Voom on Dish isn't Voom

[MarcelV]

I am very sorry and don't understand the excitement of
Voom21 on Dish Network. It's just not the same.

Some of the SD channels on Voom looked much better.
Examples were WE, Fox Soccer Channel.

Then there were SD channels that are not on Dish.
CNN International and ESPN Desportes by example and those
became channels I watched frequently.

And then there were HD channels not shown by others, not
just in the Voom21....

And yes, I have Dish (since 98 and had it next to Voom).
Voom really was different. Ergen and Jimmy found a way to
kill it, and succeeded. This was the best Chuck could get out
of it. But it will never be a Voom experience. :river
And I was not even talking about the rollercoaster
experience, the people on this Voom forum.

 

[hdtvGeek]

Since half of Vooms problems where with people not wanting to sign up until (insert channel) was available.

Let's start a Dish Bashing thead. I'll start it off.

1) I won't switch till they have all the Vooms channels (No Voom Lite)
2) add your own rant here

 

[bryan27]

I just don't like Dish. It's too cheezy.

 

[1080iBeVuMin]

This is only the first day. Just have to wait... let's see what E* does, and let's see what D* does. Don't panic.

Yes, there are negatives about V* on E*. But 2 big plusses: DVR! and HDNet! I can't count how many threads complained about no DVR and no HDNet. Now you got 'em both with Voom-lite.

 

[DarrellP]

All I can say is the PQ rocks! I don't watch SD (other than SD digital OTA) so that is a mute point to me. I now pay $22/month for nothing but HD.

$10: HDPack
$5: Voom10
$2: Extended warranty
$5: No SD programming package fee

ESPNHD
TNTHD
DiscoveryHD
HDNET
HDNET Movies
HDNEWS
MonstersHD
MajesticHD
GuyTV
Ultra
Gallery
Equator
Rave
Rush
NBAHD (when active)
HDEvents (when active)
Demo channel (whoopee)

OTA HD:
ABC
CBS
NBC
PBS
FOX
WB
UPN

 

[salsadancer7]

Personally, will wait to see what D* will be announcing in June....might go to Adelphia for about 6 months...AND HDNET and HDNET Movies was and is way overrated.....

 

[1080iBeVuMin]

All I can say is the PQ rocks! I don't watch SD (other than SD digital OTA) so that is a mute point to me. I now pay $22/month for nothing but HD.

$10: HDPack
$5: Voom10
$2: Extended warranty
$5: No SD programming package fee...

DarrellP I didn't know they gave you the option of a "no SD programming" package. Getting just HD for $22 a month?? How many dishes do you have to put up for that? And if I wanted to get local network HD over the D* satellite, would I need another dish? (It would be San Francisco.) Do they offer local networks in HD? Or only SD? Desn't look like you are paying extra for locals -- I guess because you get them OTA. (I can't.)

So, if I also wanted the HD DVR (924? or whatever), I would pay $250 for that, but no extra monthly?

Thanks for your input! Suddenly I am a lot more interested in the Dish offer.

 

[mike123abc]

With Dish you do not have to take one of the base AT (standard definition packages). Instead you can opt to pay $5/month for your first receiver fee (this fee is built into the AT60/120/180/AEP packages). So, you can just subscribe to any package they carry.

HD Pack is $9.99
VOOM Pack is $5.00
First RCV is $5.00

So, $20+tax is what you would pay.

Note that doing this you do not get any of the "deals". If you want the 942 for $250 (leasing privilege fee) instead of buying your own on the open market you will not qualify. You have to take at least AT60 to get the deals (free install, free equipment, etc).

If you already have Dish equipment or have a source to get it cheap you can do this.

 

[SeattleVoomer1]

Hey, Darrell, thanks for the info.

Now just need to figure out what we need to set up for HD. Looks like another antenna, some type of switcher and another wire through the wall. Suppose a local installer could do all this for us. Then Dish would supply an HD STB? And "authorize" us to receive service?

Will see if we can figure this our over the next few days and go from there. May have more questions for you. Of course, we could just drive down and see your setup which I gather is extensive. Of course, you might not lets us "Northern Pacific Northwesteners" across the Columbia.

However, still enjoying OTA FM (not digital yet but coming!) under increasingly cloudy Seattle skies, Gill

 

[DarrellP]

Will see if we can figure this our over the next few days and go from there. May have more questions for you. Of course, we could just drive down and see your setup which I gather is extensive. Of course, you might not lets us "Northern Pacific Northwesteners" across the Columbia.
Gill

Gill, I'd love to have you pop on down for a visit. I'm always more than happy to demo my system. It's actually quite simple, I have 2 dishes, one Dish 500 that receives 110 & 119, the other at 61.5. I use a switch21 (2 into 1) to tie the 2 dishes together and run a single coax into my 6000. Of course, my gear is the older, "legacy" equipment, so I don't need the newer DishPro LNB's, at least not yet.

I really need to add another stb so I can record while viewing. That's the one thing I will really miss from Voom. I will use my Voom for OTA as long as I can. I really liked having all the outputs hot at the same time. The Dish 811 does this, but the 921 does not.

