UPDATED 20 May NYC Home Ent Show:Voom at CES was best display/information of the show

[Sean Mota]

Followed in their footsteps how? I believe I got my 811 on the DHA plan before Voom started leasing their STB. I could be wrong, but that's the way I remember it. I think that's why I went with E* at the time, it was till very expensive to go with VOOM.

Then again, I could be misremembering.

Leasing without a contract is what I meant. As a DHA you still have to be on a one year contract.

 

[slffl]

I just feel that this receiver is far and above the technology that we are using right now. If there is a leasing plan I think we could all agree that it would be way more then 10 bucks a month. For this thing to handle 30 to 40 hrs of HD material...it must come with a huge amount of HD space. I was impressed ...but couldnt help but think of the cost factor. I hope its available for lease .....because I want one already.

The Moxi was shown at CES in 2002. This technology is not new and not expensive IMO. HD space? Cheap if you use 2 drives. If this thing is priced anywhere near the HD-Tivo, I'll gladly go with the Tivo even if it can't have remote clients.

 

[kawdog]

I just don't see how they can give everyone who purchased the receiver a free DVR, that just does not seem feasible to me. I am leasing mine and I find it hard to believe I will be able to switch my box with the new one for no charge, but that is what they told me. I can see where they might could give existing subscribers who purchased the receiver a special price on an upgrade but I do not see how they could make any money by giving them away. Either way, I will probably purchase the DVR when it comes out and do away with the lease fee.

kaw

 

[rudolpht]

slffl,

You can go with the Tivo now & with two disks with aftermarket bracket. Have fun

 

[Indy]

Followed in their footsteps how? I believe I got my 811 on the DHA plan before Voom started leasing their STB. I could be wrong, but that's the way I remember it. I think that's why I went with E* at the time, it was till very expensive to go with VOOM.

Then again, I could be misremembering.

Wrong quote used, see below.

 

[Indy]

I just don't see how they can give everyone who purchased the receiver a free DVR, that just does not seem feasible to me. I am leasing mine and I find it hard to believe I will be able to switch my box with the new one for no charge, but that is what they told me. I can see where they might could give existing subscribers who purchased the receiver a special price on an upgrade but I do not see how they could make any money by giving them away. Either way, I will probably purchase the DVR when it comes out and do away with the lease fee.

kaw

I remember the early days of Dish Network and the LARGE amount of money it took for me to buy into the deal in 1995. Then a couple of years later they were giving the equipment away to new subs and screwing the ealy adopters who wanted some consideration. It took Charlie another 5 years to do ANYTHING to help out the early subscribers and that was the 6000 upgrade deal. If Voom is anything as gracious as Dish Network I would not expect anything as far as a "freebie" for at least 5 years. If Voom goes on according to their past history of deaf ears to early promises, then I would expect zero in the way of customer appreciation. That is why I signed on and took the lease deal.

 

[vinnyv07]

The Moxi was shown at CES in 2002. This technology is not new and not expensive IMO. HD space? Cheap if you use 2 drives. If this thing is priced anywhere near the HD-Tivo, I'll gladly go with the Tivo even if it can't have remote clients.

Just think before the rental fee how much was VOOM charging just for an HD receiver with installation? Even though the technology isnt new...it is a very big step up from what we are using right now as VOOM customers. I agree with kawdog...I just dont believe that there will be a switch from our receiver now to the new one coming out without any cost to us. I agree with slffl in that I would go with the Tivo given the chance. But also disagree that the new receiver is going to be inexpensive.

 

[ChetK]

I'd be willing to bet they're going to require a contract with this hardware. $1,000 for the first PVR and at least a year contract. Really, if you ask yourself honestly, that's not asking too much. This thing will have features above and beyond the other PVRs. Everybody knows that Voom is the undisputed HD programming provider. What's the point in having a non-networked HDTivo when you have very little HD to record. Let's weight the differences, shall we?

HDTivo

• DirecTV - 6 HD programming channels (HBOHD, SHOHD, ESPNHD, Discovery HD Theater, HDNet, HDNetMovies - I'm not going to include PPV HD, HD Demo channels or CBS which I get for free OTA)
• Name Based Recording - I like this one and may hold off my VoomPVR purchase
• Season Pass Feature - I think you have to have Name Based Recording before you can have this feature.
• No Home Networking Feature - That's a major dissadvantage. Maybe not now, but in the future when more homes have more than one HDTV.
• An excellent user interface
• Available today

VoomPVR (Speculation)

• Voom - 32 HD programming channels (HDNews, HD Cinema times 10, Monsters, Epics, WorldSport, Rush, Rave, Ultra, Treasure, Gallery, MOOV, Animania, HBOHD, CinemaxHD, SHOHD, TMCHD, STARZ!HD, EncoreEHD, ESPNHD, BravoHD+, Discovery HD Theater, TNTHD, Playboy Hot HD, I'm not going to include HD Demo channel or count dual feeds twice)
• No Name Based Recording
• No Season Pass Feature
• Home networking Feature - This is a big one that the competitor does NOT have.
• User interface yet to be determined
• Not available today

So, depending on what your needs are, I would say that, if sold for the same $1,000 price tag and same one year contract applies, Voom has the advantage. And who's to say that Voom wouldn't ever add the Name Based Recording and Season Pass features? If they did, it would be a no-brainer. I'm sure the VoomPVR bleeding edge consumers will push heavily for these features. Especially if Voom picks up INHD and/or HDNet (which I know is not likely to happen, but things could change over the years - who knows?)

