As I've said in the past, I will hold out a little longer, because I really do enjoy VOOM"s HD content. While PQ isn't up to par now *IMO*, I have hope that they will fix these issues.
A Word On VOOM Picture Quality
- Thread starter Scott Greczkowski
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Some acknowledgement on the Voom website reffering to some problem or maintenance effort, whatever, it doesnt really matter what they say it is, that seemed to begin this weekend would be the responsible thing to do. Just say something and let the users know that they see a problem and its being worked on.
I apologize Jay, I guess you dont need therapy.
But I really saw nothing serious to complain about until sometime around sunday.
I apologize Jay, I guess you dont need therapy.
But I really saw nothing serious to complain about until sometime around sunday.Well I for one am sticking around for the long haul. My wife and I were just discussing it tonight and we're going to cancel E* and go full blown VaVaVoom. My wife is always pissed when she wants to watch something that we don't subscribe to and I can't stand having half programming on two different providers. The way I see it is that I got my TV for HD and nobody else is going to offer the amount of HD that Voom offers right now.
vurbano said:I apologize Jay, I guess you dont need therapy.
no problem there, vurbano, I can understand your take if you honestly can't see problems.
Don't laugh but I was one of the first to buy a WebTV unit and installed it on a 55" rear projector. When I hooked it up I expected it to work flawlessly, but couldn't get any sound, so I called the Company. (only open 8 till 5 not 24/7) One of the Owners answered the phone and explained that they had only been on-the-air two weeks and what did I expect? I was taken back, but it did come around and improved till MS bought it and made Millionaires out of all those Owners & Employees! It was neat to see posts from real people that were trying to make a go of their small business. Now days you are lucky to get a personal E-mail (not a Form Letter) from ANY Company. I'm impressed with VOOM and hopefully they won't let us down.
From everything I read the last 2 months,they are fixing problems almost every week. I finally pulled the trigger and called this evening.
My dish is up, its dialed in & grounded, RG6Q line is done ,OTA is pulling in a perfect picture with its own RG6Q line,and phone jack is installed.Do ya think I'm ready??
I will give "V***" a fair amount of time to work out the rest of their problems. I know you guys put up with it this far...don't quit on them now!! :up
My dish is up, its dialed in & grounded, RG6Q line is done ,OTA is pulling in a perfect picture with its own RG6Q line,and phone jack is installed.Do ya think I'm ready??
I will give "V***" a fair amount of time to work out the rest of their problems. I know you guys put up with it this far...don't quit on them now!! :up
Positive words are soothing the beast today.
Yesterday morning, when I saw Sean's "pulling the plug" post it was pure
pandelarium, and I thought VOOM was DOOMED.
But, it seems a little time to reflect has calmed things down.
Thanks, guy's for hanging in there 'cause I can't do without my HDTV now that I've been VOOMED!!!
Discovery HD Theatre (Canadian Rockies) was absoultely STUNNING last night.
I thought I was there.
Yesterday morning, when I saw Sean's "pulling the plug" post it was pure
pandelarium, and I thought VOOM was DOOMED.
But, it seems a little time to reflect has calmed things down.
Thanks, guy's for hanging in there 'cause I can't do without my HDTV now that I've been VOOMED!!!
Discovery HD Theatre (Canadian Rockies) was absoultely STUNNING last night.
I thought I was there.
red ufo said:
Er, actually, 1080i shouldn't be twice as sharp as 480p. 1080i only has (basically) 60 more lines per pass than 480p, since it's interlaced. 480p paints all 480 lines of resolution every, what is it, 20th of a second? 30th? I always forget. 1080i, on the other hand, only paints half of its resolution during each pass -- 540 lines. Now, personally, I think that 1080i *does* look one heckuva lot sharper than 480p... But theoretically, anyhow, there's no reason why it "should" be twice as sharp as 480p.
