A Word On VOOM Picture Quality

[Scott Greczkowski]

As you may have seen this past week has been a tough week for VOOM, a few things happened during the week last week that caused many folks get upset with VOOM, most noticeably a change in the picture quality on many of VOOM's HD channels.

This changed has caused an uproar from VOOM users nationwide, you can see the uproar here on SatelliteGuys and on the Yahoo VOOM group.

I have noticed many people saying they are fed up with VOOM and are canceling their service with VOOM over these issues. I myself even said I was considering canceling VOOM but because of programming issues and not necessarly PQ issues.

While this uproar is going on I see more and more people jumping on the "Im canceling VOOM bandwaggon" I would like to urge everyone if they can afford to wait a few weeks to wait.

I have known Wilt for a few years now and have worked with him on other issues before the idea for VOOM ever existed. I know he wants the best for his customers. If Wilt say he is looking into the issues and will get them fixed, I believe him. Wilt wants nothing but the best for his customers and works many hours a week to help make VOOM the best it can be. Wilt even works weekends and late nights helping people out.

Wilt, while one of the big wigs at VOOM is stuck in the middle when these problems occur, as when stuff like this happens he must work with companies like Motorola and the Software Vender OpenTV to come to a quick resolution to these problems.

I thank Wilt for sticking in there and doing his best for us. I am sure Wilt is fustrated by the problems as much as many of us are. Wilt has gone above and beyond to help many of us, please don't shoot the messenger (i.e. Wilt)

I would like to ask SatelliteGuys members to please report issues with as much detail as possible to help VOOM fix these areas. A bunch of reports saying that the PQ is crap does not help, and just gets more people in an uproar.

So if you can please stay with VOOM. If you feel you must go, I don't blame you, however knowing Wilt and his standards of excellence, I believe good things do come to those who wait.

Hang in there!

 

[rang1995]

the latest from wilt

"Make your call as you must, just know this; the Picture Quality issue, whatever it is, is a transient thing and not meant to be the norm. We're trying to find it.
As to the rest, out of my box, but I did want to make sure you understood that we're looking into the Picture stuff.
Wilt

 

[andrzej]

So if you can please stay with VOOM. If you feel you must go, I don't blame you, however knowing Wilt and his standards of excellence, I believe good things do come to those who wait.

Hang in there!

I wholeheartedly agree with and support Scott's reasoning. There is a lot to gain and there is not that much to loose, especially for those of us who lease.

 

[wasch_24]

As far as I see it, a whole lot of HD programming 24/7 with some quirks is way better then a little perfect HD programming mostly only in "Primtime". I just look forward to when we can all look back and say with a grin "remember back in the beginning..."

Steadfast Voomer!

 

[compurocker]

I'm definitely going to try and stick it out. Without customers, VOOM won't have either the means or the reason to fix their problems. I signed up for VOOM because I had high hopes for what the future would bring so I've got to stick around for a little while at least in order to get a glimpse of that future.

I bought my Xbox for similar reasons. It took a year to get any online games, not all games support custom soundtracks or 5.1 sound, and the 1080i games are still few and far between. That was a $300 purchase on faith that the future would bring good things, and only two launch games I was interested in. At this point I've been happy with it and don't regret it, but it may not have turned out that way.

I wasn't willing to shell out $750 for VOOM the same way I shelled out $300 for my Xbox. Not only was the cost more than double, I felt the risk was higher as well. At least the Xbox had one of the world's richest companies behind it. For all I knew VOOM would have gone out of business two weeks after I signed up and my $750 might have vanished into thin air.

Now that I took advantage of the zero down zero committment deal I am certainly glad I have the option to get out any time I wish. But I am not going to exercise that option just yet. I really like the concept of VOOM even if the execution isn't as nice as we might have hoped. If VOOM gets enough support, the concept might take off, and that would be great for the industry as a whole. If VOOM goes down in a ball of flames we'll all lose, but if VOOM goes out in a blaze of glory, someone else is bound to pick up the torch. Of course the real hope is that VOOM will prosper and others will be forced to follow suit. In either of those two cases, we as consumers win.

