Placed my Order! Plus got some info.

[Ken F]

If I told the installer to just tap into these, would he do it or would he insist on mounting some new dish in the center of my yard or drill new holes through my roof?

The installer will certainly let you use your own OTA antenna -- they are advised to let the customer use their own pre-installed antenna. As far as the satellite dish, I'm sure you could convince the installer to try it with the existing connections. And if it works (as it will), then it works.

VOOM differs from Dish slightly in that the signal must be peaked to ensure reliable service. If a stronger signal is needed, encourage him to repoint the existing dish. If he insists on using the VOOM dish at that point, insist that all existing cabling is re-used. Point out where the cable runs into the house, etc.

 

[Indy]

When I signed up for Voom last month, the csr told me the price for the VaVaVoom pak would remain locked through 2004, but the lock did not apply to the Voom pak. I am pretty sure that is how I remember the info and that is why I signed up for the VaVaVoom pak.

 

[vinnyv07]

If they add another couple of HD ch's Im with the increase. Before VOOM I really had nothing to watch in HD. VOOm has given me alot of programming to watch. Since being a VOOMer they have added ESPNHD and included Disc HD in their lowest pack. Thye have added Fox News ch and they Im sure will add more. Is it really a suprise that the lowest pack will go up? I dont understand how they could keep on adding ch's without raising the $$$. Just keep adding everything to the lowest package without any increases? If VOOm adds TNTHD and a couple of more HD or SD ch's like Sci FI ...they deserve to raise the package. 39.99 is a bargin. Remember the 10 bucks rental fee wouldnt be if you bought the HD receiver.

 

[TheForce]

"VOOM differs from Dish slightly in that the signal must be peaked to ensure reliable service."
Huh?

Thanks Ken. I'm sure my 61.5 Dish is yielding a better signal strength than any smaller dish. On the Dish receivers it pegs the meter at 125 while the Dish 500 only hits 110. I will need to make another run of cable for this Voom though. I don't want the Voom guy routing a cable outside my installed antenna feed path I set up to the HT room. They scheduled me for May 27th install. I signed up for the cheapo package plus the extras I don't get with the other guys, Cinemax HD, Starz, and Playboy HD. I decided I'd carry it now since they no longer require a contract and no-longer require the big upfront cost. Used a real credit card too! If the other guys get those channels I'll drop them off of the VOOM package.
Now I'll be with 4 providers. I must be obsessive compulsive when it comes to HDTV!

 

[nicklew98]

Made the jump also

I've been lurking here for a while now, and decided to make the jump to Voom as well. Install date will be the 26th of May. I figure, why spend a couple grand on an HDTV and then not support the format? I only hope the OTA antenna can pull in the stations, as I'm 50 miles south of Indianapolis area...

 

[FunkyBoss]

Now I'll be with 4 providers. I must be obsessive compulsive when it comes to HDTV!

Wow, that's hardcore!

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

Nicklew98, I think you are going to like VOOM, as Don King once said, without VOOM your HDTV is just a TV.

 

[occammd]

I think one of the problems is that pricing may go over better if it was handled regionally. Or at least not handled as if everyone lived in CA or the Northeast. I live in Florida and the prices for things in the NE give me stickershock. The jump to $50 may not bother those in certain parts of the country, but may really cause those in other regions to drop out.

 

[K4LK]

Now I'll be with 4 providers. I must be obsessive compulsive when it comes to HDTV!

Me too. I have C/ku band 4DTV/HDD-200 with slaved Satcruiser FTA, DirecTV, DiSH and VOOM.

 

[giveuspurehd]

"Remember the 10 bucks rental fee wouldnt be if you bought the HD receiver."

i just do not see too many people purchasing the stb when we will have a dvr that will kick all other dbs system's dvr in the butt.if the dvr is going to cost a $1000 for instance i will probably rent it if that is an option as well.im sure there are people who willl buy it ,but i bet alot ore would rent it at $10 a month.it would take years to pay up to $1000 and by then something new would come out.im just saying offer the stb with no rental fee if you sucribe to vavavvoom and i think voom would get more people to sign up at $80 a month and there would be no need to up the price on the lower package, and lose potential voomers.