In truth, I think that half of why really good HDTV content looks so great is the quality of the editing and everything else. Low def TV looks like kaka because not only is it a lower resolution, but the quality of the equipment used to duplicate, edit, broadcast, and retransmit it is all inferior. It's sort of like the difference between a compact disc that was recorded on really high-end DAT, using top-of-the-line instruments, and a compact disc that was recorded using a hand microphone and somebody's minidisc walkman.
The relatively fuzzy shots for The Sopranos were one of my biggest disappointments once I got HBO-HD. I guess it's the style they're going for, or the lighting they use, or something -- but whatever the reason, The Sopranos (and even Deadwood, to a lesser extent) doesn't take near the full advantage of high definition. Oh, and same goes for Six Feet Under, although I haven't watched as much of it (since I don't find a lot of repeat viewing entertainment from Six Feet Under).
As to Voom and I -- as someone else said, they can take my Voom when they pry it from my cold, dead fingers. Well, maybe sooner than that; I'm not so sure I'd prefer death to de-Voomification. Still, I'm absolutely thrilled with Voom. It's far from perfect, but it has made a true believer out of me as far as high definition content goes. I can't stand low def anymore, and watch almost none of it. Out of the hundreds of hours of low def I used to watch, I'm down to about three: South Park on Wednesdays (when they have new episodes -- which means about 1 week out of every six, once you average it out over the year), and Adult Swim on Sundays (when they've got new episodes of that, as well). Come to think of it, I might be closer to an hour a week of low definition.
Maybe even 45 minutes.
However much it is, I ain't going back. I hope Voom can fix some stuff, like adding channel scanning for OTA feeds, and I *really* hope they hurry up and add HDNet. I don't get how one of the very few made-for-high-definition cable networks isn't included in Voom. Someone is clearly trying way to hard to be a jerk in whatever negotiations are taking place for that channel -- whether it's on the HDNet side or the Voom side. I'd guess HDNet side, myself, mostly because Voom seems far too small to play hardball with anyone just now.
I didn't sign up for Voom because I wanted to be on the bleeding edge. I did it because I've owned my HDTV for going on three years, and the friggin' networks seem in little hurry to add content, the government seems to be knifing me in the back by ignoring the forced changeover they'd promised those of us who performed our half of the HDTV "contract" by buying the sets, and the other cable / satellite providers have HD lineups that are an absolute joke.
Using Voom is my way of saying that HDTV isn't a luxury or a curiosity -- it's a dag-blasted necessity.
Oh -- one other thing about Voom. Now, I know they have to do programming on the cheap, but how about mixxing up the playlist on Rave a bit? Would it really cost so much to get an intern to start acting as VJ rather than just looping the same 3 hours of videos endlessly? Surely those aren't the *only* high definition music videos that are available, either? Sorry, just a side complaint. Having had MTV show up in my formative years made me a lifelong fan of the music video. It's awesome seeing that medium in high definition, but a smidgeon more variety there would be appreciated, and it's one of the few channels where that variety doesn't seem like it'd cost much to provide.
I am staying the course.
The instillation was a nightmare, and I was going to cancel service. I ordered two boxes and only one arrived. Also, the antenna supplied was not adequate to pick up the local channels. In addition, the exclusive channels from 101 to 123 had voice only with no picture. The gentleman from Installs Inc acted like it was a real task to install the one box.
Despite the nightmare it has been so far, I still think it is a much better value than what I was getting from Adelphia cable. I will wait for my second box next Saturday.
I am more disapointed in the lack of HDTV channels from Directv, Dish and Adelphia which are my only choices in Simi Valley.
Voom is a new company and I believe they will get their act together.
The instillation was a nightmare, and I was going to cancel service. I ordered two boxes and only one arrived. Also, the antenna supplied was not adequate to pick up the local channels. In addition, the exclusive channels from 101 to 123 had voice only with no picture. The gentleman from Installs Inc acted like it was a real task to install the one box.
