Colorado Voomers

[UltraTim]

Armyman,

Welcome back to the CONUS. I live in the Springs and have had Voom since July. I have decided to drop the service this week and return back to adelphia cable. A hard choice but one which my wife and I had to make. My reasons follow:

In the Springs our OTA channel selection is not very good. We receive PBS ch8 (HD), ABC ch13 (Test mode, no HD programming, the station is only on M-F 5am - 10:35pm, S-S 3pm - 10:35pm), CBS ch11 (HD) and Fox ch21 (HD). As for our NBC affiliate ch5 as I might quote from their website: "KOAA currently does not have a construction permit (CP) from the FCC to begin construction of KOAA-DT (KOAA's HDTV).... Construction will begin immediately after the CP is received and we should be on the air in less than a year after that date. That all sucks! My wife is not into technology so she hates switching to regular antennae for NBC. The Olympics were not a happy time at my home, but that was not totally Vooms fault.

Further my wife and I have missed FoodTV, HGTV and our Fox Sports affiliate. I can't even catch a local football game either Air Force, Colorado or Colorado State. I cannot go thru BBall season without seeing the Nuggets. Bottom line, we are out of luck for any local "Colorado" sports.

I found Vooms Cinema channels mostly worthless. If you are into B movies then you may find some liking. Further Voom offers many hours of World Soccer (not my tea), and a dedicated channel to runway models and art gallery stuff. Just wasteful in my opinion. Those girls are far tooo skinny.

Lastly, the cost is way more than Adelphia for the amount of channels. Especially since I get a price break for broadband and cable. At the rate Voom adds channels they will catch Adelphia in about 2 years. I will miss Equator HD, BravoHD and NFLnet. But INHD 1 & 2 make up for them on Adelphia.

I hope this helps you make a decision. Cheers

 

[x1hdtv]

I do miss some of the Voom channels. I am also hoping D* will get the quality back up instead of HDlite. Some shows is not that noticeable. The football is also great. The HDTivo makes up for being able to watch when I want to. Just upgraded to 63 hours HD and 425 SD. The box is somewhat slower than my other tivo's. Overall my tv bill each month is less and the wife is happy.

 

[The Stone Man]

Oct 15---all set for game 3 of Yankees vs. Red Sox. Turn on the TV and switch to channel 31, and ........NO SIGNAL. Rain fade, I suppose. OTA signal strength was 82, but that ain't gonna get it. Maybe I can catch the end of the game.

Programming is back on at 8:49, so the game must be over. They must have blacked out their signal is my guess.

Checked Yahoo sports at 8:53....game rained out. Oh brother.

 

[The Stone Man]

OK guys. Twelve days without any Colorado activity. I saw where twodutys from Brighton is cancelling. My buddy slacker is back to D*. x1hdtv is out, and a bunch of others. Is there anyone left who is waiting out the rest of the year to see what happens?

 

[Couch Patato]

Well, I guess I'm kinda waiting. I've been happy so far. No real problems yet. Was getting pritty bad rain fade but I solved that by reaiming the dish. Picked up 3 pionts. That helped allot. It would be real nice to have a PVR by the end of the year though. Still taking odds on who will have one first. At least here in the Denver area. The 6412 or one from Voom.

 

[GEBrown]

I'm happy. I'm not planning on going anywhere. To the best of my knowledge, no other provider in Denver has an HD PVR, except the $1000 Tivo - plus service - YIKES!!! Comcast promises the world but doesn't deliver, the PQ of their "On Demand" service is HORRIBLE. The DISH 921 never panned out did it?

The comparative costs on other services for the SAME number of premium channels is a wash to me, and I get more HD channels than all the other providers combined.

Yes, Direct is promising more channels, DISH is promising an HD PVR, Comcast is promising an HD PVR, but that's all it is - PROMISES. If you subscribed to VOOM based on their promise of an HD PVR by October, well, I'm sorry, they aren't any better at keeping their promises than the rest of the industry.

My 2 cents!!

