Voom is great, but moving to e*

FrankJo said:
Remember folks, this is just TV when it's all said and done.
Just TV?!? JUST tv? What do you mean? I don't understand. :confused:
Is that like just air, just food, just water? :D ;) :D
 
FrankJo said:
...
People seem to get exited over "news" about satellites and 70 new channels in March. But how long have many of you been waiting for a PVR?
...

I would say that not as long as D* customers (either for Tivo or HDTivo). :)
 
Right now, Voom is for quantity of HD, not quality of HD. The DishHD Pack blows away Voom PQ. If you don't believe me, I invite anyone over to my house to see the proof.
 
DarrellP said:
Right now, Voom is for quantity of HD, not quality of HD. The DishHD Pack blows away Voom PQ. If you don't believe me, I invite anyone over to my house to see the proof.
I have heard many people say that ...but have never seen Dish HD with my own eyes. Problem with Dish is unless they get rid of some ch's they are going to have a hard time adding new HD ch's as they come along. They are kind of quite when it comes to talking about their long range HD plans. But we are in the present...and whatever makes anyone happy they should go with it. Its all a matter of opinion....and I am happy that we all have options.
 
For all of you who love Voom's Cinema 10 channels, do any of you own a scaling DVD player?

We have a Samsung HD931 scaling player, it upconverts or line doubles to 1080i or 720p internally.

Granted its not original HD content but I'd put up most movies against Voom's Cinema 10 and end up with better/equal results on my Samsung unit. On the flip side, some of the StarzHD and certain other premium HD offerings look stunning and cannot compare to the 931, Tears of the Sun comes to mind. Cinema 10 doesn't look all that great, then again neither does HDnet Movies.

Superbit titles look fantastic.

So now your down to Soundstage TV, which also is carried by our local PBS in full 19.2mbps bandwidth HD, Auction Channel, Animation, Sports no one watches, and a News reel that is shorter than the porno loop you watched in high school over and over :)

If there are other HD Voom exclusive channels they were so good I forgot about them.

As far as HBO HD, Showtime HD, etc....those are available on any service and at the time I had D* their quality was equal to V* however it seems that has changed. E*'s HD Quality has never left me questioning it as an issue.

As far as PQ. V*'s SD quality is fantastic, but you can discount that as a plus because Vurbano is building bombs to blow up all the SD transmitter stations :)

D*'s SD PQ sucks, its horrible even when I had it. E*'s SD PQ is very good, about the same as V* on my 60" LCD however you do see more macro's on my 32 inch non-HD but on the LCD they look comparable.

Regardless, very very very few things equal CBS's OTA HD and there is no arguing with that, if you do, your blind or your local station is not using their bandwidth the right way.

My backwater cable system called me today after I emailed them, they offer HD as of last Monday. Only OTA, DiscoveryHD, ESPN HD, and StarzHD....but more is coming, along with a HD DVR...so now the real fun will begin, but I expect 6 months before they put stuff in place.

Regardless of what Voom offers there is the biggest downfall to their service, it usually starts when a human voice comes on after dialing 1-800-GET-VOOM.
 
FrankJo said:
The real revolution will be in less tha 10 years (probably sooner) when you'll have a fiber connection to your house and be able to receive all this at the speed of light.
That will be nice, but the timeline for this is more like 20 years. Heck, I have been waiting 5 years for Verizon to offer DSL in my area and I'm still a mile too far away from the switching station...and I live in a city of 50k within the 8th largest DMA. I know Verizon and SBC are busy laying fiber, but look at how long it took to wire the country for electricity and telephone.
 
So Far So Good

Well, I like the program guide better w/ e*and the overall (SD) picture quality is better. A nice thing about the 811 box is that is receives both analog and digital signals. I didn't want the extra dish for the 1 channel that I would have wanted, but I can tune it in with the analog. Since I live close enough, the picture is more than quite good. I can also tune in a UPN station that broadcasts digital, but at very low wattage. I tune that in in analog as well.

The HD is quite good. I still get to see what I was watching before, which was mostly local and ESPN-HD. I will miss Soundsatge, though.

Universal HD I think I may miss. I did manage to catch The Bruce Lee Story, which was exquisite in HD (it had great cinematography to begin with) before the switch. HDNet movies may be a decent substitute. Uh, "Bikini Destinations" will be nice if they add some, ahem, diversity to the models.

