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Voom HDTV (MERGED THREAD) (1 Viewer)

Eric_Connelly

Second Unit
Joined
Nov 25, 1999
Messages
460
I had Voom installed this morning.

Install went decent, guy took his time and cleaned up pretty well.

He had a problem with a bad part and had to replace it before he got the system up and running.

Initial impressions, remote and unit are a PITA to use, where is the GUIDE button??? You have to Pick Voom and then the entire line up or special Voom packs to get the guide up.

It gets easily confused if any part of the Info or Guide is up and you try to put in a 3 number channel, it keeps wanting to revert to the channel you are on after you hit the 3rd number.

Picture quality is excellent and their OTA portion is many times better than the other OTA's when viewing SD programming.

For picture quality and programming quality its pretty decent, assuming that the HD Movie channels run through a good series of movies and I'm not watching the same thing 10 times per week.

My only real complaint is the box, its slow, its annoying to use, and it has alot of user interface flaws. For those who complained that the DirecTV HD boxes were slow or annoying to use this is worse.

I'm happy that I'm renting the unit now since I'll wait for a superior one to show up and get them to swap it out.

Some people may not have the patience to use this, especially someone who is not a HD fantatic and just wants to watch TV.

But it is mostly HD, pic quality is great, OTA is great espescially for how far out I am, those are 2 things that generally will not improve(ala DirecTV), but the boxes can improve and hopefully they will.
 

Eric_Connelly

Second Unit
Joined
Nov 25, 1999
Messages
460
I've been watching Voom for a few days now and notice some channels say "Presented in High Definition" and others say "Presented in 1080i"

I thought that you could only show one type at a time, everything is either up or down converted because the TV needs to switch modes.

I can find nothing about switching from 1080i and 720p on the box. I'm sure its either converting up or down but have no idea what its native res is.

Anyone know or know how to check? I'm displaying this on a Sony Grand Wega 60" LCD.

Thanks
 

Sam R. Aucoin

Stunt Coordinator
Joined
Jul 5, 1999
Messages
210
On the right, front panel of your Motorola receiver, you will find a flip-down cover. When you flip it down, you will see a red button. Pushing it will change the resolution sent to your display: 480i, 480p, 720p, 1080i, and native. Notice on the front of your receiver that whenever you push the button, one or more orange/red lights running parallel to the ground will light up. Each light represents a particular resolution mode, with the light at the lowest level representing the lowest resolution. As you continue to push the button, a "higher level" light will light up, indicating you are increasing the output resolution. The highest light that is lit means you are outputting 1080i. The LAST push will result in ALL of the lights lighting up - this means you are in native mode (i.e., whatever resolution signal the Motorola box is receiving from the VOOM satellite, that is the resolution signal that will be sent to your display).

As I have a Hitachi plasma (which means ALIS display technology, and thus, according to many opinions and my own observations), I have my output set to 1080i all the time. Some other displays may show a better picture at 720p.
 

Eric_Connelly

Second Unit
Joined
Nov 25, 1999
Messages
460
Thanks, be nice if it said that in the book somewhere.

I'll put it on native and see what differences I can see. The bad thing about the Sony is it does display the mode it is in.
 

Rob Gardiner

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Feb 15, 2002
Messages
2,950
Has anyone successfully installed one of these satellite dishes in an apartment? I have a small balcony facing the southwest.
 

Eric_Connelly

Second Unit
Joined
Nov 25, 1999
Messages
460
The Voom dude told me the new dish is 30", thats huge.

He put a 18" up for me but said they are only offering the choice until they run out.

I'm having some issues with it, Rave gets audio about 50 percent of the time and its very annoying that when you change to some channels it says "To get this channel call...." then it comes in a few seconds later.

I still find the menu system very cumbersome to use and the lack of ESPN HD and HD Net are making me consider calling them to cancel...

One good thing, the OTA reciever is fantastic, so many times better than the others I have seen and used. Might go get myself a Motorola OTA :)
 

EricTownsend

Stunt Coordinator
Joined
Oct 8, 2001
Messages
140
Anyone know when they will have a HD PVR?
Does anyone have one yet that doesn't cost a fortune?
I'm thinking there should be a ton of them... It's not like the technology doesn't exist. What is taking so long? Just no demand?
 

LaMarcus

Screenwriter
Joined
Mar 7, 2002
Messages
1,619
Real Name
LaMarcus
I may have to consider getting voom. Right now I have TWC and road runner. I'm sure I can keep the RR and get rid of TWC. Only thing I'm really going to miss is PVR, that's a real draw back. What do they do for mutilple rooms that are analog? Can you still get the xtra channels on those (of coarse not hd)? I don't think I can switch with just one room getting all the channels and then regulat OTA in every other room. My family would kill me.
 

