New channels coming soon?
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Voom has worked around the locals issue by providing the OTA antenna as part of their service. It doesn't help in all situations (where the customer is too far from the broadcasters to get a signal or where local broadcasters do not transmit HD) but at least it isn't completely ignoring important channels.
D* and E* have survived for many years not providing locals to many of their subscribers. Most of their receivers don't even tune OTA channels and they don't provide antennas for OTA as "part of the service". There is no way that I'd say that locals are REQUIRED for Voom to survive ... although HD locals are on both E*'s and D*'s desirable channel list. They are both working in that direction.
The bigger hole in Voom's channels are the RSNs ... I wonder if they are being considered? As for now I have not seen them on one of Voom's coming soon lists here in the forums.
JL
D* and E* have survived for many years not providing locals to many of their subscribers. Most of their receivers don't even tune OTA channels and they don't provide antennas for OTA as "part of the service". There is no way that I'd say that locals are REQUIRED for Voom to survive ... although HD locals are on both E*'s and D*'s desirable channel list. They are both working in that direction.
The bigger hole in Voom's channels are the RSNs ... I wonder if they are being considered? As for now I have not seen them on one of Voom's coming soon lists here in the forums.
JL
JoeSp said:
So, let me understand this: you love HD. Voom is really the only provider to offfer any significant number of HD channels. But because they don't offer the HD locals that you can't get OTA, you have decided that you will spite your face and will not sign up for all of the other HD offerings on Voom?
And yep, I get all the locals, all in HD, and I do not watch them. I really don't know that many people that watch network TV. For TV, I pretty much watch only the Voom HD exclusives. They are that good. HBO has some good exclusive stuff, but much less than Voom. Most of the rest is not worth the time, IMHO.
But everyone has their own taste. Nevertheless, if you want good HD, Voom is the only game in town.
GreatMac said:
I cant blame him. If I couldnt get local HD OTA I would be looking at cable and D*.
I beg your pardon:, Does " D " have Local's in "HD", or does his cable company offer all of the Local's in "HD", You might not know this but Most Cable companies do not offer all Locals in "HD", so why not stay with Voom until they do.vurbano said:
kelljc said:
I know most cable companies dont carry all local HD stations mine doesnt either. But they do carry 2 or 3 of the 7 available here and that is better than zero. And the recent defeat of the NAB in congress on the cable digital must carry issue will help get those locals on cable if congress sets a firm analog cut off date. As for Voom, are you that gullable to believe that Voom is going to carry HDLIL anytime soon? Voom doesnt even have a plan for survival past 3/31/05 let alone carrying HDLIL. As for D* they are launching 3 satellites, 2 this spring/summer to do just that. Their tentative launch dates are already up on the sea launch website.
Again if you cant recieve local HD OTA Voom is not for you, look at cable and D*.
I find it amusing how those who can get all of their otas in hd can be so smug about it in relation to those of us who cannot. I cannot get my local NBC station and I will not leave Voom because of it, but I do not blame anybody who does feel they need to leave under those circumstances.
What I choose to watch on tv is for the content, not simply because it is in hd. I do not watch a lot of the Voom exclusives and I do watch network tv regularly. Why do I have Voom? Because I can get most of what I watched on cable plus hd channels for just a little more than what I paid for cable. If Voom goes under, well life goes on.
Those who can only bring themselves to watch hd, regardless of the content, will have much fewer choices though. I have a teenager who is a color snob and is convinced that everything in color is better that b&w, regardless of the content.
What I choose to watch on tv is for the content, not simply because it is in hd. I do not watch a lot of the Voom exclusives and I do watch network tv regularly. Why do I have Voom? Because I can get most of what I watched on cable plus hd channels for just a little more than what I paid for cable. If Voom goes under, well life goes on.
Those who can only bring themselves to watch hd, regardless of the content, will have much fewer choices though. I have a teenager who is a color snob and is convinced that everything in color is better that b&w, regardless of the content.
2cents
I think sometimes people who do get all the OTA are a little smug......and may overrate how many actually are able to get them all (I only get FOX in occasionally, and CBS is a little buggy).
I also think that getting the networks is overrated. What I mean by this is we "think" we "really" "need" them and stress about not having them, but in reality there are MUCH better choices, much better programming on cable/satellite channels than on the networks. The networks do provide local news (there is such thing as a newspaper), which is important, and you may like some network shows, but the quality of them are pretty weak IMO. I mean, do we really need to watch the lame "Everyone Loves Raymond", or the doubly lame "Joey". ER is a nice show, but how many ER's are there? The only shows I would truly miss are SNL, LOST and American Dreams. What if the networks all created stations like UniversalHD where they showed just their top shows in HD on their affiliated cable/satellite channels throughout the week......NOW, that would be cool! I see sports moving to cable/satellite exclusively anyway...so that would solve NFLSundays...
Its just a thought....
I think sometimes people who do get all the OTA are a little smug......and may overrate how many actually are able to get them all (I only get FOX in occasionally, and CBS is a little buggy).
I also think that getting the networks is overrated. What I mean by this is we "think" we "really" "need" them and stress about not having them, but in reality there are MUCH better choices, much better programming on cable/satellite channels than on the networks. The networks do provide local news (there is such thing as a newspaper), which is important, and you may like some network shows, but the quality of them are pretty weak IMO. I mean, do we really need to watch the lame "Everyone Loves Raymond", or the doubly lame "Joey". ER is a nice show, but how many ER's are there? The only shows I would truly miss are SNL, LOST and American Dreams. What if the networks all created stations like UniversalHD where they showed just their top shows in HD on their affiliated cable/satellite channels throughout the week......NOW, that would be cool! I see sports moving to cable/satellite exclusively anyway...so that would solve NFLSundays...
