LINK TO VOOM
First Hand Reader Experience With
Sears
Sears
retail sales story
Voom A
New HDTV Satellite Service To Compete With DirecTV and ...
Audio Revolution, CA
Cable provider, Cablevision, recently introduced Voom, a new HDTV
oriented satellite
TV delivery system that will compete directly with DirecTV and Dish ...
Cablevision
goes va-Voom
Cablevision's
hi-def satellite service, Voom, went live yesterday, with 21 HDTV channels -- 18
more are expected by February 2004. "We think HDTV is shortly to become the way all
Americans expect to watch television," Cablevision chief Charles Dolan said. Newsday (10/16),
Los Angeles Times (free registration) (10/16),
Variety (subscription required) (10/15),
Multichannel News (subscription required) (10/15)
Cablevision
Launches New HDTV Service
San Jose Mercury News, CA - 20
hours ago
... It will offer 39 channels of HDTV programming, including
21 channels
exclusive to Voom that are commercial-free. Wall Street has ...
HDTV: More
programming is finally on the way
Seattle Post Intelligencer, WA - Oct
9, 2003
... And what's there to make of the recently announced Voom,
Cablevision System's
satellite service sold through Sears, which is due to launch Wednesday? ...
Tennis Channel May Be
Available Here Soon
Tampa Tribune, FL - Sep
22, 2003
... Brown said the network has an agreement in place with Voom,
a new satellite provider
that will launch in October and will be available at Sears stores across ...
Cablevision
says nationwide satellite TV service to start Oct. 15
San Jose Mercury News, CA - Oct
1, 2003
NEW YORK (Dow Jones/AP) -- Cablevision Systems Corp.'s new satellite TV
service,
called Voom, will be available nationwide starting Oct. 15, the company said. ...
Tech
Stock Soar in First Day of 4th Quarter
... to $19.09 on the Big Board after the company said its new
satellite-television service, Voom, will be available across the U.S. starting Oct.
15....
Cablevision's
Rainbow DBS to Introduce World's First ...
Business Wire (press release) - Sep
30, 2003
... emerging demand for high-definition programming from a rapidly
growing base of HDTV
owners, by offering as many as 39 HD channels, including an exclusive VOOM ...
Cablevision
Sets Launch For Satellite TV Service
Newsday - Oct 1, 2003
... The company confirmed that the new service, called Voom,
will offer as many as 39
high-definition channels, including 21 that its own Rainbow Media programming ...
Cablevision
to debut satellite TV service
Seattle Post Intelligencer, WA - Oct
1, 2003
NEW YORK -- Cablevision Systems Corp.'s new satellite TV service, called
Voom, will be available nationwide starting Oct. 15, the company said. ...
Adult
Programming Crosses Hi-Def Frontier
Indian Television, India - 5
hours ago
... on Wednesday (Oct. 15) when VOOM, Cablevision's
high-definition direct
broadcast satellite platform, launches. The platform will ...
Visiting Sears at lunch to see
VOOM was a day to remember! I visited the Midwest City store and saw the super sharp
Dish Network demo running on most of the HDTV monitors as usual. As I looked for the VOOM
TV, it was OFF. I asked the sales staff about it. They replied, "It's not activated
yet." That didn't stop me from grabbing the remote (located in one of the places
where brochures go) and trying to turn the satellite receiver on. Since no button is
marked "Power," the salesman grabbed a long broom handle like stick and
positioned it in front of the receiver located out of reach to power it on. He said he
wondered why there was no "Power" button on the remote (note: there is, it's
marked "SAT.") I pushed the power button on the Mitsubishi television, and got a
"set the time" comment (probably from the TV.)
As programming suddenly appeared, the salesman shouted to another sales person across the
store, "The activation has been turned on!" The picture would have looked better
if the Mitsubishi television was adjusted properly (it was out of convergence.) As
expected, there was a preview channel with a guy selling VOOM. I pressed the channel up
button to get to the good stuff. As I moved from channel to channel, the guide appear at
the bottom showing various movie channels, but the same preview channel would appear.
Nothing like this ever happens on DISH or DirecTV, but I thought maybe the system wasn't
up and running (note: it was for home viewers - just not at Sears!) I then pressed the
VOOM button and attempted to navigate through a guide to find other channels, but the
receiver locked up and I left the store only seeing one or two HD channels.
At work, I showed many interested people the brochures I picked up at Sears. Some were
upset over the initial cost, but I mentioned it wasn't too much different than HD DISH or
HD DirecTV receivers. I called the 1-800-GET-VOOM phone number and talked to a very nice
sales lady to explain the problems at Sears. She confirmed that the preview channel will
automatically appear on each channel that is not activated. She mentioned that only SEVEN
channels were activated at the Sears stores! She listed them for me and after visiting the
web, I printed a channel listing to manually enter the channel numbers during my next
visit. Here they are for your convenience.
100 NewsBytes 123 WorldSport 124 Rush 126 Ultra 127 Treasure 129 MOOV 130 Animania
In the evening I drove to the Quail Springs Sears store. Directly entering the numbers was
easy and most revealing. Content seemed much like HDNet, but there were quality problems
when low resolution footage was occasionally mixed in with the HD. The fans in the soccer
stands looked grainy, almost as if some data reduction was being done. Yet, most of the
channels looked fairly good. A few pixilation problems occurred and the water on the Rush
channel had a funny extra color during some scenes. The video problems were far less of a
problem then when DirecTV started service 10 years ago, but there was a perception that
too much compression was being used during some of the motion shots. The effect was more
of rough edges than pixilation.
Content? In the short time I viewed, NewsBytes was showing weather maps. WorldSport had a
soccer game. Rush featured paragliding. I can't remember what was on Ultra. Treasure was a
HD antiques show of neat and colorful stuff. MOOV had some cheap moving graphics and
Animania had a grainy stop motion puppet cartoon looking program.
Conclusion: If lots of HD programming is important to you, run and get VOOM. You get a 30
day money back guarantee. Check out their website at http://www.voom.com for complete
details and descriptions. You can download the owners manual and channel listing to help
you navigate the system at your local Sears store.
Mark Zimmer Oklahoma City
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