Garrett Lundy

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Mar 5, 2002
Messages
3,763
Does anyone have one yet that doesn't cost a fortune?
I'm thinking there should be a ton of them... It's not like the technology doesn't exist. What is taking so long?
The technology does exist, it just costs too much $$$

Lets say a SDTV-PVR can record 10 hrs of TV on a 80-Gigabyte harddrive. Thats good, and a 80 Gigabyte harddrive costs about $50. The problem is that HDTV requires 9 times the amount of harddrive space to save, and harddrive cost/performance is on a sliding scale. So to save the same 10 hours of HDTV the PVR would need 720Gigabytes of space.

250 Gigabytes is the current "upper deck" on harddrives and a HDTV-PVR would need at least three of them for this scenario. And unlike the $50 for a 80 gig drive, three 250's will cost about $700. Not cheap by any stretch.
 

LaMarcus

Screenwriter
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LaMarcus
Hey Voom now has 5 espn channels including espn hd!!!! Go to voom.com to check it out.
 

ChrisYK

Stunt Coordinator
Joined
Jan 21, 2004
Messages
148
eagerly awaiting Voom install tomorrow. Hopefully in plenty of time to watch the Pistons close out the Lakers.

Any fellow Houston Voom subscribers with suggestions/input?
 

ChrisYK

Stunt Coordinator
Joined
Jan 21, 2004
Messages
148
Well, after an initial delay due to a mistyped phone number by the Voom customer service rep, finally got everything installed this morning.

The install guy said that the local channels could take anywhere from 15 minutes to 24 hours to start showing up so I'm kind of nervous about that. Other than that, the HD channels look great and standard cable looks good too. The interface is very clunky (as people have mentioned) and the channel lock-in delay is kind of annoying, but other than that, you get what they advertise.

I'm just waiting for the local channels to kick in...
 

ChrisYK

Stunt Coordinator
Joined
Jan 21, 2004
Messages
148
Well, after an initial delay due to a mistyped phone number by the Voom customer service rep, finally got everything installed this morning.

The install guy said that the local channels could take anywhere from 15 minutes to 24 hours to start showing up so I'm kind of nervous about that. Other than that, the HD channels look great and standard cable looks good too. The interface is very clunky (as people have mentioned) and the channel lock-in delay is kind of annoying, but other than that, you get what they advertise.

I'm just waiting for the local channels to kick in...
 

ChrisYK

Stunt Coordinator
Joined
Jan 21, 2004
Messages
148
Still not getting any local channels :thumbsdown:
Called Voom and they are going to have the install company either tweak my antenna or get me a new one altogether.

I also noticed that on any picture in 4:3 aspect ratio, about an inch or two of the left-hand side of the picture is cut off. This doesn't happen with HD material. I'm pretty sure it's not my Sony RPTV as I've adjusted the horizontal position (HPOS) in the service menu using the THX optimizer test (the one with the circle inside the rectangle). This edge cut-off is even visible in the small channel preview box that is shown when I enter the main menu. Anyone else with this problem and/or have any suggestions on how to fix it?
 

ChrisYK

Stunt Coordinator
Joined
Jan 21, 2004
Messages
148
Still not getting any local channels :thumbsdown:
Called Voom and they are going to have the install company either tweak my antenna or get me a new one altogether.

I also noticed that on any picture in 4:3 aspect ratio, about an inch or two of the left-hand side of the picture is cut off. This doesn't happen with HD material. I'm pretty sure it's not my Sony RPTV as I've adjusted the horizontal position (HPOS) in the service menu using the THX optimizer test (the one with the circle inside the rectangle). This edge cut-off is even visible in the small channel preview box that is shown when I enter the main menu. Anyone else with this problem and/or have any suggestions on how to fix it?
 

LaMarcus

Screenwriter
Joined
Mar 7, 2002
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1,619
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LaMarcus
Ummm, ChrisYK, I'd hate to be the one to tell you, but you shouldn't use those THX optimizer disc to calibrate your tv. Their optimization is only for that particular dvd, anything else you watch will be wrong, but that optimizer disc will be right. If you want to calibrate your television use a Avia dvd, or Video Essentials. But even the old Video Essentials dvd is off for the overscan portion. And that sounds like the problem your having.
 

LaMarcus

Screenwriter
Joined
Mar 7, 2002
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LaMarcus
Ummm, ChrisYK, I'd hate to be the one to tell you, but you shouldn't use those THX optimizer disc to calibrate your tv. Their optimization is only for that particular dvd, anything else you watch will be wrong, but that optimizer disc will be right. If you want to calibrate your television use a Avia dvd, or Video Essentials. But even the old Video Essentials dvd is off for the overscan portion. And that sounds like the problem your having.
 

ChrisYK

Stunt Coordinator
Joined
Jan 21, 2004
Messages
148
I was able to resolve my problem...
The Motorola box was set to "native."
I switched it to 1080i and the problem resolved :emoji_thumbsup:
 

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