 

[red ufo]

I just got the full Voom package and ready to go back to basic.

The PQ on HBO HD and the rest is not worth the extra cash to me. My progressive scan DVD at 480P is much, much sharper than the 1080i crap I've seen on the HBO and other channels. They should be twice as sharp as my DVD and they aren't.

When I see Monsters HD with awesome transfers of very, very old movies that clean HBOs clock on a transfer of a 2 year old movie, then we got a problem somewhere in the chain.

Until HBO HD, Showtime HD, Skinemax HD, look as good as the monster HD conversations then I'll save my cash for Tivo.

 

[oddwunn]

Scott, you make a lot of sense, and I for one will be sticking around to give Voom a chance to repair the problems. I have posted at least a few details describing the PQ issues from a somewhat technical viewpoint, and if it would help Voom to gather the observations in one place, please let me know and I'll do my best to help out.

 

[mkwillia]

Thanks, Scott for the update.

I have had VOOM for less than 2 weeks and I have been impressed with their PQ, programming and overall service. With that being said, I have seen some of the PQ issues mentioned in the forum (especially when it come to the HBOW HD feed). I have been with D* for a long time and have watched HD from them since they started broadcasting it (along with my OTA locals).

I still think that V* beats D* HD PQ. I did an informal test of the the Golf Course presentation, broadcasted by V* and D* Discovery HD channel. They were both comparable. Now with saying that, I cannot believe that everyone on here is wrong, so I can't wait until things are fixed so I can see what I have been missing.

Mike

 

[SeattleVoomer1]

A little perspective from an "old" VOOMer.

We got VOOM installed back in Dec. when it still cost $750 + tax (WA state) and have gotten the $300 credit. There have been ups and downs with the installation and the service but we're still here (with the help of Wilt and a great lady in VOOM's NY office) and I'll bet there are many other charter members who are staying with VOOM but just not making a big deal of it on the internet forums.

Yes, we have noticed some PQ problems and I posted on the "other" VOOM forum last night along with others. Wilt responded as has been pointed out above-they are looking into it. The PQ on yesterday's "red couch" VOOM promo was terrible. It was like looking at good SD. So...we'll see what VOOM comes up with to correct the PQ problem but we're staying the course.
"Deadwood" was incredible both in PQ and content last night on HBO.

We knew when we signed up that we were on the cutting edge of technology so to speak. We had seen the future using a Samsung STB and a Radio Shack antenna and fell in love with HDTV PQ. And a further perspective on cost-yes, $750 is a lot of money for us and I think it is great VOOM is now being offered for $0 down and a monthly lease. However, I walked into the shop where we got our SimSeleco DLP projector about 1 1/2 years ago and the owner said: "Gill, you not going to like this but your projector just had a price reduction and now sells for 1/2 of what you paid." You know this didn't bother me (much) as I knew what the future of DLP projectors was when we purchased. We enjoyed DVDs for that time and discovered HDTV which proved our projector was a whole lot better than we thought that it ever could be.

That's it. We're staying and enjoying all the HDTV although in beautiful weather like we had this past weekend we didn't watch much.

Thankfully cloudy in Seattle, Gill

 

[Ken F]

I agree Scott. I am under the lease plan, and I will stick with VOOM at least another 4-6 weeks to see what progress is made toward improvements. These sort of problems aren't the type of thing that can be fixed overnight, but hopefully, given a few weeks, Wilt can begin to sort it out.

If you purchased your box, you still have the rest of April before the money back guarantee expires. Why not see if they can make some progress in the next two weeks? There isn't much too lose.

 

[omard.]

I will stick with Voom also. They may have some problems but I have faith they will fix them. I agree with compurocker with out customers they will never prosper, and if they fail D* and E* will never feel the pressure to add HD Channels.

