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Voom No More
RokaMoka writes "Today the world got a little fuzzier. Voom has announced thay they are shutting down. As a subscriber I can tell you they will be sorely missed, as they far better than the competition.
For those of you who are not familiar with voom, they had 3 times as many HiDef channels as the next competitor and a really nice remote control. It sure was pretty while it lasted." I think they died because they don't have a PVR. Hi-Def folks are early adopters and they want the technology. Of course, with all the mess swirling around DirecTV's move to Mpeg4 and the obsolesence of the HD-Tivo, it will be interesting to see what happens next.
The reason is simple: DirecTV has already publicly announced that they will launch more satellites to provide more 720p/1080i high-definition channels from both cable channel provider and local broadcast sources.
In short, by the end of 2007 your DirecTV receiver dish will get most (if not all) your local channels broadcasting in high-definition along with high-definition signals from the cable channel providers (ESPN/ESPN2 HD, Discovery HD Theater, HDNet, HBO and Showtime in HD, etc.).
Article
It didn't die because it didn't have PVR. It's death could partly be blamed for the internal family conflict between the Dolans.
"Earlier this year Chuck Dolan lost a boardroom battle with his son, CEO Jimmy Dolan, that resulted in the company cutting off funding for Voom. "
and
"In 2004 Voom lost $661.4 million on paltry revenues of $14.9 million, including $354.9 million in write-downs."
Not sure what you mean by homemade, but I can give you an explanation of how they arived at that number.
Lots of Vooms channels were "upconverted." IE, they weren't natively filmed in HD, they were filmed in SD and had the extra lines added by some hardware before broadcast.
Of course, those of us that have groaned in dismay when CSI enhances four pixils into a 1024x758 high res image of a distinctive and case busting tatoo, can easily attest to the reality that you can't create content where none existed.
Vooms content was HD in format only. It's clear and evident when you look at the final product what's native HD and what's an upconverted mockery.
Anyone paying through the nose for Vooms services should be savy enough to tell the difference and demand the real thing.
Killfile(TGK)
No trees were killed in the creation of this post. However, many electrons were inconvenienced.
Basically, when the spaceway sats go up, there will be a transition to mpeg4 and an elimination of mpeg2 saving bandwidth, allowing for more hd channels and tons of hd locals, etc.
Hopefully there will be a reasonably priced hd pvr offered too...
Ocean is land, covered with water.
Check out this thread.
It appears that they did have signal problems in the West Coast, but they were trying to get another satellite up to help fix that problem:
"Those slots might be used to expand Voom's limited transmission capacity, to create a backup for the single satellite it launched last year off the East Coast of the United States and to improve its ability to reach the West Coast."
"Cablevision Systems Corp. Wednesday won the bidding for two orbital slots that could help fill a gap in its Voom nationwide satellite TV service.
The two orbital positions would allow satellites to reach mainly the West Coast.
Since Voom launched service in October, its single satellite, whose orbital position is off the East Coast, has been weakest in transmitting TV channels to the West Coast, especially the Seattle and Portland areas."