You will definitely get the most "bang for your buck" with Voom. 30+ HD channels now with more to come. Plus many of the favorite cable channels in SD. Granted, that you would get more of the cable channels with the D's, but at best, they are offering only 7 or 8 channels in HD, and you must pay extra to receive any of them. HD quality on Voom is excellent for the most part, although some of the material on the Cinema 10 channels is not totally up to par(film transfer quality). Everything else is of excellent quality, the premium movie channels, Bravo, Discovery HD Theatre, etc. If you are looking for quantity and quality, Voom is the way to go. Go to their web site at the link at top of forum page for all of their offerings.
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What if you have multiple televisions? Currently I have 5 TVs connected to cable. One of these is my HDTV and has a motorola 5100 for HD digital cable. The other 4 are connected directly to the cable jack for analog cable. I am paying 37.00 (no matter how many sets are connected) for analog cable and 20.00 for the upgrade to digital and HD on one set. VOOM would coust me 39.00(?) for the service and 9.50 for the equipment, but I would only have service to one TV right? Four more receivers would cost 9.50 per set?
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The Voom receiver will output an analog signal to how many ever tv's you are able to send the signal to. I have cable running thru-out the house from a Radio Shack distribution box(switcher), and can watch Voom in SD anywhere I want. Of course you cannot watch different programs at different sets. You would need multiple receivers for that. No extra charge to do this.
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Sorry - I guess I was a little unclear on this. I am talking about a do-it-yourself project to run the wiring aroung the house to different sets. Don't think that the Voom installer would do this for you. At least not for free. If you have a basement - duck soup.
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If you look at the programming you will receive on Voom vs DirecTV I think you will agree that Voom does not offer much in really good programming. Voom is also the new guy on the block and I'd want something that has been around for a few years before jumping on something so new.
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It really comes down to personal preference IMHO.I love football so have Directv for the Sunday Ticket but watch most of my HD using my OTA in my attic.I do hope Voom makes it though to keep the market competitive and hopefully force the D's to add more HD content.Best of luck!
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As a current DirecTV subscriber with the HD package I looked at the Voom situation and did a little research that caused me concerns I would like to share.
Voom is a one satellite venture by a subsidiary of CableVison {who will be familiar to those in the New York area and others}. Cablevision has been losing a lot of money. According to Standard and Poors, Cablevison lost $561 million in 2002, and $283 million in 2003. A footnote on the Voom site that says some of their channels are temporary due to end in April. There is concern from several sources that Voom is in financial trouble and the only way out is for CableVision is to sell the satellite to either DirecTV or Dish (Echostar). Another possibility is spin-off of Voom into a separate very small company.
DirecTV was just acquired by News Corp. headed by Rupert Murdoch who is the 800 lb ( should I say 8000 lb!) gorilla of satellite TV in the UK and Australia and also controls the Fox network in the USA. News Corp has dominated overseas satellite through their control of sports broadcasting, where in the UK it became almost mandatory to get a satellite subscription to see your favorite soccer team due to broadcast contracts Murdoch arranged.
DirecTV has at least 3 new satellites now being built and I read somewhere of plans to shift other existing birds from other uses to DirecTv. I am sure with Murdoch's financing power he can do almost anything he wants. If DirecTv has any hope of competing with cable in the US major changes are needed and I am sure he is aware of this.
When I compare the finances to expand between DirecTV and Voom it is no contest as I see it.
So I decided to wait and see what happens. The service I get a year from now or 5 yrs from now is an important issue.
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Keep in mind regarding the number of satellites each service has, that Voom is not using bandwith furnishing local channels in who knows how many markets around the country as the D's are. Also believe that a second "bird" is planned for Voom.
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I agree with your concerns over viability issues of Cablevision and Voom.
However, at this point in time, I believe this concern is moot.
Case in point:
Voom's current business plan allows a subscriber to lease their receiver for 9.95/mo without any contract obligation.
Even if I lease the box for 48 months, which totals out to around $480; I'm still coming out ahead of a D* subscriber who already shelled out XXX.XX dollars for a D* HD box. Also, from reading some posts, it sounds like some big spenders replace their box more often than that.
So if Voom goes belly up in six months, no big loss. Or if D* launches a big promo to bury Voom...D* here I come.
J W
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