 

[Cliff]

Called D**h today, and put my subscription on hold. Voom will iron out the wrinkles.

 

[vurbano]

why dont they just can Moov, and combine the cinema 10 to cinema 5 (each channel could run 2 alternating movies a day) and end all of these ridiculous problems? It would be an improvement for Petes sake, and make room for Espnhd and the other channels? why go through all these complaints and problems to the point where sean and others want to dump it? Someone needs to talk some common sense into Dolan.

 

[DarrellP]

Bandwidth may not even be the issue, we don't know what the problem is. Someone posted awhile ago that Voom had set aside all transponder space for the channels they were going to be putting up prior to conversion to MPEG-4, so I doubt it's a bandwidth issue. They are more likely having encoder or uplinking issues.

 

[JaydeeD]

And since they have been advertising 21 exclusives since the beginning, they can't reduce Cinema 10 to 5 now....cause then a whole NEW set of people will decide to start whining about broken promises.....jeez people, enough whining

 

[Mr. Biggles]

Well it's nice to come home from work and actually see that some positive feelings are still with us Voomers.

Lets face it, complaining is easy. It's a good thing if it's constructive and funneled in the right direction though. There have been an isolated few (names unmentioned) that have been running around screaming " the sky is falling, the sky is falling". This hasn't helped things one iota. I sure hope many agree to that.

I know I'm gonna take a step back and take a big deep breath and give V* a reasonable opportunity to get things back in order PQ wise.

For anyone that really enjoys the programming it seems silly not to give them the benifit of the doubt that they are as determined to be a leader in HD as we are to participate in it.

 

[trugel]

I'm Not Going Anywhere

Now that I know for sure that Voom is fully aware of the issues we've been noticing the last couple of weeks, I'm certain that they will be fixed as soon as possible. I agree with Scott you need to first try to find the cause of the problem before a timely solution can be developed. I believe in the promise of Voom and will stick it out because I'm sold on its potential of great HD, including the upcoming DVR and Media Hub platforms. We have much to look forward to from this company.

I think this forum can continue to do a good job of gathering relevant technical information on user's experiences so that Voom can develop an appropriate and timely solution.

Voomer for life......

 

[ricks]

Well it's nice to come home from work and actually see that some positive feelings are still with us Voomers.

Lets face it, complaining is easy. It's a good thing if it's constructive and funneled in the right direction though. There have been an isolated few (names unmentioned) that have been running around screaming " the sky is falling, the sky is falling". This hasn't helped things one iota. I sure hope many agree to that.

I know I'm gonna take a step back and take a big deep breath and give V* a reasonable opportunity to get things back in order PQ wise.

For anyone that really enjoys the programming it seems silly not to give them the benifit of the doubt that they are as determined to be a leader in HD as we are to participate in it.

Ah, a voice of reason. Nice post.

 

[GadgetRick]

Voom

When you realize Voom has been online for less than 6 months (I believe) you have to admit they've done a good job. They are constantly working to improve things and I see no reason why things won't get better. If you read posts from when it all started (November-December) you'll see how the posts have changed in tone from, "What gives?" to, "They're getting better and adding more channels."

If you want to be on the bleeding edge of technology, Voom is where it's at as far as HD in home. If you're going to be on the bleeding edge, you must be prepared to get cut every so often. Things won't always be smooth we just all hope they get things worked out so they provide a worth-while affordable alternative to DTV and Dish.

This is not to say, however, we should not complain. If we don't complain to Voom they can't fix the problems. It seems to me Voom has been very receptive to our complaints. Let's hope they continue to be...

The Rickster

 

[GeneWildershair]

why dont they just can Moov, and combine the cinema 10 to cinema 5 (each channel could run 2 alternating movies a day) and end all of these ridiculous problems? It would be an improvement for Petes sake, and make room for Espnhd and the other channels? why go through all these complaints and problems to the point where sean and others want to dump it? Someone needs to talk some common sense into Dolan.

vurbano, something we can agree on.