I now am wired for 2 rooms for the same price I was paying for 1. Actually less since my first 6 months for the HD pack are free. (Though with the new offer this may be less of a factor for new subs.)

Most importantly, I'll be tuning in tonight for my first Washington Wizards game, which is why I switched in the first place.

And lastly, the STB is much better looking.
 
Don't hold your breath for Fiber!

FrankJo said:
The real revolution will be in less tha 10 years (probably sooner) when you'll have a fiber connection to your house and be able to receive all this at the speed of light.


Ummm, Don't bet on it. I HAVE Fiber to Curb at my house and thats What BellSouth DTV uses. (as well as my DSL) . I ahve had Adelphia,BS DTV, E* and now VOOM. VOOM by far has the best Picture. (I did not try E* HD offering I couldn't see paying an additional $17.00 a month for 5 channels. (that includes HD Box rental and taxes)

The Best thing about BS DTV is the menus and PG and well...Thats it, oh Almost forgot the STB has Coax Digital Out for the audio. The rest of it SUXXORZ.. PQ was horrible and it was overpriced. ($70.00 per for basic, a little less if you had Full features on your Phone service.)
The compression at the Head-end in Orlando FL made even a little bit of Fast action look Crappy. ( For all of the Hype about Digital TV, Analog cable gave me a better picture....when it worked.)
Even E* had better PQ than BS DTV.
I guess the moral of this story is you PQ is only as good as the Head end content, Your milage may vary especially you folk up North but in South Florida HD Pickins are Slim other than OTA.
Adelphia cable in Miami is not much better (though not Fiber)

Last nights STARZHD "The Santa Clause II" On Adelphia HD
adelphiahd.jpg
 
Grande communications have been digging up my neighborhood all month laying fiberoptic, yesterday they tied into the Big GREEN junction box in my back,they offer bundled services of home ph-cable-DSL-alarm but only offer 2 HD channels as of now , but they do offer some blazing internet speeds
bb_comparison.gif

http://www.grandecom.com/index.jsp
who knows what the future holds?
 
fiber optic

heres a neat co www.tcom-dtvro.com I wouldnt mind trying one of these boxs out/
tl_img01_800.gif

Pioneering IPTV set-top box and home gateway, TD800, powered by Microsoft Windows CE.net v4.2 delivers broadband TV and Video-on
-Demand (VoD) over Internet Protocol (IP) via even lower bandwidth
networks.

T-browser based in MS Internet Explorer 6.0 thats a plus
Video NTSC TV Resolution: 720 x 480 or 640 x 480
256 Level Alpha blending---sounds disapointing
800_ui_1.gif
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800_ui_3.gif

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Fber is nice butits the Feed that Counts

Like I said earlier I have Fiber already but what they are putting on it , thats another thing. Eventually they will get it right. but not now. (At least in South Florida).

If its like most areas its only Fiber to the Stump in the yard. from the Stump its a High grade Coaxial Cable that Runs to the NIF box with the Phone lines. If you have DSL then they run CAT 5 cable to where everyou Computer is, Drill a hole in the wall and install an ethernet jack. No Modem needed.

For the TV the Coax goes into whatever TV distribution you house is already wired with. if its not wired then they run the Coax to the rooms where the STB's go.The Box is a Big Ugly black Box.

UPDATE:
Apparently Bellsouth is getting out of the Cable Business and now they are reselling DirectTV har har!
 
Fiber to Curb

If its like most areas its only Fiber to the Stump in the yard. from the Stump its a High grade Coaxial Cable that Runs to the NIF box with te Phone lines. If you have DSL then they run CAT 5 cable to where everyou Computer is, Drill a hole in the wall and install an ethernet jack. No Modem needed.

For the TV the Coax goes into whatever TV distribution you house is already wired with. if its not wired then they run the Coax to the rooms where the STB's go.

The Box is a Big Ugly black Box. But Apparently Bellsouth is getting out of the Cable Business and now they are reselling DirectTV har har!
 
FrankJo said:
Fiber is sooner than you think. Microsoft already has a box and has partnered with SBC to start delivering it to homes. Yes, it could be a couple of years, But i'd bet within 2 years, that it is being offered somewhere in the US.

see link:
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1735621,00.asp?kc=EWRSS03119TX1K0000594
My parent live in a community that's had fiber to the house for the past 5 years. They paid a butt-load of taxes to finance this community venture...and their cable, phone and internet service still sucks. Plus, it now costs a fortune compared to what I am paying for comparible services.
 
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