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Voom HDTV

S

SLCentral

Diamond Member
Hey guys,

Right now I'm using Comcast Digital Cable with HDTV for my 50" Samsung DLP TV. It doesn't have that many HD channels, though, and all-in-all I don't like Comcast, and their horrible customer service.

So, I was thinking about getting Voom satellite, since it has so many more HD channels. However, I have two main questions, and the Voom sales team didn't really give a direct answer. First off, how does the satellite connect to my three TV's around the house? Can it use the existing wiring of coaxil cables throughout the house, or will I actually have to wire the satellite to each TV (one in the bedroom upstairs, one in basement, and one in living room)? I want to avoid having cables all over the house, and if that is the case, I don't see how that'll work. Anyone want to explain, that has satellite service?

Also, the local HD channels, such as ABC, NBC, and CBS, aren't done via satellite, but by OTA broadcasting. I know a lot of people use this with the ATI HD Wonder for their PC, so I was curious as to how the quality was compared to digital cable. I watch those channels more then most others, and I don't want them to have subpar quality.

Thanks in advance.
 
Well I can tell you right now DONT GO VOOM! they went BK and Direct TV bought them out for 150 million. From what I have read and the commercials I am seeing you may want to go with Direct for the time being because they will be using VOOMS sats and thier exclusive rights they had with the HD programs VOOM was broadcasting. So I would wait because VOOM is about to be no more.
 
funboy, the AVSforums say otherwise.

OTA locals should look the same or better than locals through cable.

they may or may not be able to use existing cable - likely depends on your particular setup.
 
I don't think Voom will fail, and if it does, it'll take a while, and by then, HDTV will be much more matured on other systems, such as Digital Cable.

Thanks for your help, guys.
 
SLC is right... its not going to die anytime soon unless the Charles Dolan buyout doesnt happen.

And it can use your existing wiring (I beleive, unless you have some old wierd cable). I have voom and its excellent if you can get your OTA channels fine (and actually get it installed.... its a real pain because the installs inc network blows).

You can hit antennaweb.org and make sure your locals are broadcasting digitally.
 
Originally posted by: arod
SLC is right... its not going to die anytime soon unless the Charles Dolan buyout doesnt happen.

And it can use your existing wiring (I beleive, unless you have some old wierd cable). I have voom and its excellent if you can get your OTA channels fine (and actually get it installed.... its a real pain because the installs inc network blows).

You can hit antennaweb.org and make sure your locals are broadcasting digitally.
Click to expand...

This helps a lot, I think my cables are fine, my house was wired in 1990 so hopefully it won't be a problem.

I live pretty much 1/2 way between NYC and Philly, so hopefully it won't be a problem to get a HDTV OTA signal, I don't see how it could be considering my location.
 
Im looking at DirectTV's site and see a Mirroring Fee for the 2nd and 3rd receivers.....is that for renting them?? Can you buy a receiver and not have to pay the mirroring fee?
 
you have to pay mirror for any added on receiver.... with voom the mirror is included with the rental.
 
Originally posted by: arod
you have to pay mirror for any added on receiver.... with voom the mirror is included with the rental.
Click to expand...

Thats teh Suxor. Don't have to pay a mirroring fee for regular cable to run to other TVs either.
 
Originally posted by: Chadder007
Originally posted by: arod
you have to pay mirror for any added on receiver.... with voom the mirror is included with the rental.
Click to expand...

Thats teh Suxor. Don't have to pay a mirroring fee for regular cable to run to other TVs either.
Click to expand...


True , but you can't get digital , premium or HD signals from a split w/o a reciever.
 
Voom sucks. They came to my house and grounded the system wrong. Burned the rear channels out of my home theater receiver and blew up their receivers. This was 11 months ago. They have still not reimbursed me for the rceiver.
 
Originally posted by: Wag
I don't know why anyone wants any service that doesn't offer a PVR.
Click to expand...

You know, I would get a PVR, but my dad (I'm still in HS) hates TiVo, and anything like it, because its too confusing for him. Don't ask me how that makes sense, but he refuses.
 
Originally posted by: SLCentral
Originally posted by: Wag
I don't know why anyone wants any service that doesn't offer a PVR.
Click to expand...

