Voom, Insight or Directv???

[Alto101]

Voom, Insight or Directv??? (Quick responses appreciated)

Last night I purchased a Mitsubishi WS-65813 that will be delivered on Monday. I am very excited, but have to make the choice about how to receive HDTV. I am a current D* subscriber with TiVo, but the standard definition model. I do not want to lose the TiVo(DVR) functionality since I have grown to depend on it. Here are my questions, please feel free to post links to other posts that already answered any of my questions...

1) For a given HDTV channel, will it look better with D*, Insight, or Voom? I am assuming Voom will look the best, but just checking....

2) Since I really don't want to lose the DVR, I am hesistant to switch to Voom since their DVR will not be out until March and no pricing info is available yet. I don't want to purchase a DVR, I want to lease one. How confident are you that Voom will have a functional DVR by March and do you think that they will offer a lease. How much do you think the lease price will be?

3) Is anyone familiar with Insight's DVR?

4) Since with Voom, the local channels come from an OTA antenna, how do the HDTV channels from Voom compare to the HDTV provided by Insight?

5) To switch to Voom, I would have to cancel my D* contract 5 months early. Any ideas as to how much they would charge me for this?

6) If I decide to switch to Voom, should I wait until their DVR is out since they might offer a better deal for new customers who wish to get a DVR than current customers who wish to upgrade to a DVR?

7) Is there anyway to get a cheaper HDTV TiVo from D*? I see one in the stores for $1000 which is way too much for me to spend.

8) I also need to purchase a new DVD player for my TV. I want to spend $200 or less and need a model that can up-convert through a DVI connection. Any personal recommendations?

Thanks for any help you can offer!

 

[Sean Mota]

Alto101,


Welcome.

1- It all depends who you speak to... Don't have Insight or DirecTv. I have Dish Network and Voom. IMO, differences are not significant in common channels.

2- We all want the Voom DVR. But it is not a "definite fact" that it will be available March 2005. We can hope only.

3-Not me.

4-Again it all depends on your location. Here in NYC I get great reception on locals OTA and it makes very little difference to me whether they come via satellite. Other locations may not be so lucky and benefit from HD locals via satellite.

 

[Rick214]

3) Is anyone familiar with Insight's DVR?

I have Insight and VOOM. In my area (Louisville, KY market) the only HD DVR Insight is using now is the Motorola 6208: 1 tuner, 80GB HD. I've heard rumors that in some areas Insight will be offering a 2 tuner, bigger HD version but no firm word that I know about. I'm leasing 2 6208's because of their limitations: 80 GB HD space (holds about 8-10 hours of HD) and the 1 tuner (which means you can only watch something you've already recorded while the tuner is actively recording something else). $12.50 rental for each unit. Between the two I'm getting by just fine time shifting HD and SD. I wouldn't want to be without an HD/SD DVR. I'm hoping to replace both of these units with VOOMs DVR.

4) Since with Voom, the local channels come from an OTA antenna, how do the HDTV channels from Voom compare to the HDTV provided by Insight?

I'm sure that depends on how close you are to the tower and how much power your local affiliate is using these days for their digital feeds. I live within a couple of miles from the towers so my attic antenna gets everything with excellent signal strength using my current VOOM STB. In my area Insight has these HD channels that I can also get OTA: CBS, NBC, ABC, FOX. I can't tell a difference in PQ between OTA and Insight on these channels - they both look good.