 

[jeslevine]

hey, as far as I am concern it is better than nothing

 

[DarrellP]

I'm enjoying the heck out of this new package. About the only channels I ever watched regulary on Voom were: Monsters, Rave & Rush, so I'm set. I think $5 is a steal, Dish charges $10 for their HD Pack and it only has 5 channels. Once you guys get hooked up to 61.5 and the HD Pack, you also get, as a little bonus, the Demo channel, some NBAHD games and Dish has an HDEVENT channel that has some games or other specials on it periodically free of charge.

 

[mrhph]

I'm enjoying the heck out of this new package. About the only channels I ever watched regulary on Voom were: Monsters, Rave & Rush, so I'm set. I think $5 is a steal, Dish charges $10 for their HD Pack and it only has 5 channels. Once you guys get hooked up to 61.5 and the HD Pack, you also get, as a little bonus, the Demo channel, some NBAHD games and Dish has an HDEVENT channel that has some games or other specials on it periodically free of charge.

I have a 811 and a SuperDish. Can I just buy a SW21 from eBay and hook the coax from Voom and Dish through the SW21 to the 811 (indoor), get Voom activated and that's it? Or do I really need to pony up $100 for a technician to come out and do it?

 

[wase4711]

can't wait to get hd lite, pay a 250 "privilege" fee to get a dvr,have at least 2 dishes on my house, pay lots to get installed, and suffer with poor PQ, and very little HD...And, to top it off, pay over 100 per month to get it all...
Then, be stuck with obsolete equipment in a few months when MPEG-4 shows up!

Amazing how many folks are "Rushing" to get signed up to this lame Dish deal...

I'll say it again; get cable until this all shakes out, and save yourself a ton of $$$$...

 

[jmd102354]

Screw CABLE !!!

 

[DarrellP]

I have a 811 and a SuperDish. Can I just buy a SW21 from eBay and hook the coax from Voom and Dish through the SW21 to the 811 (indoor), get Voom activated and that's it? Or do I really need to pony up $100 for a technician to come out and do it?

I'm not sure about the SuperDish and the 811, they suse the DishPro LNB's, which I am not familiar with, I have the older legacy gear that uses the sw21. If you had a 6000 then you could do what you describe.

"Enjoying crystal clear HD on my 8' screen from Dish, regardless of what the Cable Lover's are saying"

 

[mdonnelly]

I have a 811 and a SuperDish. Can I just buy a SW21 from eBay and hook the coax from Voom and Dish through the SW21 to the 811 (indoor), get Voom activated and that's it? Or do I really need to pony up $100 for a technician to come out and do it?

A SuperDish won't do it for the new VOOM channels. All those channels come off the 61.5 sat. SuperDishes point at 105 or 121, along with 110/119.

You'll need another dish, and a switch to tie the dishes together. All told, $100 isn't a bad price.

 

[lmtorres]

Hi Guys,

Like many of you I said a sad goodbye to Voom this Saturday. Today Dish came to hook me up. Yes, I ordered the everything package (my wife likes the pay channels) and HD and the install went very well. I got the 942 ($250 upgrade fee) so I could have Dish in 2 rooms without having two receivers and also got the DVR.

The installer simply disconnected the Voom dish and put his in its place. The Voom installed OTA stayed in place and when we did the scan I actually got a few more Local HD channels than before (at least I'm seeing more doubles of NBC, etc. than before). I had stayed home (working at the home-office) for the install and all was done pretty well.

I did have to go into the setup screen and under HDTV set the resolution at 1080i as they had it set to 480i. I'm still not sure how best to set the screen size as I do not have a widescreen tv (the default is 16x9) and I'm playing with it to see what works best.

Lastly, I did to go HBOHD to see what the clarity was and perhaps it was the movie (Warm Springs), but it didn't have the crispness that I had become accustomed to from Voom. Even the local HD channels weren't quite as sharp as I remember, but perhaps I need to do a bit more tweaking. It's hard to focus on settings while running back and forth to the office to take calls so I just figured that I'll wait until tonight and go for it. I did have to install an optical audio cable though otherwise you only get stereo out of the receiver rather than 5.1.

I could be wrong, but to my eye the PQ on the SD channels seem as good or better than Voom, but I'll need some time to sit, watch, tweak and then decide.

Any advice on setting up for the best PQ is also appreciated from you Dish users.

Lou

 

[mdonnelly]

...
Lastly, I did to go HBOHD to see what the clarity was and perhaps it was the movie (Warm Springs), but it didn't have the crispness that I had become accustomed to from Voom. Even the local HD channels weren't quite as sharp as I remember, but perhaps I need to do a bit more tweaking. It's hard to focus on settings while running back and forth to the office to take calls so I just figured that I'll wait until tonight and go for it. I did have to install an optical audio cable though otherwise you only get stereo out of the receiver rather than 5.1.

I could be wrong, but to my eye the PQ on the SD channels seem as good or better than Voom, but I'll need some time to sit, watch, tweak and then decide.

Any advice on setting up for the best PQ is also appreciated from you Dish users.

Lou

No offense, but are you sure your TV video source is set to the component or DVI input, and not s-video or composite?

 

[vurbano]

At one time I thought the FCC told Dish to consolidate to one dish for recieving channels. What ever happened to that? This flies in the face of it. Its just ridiculous IMO.