Washington D.C. Metro area Voomers

[wasch_24]

FrankJo,
Welcome. I'm not familiar with your installer. The only advice I have is to make sure they have the equipment in hand and that they know whether or not they will need a tall ladder to reach your desired dish location. Good luck.

 

[traxxs]

Can someone explain to me why i cant get channel 9.1 the other three come in with no problems?

WRC-DT 4.1 NBC Washington DC 45° 25.1 48
WJLA-DT 7.1 ABC Washington DC 44° 25.7 39
WUSA-DT 9.1 CBS Washington DC 44° 25.7 34
WTTG-DT 5.1 FOX Washington DC 43° 26.0 36

 

[DR J]

I had Satellite masters do my install. The guy's name is Ray. Quite knowledgable. He knew the bird's position within 1 minute. I already had an OTA antenna, so no additional antenna was necessary.
He put the VOOM dish on a post with concrete within 20 minutes.
I unpacked threceiver & completed the connections to my tv & stereo. he whole installation took 45 minutes, excluding the software downloadHe commentered on: the shortages of equipment arriving to him from the warehouse; the 50 new orders for installs he had in his message queue; the unreliability of OTA reception; VOOM's continuing hardware & software issues; and the inability of VOOM's "CS" to answer customers' concerns.
Area code 443 is one of Maryland's newer area codes. Ray's phone number is for a cell phone.
If I can be of any further help, let me know.
DR J

 

[riffjim4069]

Can someone explain to me why i cant get channel 9.1 the other three come in with no problems?

WRC-DT 4.1 NBC Washington DC 45° 25.1 48
WJLA-DT 7.1 ABC Washington DC 44° 25.7 39
WUSA-DT 9.1 CBS Washington DC 44° 25.7 34
WTTG-DT 5.1 FOX Washington DC 43° 26.0 36

WJLA-DT and WUSA-DT are on the same tower and both are broadcasting at full-power (1000kW). Offhand, it doesn't make sense since I receive both stations flawlessly at 55+ miles.

What is your signal strength, signal quality and SNR for WJLA-DT and WUSA-DT as a point of comparison? My readings for both stations are very similar in my neck of the woods? Also, please post your location, setup information (antenna), etc.

Riff...<EOT>

 

[traxxs]

channel 7.1 ,quality 70 ,power 64 snr 0
Channel 9.1 ,quality 20,power 51 ,snr 0
using the stealth antenna,i live in the dale city area ,prince william county about 25 miles outside washington dc

 

[riffjim4069]

channel 7.1 ,quality 70 ,power 64 snr 0
Channel 9.1 ,quality 20,power 51 ,snr 0
using the stealth antenna,i live in the dale city area ,prince william county about 25 miles outside washington dc

Are you sure the SNR was 0? Were you receiving a picture on Channel 7.1 during this reading? On my Voom STB, some of my weaker stations (WETA, WBDC, WPAX) will drop to SNR=0 only when the quality dips into the teens. In other words an SNR of 0 always implies no picture.

Here are my signals levels at 7pm yesterday evening (and I am down in Fredericksburg):

Channel 7.1, power 80, quality 82, SNR 31.0+
Channel 9.1, power 82, quality 78, SNR 30.0+

IMHO, the Stealth antenna is a major POS...worthless. Personally, I would tell VOOM you are having OTA problems and request an upgraded antenna as soon as possible. I believe the standard antenna upgrade in your area is the Winegard Sensor II, model GS2000A.

http://www.winegard.com/offair/sensar.htm#gs

Anyone elses care to offer their two cents?

Riff...

 

[FrankJo]

DrJ,
Good lookin' out! Ray will be my installer on Monday, 6/14. I was getting a little worried when I called him on wed. and he hadn't returned my call. Got in touch with him today and he said he didn't have me down for Monday. He said he'd call back in 5 minutes. He actually called me back in 5 minutes! He said it was a snafu with my zip code, and that he has me down for Monday morning. Still worried about some trees, but we'll see.

 

[jgantert]

For OTA SNR, I get 0 as well. But I do get all of the channels. Probably just a bug in the software. What is important is that the signal quality is high. In my experience, <20 = no picture.

IMHO, the Stealth antenna is a major POS...worthless. Personally, I would tell VOOM you are having OTA problems and request an upgraded antenna as soon as possible. I believe the standard antenna upgrade in your area is the Winegard Sensor II, model GS2000A.

I wouldn't recommend the Sensor. If you look on their website, you will see the Sensor is rated DARK GREEN. Same as the stealth. In fact, if you amplify the stealth, you'll get LIGHT GREEN, which is better than the already amplified Sensor II. (See http://www.winegard.com/offair/offairmain.htm and click the right arrow twice).

I think Voom uses the Sensor II as an alternative to the Stealth. Around this area, it seems the 8800 is the upgrade Voom provides. With that in mind, I'ld call Voom and get the upgrade as the 8800 is a nice antenna.

