Improvement Wish List for Voom

[GeneWildershair]

We watch 2 regular shows on the SciFi channel.
Stargate SG1, Andromeda, and sometimes
Trippin the Rift. Lately trippin has been very vulgar - (it is a mindless, sexual oriented cartoon. I am quite surprized at what they can get away with on Trippin.)

The best part of SciFi is the movies, all scifi oriented.
They run movies just about every other day.

Those shows don't appeal to me, and I get my movie fix in HD with all the other movie channels that VOOM offers. So I guess I'm not missing much with Sci Fi then.

 

[Ken F]

I also have to put in my 2cents for the SciFi channel... I was extremely disappointed when I realized that it wasn't there. I didn't notice that in the channel lineup prior to ordering, because it is something that has been included in just about any basic sattleite/cable service for the last 10 years. I hate the idea of having to pay for cable also just to get SciFi, so I will be missing some of my favorite shows... grrr....

Sci Fi just has reruns of Stargate now. The next season of Stargate: SG1 and first season of Stargate: Atlantis premiere on July 16. The first season of the new Battlestar Galactica is also expected this fall.

I could care less about Sci Fi now, but if they don't have it on July 16, I'll be disappointed.

 

[Videofx]

They better get it by July 16. I do not want to pay for D* just for the SciFi channel

Bill

 

[golem]

1. pvr + more updates for current stb
2. nba league pass for next season
3. fill in the SD holes.. RSNs, WGN, SciFi (Battlestar looks good), MTV2
4. HD PPV (maybe replace some of the Cinema10 with it?)
5. INHD/HDnet/more HD!

 

[giveuspurehd]

need better surfbar

i think the surfbar should be incorporated with the favorites.i also think the favrites should be flipable.i also would like more than 1 favorites.more hd and only the best sd.also why would channels like tdchd have a logo screen?i like the fact voom refrained from that.i think that would be ok if you did not have any type of channel guide but i think most people know what channel they are tuned into.i also would like to see a no rental fee on the stb if you get the vavavoom package.we plan to upgrade in a month or so.we stopped renting and buying movies so it would be worthwhile to get the vavoom package.i figure we probably spend anywhere from $20-$60 a month buying or renting movies.now i want to watch them in hd and dump the dvd player.do any of you know how the audio through voom compares to that of a high end dvd player?all in all im excited to be apart of something that has so much potential.thanks voom.

 

[Ken F]

My wish lists...

Set-top Box & Remote Wish List

1. Add OTA scanning, with channel mapping ability for primary and secondary markets (ex: DC & Baltimore stations).
2. Add point-antenna screen or other means to easily access OTA signal strength to aid in antenna pointing.
3. Eliminate stutters on both locals and satellite channels.
4. When displaying guide, move to current channel, rather than channel 100.
5. Using channel up/down should always skip channels that you don't subscribe to -- it should not give the user a black screen, as it does now.
6. Add at least two more favorites lists; pressing favorites button while guide is up would cycle between them.
7. Better support for 4:3 HD displays. Described here.
8. Show channel logos in guide. For example, when HBO channel is selected in the guide, show the HBO logo on the top-left of the screen (just above the program description), rather than the VOOM logo.
9. Add option to hide channels that you don't subscribe to.
10. In Program Planner, make sure the box will power itself on and set auto-tune (not remind) as the default. Also add daily and weekly settings.
11. When on a channel, only a single Info button press should be required to bring up info -- not two presses.
12. Enable the red, green, and yellow buttons so they can be used to actually surf among exclusives, channels showing HD, and the current favorites without having to bring up another menu first. For example, yellow button for favorites should work just like favorites button on Scientific Atlanta boxes when pressed before bringing up a menu.
13. Modify VOOM button behavior to bring up the last selected guide/channel configuration when it is pressed while watching a channel; have the VOOM button display the VOOM menu when it is pressed from the channel guide.
14. Faster guide scrolling -- you shouldn't see it refreshing as you scroll.
15. Add option for translucent VOOM guide. This would display guide information for more channels at once (8?), but without picture window in corner.
16. Make better use of BCM703x's 3D capabilities. Right now, everything is 2D. Refine the look of the guide and menus to make them more 3D, if it can be done without slowing responsiveness. The guide and menus should look like more modern than customer's old SD box from Dish or digital cable. As it is now, the look of the guide pales in comparison to three-year old Sony DirecTV STBs.
17. Add an aspect mode to crop the bars off content upconverted--with bars--by the networks. This would allow for stretching of this content on widescreen displays, and full-screen display on 4:3 displays. Enable the * button on the remote for aspect changes.
18. Add option for black or grey bars.
19. Display third line of program subscription.

Programming Wish List

1. Significantly improve SD quality, at expense of some additional SD capacity, with the move to MPEG-4. VOOM isn't a service like Dish or DirecTV oriented toward consumers with 25-27" televisions. VOOM is a service marketed toward HD viewers, a significant percentage of which have larger displays. Better SD quality is very difficult to market to those with 25-27" screens, but those with 42"-60" screens recognize the importance of SD quality. Significantly better SD quality than competition will reduce churn and attract existing satellite and digital cable customers; SD quality worse than competition will increase churn.
2. If bandwidth allows, add SciFi in time for new seasons of Stargate: SG1 and Stargate: Atlantis on July 16.
3. Add TechTV, FOOD, HGTV, Discovery Science, shopping channels (to offset some of new programming costs), other most common requests, and possibly RSNs in SD after move to MPEG-4.

Elliptical Dish Wish List

1. Don't make larger dish mandatory, but give customers compelling reasons to adopt the new dish.
2. Don't take away anything customer has now with small dish.
3. Add SciFi, TechTV, FOOD, HGTV, Discovery Science, shopping channels (to offset some of new programming costs), other most common requests, and RSNs to new dish, until the MPEG-4 upgrade is deployed. After MPEG-4 is deployed, move these channels to the small dish.
4. Add RSNs in HD (when available) to the larger dish.
5. Add some HD PPVs to the larger dish.
6. Add premium sports packages (MLB Extra Innings, NHL Center Ice), in HD if available, to the large dish.
7. If new Marque HD channels are added to larger dish, keep January 1 price increase on VaVaVoom package to a minimum (i.e. no more than $5), so as not to significantly impact customers that elect to stay with smaller dish.
8. After upgrade to MPEG-4/WM9 for HD in late 2005, move the major new Marquee HD additions back to small dish -- depending on large dish adoption rate.
9. Consider pricing structure in this post.

 

[dalbolgt]

1. I would love to rid my menu of unwanted channels!!!
2. Be able to surf the favorite menu (See Number 1)
3. I may lose my voom due to families concerns on the menu. Please fix asap
4. Multiple favorite's menu's

 

[dfwarner]

The weather channel(408) shows the local weather every 10 minutes on the 8's. On cable systems this local weather is actual local weather for the nearest city. On Voom this is a generic local weather with all large cities in North America. I would hope Voom would be able to use the local channel code to give the correct local area weather.

 

[Hi-Vac]

I agree with all of the great ideas / improvements posted here, but I am supprised to see that knowone mentoned the fact that when you have the program guide up, you only see two lines of the description, when there is actually three lines of copy.

For example "*** Comedy / Drama When Tony (male actors name) develops
an interest in Sandy's (female actors name) silicone.........."


And if you go to the full description (by changing the channel, and pressing the info button twice!) you might see the third line as this.

" based automobile car wax business."