VOOM! More HDTV is coming October 15, 2003

[Sonnie Parker]

The new satellite company VOOM will be offering it's new service on October 15th. I've been following this and it could get really interesting. Now that I have had a taste of HDTV through Dish Network I want more.

For $749 up front and $39.90 per month VOOM offers a receiver, dish, OTA antenna, remote, installation, 2 year warranty and 30 day money back guarantee, along with the following channels (which includes 21 exclusive HD channels):

· HD Rave - The first music television channel in HDTV.

· HD Ultra - Fashion TV, home design, & travel. Leading worldwide fashion designers and shows as well as insider tours of the trendiest restaurants, hotels, home and gardens.

· HD Gallery - World of art, architecture and cultural performances.

· HD MOOV - a channel where the view constantly changes. A continuous flow of imagery set to music. Real world scenes such as nature walks; a fireplace; a field trip through many major cities.

· HD Animania - Animation of all sorts. Children and families animation shorts feature films and cartoons. Also cutting edge video game shorts.

· HD VOOM News - News, weather and sports updates 24 hours a day.

· HD Cinema 10 - 10 different channels of movies in HD. Each channel features one title playing throughout the day. So you can choose between 10 different movies each day.

· HD Epics - Cinema and performing arts programming. Lush costume dramas to stunning dance performances. Literary epics and sweeping cinematic dramas including programming like a season pass to Lincoln Center, BAM, and the BBC.

· HD Monsters - All horror, thrillers and sci-fi in HD. Titles such as Horror of Dracula and Frankenstein, to Freddy and Jason. Also the KillaThrillaZilla-thon, a marathon of Godzilla movies.

· HD Rush - Fast moving action sports. Extreme surfing, kite surfing, heli-skiing, mountain biking and mountain boarding to name a few.

· HD Worldsport - The Wide World of Sports meets the wide world of HD. A diverse lineup of top events from around the world. With live, exclusive presentations of the finest soccer action in the world from the top two soccer leagues Italy and Spain. Plus track and field, motor sports,
horse racing, cycling, Grand Prix, sailing and more.

· Other HDTV channels include the usual suspects: HBO HD E&W, Showtime HD E&W, Discovery HD Theater, and soon to include Cinemax HD & Starz HD.



There's quiet a bit of info floating around the Internet and you can read the press release at their home page http://www.voom.com.

Supposedly about mid 2004 they will offer DVR receivers for recording HD.

Initial cost seems a little high but hopefully with time they'll offer some sort of special sign on deal.






SONNIE

Cedar Creek Cinema

DVD Collection

BFD Comprehensive Setup Guide

[JonMarsh]

Interesting offerings- once you've seen HD for a bit, normal NTSC (especially as delivered by typical satelite and cable) looks pretty stinky. Widescreen SDTV can be pretty good with component color bandwidth, but that's not what our broadcast system delivers...

Considering what's included in the setup, that price isn't really out of line- think back to what Direct TV used to cost when it was first introduced, and they weren't able at that time to subsidize the hardware cost from the subscription.

Regards,

Jon




Earth First!
_______________________________
We'll screw up the other planets later....

[Sonnie Parker]

Yep Jon, I remember my dad and I waited for Sears to get their first shipment of Directv packages in many years ago. We paid right at $800 for the setup. Seems like Sears is going to be handling VOOM as well. I suppose this will be the easiest way for them to get immediate installers until they find some independent dealers/installers.


Actually our Dish looks even worse being upconverted through the component outputs. I have it set up on our MX-700 remote to switch from HD component to SD s-video for watching the SD channels. The HD component seems to overscan the SD pic quite a bit and it looks washed out and extremely soft. Plus stretching it is nearly unwatchable while stretching through the s-video inputs is acceptable. Of course all this is with Dish Networks cheapest HD receiver. Once they release their 921 big daddy receiver I'm hoping it will do a better job of upconverting SD. The SD with Dish is so compressed I just don't know if there's anything that will help it especially on a big screen. :roll:






SONNIE

Cedar Creek Cinema

DVD Collection

BFD Comprehensive Setup Guide

[Sonnie Parker]

VOOM is up and running now.

I had to take one of our recliners to the furniture store in Montgomery, Alabama today and decided I'd stop by Sears and check out VOOM.

The salesman said they actually got it up and running yesterday but he stated he probably didn't know any more about it than I did. No rep has been by their store to prep them on the system.

They had the VOOM receiver connected to a Sony 51" RPTV via component cables. They apparently didn't have an HDTV with DVI inputs. The picture was no better than an SD channel IMO. The salesman claims VOOM is sending them a low resolution signal.... maybe so but I would think their demo channel would be one of their best HD channels. He was rather disappointed himself with the picture quality. Needless to say I was not impressed in the least bit by what I saw.

I was surprised to see that in order to get their full compliment of HD channels I would have to spend $99.50 per month plus as they add more HD PlusPacks they will cost $14.90 each . Ouch!


Sears is the only way to get VOOM for now.

After the initial $749 every channel they offer is free of monthly service fees through 2/1/04 then you'll have to start paying.






SONNIE

Cedar Creek Cinema

DVD Collection

BFD Comprehensive Setup Guide