion on 5/31. After that, does anyone know how much the equipment and installation will cost?

VOOM doesn't have the local baseball games here in San Diego but they do have an NFL channel, and they won't have DVR until Fall. But if the cost of install/equip is high, I might as well get it now and keep my basic cable until DVR comes out.

What do you think?

[ratamiguela]

I found one post indicating that there would be a 2yr contract after June 1st for new subscribers renting the box and dish. Can't confirm it. If the local baseball is broadcast OTA, then you may be able pick it up with Voom OTA tuner & antenna. I think Voom is a very good deal right now but would recommend starting with atleast one premium channel if you don't get their va-va-voom package. As Voom adds more content to their basic channels then you could always change it. I watched the Hulk last night and although I hated it in the theater, it was just amazing in my livingroom. That said, a friend installed one of those new DirecTV HD Tivo's yesterday and said it worked great! I will be very jealous till fall.

[Ferdball]

Add me to the VOOM bandwagon. My install is Wed morning 5/26. I'll let you know if I have any probs.

I'm going to keep my local cable and DVR for now. I'm going to lose my HD box ($9.95) and my local baseball games. As soon as VOOM comes out with their DVR box, I'll get rid of my cable (except for Road Runner).

I'm jumping into the new frontier. Never been a dish owner before...

[ratamiguela]

Congragulations Ferdball! :cheers:

Couple of install tips for you. Have them run two cables, one for OTA antenna and one for the dish. They will use a diplexer to split one cable normally but most installers will run two if you ask them to. Also, do not be disappointed if the box seems a little clunky at first, a software update will be downloaded overnight to your box to make it V5.68. The channels will change faster, any lockup problems will go away, etc. There is also suppose to be new update coming soon that will make additional improvements to menus. etc.

[Ferdball]

That is one thing that I'm going to ask for. I read about that at satteliteguys.us. Let me know if there is anything else.

Thanks.

[mwusna95]

I called on May 15th 2004 to order voom. I was told it would take 10 days for
the installation to occur. On the morning of May 15th about 8:30 a.m. the Voom installer called and said he was 20 minutes away. He showed up promptly and on time. He took a look at my system and complimented "Nice System" (Sony KP-65WS500 65" Rear Projection TV- set into a niche in the wall, JBL SCS-150 Surround Sound Speakers with a 150 Watt 10" subwoofer, Sony 5 Disc Progressive Scan DVD Player, Sony STR DE-985 Receiver, Sony VCR). The install went very smoothly. It took about 1 1/2 hrs. I asked how many Voom Installs he had done and he replied "12". I must say the true HD Channels look Outstanding. The best channels are HDNews, Rush, Rave, Ultra HD, Discovery HD, Bravo HD, InVoom, ESPN HD (when the games are in HD), and all of the local channels when broadcasting HD over the air. The other HD channels like HBO, Cinemax, and the Voom Exclusive Movie Channels are Very Good Quality but not as good as the aforementioned. I even have a Voom HDTV receiver connected to a non-HDTV Sony Wega 32" Trinitron in the master bedroom, and I could swear that the HD Channels look just as good as they do on my 65" HDTV. I love Voom. Go get it immediately!

[Ferdball]

Hot dang it, I'm on the fence again. And my install is tomorrow.

I just read the complete offer details for my VoOm promotion. It says that I have to pay for a receiver for each TV that I have and also a $5 per TV charge.

I currently have cable and it feeds all three of my TV's for one price. In order to get a signal to each of my TV's I'll have to pay:
$39.90
$9.50 x 3
$5.00 x 3
=======
$83.50

I have a DVR cable box as well as an HD cable box all for less than $80. Am I going to pay more to move to a dish?

[Ratman]

Gotcha! :)

[ratamiguela]

Hot dang it, I'm on the fence again. And my install is tomorrow.

I just read the complete offer details for my VoOm promotion. It says that I have to pay for a receiver for each TV that I have and also a $5 per TV charge.

I currently have cable and it feeds all three of my TV's for one price. In order to get a signal to each of my TV's I'll have to pay:
$39.90
$9.50 x 3
$5.00 x 3
=======
$83.50

I have a DVR cable box as well as an HD cable box all for less than $80. Am I going to pay more to move to a dish?

Here is a suggestion for you, get the va-va-voom package (great deal!) and hook it up to just your best or only HDTV. Since you are leaving the cable hooked up anyway, continue using cable for your other TV's. This will give you an excellent picture, sound, & programming on your big HD set. Come fall, upgrade to the Voom DVR (if the price is right) and this will include networked DVR functions for all your HD or SD sets.

http://www.bestoftheweb.tv/VOOMhs.wmv

[Ferdball]

Other than the va-va-voom package, that's pretty much my plan ratamiguela. Some disadvantages are that I'll have a box at every TV, another remote there also, no Padres games (Cox isn't going to dish that out), and a little higher cost. The advantages are HD programming and DVR at each station.
I can't think of anything major to change my mind, so I'm going to go ahead with the installation. It''s just a little disappointing going into this thinking I was going to save, when in fact it will be a slightly more. Oh well. I hope I get Voomed out of my mind.

