Ok, so I haven't posted for a while. I was trying to make sure I was going to live with VOOM or get rid of it before I rambled on and had to eat my words. Following my install, I found out that due to the mountain I live behind, I can't get my locals via antenna. So, I sat down yesterday and talked it over with my wife to decide if we would keep VOOM, stay with cable, go back to D*, or some combination of the three. We both agreed that we have to keep VOOM in the picture and we'd keep expanded basic cable to have something on the TVs in the rest of the house, cover the two channels we watch that VOOM doesn't yet have (HGTV, Sci-Fi) and to keep the 3Mb cable internet rather than go to DSL. Now, VOOM added into the equation is definitely more expensive than going with digital cable with HD, but I would get 6 channels of HD with cable. VOOM has simply become a large part of our watching. We end up almost exclusively on the VOOM channels, or the HD movie channels when we watch TV, so it has to stay. I can live with the few issues we've discovered and I hope VOOM can get them all solved. However, I was with PrimeStar many years ago and then with D* when they launched and I can tell you with certainty that they had as many issues early on as VOOM has now. So, there you have it- one of the few that will admit I don't want VOOM to fail. Does that make me a bad person?
I'll give you all some additional info that you may be able to use: the VOOM service can get a rain fade boost by using the D* oval dish and mounting the LNB in the middle slot. Although I got 96-97 signal strength when installed, I would get bad rain fade. I mounted my old D* dish and I now get the same 97 signal, but rain fade is MUCH better.
Also, if you have a DVD recorder set the wide to normal 4x3 setting on VOOM to "squeeze" then use the s-video output to the recorder. You get a true widescreen recording when you play it back on a widescreen set.
I'll give you all some additional info that you may be able to use: the VOOM service can get a rain fade boost by using the D* oval dish and mounting the LNB in the middle slot. Although I got 96-97 signal strength when installed, I would get bad rain fade. I mounted my old D* dish and I now get the same 97 signal, but rain fade is MUCH better.
Also, if you have a DVD recorder set the wide to normal 4x3 setting on VOOM to "squeeze" then use the s-video output to the recorder. You get a true widescreen recording when you play it back on a widescreen set.