 

[The Stone Man]

Yes, Direct is promising more channels, DISH is promising an HD PVR, Comcast is promising an HD PVR, but that's all it is - PROMISES. If you subscribed to VOOM based on their promise of an HD PVR by October, well, I'm sorry, they aren't any better at keeping their promises than the rest of the industry.

That's an excellent observation. The DBS companies make as many promises as the political candidates do. At least Voom is not bombarding us with taped phone messages.

 

[GEBrown]

Firmware / Software Upgrade?

I guess my STB's got upgraded last night - all 3 were powered off when I woke up this morning and I had to unplug them and plug them back into the wall socket to get them to power up. I didn't check my firmware / software versions - can't keep up with them anyway!!!

I also noticed some of my settings were reset - so I'll have to fix them this evening.

Anyone else notice anything last night or recently?

Also, for those that don't follow, there's a big announcement about new channels over on the general voom forum.

My 2 cents

 

[The Stone Man]

Comcast has their DVR available in the Denver area now. DVR 6412, which is made by Motorola. I don't know anything about how good their service is, or what they offer for channel selection since I haven't had cable for years.

 

[GEBrown]

Waaahhhhhhhhh!!!

I still wouldn't go back to Comcast, but that box is dual tuner. The 120GB hard drive isn't too big, but it's bigger than the one I (don't) have!!!


Waaaahhhhhhhhh!!!!

 

[Couch Patato]

Well, I'm tired of recording HD stuff to a vcr & having to watch it in SD.

 

[x1hdtv]

I just wanted to drop in and say Hi to you guys.
I still check the threads out since I left voom. Seams things are going good with Voom. If they get a HDDVR going soon I will be thinking very hard about coming back. Directv is not moving fast on there new channels. Maybe after football season ends channels may get added. The HDtivo keeps me there now.

Wishing you and your family to have a safe and wonderful holiday season.

 

[GEBrown]

Merry Christmas

And Happy Holidays to ALL!!!

Enjoy your HD TV broadcasts over the weekend - Broncos on Saturday this week.

 

[The Stone Man]

I still wonder if we are the only three people in Colorado who still have Voom?
GEBrown
Couch Patato
Stone

Merry Christmas to everyone!!

 

[Couch Patato]

lol :d :d

 

[plyall]

Nope - I'm still here!

I'm still a a Voomer, but literally hanging on by a thread. I had 4 receivers (as well as 4 Echostar receivers) here. One of the Vooms failed outright, and I was considering dropping the count to 2. When I spoke to Voom, they told me that their HD channel count was going to approach 70 shortly after the new year - I have a very iffy feeling about that - it sounds like YAC (yet another carrot).

In the meantime, I have updated my Dish 6000 to a Dish 811 and subscribed to their HD package - what a waste - they too say that they will be bumping up their HD programming significantly in the short term, but I don't believe them.

I also had a call this morning from a telemarketer working for Dish offereing the 921 HD PVR at $549 installed. When I last looked into this piece of hardware, it was plagued with problems, and there was rumor that it would be replaced by a newer unit. Anybody have any more data on this?

Pete

 

[Wiltron]

I'm debating picking up Voom East of Colorado Springs. However, I am concerned that I may not be able to receive all the local channels clearly. I can receive the analog channels reasonably well with simple rabbit ears. According to what I've read about the antennae that Voom supplies and the distance to the transmitters (21 miles) I should be OK, but I'd like to hear about others experience and opinions on this. What do you think? I live in Falcon, CO.

 

[Wiltron]

FYI - the current promotion is $1 installation for up to 3 rooms (6 month contract).

 

[Wiltron]

Just looked back at post 239 from ultratrim. The current Voom promotion ends in March, I'll wait and see.

 

[The Stone Man]

Wiltron--wait a little while and see if the DVR gets closer to a reality, and see what happens with the new channels additions. If you order before the promotion ends, they will still give it to you for $1.

Plyall--I've read about the problems with the Dish 921, and their new model is supposed to be a 942. There are some threads in the Dish forum that pertain to their DVR. Not too many happy posters who bought the 921. Especially the ones who paid $999 on one day, and watched the price drop to $549 the next day.