VOOM adds 5 new channels!

[TheTimm]

Now its time for Regional Sports, specifically Fox Sports Detroit! I hate paying Dish $50 per month but I gotta have my Pistons.

Testify, my brother! Amen! (But for me, it's my beloved Tigers)

 

[vinnyv07]

It may be a channel you may not watch, but for many of us it GREATLY imrpoves the Wife Acceptance Factor.

Yes and its one more step in the direction of me getting rid of Directv and VOOMing up the whole house. All I need is the kids ch's Noggin....and NickTOONS...NICKWEST....and then there is nothing that would stop me from dumping Directv.

 

[DarrellP]

It may be a channel you may not watch, but for many of us it GREATLY imrpoves the Wife Acceptance Factor.

That's 3 letters less I have to worry about.

 

[Impatient]

Ok. Since "Rainbow 2" is going active, I hereby make a formal request for the following to be implemented after some of the userbase is able to receive signals from Rainbow 2:

1) move redundant SD channels from Rainbow 1 to Rainbow 2. Specifically:
202 HBO East SD
203 HBO West SD
223 Cinemax East SD
224 Cinemax West SD
243 Showtime SD
252 TMC SD
263 Starz SD
265 Encore SD
303 ESPN SD
506 TNT SD
for the "express purpose of redundant backup in case of failure by Rainbow 1". That is the best excuse I can come up with for pushing these to the second satellite.

2) And copy the three new channels back to Rainbow 1, mainly DYI, GreatCountry, and Fine Living.

What we gain is and aggregate of 7 SD channels worth of bandwidth on Rainbow 1, or 14-20 MBits of bandwidth. With that bandwidth, allocate 0.5 MB of extra bandwidth to each of the HD channels on Rainbow 1. You only impress someone when you have the "most quantity" AND the "best quality".

This move should not "violate contracts" as the signal from Rainbow 2 is receivable by the customers. (at least the first 10 upgraded to new dishes) By the time someone can file a complaint, the rest of the userbase would be upgraded anyways.

The customers receive three new channels up to three months early, and better overall quality on all channels.

Unforunately, since it is logical, there will be something to block it and it won't happen. I can still beg though...

 

[Walter L.]

Impatient: you really sound impatient Seriously, your idea is interesting.

 

[owlbox]

Amen. Has anyone seen a calculator to show the pointing angle for the new sat. I have a feeling I may need to top some trees. I'm in MA so I know the new sat is a bit west and probably a bit lower but how much?

 

[HDFreud]

This is great overall. BUt I would have announced it with some mention like "we intend to start upgrading existing customers in x weeks....." I am very confused. I imagine that the discussions on how long it will take to upgrade customers has taken place and multiple models outline and presented to exec's. Like I said this is great, but I really don't understand their strategy!

 

[MNHTUG]

Impatient has a pretty smart idea there. Anyone care to comment on flaws in his wisdom? I don't see any. Voom needs to make that happen.

 

[bbtkd]

I'll gladly go to the new dish if it will help rain fade. Had a bunch of rain come through yesterday, and kept getting dropouts. Anyone know if the new dish will help this?

If you still have the original puny dish, it MIGHT improve the rain fade but won't eliminate it. I base this on the fact that upgrading to my 28" did not appreciably reduce rain fade - and the height on it is probably more than the height of the oval dish. The width of the oval won't matter much since it is used essentially as two dishes offset slightly - so that to each feed it will seem like a round dish aimed exactly at the specific satellite. Kind of like if you had two separate dishes aimed at two adjacent satellites - then merged the reflectors. An oval actually SHOULD produce a slightly weaker signal than two separate dishes since it may encounter interference from an adjacent satellite because the meamwidth will be extended slightly on one side...

 

[techweb]

Anybody know if the elliptical dish will mount on the current mast? I could have a problem otherwise.

 

[andrzej]

I am afraid that this announcement may actually slow down getting new customers. Why? Because people will be waiting until the new elliptical dish is a standard installation. Why bother now with unreliable installers and again in 2 or 3 months? Just a thought.

 

[Ilya]

Why bother now with unreliable installers and again in 2 or 3 months?

For exact same reason as before: to have tons of HD channels today, not in some distant future!

 

[Impatient]

Amen. Has anyone seen a calculator to show the pointing angle for the new sat. I have a feeling I may need to top some trees. I'm in MA so I know the new sat is a bit west and probably a bit lower but how much?

http://www.csgnetwork.com/antennasatelazposcalc.html and AMC 6 is the name of "Rainbow 2". It doesn't have Rainbow 1 on there, but using the E* 3 bird is close enough.

Using the numbers coming out of that calculator, it looks like there cannot be a one dish fits all scenario. Boston would see 15.2 degrees of spread and 1 degree in elevation change. Detroit sees 14.2 degrees spread and 3.4 degrees of elevation difference. The west cost would see 8.1 degrees spread and 8.4 degrees difference in elevation. Since dishes usually loose half strength when 3 degrees off axis, it looks like they may have to customize the shape to the region of the country they are installed at. That could explain the long delay we have seen. It is going to be interesting to see if the ladder monkeys are able to handle the fact that they will have a third rotation axis to deal with in order to accomodate the diffences in elevation.

Voom, give us the option of just pointing a second dish at the new bird. In Detroit, I don't have to worry about any silly home owner's association trying to tell me what to do.

While I am begging, please just open up a "beta testing" program for the DVR for those of us willing to *pay* to be on it. Some of us will take the DVR in a buggy form now instead of waiting indefinately. The only function in it that has to work with 100% accuracy is "download new software".

 

[DarrellP]

Voom, give us the option of just pointing a second dish at the new bird.

Ditto, and let us do self installs.

 

[StingyScotsman]

It may be a channel you may not watch, but for many of us it GREATLY imrpoves the Wife Acceptance Factor.

Yep. The Country Music Channel came a week too late. Had to switch to D* in order to keep the peace. (and it's alternate spellings!)

 

[brewerdude]

I guess this means we will get the Food Network HD channel when it premieres next year.

The Food Network is gonna have an HD channel?? Wow. Who woulda thought??