 

[TheForce]

Using comparative economics, the VOOM DVR will MSRP for about $5000 based on their current buyout for the basic receiver. I recall my math earier this year on that box and determined it had a wholesale cost of $80.00 Based on the current rental fee of $9.50 / month, VOOM can follow the Cable rental model and begin to profit if you stay with them for 10 months. If any of you believe that their basic receiver is worth $750 or now $499 then I have a bunch of goodies to sell you, We need to talk.

And, I don't mean to insult anyone if you did buy into Voom when the receiver was $750 because you paid the early adopter price to have all those channels in HDTV, Plus, we can't forget the free programming you got which basically compensated for the receiver price you paid. No, programming wasn't free, you were just baited and paid anyway but for the hardware. Today, with the rental deal they offer, if you buy the receiver at $499, you need to be set down and slapped upside the head.

But the real bottom line is, If Voom doesn't soon get some numbers in subscribership, they will be gone, gone gone by next year. I do think that they should consider making an offer to E* to resell their O&O HDTV programming. I know most of you don't care much for the VOOM exclusive channels but those would be the only ones they could negotiate a deal on and it could be the shot in the arm VOOM needs to help put them in the black.

 

[VideoGrabber]

Don wrote:
> Today, with the rental deal they offer, if you buy the receiver at $499, you need to be set down and slapped upside the head. <

What if they do upgrade their current (purchased) receivers to DVRs for free, come November (or whenever), as some of their customer service people have claimed? Would that make buying a $500 box now, and avoiding both buying an $800-900 box later, or paying $20+/month for the PVR box rental, an intelligent option?

Or is all that so unlikely that I still need to duck?

- Tim

 

[Ken F]

Don,

Using comparative economics, the VOOM DVR will MSRP for about $5000 based on their current buyout for the basic receiver. I recall my math earier this year on that box and determined it had a wholesale cost of $80.00

How do you figure that? The current VOOM STB uses the Broadcom BCM7035 MPEG-2 decoder (same basic chip in HDTV Tivo) and BCM3440 + BCM4500 satellite receiver with 8PSK. Those chips alone, plus the VSB demod, total $90 in 10,000 unit quantities, according to the press releases on the Broadcom site.

Don't forget the 32Mb MSystems DiskOnChip Millenium Plus for the software ($30-$40), Silicon Image DVI transmitter ($6-$8), MIPS CPU, CardBus controller, DDR memory, appropriate DACs, modem, and any supporting silicon for PCI interface and PCI upgrade slot. In all, I see about a dozen different pieces of silicon, excluding the memory and 8VSB plug-in board.

Then you have the logic board, cardbus upgrade slot, power supply, chassis, and remote. The cost also needs to cover the H.264/WM9 decoder ($20-$40) in the STB upgrade module VOOM plans to deploy this fall. This technology is new, so it will command a premium for the near future.

Did I mention the hardware and software engineering costs? And what about the manufacturing and support costs?

I would personally be very surprised if the VOOM was paying less than $250 for each box. Motorola typically charges in the $300-$400 range for their cable STB hardware platform, and I doubt the VOOM STB would cost any less than that, seeing that it requires at least $30 more in silicon than a cable STB, and is produced in far smaller quantities (only 40,000).

 

[Ken F]

What if they do upgrade their current (purchased) receivers to DVRs for free, come November (or whenever), as some of their customer service people have claimed? Would that make buying a $500 box now, and avoiding both buying an $800-900 box later, or paying $20+/month for the PVR box rental, an intelligent option?

They may or may not offer a trade-in for credit toward the DVR, but I don't think there's any chance of a free swap.

 

[red ufo]

Glad I got in before the $199 price change!

 

[calikarim]

Voom Rocks

You guys are forgetting that anyone who wants to get Voom has two weeks to sign on without a commitment and Still pay $9.99. So someone that is informed liike us in this forum still have time if they dont have Voom currently

2) Criticize Cinema 10 how about Starz HD, two of them. The latest movies are on them. And how about Cinemax, Showtime, HBO, Encore, Bravo, TMC- all In HD, all in HD. How many movies is that.