Despite the nightmare it has been so far, I still think it is a much better value than what I was getting from Adelphia cable. I will wait for my second box next Saturday.
I am more disapointed in the lack of HDTV channels from Directv, Dish and Adelphia which are my only choices in Simi Valley.
Voom is a new company and I believe they will get their act together.
I've been reading this forum for a week or so. First, just to check to see if any hacks, codes, work-arounds - whatever had been posted to improve things I'd noticed before.
I just got off the phone after an hour with a CSR. I've been having many of the problems posted already about the last week or so. This CSR actually walked me through a new way to check the SW version on my STB - wow, I thinks. Of course that was at the beginning of the conversation. Don't get me wrong, the guy put me on hold 4 times, so he must've been working in my best interest.
Problem is, still no improvement in channels that actually display. You talk about pixelation, blockiness? I can't even get most channels to display. Much less watch my Deadwood/Sopranos this weekend. <Sniff> Hell, I can't even catch RERUNS!!!
Next complaint is this, 'Hey, you guys supported us by becoming Charter Members' Bullsh!t. Next thing I know, they are offering Voom for free to every1 else. Does this only seem wrong to me? I asked the CSR if I could just switch over...? 'Nope. Our higher-ups said you gotta cancel, send all the equipment back, and then maybe rejoin' (WTF???) Makes a lot of sense. I forked out $1200 for 3 rooms - I can't get a f*&king break now or, at least a decent signal?
Did I mention my install took over 1 month to complete? Oh, yeah, they offered me a $50 programming credit (yeah, the programming was free since I was a Charter member anyway...) They offered to have the same company send out a technical expert to troubleshoot my system. The guy who came out for my system hadn't even SEEN Voom equipment before.
Now, they try to tell me that the extra $170/year I save by being a 'Charter Member' is supposed to make me feel hapy about absorping the $1200 up-front cost? Bullsh!t!
Hell, I only watch CNNHN, DiscoveryHD, and HBO anyway...
I just got off the phone after an hour with a CSR.
I've been having many of the problems posted already about the last week or so. This CSR actually walked me through a new way to check the SW version on my STB - wow, I thinks. Of course that was at the beginning of the conversation. Don't get me wrong, the guy put me on hold 4 times, so he must've been working in my best interest. Problem is, still no improvement in channels that actually display. You talk about pixelation, blockiness? I can't even get most channels to display.
Much less watch my Deadwood/Sopranos this weekend. <Sniff> Hell, I can't even catch RERUNS!!!Next complaint is this, 'Hey, you guys supported us by becoming Charter Members' Bullsh!t. Next thing I know, they are offering Voom for free to every1 else. Does this only seem wrong to me? I asked the CSR if I could just switch over...? 'Nope. Our higher-ups said you gotta cancel, send all the equipment back, and then maybe rejoin' (WTF???) Makes a lot of sense. I forked out $1200 for 3 rooms - I can't get a f*&king break now or, at least a decent signal?
Did I mention my install took over 1 month to complete? Oh, yeah, they offered me a $50 programming credit (yeah, the programming was free since I was a Charter member anyway...) They offered to have the same company send out a technical expert to troubleshoot my system. The guy who came out for my system hadn't even SEEN Voom equipment before.
Now, they try to tell me that the extra $170/year I save by being a 'Charter Member' is supposed to make me feel hapy about absorping the $1200 up-front cost? Bullsh!t!
Hell, I only watch CNNHN, DiscoveryHD, and HBO anyway...
JWK said:
And how about playing all the videos you have available? When they re-did the videos and added some new ones at the beginning of the month, some of the good videos went away. Like the "Hey Baby" video by No Doubt, and the Toto concert footage. I really liked both of those, and they are nowhere to be seen now. There are probably some other ones missing that were running that are missing now that I haven't really noticed as well.
I think VOOM fixed their picture problems, at least for the moment.