Its just a thought....
This OTA HD issue is something all Voomers need to understand. As it could possibly be a major reason why Voom may fail if it fails. Not having SD LIL or HD LIL available by satellite (of course no one has HD yet but its coming) limits the possible pool of potential Voom subs to only areas where OTA HD reception is good. This is easily seen in Vooms churn rate. For the short term what Voom needs to do , or what they should have done from the beginning was to reduce the 21 exclusives to 14 and offer 7 HD DNS feeds to those with no OTA reception. That would open up the entire country as a potential Voom subs. It was very poor planning not to do that. Not just poor, "bonehead" IMO. IMO Voom could have traded 10 cinema channels, Moov, 46k customers for 5 cinema channels running twice the movies, 500,000 subs,HD DNS and a much more stable future.
A second round of letters to Dolan
There should be a second round of letters that offer our ideas for the future of VoOm and Vurbano's should be #1.
Eighty percent of my families viewing is OTA and I am fortunate that I live in an area that lets me get VoOm and utilize their OTA/SAT stb.
VoOm needs to do some hard research to find the unserved. HD, OTA, poor cable, all the various niches that will add up to a large profitable market.
P. S. That is why, unfortunately, adding the SD's are also important.
There should be a second round of letters that offer our ideas for the future of VoOm and Vurbano's should be #1.
Eighty percent of my families viewing is OTA and I am fortunate that I live in an area that lets me get VoOm and utilize their OTA/SAT stb.
VoOm needs to do some hard research to find the unserved. HD, OTA, poor cable, all the various niches that will add up to a large profitable market.
P. S. That is why, unfortunately, adding the SD's are also important.
I would equate Vooms situation without DNS to being in a bass fishing tournament with no boat and only being able to fish from a pier while D* is out moving all around the lake fishing for HD subs with their HD DNS feeds.
The G4 TECHTV from Canada please. Leo currently has his "Call For help" show on the Canadian version. No way I knowwhtsantafe said:1. G4 TECHTV
jnardone said:
wow 95% can get one. Thats gonna bring in subs ... Not.
75% can recieve 4 does a lot of good if 7 are up there, if I had to do without 3 or even 1 I would be looking somewhere else..... And then theres the aesthetic wife factor. Furthermore, the digital OTA signals are very unreliable and difficult to pick up. Subject to leaves moving, tropospheric ducting, hills, line of sight, buildings, aluminum siding, temperature changes etc etc. Not to mention the excessive UHF power required compared to VHF frequencies.
I find the grade B contours used for digital reception to be laughable in this area. Even at 19 miles from the transmitters I need a medium/large Yagi, a rotor and an amp to pick up a supposedly full power station located on the same towers as the rest of the stations. All stations are on two towers with only 6-7 degrees difference at 19 miles and I need a rotor and an amp? If its this hard for me I pity the rest. IMO the state of digital OTA is a joke and if your numbers are based on maps of contours which is the only thing they could be based on they may be better used for toilet paper.
Voom needs HD DNS.
dlm10541 said:Wow! If I lived in your area I'd sell my TVs and revert to watching the grass growor maybe a ship being built--nothing works for you does it?
I guess you cant read or comprehend. Everything works for me. Maybe you incorrectly ASSume that I am just bitching about something that affects me. Maybe you cant comprehend the idea of someone thinking about the difficulties others?
I get ABCHD, NBCHD, CBSHD, PBSHD, WBHD, UPNHD, FOXHD OTA just fine but with a lot of add ons to a basic antenna. And if I have to go through those kinds of measures at 20 miles it says something about the conclusions people draw from the grade B contours. They are unreliable when it comes to digital TV.
I live 25 miles from most local stations and get them all at 99 with just a small conventional TV antenna in the attic. I'm using the UHF section of the Stealth antenna (took the VHF elements off completely) that Voom provided to get several UHF stations that are 40 miles away and 90 degrees off axis of my main antenna, and they too come in fine at 95+. I'm using a cheap splitter as a combiner.vurbano said:
As a former radio and TV broadcast engineer, I don't understand why so many people seem to have problems with OTA. It's not rocket science, and how do you think everybody got their TV before satellite and cable?
techweb said:
Mostly VHF as I recall, UHF sucked. Still does. Basically most people werent trying to pick them up on UHF. You are lucky, location and surroundings seem to dictate the success digital reception. Infact some of my local broadcasters have already stated they will go back to VHF after the transition to save power costs and increase reliability. I know people that pick up all of the stations around here just fine at 50-60 miles away. That still doesnt say anything about the reliability of digital signals. What it says is they are in a great location away from anything that may cause multipathing issues. Buit Im not surprised by the negative responses so far because as Voom subscribers we compromise a group that can successfully recieve OTA. A group of only 46k, the rest dont sign up or they quit.
You have a Valid point but being a engineer you know that buildings break up the signal, I live 5 miles south of columbus, and like another poster must use a AMP and 60mile UHF ant, to receive every Columbus Channel, by daughter lives in Chillicothe and with a inside Rabbit's ears get's them all, It all depends where you live and what is around you House, and if that's in error tell me a way and I'll do it today.techweb said:
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