Larger dish

[Gr8Reb8]

Had tv on for about 3 hours now and not one pixelation. Still old software so I know the dish made major improvement. Best 40 dollars I could of spent. Went and picked up dish so I didn't have to pay 40 dollar shipping. Took me about 40 minutes from start to finish to change dish. That includes trip to hardware store because I was missing a cariage bolt. Hopefully with this and the software update I'll have a fairly stable setup now. Just need ESPN now.

My 30" dish was $70 including shipping. See post #10 in this thread for my procedure for getting it installed. It was really painless.

I agree that it was worth the money and effort. I would be cancelling Voom if I still had the 18" dish. Every time it got cloudy, and here it happens a lot, I would get pixelations and watching the HD channels was painful.

 

[pmalve]

Ok you are over my head now. I just put up bigger dish and got stronger signal. Good enough for me.

 

[GeneWildershair]

I'm curious to find out what the signals of those who have larger dishes will be, after the software upgrade? I mean since those who had high 40's, are getting 90's now, shouldn't those who are getting 80's now, get well into the 100's? This new signal measurement just doesn't sound right to me yet. Almost as if they are trying to pacify those of us with *noticeable* problems thru signal issues, by bumping them up to higher numbers. in any case it would be interesting to know what kind of signals those of you with big dishes get after the install.

 

[Ken F]

This new signal measurement just doesn't sound right to me yet. Almost as if they are trying to pacify those of us with *noticeable* problems thru signal issues, by bumping them up to higher numbers. in any case it would be interesting to know what kind of signals those of you with big dishes get after the install.

I think the purpose is two fold. For one, it provides installers a sense of familiarity, with a ~100 being a good signal on Dish, DirecTV, and now VOOM. With some luck, more installers will strive for a ~100 signal thanks to this update. In addition, it helps to assure former Dish and DirecTV customers, who are accustomed to such signal numbers, that there is nothing wrong with their installation.

 

[GeneWildershair]

I think the purpose is two fold. For one, it provides installers a sense of familiarity, with a ~100 being a good signal on Dish, DirecTV, and now VOOM. With some luck, more installers will strive for a ~100 signal thanks to this update. In addition, it helps to assure former Dish and DirecTV customers, who are accustomed to such signal numbers, that there is nothing wrong with their installation.

understood, but I am just curious how they come to those figures...40's being 90's now? If they are going on a scale of a 100, will they just give everyone over a 50 a 100 signal? So even folks getting in the 80's before the update, will be at the same signal quality at those with 50? Again the whole thing just doesn't sound right to me for some reason. I'm not trying to knock VOOM, or anything, I would just like to understand it a bit more that's all.

 

[Ken F]

Gene,

IIRC, someone indicated a ~105 signal with the new software, so I don't believe it's limited to 100. Until we get more reports on the software, we can't really determine how they've changed the scale. Perhaps it was just doubled. Or perhaps VOOM decided on some target signal level for current boxes and scaled that to 100 or some other figure.

 

[Gr8Reb8]

I have a 30" dish. I was getting a signal quality of up to 89 and signal strength of 76 before the software upgrade. This morning, I did get the software upgrade and did a quick check of the signal quality and signal strength numbers. The signal quality was at 99 and the signal strength was at 76. So the strength number appears to be the same as before. I guess we will have to figure out what the quality number is when the picture will start breaking up. It used to be around 30, perhaps now it is 50 or 60.

 

[GeneWildershair]

I have a 30" dish. I was getting a signal quality of up to 89 and signal strength of 76 before the software upgrade. This morning, I did get the software upgrade and did a quick check of the signal quality and signal strength numbers. The signal quality was at 99 and the signal strength was at 76. So the strength number appears to be the same as before. I guess we will have to figure out what the quality number is when the picture will start breaking up. It used to be around 30, perhaps now it is 50 or 60.

No I'd say 70's for break ups, as folks with signals in the 30's before, now are getting low 80's. That's my guess. So I figure everyone with 80's or more should be fine, anything under...*not so good*

 

[grumpy1]

My signal quality before the update maxed out at 28 and I've been waiting for better weather before allowing the installer to climb back up on my roof.
My signal quality now is at 80. The sky has been pretty clear here today and I am now receiving an OTA channel that was previously out of range [for the 10 days that I've had VOOM]. Did the update actually improve signal quality or just change the scale? That is the question.

 

[DarrellP]

I've had a 24" dish for Dish network pointing at 61.5 for about 3 years now and I had the installer use that dish and put his LNB on it and it works great. Living in the Northwest with an 11 degree elevation and using the 18" dish, I was constantly losing the signal and now I only lose it during a hard rain. I still have the Dish HD Pack and local OTA as backup should Voom crap out for awhile.

Will Voom still tune in the local OTA if it cannot get a sat signal?

 

[ahroberts]

I took my larger dish that was provided with my E* dish 500 setup and put it on the Voom arm and LNBF. My signal went from 37 to 54 and I have much less pixelation, especially with Discovery HD

 

[mike123abc]

How does error correction work on a unidirectional stream? Only thing I could see would be sending down some crc/parity information with each frame and the STB would check the frame it received and try and correct things within the scope of that frame. It seems like that would require some major bandwidth overhead though.

They use 2 methods, Reed Soloman (sp?) for Burst error correction and Forward Error Correction for static type errors. Voom is currently using 5/6 FEC or for 5 bits of data they send 6 bits. RS is 188/204 or 188 bits is encoded at 204. On the 8PSK transponders for Dishnetwork they use 2/3 FEC, or for 2 bits they send 3.

So VOOM running 22msym/sec 5/6 FEC 188/204 RS gives them 16.895 msym/sec. Since they use 8PSK they get 3 bits per symbol or 50.685 mbit/sec. If there was no error correction they would get 66mbit/sec.

 

[pmalve]

I'm curious to find out what the signals of those who have larger dishes will be, after the software upgrade? I mean since those who had high 40's, are getting 90's now, shouldn't those who are getting 80's now, get well into the 100's? This new signal measurement just doesn't sound right to me yet. Almost as if they are trying to pacify those of us with *noticeable* problems thru signal issues, by bumping them up to higher numbers. in any case it would be interesting to know what kind of signals those of you with big dishes get after the install.

I recieved my upgrade last night. My signal went from 80 to 98. Before larger dish I was getting High 30's low 40's. All I know is signal seems more stable with larger dish. Maybe with new software they don't need as strong a signal and that is why everyones readings are going up. Might be their way to make receivers more stable. Receiver was locked up this morning though, first time since I had it. That worrys me.