[gee]

ratamiguela and ferdball,

why would 2 cables be required for the OTA and the Voom regular HD channels...Just got my Hitach 57T500 so I was deciding whether DIRECTV HD or Voom...

Any input will be appreciated. Thank you.

[ratamiguela]

Voom does not currently offer any networks, like ABC, CBS, NBC, WB, or UPN. The Voom receiver box includes an internal ATSC tuner to allow reception of these channels from local digital stations. The install includes both a satellite dish and a UHF antenna to receive the local stations. A "diplexer" can combine these two antennas into one cable, at the antennas, and another diplexer seperates the signal behind your TV. This will work but you will get a slightly stronger signal if you use seperate cables between the antennas and the Voom box.

This link will show you the digital stations available in your area:
http://www.hdtvpub.com/local/

[gee]

Pardon me if I sound so dumb, but this is my first HDTV monitor.

OK, my hitachi has 2 attenna coax inputs (A & B). So if I have two cables, the OTA cable can go to one of them and the regular HD can go to the other. But right now I have the DIRECTV cable attached to antenna A.

So what hookup do you suggest to get the best quality picture..

Thanks for being patient. :rofl2:

[ratamiguela]

No problemo. I will give it my best but hopefully other members will correct me if I blow it. Here are the available connections for your Hitachi:

Antenna (RF) Inputs - 2 (lowest SD video quality)
A/V Inputs (Rear/Front) - 3/1
S-Video Inputs (Rear/Front) - 2/1 (better SD video quality)
Wideband Component Inputs - 2 (supports HD video)
DVI-HDTV Inputs - 1 (supports HD video)
Centre Channel Input - 1
A/V Output - 1
Variable Audio Output - 1

Assuming that we are ONLY connecting the Voom box, here is how I would do it. Your actual setup will probably include some additional connections, such as a DVD player.

1) UHF coax cable goes from UHF antenna to Voom box's UHF antenna input.
2) satellite coax cable goes from dish antenna to Voom box's sat antenna input
3) Voom's DVI ouput to TV's DVI input
4) Voom's RCA audio-out to TV's audio-in (right & left channels)

Note: this TV does not include any DD5.1 or DTS decoder. If seperate audio amplifier & speakers are used then the coax or optical digital outputs on the Voom box can be used (instead of RCA's) for a much better sound quality and proper channel decoding.

[gee]

Thanks Ratamiguela...

So I have both coax OTA and LNB to VOOM receiver (I assume there are to inputs for the coax). Then DVI- from VOOM to DVI on TV. The attenna input of TV can take the DIRECTV signal....The rest of the devices can go to wherever inputs available, in order of quality wanted. DVI (highest), then Component(second), S-video (third), is quality in descending order - for the other available inputs on the Hitachi TV.

If my avr (still waiting for the Denon 2805) can take component and output to component, will there be quality issues if everything goes thru the avr?

Thanks again for being patient.

[ratamiguela]

Sounds about right to me. Would suggest that you use an S-Video cable from your current DirecTV STB (assuming it is not the HDTV model) and this should improve the picture noticeably. The coax connector is only suitable for connecting an antenna to allow use of the TV's internal tuner. If you add any type of STB that has a digital ATSC tuner, you would rarely use the TV's tuner or coax input. I will avoid giving you any bad advice on hooking up the Denon. :D You may want to do a post for others on this. Recommend you list ALL of your equipment (& model numbers) in the post and describe what you are trying to receive now and what you think you may want to do with it in the future. Sounds like a way better TV than mine. :(

[Ferdball]

FYI - I'm jumping off the bandwagon. Their 21 channels of Original HD Programming is actually 19 channels of stuff I'd never watch. Can anyone explain MOOV to me?
The main differences is that my local baseball is in HD and will never get dished out since it is produced by the local cable company. Also, the content on HDnet and InHD look good so I'm going to give them a try from my cable company.

[ratamiguela]

Sorry you are so disappointed Ferdball but I do understand your reaction. After a week of Voom's original channels, I bumped up to the va-va-voom package. I have been very happy with it since but had hoped to spend less. On the plus side, the HD offerings in their $40 package are still better than what I could have gotten with my local cable, DirecTV, or Dish Network. Most importantly to me was not buying an expensive HD sat receiver that would be instantly obsolete when HD-DVR's were available. Voom has gotten steadily better in the last few months, adding BravoHD and ESPN-HD. Discovery HD has been very good, and though I'm the only one, I actually like to watch sailing on Wrldsprt. On the down-side, the Cinema10 movies have been mostly repeats and someone described "Moov" as being a bad acid trip. It is a good deal if you have #1 TV, you are going to add plus-packs or preferably the va-va-voom package, you need an ATSC tuner, you can get it (satellite is very low on the horizon), and you do not already have a HD DirecTV or HD Dish receiver. Voom will either get better or go out of business so there was not much to lose with the current free install and $10 equipment deal.