Voom & DVRs/PVRs

[AutomatedOutlet]

OK, I finally caved in an ordered an HDTV. Shortly after doing that, I ordered Voom.

The TV won't be in for about a month and my Voom installation is after that.

Couple of issues:

1) After ordering everything, I found all kinds of posts on forums about the demise of Voom - should I be concerned?

2) I currently have Dish and can't live without my PVR. Voom doesn't have one. I know that there are several off-the-shelf units that work with Voom. Should I consider then or just go to another service?

Any help would be great!

Thanks,

Martin

 

[electron]

Voom got bought by Echostar if I am not mistaken, so your best bet would be to call the company and ask what is going to happen and if there will be a PVR system. Time to switch to another dish provider.

 

[rodriguez24]

DTV is comming out w/ more HD Channels soon...

 

[CFGuy]

Actually, all Echostar bought was the satellite. They did not buy the customers or the channels.

AO,
You should be fine, from news that came out today, Voom will sell their business to Cablevision Systems Corporation and moving the channel from the satellite they sold to EchoStar to leased space on Satellite Rainbow2.

Voom did not grow as fast as they thought they would. This move should allow them to survive while they grow.


http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/050210/105819_1.html

Here is a site dedicated to sat tv. This thread is talking about the changes.
http://www.satelliteguys.us/announcement.php?f=24

 

[jrfuda]

Martin, another consideration if it's not too late, would be to cancel Voom and see if you can work something with Dish to get one of their new 942 DVRs. It's a HDTV model that has dual tuners (like the 522, which I have) so it can feed 2 rooms - and I think it has a 3rd OTA HD/SD tuner as well.

I'm currently using a HDTV with Dish SD fare and the pic quality varies from channel to channel (did you get an LCD, DLP, Plasma, or CRT model - all but the last really amplify the artifacts resulting from the compression Dish uses). Essentially, the more "premium" a channel is the better the pic quality... Locals look really bad. 1st Teir stuff is a little better (TBS, CNN, etc.) 2nd Teir stuff is a little mo' better (SciFi, Discovery, etc.) and Premiums (HBO, SHO, PPV) are really nice. So you get what you pay for.

Does your set have a OTA tuner already? I bought m\ine before the buuilt-in tuners became commonplace, so I don't have one, yet.

When Dish gets a little more reasonable with their 942 price, I may change over (I think now it's $250 - $700 for the upgrade, depending on who you talk to when you call, plus the normal $5 extra per month each for DVR and HD). Maybe in another 6 months or so they'll include it in one of their regular packages. I still don't know if I'll be staying in San Antonio for another 2-3 years or be leaving in June. Hope to know soon - which will help drive my decision.

 

[AutomatedOutlet]

No, it's not too late for the provider decision. I have about 2-3 more weeks to decide.

This is what I got.

http://www1.us.dell.com/content/products/p...s=19&l=en&s=dhs

Didn't pay that much though since I got it through a special deal running through our Dell corporate account. The special deal also gave me a 4 year on-site warranty and a wall mounting bracket. It's still a bunch of money but they gave me a deal I couldn't pass up.

The more I think about it, the more I'm leaning against Voom. I really can't live without my PVR. I hate commercials and almost never watch live TV anymore. I don't even watch football games live. I'll start watching them about an hour or so after it starts and finish at the same time as live.

I guess I'll call Dish and see what deal can be made. I really like their service and user interface but they are just so nasty on the phone that I don't like talking to them. They also lie a lot about what they promise.

Thanks for the help everyone!

 

[Treetop]

One thing I've notice about cable, dish, cellphone services....

If you call up and try to cancell... they will give you a good deal for a couple of months. Take them up on it...call back in a month with the same argument, and they'll extend it!

I got my cable for 1/2 price doing that for a year! Granted, this was before I found out how to hack Sats. After that... well... all I can say is DVB-S

With regards to HDTVs.....
I'm sticking to my guns on this one: HDTV's, Why Bother?

 

[electron]

Someone didn't get a HDTV for Christmas and is grumpy

Once you go HDTV, you won't go back, since most of the primetime shows are in HD, and some of the movie channels, it's a pretty good start. Once you lay your eyes on a true HD broadcast you will sell your first child just so you can get one of these, mark my words Not to mention, some DVD's have a bonus disk which contains the HD version of the movie (i.e. T2 Extreme Edition), and it looks awesome, a true theater experience.