Columbus, Ohio: Prostar Digital came Saturday just before noon. Installation went pretty smooth. Thankfully he let me hook up the STB myself - no one but me could intrepret the veritable rat's nest of wires behind my gear.
I am running the STB into a Component Video input on my Mistubishi 62" DLP set. Tried both Component and DVI/HDMI. Could not tell an appreciable difference, so I'm leaving my DVD player on the HDMI, and Voom on Component. Set to 720p, as that is the native resolution of the set. At first the 3:4 programming was stretched, but I found the place in the setup to correct that. I, for one, can't stand watching Fathead TV
Over the air channels are somewhat spotty, but I really doubt I'll be watching them very often.
Of course I did some serious channel surfing at first, closely examining picture quality. When I did settle down to watch something, it turned out to be a channel I never thought I'd watch even once: Auction HD. They were devoting the whole day Saturday to car auctions. Wow. I couldn't take my eyes off it. Watched about 2-3 hours worth.
Movies, as far as I am concerned, are defintely hit or miss. Some are obviously better than DVD upconverted, some are just plain crappy. One that I found to be a very good transfer was S.W.A.T. on one of the premium channels. Very nice. Oh, and the sound on most of the channels is incredible. And black and white movies look especially nice for some reason.
Favorite channels: Discovery HD Theater, Equator HD, and Bravo HD. Fantastic, worth the price of admission for those three alone.
Complaints: When using the All Channels from the menu, the menu acts like you would expect and has the highlight showing on the current channel. However, when using the HD Only menu, it always comes up on channel 100. Guys, this is basic user interface design. Oh, and if you really want to improve the guide, just model it after TiVo, please!
All-in-all, I am very happy with Voom. I feel very privledged to be able to experience true HD in my home. Discovery HD and Equator HD have already made me feel like I have actually been to some of the places they have shown me. It certainly is not without its faults, but that's what happens when you are on the bleeding edge.
Happy Vooming, everyone!
I am running the STB into a Component Video input on my Mistubishi 62" DLP set. Tried both Component and DVI/HDMI. Could not tell an appreciable difference, so I'm leaving my DVD player on the HDMI, and Voom on Component. Set to 720p, as that is the native resolution of the set. At first the 3:4 programming was stretched, but I found the place in the setup to correct that. I, for one, can't stand watching Fathead TV
Over the air channels are somewhat spotty, but I really doubt I'll be watching them very often.
Of course I did some serious channel surfing at first, closely examining picture quality. When I did settle down to watch something, it turned out to be a channel I never thought I'd watch even once: Auction HD. They were devoting the whole day Saturday to car auctions. Wow. I couldn't take my eyes off it. Watched about 2-3 hours worth.
Movies, as far as I am concerned, are defintely hit or miss. Some are obviously better than DVD upconverted, some are just plain crappy. One that I found to be a very good transfer was S.W.A.T. on one of the premium channels. Very nice. Oh, and the sound on most of the channels is incredible. And black and white movies look especially nice for some reason.
Favorite channels: Discovery HD Theater, Equator HD, and Bravo HD. Fantastic, worth the price of admission for those three alone.
Complaints: When using the All Channels from the menu, the menu acts like you would expect and has the highlight showing on the current channel. However, when using the HD Only menu, it always comes up on channel 100. Guys, this is basic user interface design. Oh, and if you really want to improve the guide, just model it after TiVo, please!
All-in-all, I am very happy with Voom. I feel very privledged to be able to experience true HD in my home. Discovery HD and Equator HD have already made me feel like I have actually been to some of the places they have shown me. It certainly is not without its faults, but that's what happens when you are on the bleeding edge.
Happy Vooming, everyone!
