CEDIA-2004: VOOM
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Not having a DVR on display at a huge conference like this says it all. My God, I've seen a 2035 Lexus in Minority Report, I've seen a bear ride a unicycle at the circus! You telling me Voom is so far behind in their DVR production that they could not find one prototype to have at their booth to give their 30,000 faithful some hope for the future. Scary 
I think Voom made a HUGE miscalculation and ran into a huge snag with their roll out, and they don't want us to know about it. So we'll be hearing it's coming next month for maybe another year. And maybe for the better, none of us wants a bug infested box that doesn't work just to say we have DVR.
And this is my only plea:
Voom, the home solution is a great idea and will put us on the map for good. But until that comes out just go ahead and give us a regular DVR. We'll pay for an upgrade later when you iron out the issues with the home solution. We're starving, let us eat a sandwich until the Fillet Mignon is finished. Thank You!
I think Voom made a HUGE miscalculation and ran into a huge snag with their roll out, and they don't want us to know about it. So we'll be hearing it's coming next month for maybe another year. And maybe for the better, none of us wants a bug infested box that doesn't work just to say we have DVR.
And this is my only plea:
Voom, the home solution is a great idea and will put us on the map for good. But until that comes out just go ahead and give us a regular DVR. We'll pay for an upgrade later when you iron out the issues with the home solution. We're starving, let us eat a sandwich until the Fillet Mignon is finished. Thank You!
Bit late, but was anything said about using the existing boxes as thin clients? Or incorporating them in any way?
Very, very disapointed on the firewire. Wilt kept saying it would be there.
Very, very disapointed on the firewire. Wilt kept saying it would be there.
Ilya said:Yes, we talked about FireWire. It's still being discussed, but at this point they are not planning to have it.Technically this is easy to do, but they are concerned about content protection. Again, these are primarily sales people, and they are not necessarily up-to-date on this.
Wilt said yes, sales says no... I'd be more inclined to believe the guy who's probably actually "seen" some hardware, that would be Wilt. Again he could be wrong if they received heat about leaving a potential piracy gate open. It seems moot, with the whole home solution you could have the feeds going to a PC couldn't you? Makes no sense to including the firewire just to keep customers happy.
I hope they have re-considered self installs. If Voom insists on sending an installer to deliver the DVR they would be wasting a lot of time and money they could use else ware.
My guess is that many of you are like myself and installed your own STB's while the installer assembled the antenna. If Voom did send an installer for the DVR we would install the STB's ourselves while the guy waited on us to give him back any returning STB's.
That being said, I too would love to Beta test the whole house DVR. I have a wired house with broadband, 10/100BaseTx network with a minimum 2 RG6's and 3 Cat5e's to each room. All cables are home run to a 19" rack mount patch panels. My background is in computers, electronics, and industrial controls.
My guess is that many of you are like myself and installed your own STB's while the installer assembled the antenna. If Voom did send an installer for the DVR we would install the STB's ourselves while the guy waited on us to give him back any returning STB's.
That being said, I too would love to Beta test the whole house DVR. I have a wired house with broadband, 10/100BaseTx network with a minimum 2 RG6's and 3 Cat5e's to each room. All cables are home run to a 19" rack mount patch panels. My background is in computers, electronics, and industrial controls.
I believe I asked at least one VOOM rep about this and he wasn't sure (just didn't know)...madpoet said:
Remember, even if it will be supported in hardware and software, it will still be a business decision whether to enable it or not. (Current STB has a USB port, but it doesn't mean you can use it!)Dvlos said:
As I mentioned earlier, currently they are not planning to do any video streaming to or from the PC (even if the PC integration will be supported at all). So, the presence of the FireWire interface is essential for video archiving.
Scott Greczkowski said:
Hmmm... why? 100Mbit is roughly 12MB/s... a newer CF card can serve out this...
If you use SCSI drives, you can even play the simultaneously.
I would like VOOM to provide firewire enable ports on all the equipment, but I would be very surprised to see it happen. Hmmm. Let's see what firewire enabled devices I own: 2 HDTVs, D-VHS, Sony Camcorder, PC and A/V Receiver...oh, and the Cable Company is going to install a firewire enabled HD DVR this week.
