My observations New Customer
My first look at Voom was at Sears. What a stupid marketing strategy. They couldn't find dumber salesmen or a worst place to show what they had. Best Buy or Circuit City at least most of the time has salesman that know what HD is and what is available. Sears doesn't have a clue. I'm not alone on this many people in the the 4DTV group (Voom) has had similar results.
The next thing is although the installer was ok, they don't know anything about HD either. I had to coxe them to even put up the dish because they said I couldn't get the picture from my location because there were trees in the way. I found a spot on the roof by aiming my C-Band antenna at the Voom Satellite. They didnt know what satellite it was. I had to look it up on the net. They mounted it on the eve of the roof, laying the wire on the roof and I drilled a hole in my brick wall to get it in the house. They didn't even tape the wire to my antenna tower coming off the roof and then took the 2 extra coax cables for the hook up with them when they left. The only thing they did was mount the dish with 2 screws, aim it and drop the wire. I did everything else. Im using an OTA antenna with rotor on my tower. I did everything but mount and manually aim the dish but they got paid.
I had to make to Voom tech support about the locals and no guide. 1/2 hour wait for the first call. The first woman told me it was the FCC's fault that I couldn't get the guide for Ch 4 Dothan not theirs, that Ch 4 didn't provide a guide because I was out of their viewing area, (like they know where I live). I wasnt satisfied and called again, 20 min wait and got a knowledgeable guy that explained the mapping problem and why I would NOT get the guide. Another stupid decision by Voom. I get the guide from Tivo without problems.
Receiver:
NO searchable guide, even the first DTV had this feature.
NO analog TV tuner and NO pass through for the antenna connection.
I see 4 MAJOR problems with Voom. Their marketing, their technology, the lack of qualified knowledgeable people and programming. Sears and Motorola. What a combo.
I think Motorola has about the worst designed electronics equipment in the marketplace. I have a 4DTV, what a piece of crap. and Motorola's promises, promises, promises. I wouldn't expect to see a DVR anytime in the next 3 years unless they hire a new company to design it. I doubt Motorola can deliver and if they do it will be the klunkest DVR on the market. (my opinion)
I think at this time most of the HD marketplace is techies and most of who know more about HD than Voom.
I wanted Voom because I thought I could mearge all my junk into one box to make the wife happy and not have to keep switching sources.
If Voom had a DVR with a searchable database aka Tivo, an analog tuner, and the guide info for all the channels we could receive, analog and digital, and all the cheap stations and PPV aka DTV we would have something that would do it. One other thing that would be nice would be the ability to display 4:3 pictures in native resolution NOT stretched or letterbox. Right now If I choose boxed or whatever its called I get bars at the top and sides, so I get a 32" picture on my 61" TV and if I choose stretch I get letterbox stretch, not pretty. Now I have to use the Svideo output and another TV input. To View everything that's not in HD or it looks worse than DTV.
If Voom doesn't add those 35 channels before my 6 month commitment is up in May 2005 or deliver the promised DVR, Ill be gone also. I think Voom is a great idea with bad execution.
4DTV, Uniden Ultra, 2 C-Band dishes, DTV Tivo, DBS, Coship 3188C, Unity Motion 1000A HD receiver. Toshiba 61" HDTV, SA Tivo
My first look at Voom was at Sears. What a stupid marketing strategy. They couldn't find dumber salesmen or a worst place to show what they had. Best Buy or Circuit City at least most of the time has salesman that know what HD is and what is available. Sears doesn't have a clue. I'm not alone on this many people in the the 4DTV group (Voom) has had similar results.
The next thing is although the installer was ok, they don't know anything about HD either. I had to coxe them to even put up the dish because they said I couldn't get the picture from my location because there were trees in the way. I found a spot on the roof by aiming my C-Band antenna at the Voom Satellite. They didnt know what satellite it was. I had to look it up on the net. They mounted it on the eve of the roof, laying the wire on the roof and I drilled a hole in my brick wall to get it in the house. They didn't even tape the wire to my antenna tower coming off the roof and then took the 2 extra coax cables for the hook up with them when they left. The only thing they did was mount the dish with 2 screws, aim it and drop the wire. I did everything else. Im using an OTA antenna with rotor on my tower. I did everything but mount and manually aim the dish but they got paid.
I had to make to Voom tech support about the locals and no guide. 1/2 hour wait for the first call. The first woman told me it was the FCC's fault that I couldn't get the guide for Ch 4 Dothan not theirs, that Ch 4 didn't provide a guide because I was out of their viewing area, (like they know where I live). I wasnt satisfied and called again, 20 min wait and got a knowledgeable guy that explained the mapping problem and why I would NOT get the guide. Another stupid decision by Voom. I get the guide from Tivo without problems.
Receiver:
NO searchable guide, even the first DTV had this feature.
NO analog TV tuner and NO pass through for the antenna connection.
I see 4 MAJOR problems with Voom. Their marketing, their technology, the lack of qualified knowledgeable people and programming. Sears and Motorola. What a combo.
I think Motorola has about the worst designed electronics equipment in the marketplace. I have a 4DTV, what a piece of crap. and Motorola's promises, promises, promises. I wouldn't expect to see a DVR anytime in the next 3 years unless they hire a new company to design it. I doubt Motorola can deliver and if they do it will be the klunkest DVR on the market. (my opinion)
I think at this time most of the HD marketplace is techies and most of who know more about HD than Voom.
I wanted Voom because I thought I could mearge all my junk into one box to make the wife happy and not have to keep switching sources.
If Voom had a DVR with a searchable database aka Tivo, an analog tuner, and the guide info for all the channels we could receive, analog and digital, and all the cheap stations and PPV aka DTV we would have something that would do it. One other thing that would be nice would be the ability to display 4:3 pictures in native resolution NOT stretched or letterbox. Right now If I choose boxed or whatever its called I get bars at the top and sides, so I get a 32" picture on my 61" TV and if I choose stretch I get letterbox stretch, not pretty. Now I have to use the Svideo output and another TV input. To View everything that's not in HD or it looks worse than DTV.
If Voom doesn't add those 35 channels before my 6 month commitment is up in May 2005 or deliver the promised DVR, Ill be gone also. I think Voom is a great idea with bad execution.
4DTV, Uniden Ultra, 2 C-Band dishes, DTV Tivo, DBS, Coship 3188C, Unity Motion 1000A HD receiver. Toshiba 61" HDTV, SA Tivo