PS. As you can see, I'm really taking an interest in this topic as I really want Voom to succeed and I really want to purchase a PVR within the next 6 months or so.
PPS. If you have any comments or additions about the above comparison, please let me know and I'll edit/add them.

 

[Walter L.]

My guess is that the initial DVR availability will be limited and expensive. Later after ~2 mos. from initial launch, VOOM will have lots of boxes available and will lauch a good deal such as a rental option.

 

[squicken]

I'd never spend $1000 on a DVR. I didn't buy a Tivo until it was $199. I have no problem signing a 2 year commitment with Voom in order to lease, or purchase at $200, the DVR. But if Voom releases the DVR at $750-$1000, then in 2005 makes it more reasonable, I'll be gone. Basically, whichever HD-DVR of V*, D*, or E* drops into my price range, I'm switching to that company. I imagine Voom will be tying the DVR availablity to the new dish somehow. In what way I cannot say.

For me, home networking means nothing. I live alone, and don't plan on having a roomate for 5 years. I have no way of knowing what demographics are, but I imagine there won't be too many multiple HD owning homes come December. 2004.

 

[Kevin Butts]

Hello Sean

I am new to the Voom Forum and will be purchasing Voom after my wife and I build our new home.

I saw that you went to the Electronics show and viewed the upcoming DVR.

I have two questions for you.

1.) Will you be able to record one program while watching another on the same tv?

2.) The DVR will Record and play back in HD correct?

 

[Sean Mota]

Kevin,

welcome. The answer to both of your questions is Yes.

 

[Kevin Butts]

That's a Relief!

I had the dish pvr a year ago and it would not allow you to record and watch a program at the same time. We had only 2 tvs at the time and the wife wasn't giving up Lifetime for me to watch Monday Night Football.

 

[vinnyv07]

Hmmmm, those reps don't seem to know very much about it at all. July release time... I really doubt it will be ready by then. Everything else I have heard says fall timeframe. Ability to record to a PC... no way they'll allow that!

Actually if you have a computer with a video input you can capture and record anything. Directv , cable or a camcorder or anything else you could think of. It wouldnt be that you could burn in HD because even if you capture a show in HD, you would have to burn it to around 4 DVD's. And still it wouldnt be in HD!!! Once dual layer burners come out in the U.S. , then we will be able to fit double the amout on one DVD.
When I went to the CES right next to my cousins setup, Anthony Gallo Acoustics, (on the lowest floor) , HP had a computer that had all the inputs and outputs so that you could hook a HD receiver or any receiver up to it. Actually it was a computer /home ent center. They actually had it under a TV....pretty cool stuff.

 

[Ilya]

1.) Will you be able to record one program while watching another on the same tv?
2.) The DVR will Record and play back in HD correct?

From what I understand, the answer is "Yes" on both! The DVR will have four tuners (two satellite and two OTA), so it should be possible to watch three different programs on three TV's while recording the fourth one! All in HD!

If you are building a new house, make sure to run enough coax cables! It's much easier to pre-wire everything, than to fish later on.

 

[rudolpht]

Yes, actually 4 tunners, 2 over the air & 2 satellite. You can view saved or live feeds on multiple TVs, bith High def or lower def.

 

[Si9naL-9]

just have a couple of comments...

First, Tivo's Season pass may be trademarked, but the ultimate TV DTV system I have been using the last 3 years has it.. Its not called that, but it does the same thing... I dont see how the concept of simply recording all the episodes of a show is a proprietary concept.. I am quite sure that the Voom PVR will have this as its a simple software function and like someone said earlier, its like patenting the "search" function.


Secondly, recording two shows at once is something my 3 year old system also does with no problems.. and that is using slow old hard drives.. the ability for the Voom system to do this is simply a factor of hard drive speed. Assuming they are using SATA drives, this will be easily accomplished even with HD increased bandwidth and storage needs.

Also, Blue Ray Dual Layer DVD burners are already on the market. Sony Style has one for $200, and they are rumored to be in all the new Apple computers as of june 26. what I however have not seen anywhere is the media.. but then I havent really looked.

Lastly, Im no sultan of brunei, but I already have two HD sets in my house, and will probably have a third by Xmas. I dont think multiple HD households are as rare as some might think.. One of my sets was $3000 at the time (37" tube) and the latest one was also $2800 50" RPLCD... Not nearly as much as I know some of you guys have spent on a single HD set. So Im thinking Vooms networking appeal will be quite large to alot of people...

 

[desidoc]

Sony style has dual layer DVD burner not HD DVD burner, the dual layer DVD burner is 9.4 gb, that's not 25-30gb , which is what u get for HD DVD

 

[MitchB]

Both the Ucentric (Voom's) and the 2wire.com screen shots look like Windows XP Media edition DVR/Guide/UI I have in my HP computer. The software is real easy to use, and with the exception of not being able to burn to DVD and of course not having HD capability its pretty good. The Voom DVR offering therefore includes a built-in invisible Windows PC inside. Perhaps they can instead make a USB add-on box to a PC and lower the cost for some people? To me HD DVR enables VaVaVoom upgrading,
so their packaging the 2 together, for a net $5 over STB leasing clinches it for me.