Sorenson vs ZVRS

Bad lip reader, bad lip reader, sigh... <grin>
 
Lol, I think everyone take this too serious. This is a free country with freedom of choice. Use the VRS provider you like and don't worry about which provider others are using.

That being said I've read through all the posts in this thread and I'm surprised the reasons for porting back to Sorenson weren't mentioned.

1. No remote. Many deaf seem to find easier use remote than have to get close and use buttons on Z20
2. Small video. With ntouch VP you can use with huge TV if you want.
3. Poor video and disconnections were mentioned with Z20 but that could be due to end user's network. I don't have a Z20 to confirm this with.

I have an ntouch VP and I love it. Very clear sharp 720p HD video on big TV and I can use remote to answer/make calls from comfort of living room couch.
 
...And the war continues. I lied. :aw: I didn't file the complaint like I said I would a few weeks ago after being harassed by Sorenson once. After I visited here to rant about my problem, the harassment problem suddenly faded away. I didn't hear from them until recently several minutes ago. This time, they made it clear that they would make a good offer, and they really wanted me to come back. I should have filed the complaint, but I was too busy with school, and I didn't feel like I have enough evidences to report on them.

Tonight they offered me a few things. An nTouch VP (of course), a TV, and a free iPad 2. I even hesitated again this time, because I'm iPadless and I would really love to have a tablet like right now. I must also add that the person that called me was actually the person that installed my VP at RIT during my freshman year. He wasn't someone I can just ignored since we have a lot of mutual friends that I don't want to burn bridge with. So I decided to go with the flow and asked them if I decided to port back my number, will I l be responsible to pay for my early termination fee with ZVRS? They told me that I do not have to worry as that will be taken care of as well. Not only I will get the above offers, but I will also become one of their beta testers for their soon-to-be-released VCO feature, which is another reason why they wanted me back. So, I would have to do a lot of thinking in the meantime until first week of January. They plan to arrive at my place with everything, including the contract form and the offers they promised. From there, I would have to make my final decision whether to stay or leave. Sorry Z.

Although, it ain't over until the fat lady sings. I'm gonna wait to see if they are actually gonna give me an unboxed iPad 2 or not. If it's open, then I ain't signing. I'm also gonna take my time to read the contract to see if there is anything I don't like. If there is nothing I don't like, then I am more likely to switch. However, you guys can continue to convince me why I should stay, and what are the drawbacks if I switch to Sorenson since I heard Sorenson is finally catching up on some of the features. An UP-TO-DATE comparison would be wonderful since I dunno what changed over the last two months. Thanks in advance.
 
Lol, I think everyone take this too serious. This is a free country with freedom of choice. Use the VRS provider you like and don't worry about which provider others are using.

That being said I've read through all the posts in this thread and I'm surprised the reasons for porting back to Sorenson weren't mentioned.

1. No remote. Many deaf seem to find easier use remote than have to get close and use buttons on Z20
2. Small video. With ntouch VP you can use with huge TV if you want.
3. Poor video and disconnections were mentioned with Z20 but that could be due to end user's network. I don't have a Z20 to confirm this with.

I have an ntouch VP and I love it. Very clear sharp 720p HD video on big TV and I can use remote to answer/make calls from comfort of living room couch.

nTouch VP is better than Z20. see vlog...
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ABbzNqW-dT8&list=UUERH7awdY3M-n5otvzurJkg&index=1&feature=plcp[/ame]
 

Forgot to mention that Sorenson terps sux. Therefore, in increasing numbers, the reason why people are starting to notice the "20% of VRS industry" (any non-Sorenson VRS biz's).

Most of the stuff being mentioned is irrelevant especially when the most important part of the VRS experience, the conversation between the deafie and hearie itself, sucks like it does with Sorenson. Biggest & clearest video in the world is not going to erase the fact that you are struggling with aggressively mediocre Sorenson terping.

(important to note that I'm referring to an average VRS experience with each VRS biz - one can always get a "bad terp" with any VRS biz, not just Sorenson - I'm referring to the average experience. I've never really ever noticed a good terp exprience with Sorenson)
 
Forgot to mention that Sorenson terps sux. Therefore, in increasing numbers, the reason why people are starting to notice the "20% of VRS industry" (any non-Sorenson VRS biz's).