My two cents... heh
-John

 

[jgantert]

channel 7.1 ,quality 70 ,power 64 snr 0
Channel 9.1 ,quality 20,power 51 ,snr 0
using the stealth antenna,i live in the dale city area ,prince william county about 25 miles outside washington dc

Traxxs,

With a quality of 20, Channel 9 is just barely coming in. Is it watchable? I'ld suspect when you sit down and watch a show, you'll get lots of pixelation.

Did they amplify your stealth antenna? It's a seperate board they install into the antenna.

Either way, just call Voom and ask for an upgraded antenna.

-John

 

[traxxs]

thanks for the replys i called voom today they are upgrading me ,waiting for installs inc to call now to schedule.

 

[kjaslow]

Which installer did you use?

I'm ready to give Voom a try! I scheduled my installation for this morning. The window was from 8-12noon. At 10am I got a call from the installation company telling me that my installer had had an accident over the weekend. I told them I was very sorry to hear that, but wondered why I didn't get a call first thing in the morning so that I might have made it to work. The person I spoke with said she'd just gotten in to work. Well, that's nice that this person gets to come to work at 10am, but she didn't seem concerned for the fact that I was terribly inconvenienced, nor did she even suggest that they might try to get a different technician out to me.

I don't mean to be difficult - I do accept that Voom is somewhat of a startup, and am ready to be patient with them. I consider this issue to be one of an irresponsible installation contractor. If I didn't show up for a visit with a customer when I had committed to it, I'd be fired from my job.

At this point, I'm very wary of which installation company I'll end up with. Can anyone post their experiences - which installation company did you use and was it a good or bad experience? I'm in DC Metro...

 

[FrankJo]

Well, I'm still waiting for the installer to show up. It's now almost 2pm and i was scheduled for 8-12. I callled at 12:30 and the installer who was supposed to do it told me that actually it's another guy who is supposed to do it, but that he's "having phone trouble" and that no one was able to reach him. So i'm waiting, and growing more pissed as each minute passes. He also said that he had too many installs scheduled for the morning for some reason.

Voom needs desparately to tighten this up. The only face to face contact we have is with the Voom is with the installer.

Am I willing to take another day off from work for TV? I don't think so.

Satellite Masters is the company doing (or not doing) the install.

 

[kjaslow]

So, what's the verdict? Did Satellite Masters show up? How were they?

 

[kjaslow]

So, did Satellite Masters show up? How was the install?

 

[FrankJo]

Well,

I have Voom. The installer didn't show up until 3:30. Folks, if your getting Voom, take the whole day off.

The installer said that what took him so long was he was having trouble getting through to voom for them to ping the stb's.

They did install with a winegard antenna. Seems to be working well with the DC stations, but I have stations listed that i'm not getting a signal for. He said that that is what they're sending out with all their new installs now. The installer said that Voom has definetly been behind with equipment. Installs Inc. has been having them take appts. that they don't have equipment for, which means that they can't do other (Direct TV, Dish network) installs. The installer was pretty good, though, courteous, and semmed to know what he was doing.

So far so good. I'm going to wait a few days for the software download (STB has 5.08). The picture quality is quite good. I haven't watched a whole lot yet. They will need to add Comcast Sportsnet by November, or I will be back to cable. (I am the last Wizards fan.) I do se some pixelation on some channels, but I think that it's the particular channels encoding, because, most channels are quite good.

Unlike most, i have no problem with the channel guide. it's laid out well enough for me.

I did have to make sure the installer gave me a DVI cable, it was in his truck.

The best Voom channel is Rave. Though I'm not a fan, they had the B-52's concert on late this afternoon, and the picture and sound quality (Optical out to my reciever) were excellent. Gotta run and finish watching an old football game on NFL Network.

 

[Sean Mota]

Washington DC VOOMERS needed:

I got the following from VOOM and they are trying to see if this is real:

"recent problems with WJLA, the local ABC affiliate (RFF 39,
mapped in Voom as 7-1).

Reports I have heard was that the signal was fine as recently as a week
ago, the it showed up as SD, pillar-boxed, then it became black."

If you would like to participate in trying to troubleshoot this problem, please email me to Sean_Mota@satelliteguys.us and I will put you in contact with the person at VOOM who has requested this information. Thanks.

 

[wasch_24]

Sean,
I sent you an email. Let me know what I can do to help out.

 

[Sean Mota]

I got your response Wasch & EJFIII FWIW. I sent your emails to somebody at VOOM. He either is going to get in contact with one of you or will let me know what's needed. Thanks.

I do not think I need anyone else.

 

[mike528]

I am a little late, but I just sent you an email -- I would be happy to help too if I can.

 

[jgantert]

No Voom mapings for DC for me, but I get 7-1 and 7-2 in just fine on my Zenith box.

-John