No Firewire = Huge Mistake IMO
No Firewire = Huge Mistake IMO
Isnt this the second show with a DVR mockup where the whole thing is run by a PC? No prototype?, no sd client?...........hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. The whole thing reminds me of that astronaut movie where they faked the trip.
Well if people start copying HD movies and HD shows to the PC and distrubuting them up and down the internet the Firewire port will come into question...at least that's how the people who spawned the RIAA will view it. Never mind that people who do that, are doing that now anyway.
Enough with the DVR talk. It's going in circles. I would like to know what was said about the following as well.
1. New programming
2. MPEG4 or WM9 update (I saw that there was a hint of MPEG4 before end of year)
3. Will they just add more channels or will they effectively increase the bit-rate to improve PQ?
4. Is the new dish ready and when will it start to be installed. If I read correctly, programming on the new satellite may not start until after the first of the year?
1. New programming
2. MPEG4 or WM9 update (I saw that there was a hint of MPEG4 before end of year)
3. Will they just add more channels or will they effectively increase the bit-rate to improve PQ?
4. Is the new dish ready and when will it start to be installed. If I read correctly, programming on the new satellite may not start until after the first of the year?
1. New programming: RSN Cleveland was supposed to be launched last Friday but has been delayed again. Should be coming soon. Nothing else has been mentioned.
2. As I already mentioned MPEG4 (and perhaps WM9) is the highest priority right now. Should be released this year, or Q1'2005 - the latest.
3. For sure add more channels. Didn't say anything on bit-rate: too early to speculate on this, let's first see how MPEG4 looks like.
4. I wouldn't expect new satellite to go live in October. Q1'2005 is a more realistic expectation. Initially, it will be used for testing. How soon the dish will start shipping depends on results of that initial testing.
2. As I already mentioned MPEG4 (and perhaps WM9) is the highest priority right now. Should be released this year, or Q1'2005 - the latest.
3. For sure add more channels. Didn't say anything on bit-rate: too early to speculate on this, let's first see how MPEG4 looks like.
4. I wouldn't expect new satellite to go live in October. Q1'2005 is a more realistic expectation. Initially, it will be used for testing. How soon the dish will start shipping depends on results of that initial testing.
So basically this show is a big waste of time with no real answers and a PC driven fake DVR display?
Yes and No. We were hoping to get more news from VOOM and other satellite providers, and we were looking for the latest toys, like VOOM's DVR, the new satellite dish from DirectTV and the 942 from Dish, but none were shown. On the other hand, it was great to talk to people from VOOM and other companies, establish contacts and bring everyone's attention to this forum. I don't think I wasted my time (or my money for that mattervurbano said:
) and I am looking forward to doing this again next year.I think everyone on these forums has the same thought, will they simply mail out MPEG4/WM9 modules for us to do a simple self-install on this. Like you said, I would like to know what/why Voom's pushing the module first, I'd rather see it used to maybe get HGTV, Lifetime, and G4Tech for the people who've posted here about it so much, but mainly to free up more bandwidth for the HD channels they do have.
While you guys were up there did you mention that several feel they should drop waste channels like 999, MOOV, and Auction? Or combine some of these channels and give more b/w to certain channels that way?
While you guys were up there did you mention that several feel they should drop waste channels like 999, MOOV, and Auction? Or combine some of these channels and give more b/w to certain channels that way?
Whether the MPEG4 upgrade will be mailed to us directly or whether installers will be dispatched - not clear yet. But in any case, it's just a PCMCIA card add-on.
As for what "several feel" VOOM should do, I can tell you one thing: VOOM keeps an eye on this forum and your voices are heard!
As for what "several feel" VOOM should do, I can tell you one thing: VOOM keeps an eye on this forum and your voices are heard!
Sure would like to see them start mailing out modules etc. If only to be reassured that they are going to make an effort to survive and not close their doors prematurely before the funding runs out.
Perhaps they will be ready to demo the DVR on the Linux PC/Server they've been toting to these trade shows. Ugh! I'm sorry, but I was hoping the DVR would be unvailed this past weekend.Ilya said:
Questions:
Have beta versions of this box been produced?
If so, how long have these boxes been in beta testing?