I watched "Changing Lanes" on Showtime West earlier, and other than some rain fade I got at the end, the picture was perfect all the way through. No blocks or problems. So, I started wondering how the other channels were looking. I surfed through the channels from about 3:00 am until about 3:50 am and every single HD channel looked awsome! No blocks or problems of any kind. I watched for things that I know would have created loads of compression artifacts before, and I wasn't seeing any. Until tonight, over the last several days, I was seeing tons of motion artifacts on everything. Tonight, I watched an explosion, splashing water, etc. and everything looked great. (I might have seen a tiny bit of pixilation on some water, but it was barely noticable.) All the channels really looked great! The resoluition really looked good, no problems at all!
So, did VOOM find and fix the problem? Will the channels stay perfect like this, or will they crap out again?
Also, earlier tonight shortly before these perfect picture channels, I thought my VOOM receiver had locked up (turned out that I had ended up on the wrong input on the A/V receiver). Anyway, I rebooted the VOOM receiver, so it is possible that the problems I was seeing occur after the receiver has been on for quite a while, and rebooting it cleared something out that fixed the video problems. I am hoping that VOOM just found and fixed the problems on their end, but in case it has to do with the reboot, I thought I'd mention that, too.
Sean Dudley
I watched "Changing Lanes" on Showtime West earlier, and other than some rain fade I got at the end, the picture was perfect all the way through. No blocks or problems. So, I started wondering how the other channels were looking. I surfed through the channels from about 3:00 am until about 3:50 am and every single HD channel looked awsome! No blocks or problems of any kind. I watched for things that I know would have created loads of compression artifacts before, and I wasn't seeing any. Until tonight, over the last several days, I was seeing tons of motion artifacts on everything. Tonight, I watched an explosion, splashing water, etc. and everything looked great. (I might have seen a tiny bit of pixilation on some water, but it was barely noticable.) All the channels really looked great! The resoluition really looked good, no problems at all!
So, did VOOM find and fix the problem? Will the channels stay perfect like this, or will they crap out again?
Also, earlier tonight shortly before these perfect picture channels, I thought my VOOM receiver had locked up (turned out that I had ended up on the wrong input on the A/V receiver). Anyway, I rebooted the VOOM receiver, so it is possible that the problems I was seeing occur after the receiver has been on for quite a while, and rebooting it cleared something out that fixed the video problems. I am hoping that VOOM just found and fixed the problems on their end, but in case it has to do with the reboot, I thought I'd mention that, too.
Sean Dudley
NewMexicoHostage said:Problem is, still no improvement in channels that actually display. You talk about pixelation, blockiness? I can't even get most channels to display.
...
Your issue sounds like you either have bad STB's or your dish is pointed pretty poorly.
yea, folks have had PQ issues, but no one has reported channels not coming in at all.
I wanna hear more on what SeanDudley posted!!!!!!!!
P.S. I dont have any problems getting ANY channels.
P.S. I dont have any problems getting ANY channels.
seandudley said:
That's promising and will check as well tonight. Last night I watched Cinema 10, "Just between friends" at around 7pm-8pm and saw some pixelation is fast moving action but otherwise the movied looked fine. These only lasted for a split second and only saw it one or two occassions in one hour of viewing. I then switched to Gallery HD and picture was fine. Half hour later switched to MOOV and the picture was outstanding in this channel. Half-hour later to Bravo-HD+ and again I did not see artifacts. I then switched to Cinemax to watch "A nightmare on Elm Street" . I saw part of it and did not see problems with it.
It looks like it is moving in the right direction. I did not reboot the stb, BTW. But the stb reboot is a good observation and I will try that as well.
Hmm Sean, is it just me or are you having a change of heart?
Hang in there, we will all look back and grin someday.
Hang in there, we will all look back and grin someday.
wasch_24 said:Hmm Sean, is it just me or are you having a change of heart?
Hang in there, we will all look back and grin someday.
Not a complete change of heart but I will stay as long as there is improvement.