Most of the stuff being mentioned is irrelevant especially when the most important part of the VRS experience, the conversation between the deafie and hearie itself, sucks like it does with Sorenson. Biggest & clearest video in the world is not going to erase the fact that you are struggling with aggressively mediocre Sorenson terping.

(important to note that I'm referring to an average VRS experience with each VRS biz - one can always get a "bad terp" with any VRS biz, not just Sorenson - I'm referring to the average experience. I've never really ever noticed a good terp exprience with Sorenson)

Don't forget that many deaf people signed sux as well. That make difficulty for terps to understand what he or she trying to say. If both sux, this will increase conflict of communications.
 
Don't forget that many deaf people signed sux as well. That make difficulty for terps to understand what he or she trying to say. If both sux, this will increase conflict of communications.

Understood and agreed, however, that's not what I'm referring to. I'm referring to genuinely bad "average VRS experience" with Sorenson, mainly attributed to bad terping.
 
Understood and agreed, however, that's not what I'm referring to. I'm referring to genuinely bad "average VRS experience" with Sorenson, mainly attributed to bad terping.

Yeah I understand. Remember that Sorenson have large collection of interpreters, I mean huge... there are more chance of answering bad interpreters compare to like ConvoRelay whereas only have small number of terps, and easy to manage which terps are bad or not. The smaller the number of terps, they only keep the good quality terps you know? If ConvoRelay suddenly become popular and the answering (or wait) time does not meet the FCC requirments, talking about answering time within 15 seconds something like that (can't remember), so what you gonna do? Hire more "not too bad terps" to meet the FCC requirement wait time. You know?? It's all about between FCC and VRS and VRS must follow the rules. Now if Sorenson getting too many bad terps, then there's red flag.. So, it's hard to find every single terps that are the best.... 1500 terps.. are all of them are the best?? Of course not... same with other business, buying books once you get in the mail, you find the books crushed, bented... who to blame? book company or the shipping service?
 
I want to find out whether this is true or not. For using P2P, do the companies limit the minutes? His VP and my VP (both Sorenson and ZVRS) that shut down about every five minutes. If it is relay only, then it will continue the conversation. Do you have the similar problem? (Or, is that new to you?)
 
There is absolutely no time limit set by any VRS companies. VRS companies can not do that (Set time limits), however sometimes ISP (Internet Service Providers) decided to cut off stream if they notice high bandwidth been running too long thinking it is security breach, bam cut off. The videophone, regardless of which brand is bandwidth hog. Much more than when running on computer. Sometimes, it is modem issue, sometimes it is router issue, sometimes it is bad Ethernet cable. First troubleshooting procedure would be inspect all Ethernet cable for any defects or damages. 80% of the time the problem is connection or cable itself is the cause. If everything looks good, call ISP to have your end check out their cables. These kind of problems requires detective work.

I want to find out whether this is true or not. For using P2P, do the companies limit the minutes? His VP and my VP (both Sorenson and ZVRS) that shut down about every five minutes. If it is relay only, then it will continue the conversation. Do you have the similar problem?
 
I want to find out whether this is true or not. For using P2P, do the companies limit the minutes? His VP and my VP (both Sorenson and ZVRS) that shut down about every five minutes. If it is relay only, then it will continue the conversation. Do you have the similar problem? (Or, is that new to you?)

This sound like it's coming from the router, that you have Stateful inspection firewall enabled. You may want to try disable it.
 
Oh yes, you are right. Stateful Packet Inspection does cause video quality issues. Best inspect that, and disable if needed. It usually not the cause disconnections. The SPI function really much has to do with security. To give the idea what SPI is. When router gets a packet from outside, router asks the host if they expect the packet, if yes then pass the packet, if no then drop packet into trash can. Since VP is a real time application, it can not afford any delay. SPI causes these delays which degrade the video quality.

Keep in mind, not all routers has every features, and that includes SPI. I know several Dlink routers don't have it, Netgear definitely has it. Some Linksys router has it, not all.

This sound like it's coming from the router, that you have Stateful inspection firewall enabled. You may want to try disable it.
 
