Voom, CVC, FCC, and Installs, Inc. - What Now And Why?

[Vicki]

It isn't absolutely one thing that caused the demise or potentially of Voom. This is my personal experience. Two Install's, Inc. techs stood in defense of their operation. I gave them credit. What I did say, that was not my experience in my geographical location. I was simply expressing my utter frustration as to the unprofessional behavior. If it appeared I have been too callous, I apologize. BUT, I do feel installation experiences and installer's lack of experience and motivation have played a substantial part in the demise of Voom. Agreed, but it just sounded to me like you were aiming your arrows at TYORK.

I think most of you will agree 11 visits is a little over the top. Again, agreed 100%!

Vicki, if they had applied a pre-amp to your situation, chances are, you would still be a happy Voom client. Don't know for sure about this one, as that was a long time ago, and I haven't yet tried to refresh my knowledge picked up from the folks here when I was going through my install problems. I'm going to go up on the roof and get a clear picture of what was installed initially before I set my next install date, then I'll be back on the board asking questions and getting clear on the answers, so that when the next installer comes, I will be able to closely supervise him (if need be) to insure a proper installation. Personally, I know I should not have to do that...but I really want my VOOM back, and if that's what it takes, so be it!

I am not bad mouthing anyone as those are my real experiences.I didn't say you were bad mouthing anyone, just that it appeared to me you seemed to be trying to shoot a very helpful messenger. Firing your questions at Installs, Inc. mangement would be more appropriate and far more productive.

Vicki

 

[bradley]

I went from a Stealth, to a Yagi and then to an UHF 8 bow ChannelMaster.

The Stealth was worthless.

A VHF/UHF Yagi was then used w/ a pre-amp, but couldn't hold two of the missing channels while the UPN affiliate wasn't receivable at all.

We then used a 8 bow UHF ChannelMaster w/o pre-amp. Now we lost ABC, PBS while NBC and WB were intermittent.

Add to the equation the pre-amp and all channels are solid as a rock.

A WORD OF CAUTION; the Bow-Tie UHF are specifically designed to pick up UHF frequencies, not VHF. They are also great for rejecting backside interference, as I had trouble with an analog channel south of my location stepping on a digital channel I wanted to receive, north. Given your location check to see if any stations are broadcasting the actual RF on any VHF frequencies before utilizing this antenna scheme.

Because I reside on the West Coast we also upgraded to a 24" dish with a satellite line-amp to increase gain.

I am, now a happy Voomer.

And again, I just had a "Ground-Hog Day" experience. I probably did shoot the messenger. My apologies.

Best regards.

 

[Vicki]

Glad to hear you're a happy Voomer now...

Bradley,

I hope to be in your same boat come 2/22!!@party Thanks for the input on the antennas.

I'm going to crawl up on the roof and check out what was left from the prior installation attempts, and will undoutedly be back with more questions prior to 2/22!! Gonna have to re-read all my old posts as well, because it seems like a long time ago, and I sometimes have to be retrained after coffee breaks!

Vicki

 

[snakebit]

Love Voom.
Hopelessly addicted to Rave and Equator.

But the install is where I have my only real gripe.
The installer was nice enough and seemed to know what he needed to know about the equipment. However, he was a terrible carpenter/drywall guy. I have FOUR false wall plates mounted adjacent to each other where he tried to cover his butchery of my wall. He finally gave up and used another wall. (the fifth cover plate withing 3 feet!)

One note though. I live about 4o miles south of the city and have experimented with hdtv from the early years. I have a HUGE antenna (radio shack) I installed in the attic many years ago for ota hd reception. When the installer saw it, he was very pleased. He knew ota wasn't going to be an issue on this install and he quickly put that sissy ota antenna that was provided back in the truck.

Having said that, he only ran one cable to the VOOM stb's and used the small metal snap-on contraption on the back of the receivers that combine the two inputs. What is that called? A diplexer? He stated he combined the dish cable and my ota cable up in the attic. I also do not know what that device was called.

Is this the proper way of doing it? All works fine except the daily soft-boots required to get the channels back. (They will suddenly just disappear, ota AND satellite.....a reboot returns them. The only channel that will work is the one the stb was already receiving, so you will not realize the problem until you change channels)

I can see how my install came very close to being one of the horror stories posted here often. I may have come dangerously close to bad ota issues and I could have very easily gotten angry about the wall butchery. I know some of you would have. I was just too excited to experience large quantities of HD to let his screw up get me steamed. I just wanted him to leave and never come back.

And finally, I would have been very happy to do a self install. I have never had someone else do it before. I did my own D* a couple of different times and even did Direcpc several times. I might not have done it as fast as the VOOM installer, but my work would have been far more professional. Time is a luxury he didn't seem to have a lot of.

 

[bryan27]

My install took about 45 minutes and took only one trip. My installer not only installs VOOM, D*, & E* but also started out by installing OTA Antennas which he still does. He also had the equipment for my install the day after I scheduled my appointment.

The only problem I had was with VOOM. I was given the wrong DMA and had to wait 6 weeks to get the correct channel map to watch local TV (scanning wasn't available in the receivers yet). I guess that's the price you pay for being an early adopter.