3) Playboy HD .. say no more

4) The Best DVR coming out in three months with multi room features

5) A commitment of addiing more HD , and better pic quality with MPEG 4 and new Satellite transporder purchases scheduled for later this year to boost the number of HD channels to 100

6) 50 million HD sets going to be sold in next two years , Potential Market

I AM GOING TO BUY STOCK IN VOOM AND BECOME RICH, YOU ARE GETTING IN ON THE GROUND FLOOR.

 

[red ufo]

I AM GOING TO BUY STOCK IN VOOM AND BECOME RICH, YOU ARE GETTING IN ON THE GROUND FLOOR.

Exactly, I'll bet if you can buy it for lets say 1 dollar per stock. In 4 years it will be worth 15 bucks.

Eventually Voom will take off like a Arizona forest fire.

 

[shelly]

"VOOM differs from Dish slightly in that the signal must be peaked to ensure reliable service."
Huh?

Thanks Ken. I'm sure my 61.5 Dish is yielding a better signal strength than any smaller dish. On the Dish receivers it pegs the meter at 125 while the Dish 500 only hits 110. I will need to make another run of cable for this Voom though. I don't want the Voom guy routing a cable outside my installed antenna feed path I set up to the HT room. They scheduled me for May 27th install. I signed up for the cheapo package plus the extras I don't get with the other guys, Cinemax HD, Starz, and Playboy HD. I decided I'd carry it now since they no longer require a contract and no-longer require the big upfront cost. Used a real credit card too! If the other guys get those channels I'll drop them off of the VOOM package.
Now I'll be with 4 providers. I must be obsessive compulsive when it comes to HDTV!

Don,

I used my existing Directv cable runs from the roof. And my installer asked me if I wanted to use any of the existing dishes (5 of them before Voom made #6), especially the 61.5 Dish one. But I asked for a new Voom dish just in case I waned to return to any of the other sat services. (I, too, had Dish, Directv, BEV and Voom but dropped dish and Directv.)

I'm sure that your installer will be happy to use your existing dish and coax lines.

BTW, Playboy hd on Voom is not the same as the regular sd Playboy available on the other sat services. It is hot!!! and, along with Monsters, may well become your favorite channels as they did become for me.

Shelly

 

[TheForce]

My installer just called. He called to cancel the appointment for next week. Seems that he has many, over a hundred??? installs that have no equipment and VOOM says they have none to send with no ETA as to when inventory is going to be available again. The reason- Same as we had with the 811's for DishNwtork last Winter. VOOM's latest rent it for $9.50 is a huge success and has depleted their stock piles. This is info from the installer company, not directly from VOOM so if it is not true, I'd like to know.

While I had them on the phone, I asked those questions. The installer said they could use my existing feed once I described my system. He was more than happy to use it and just wanted to make sure it was, indeed a Dish Network LNB and not a DirecTV dish. He also said they need to shift it slightly from 61.5 to 65 degrees orbital slot. He then asked about the Home theater room. He was pleasantly surprised I would have all connections ready at the back of the equipment cabinet. He asked me to get a TV with a coax connection ready as they need that before connecting the DVI. I can bring in a small portable TV set with channel 3 input if he needs something or I can connect him through my DTC-100. My Dwin has no RF input.
The installer was quite professional. At the end of the conversation, he said it seemed like a pretty easy install job since I would have everything in place.

But this thing about VOOM not having anymore equipment and no ETA has me a bit bothered. Bothered because I want to hear it from others around the country, not just a local installer.


Just got off the phone with VOOM CSR. It's true but he said they hope to start seeing shipments in a week or 3. They did instruct installer not to reschedule until after the equipment arrives. He also said that all accounts before end of the month are locked into the rate until end of December.

 

[Sean Mota]

Wow! According to the Press Release they ordered 40,000 receivers initially and had requested another 40,000.