Yeah I understand. Remember that Sorenson have large collection of interpreters, I mean huge... there are more chance of answering bad interpreters compare to like ConvoRelay whereas only have small number of terps, and easy to manage which terps are bad or not. The smaller the number of terps, they only keep the good quality terps you know? If ConvoRelay suddenly become popular and the answering (or wait) time does not meet the FCC requirments, talking about answering time within 15 seconds something like that (can't remember), so what you gonna do? Hire more "not too bad terps" to meet the FCC requirement wait time. You know?? It's all about between FCC and VRS and VRS must follow the rules. Now if Sorenson getting too many bad terps, then there's red flag.. So, it's hard to find every single terps that are the best.... 1500 terps.. are all of them are the best?? Of course not... same with other business, buying books once you get in the mail, you find the books crushed, bented... who to blame? book company or the shipping service?

Doesn't change anything I said. You mentioned many of the reasons why people are choosing the 20% of VRS industry over Sorenson - they are tired of the bad "average" VRS experience with Sorenson.
 
After reading this thread, I signed up for a Z-20. I fully intend to stick with it, but if they offer me an iPad and pay any ETF, I'll listen to Sorenson's efforts to win me back. However, I'm not sure I will go back. I'm very interested in the VCO feature on the Z-20. Also, I need to get rid of my old TV because it is ready to die soon, so the Z20 makes sense for us. The only thing that keeps bothering me is interoperability. Is the Z20 going to have trouble with calling people P2P?
 
After reading this thread, I signed up for a Z-20. I fully intend to stick with it, but if they offer me an iPad and pay any ETF, I'll listen to Sorenson's efforts to win me back. However, I'm not sure I will go back. I'm very interested in the VCO feature on the Z-20. Also, I need to get rid of my old TV because it is ready to die soon, so the Z20 makes sense for us. The only thing that keeps bothering me is interoperability. Is the Z20 going to have trouble with calling people P2P?

No, the Z-20 does not have a problem. I'm basically satisfied with my Z-20 personally. It is just like a regular telephone that has number buttons easily.

Sorenson is ridiculous because they do not let us to get a new telephone number when you want to get a brand new nTouch VP. Hearing people have different brands of telephone devices in their house such as Panasonic, AT&T, Uniden, Clarity, Aastra, Bell phones, General Electric (GE), etc. OMG.

Sorenson has millions of dollars no matter what, and they still get the money from FCC. What a cheap! It would be nice if we get the nTouchVP if we want one so that we continue support deaf employees at Sorenson. That would make a sense.
 
After reading this thread, I signed up for a Z-20. I fully intend to stick with it, but if they offer me an iPad and pay any ETF, I'll listen to Sorenson's efforts to win me back. However, I'm not sure I will go back. I'm very interested in the VCO feature on the Z-20. Also, I need to get rid of my old TV because it is ready to die soon, so the Z20 makes sense for us. The only thing that keeps bothering me is interoperability. Is the Z20 going to have trouble with calling people P2P?

No trouble with P2P. One nice thing about the Z-20 is that you don't have to wait for an available interpreter if ZVRS is extremely busy at the hour you are calling. You can use SnapVRS instead, and the VCO feature will work! I'm not affiliated with SnapVRS at all, but there were time, I couldn't use ZVRS temporarily.

You probably read my porting story. I may not switch to Sorenson if there is something I don't like in the agreement. I'm only considering them just for that free iPad, but only under ONE condition... I must have access to their VCO feature if they have any. As far as I know, I would need a separate line for that, and I would ask them to include a separate free subscription plan for voice as part of the agreement before I sign that form. I'm gonna drive a hard bargain for this deal since I don't like how they viewed at me as nothing but their cash cow, and not their valuable customer before I left. I mean... what's changed? They told me they were so overwhelmed with the new nTouch VP and couldn't find the time to pay attention a valuable customer like me. So, once the installer shows up at my door with what they promised me in our deal, I'm gonna video record the whole thing, take a couple of snapshots, and make a photocopy of the form before and after signing it. If they don't like this, then good! I'm only doing this to defend myself from getting robbed. If they tried to screw with me, then they can bet I will send my evidence to FCC. I hope they know how I felt when I was being harassed by them for not letting me and others enjoy our freedom.
 
Funny Video: Hitler is mad at ZVRS

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2XJy25J2_kI]Hitler is Mad at ZVRS - YouTube[/ame]
 
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_DLm2zWKkPw]Hitler loves Sorenson - YouTube[/ame]

:giggle:
 
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