You know, I would get a PVR, but my dad (I'm still in HS) hates TiVo, and anything like it, because its too confusing for him. Don't ask me how that makes sense, but he refuses.
Click to expand...

Eh, we have one and my dad just doesn't use it. I see no problem.
 
Originally posted by: NutBucket
Originally posted by: SLCentral
Originally posted by: Wag
I don't know why anyone wants any service that doesn't offer a PVR.
Click to expand...

You know, I would get a PVR, but my dad (I'm still in HS) hates TiVo, and anything like it, because its too confusing for him. Don't ask me how that makes sense, but he refuses.
Click to expand...

Eh, we have one and my dad just doesn't use it. I see no problem.
Click to expand...

We had TiVo for a bit, and he just said that he couldn't stand the menus, and how it would change channels to record my stuff. Now, with the DirectTV HD TiVo, it wouldn't do this, but, it also costs upwards of $1K and requires DTV, which doesn't have too good HD support.
 
Originally posted by: SLCentral
We had TiVo for a bit, and he just said that he couldn't stand the menus, and how it would change channels to record my stuff. Now, with the DirectTV HD TiVo, it wouldn't do this, but, it also costs upwards of $1K and requires DTV, which doesn't have too good HD support.
Click to expand...
I have the Comcast DVR for $8/mo. I can't see doing without it now.

 
This was from this month showing VOOM is dead.

Since its inception, Voom has burned through roughly $1 billion or more, by some estimates, but added just 26,000 subscribers. In the third quarter alone, the business lost $75.3 million.
Since the Dolan agreed to sell Voom, speculation has swirled that the cable pioneer might decide to sell his Cablevision stake. Time Warner Inc., which owns cable systems in adjoining areas, was seen as the most likely buyer, but recently put in a joint bid with Comcast Corp. for the bankrupt cable operator Adelphia Communications Corp.

So unless you can prove otherwise switching to VOOM wouldnt be the right choice at this moment.
 
We had TiVo for a bit, and he just said that he couldn't stand the menus, and how it would change channels to record my stuff. Now, with the DirectTV HD TiVo, it wouldn't do this, but, it also costs upwards of $1K and requires DTV, which doesn't have too good HD support.
Click to expand...
What? The DirectTivo reciever isn't much more than a regular Tivo - I've seen people selling them for under $200 in FS/T.

The age of your wiring can't always tell you if it'll be OK for satallite or not. My Dad ran some coax in our house close to 25 years ago and it was all RG6. If the person doing the wiring was cheap, they may have used RG59, which you can't really use for cable. The easiest way to tell is look at the cable itself and see if it's labeled RG6 or RG59. Sometimes they don't say, in which case you can usually tell by looking at the connectors, the center copper wire in RG6 is usually thicker.
 
Originally posted by: MrBond
We had TiVo for a bit, and he just said that he couldn't stand the menus, and how it would change channels to record my stuff. Now, with the DirectTV HD TiVo, it wouldn't do this, but, it also costs upwards of $1K and requires DTV, which doesn't have too good HD support.
Click to expand...
What? The DirectTivo reciever isn't much more than a regular Tivo - I've seen people selling them for under $200 in FS/T.
Click to expand...
Not the HD version. They're still in the $1k range and have no way to archive (no Firewire output).

The Comcast HD DVRs only cost $5-$10/mo and offer Firewire output.

 
Originally posted by: funboy42
This was from this month showing VOOM is dead.

Since its inception, Voom has burned through roughly $1 billion or more, by some estimates, but added just 26,000 subscribers. In the third quarter alone, the business lost $75.3 million.
Since the Dolan agreed to sell Voom, speculation has swirled that the cable pioneer might decide to sell his Cablevision stake. Time Warner Inc., which owns cable systems in adjoining areas, was seen as the most likely buyer, but recently put in a joint bid with Comcast Corp. for the bankrupt cable operator Adelphia Communications Corp.

So unless you can prove otherwise switching to VOOM wouldnt be the right choice at this moment.
Click to expand...

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=508012

We are getting new capacity here in a few days, DVR within a few months.... these are not signs of a company going bankrupt.
 
Originally posted by: arod
Originally posted by: funboy42
This was from this month showing VOOM is dead.

Since its inception, Voom has burned through roughly $1 billion or more, by some estimates, but added just 26,000 subscribers. In the third quarter alone, the business lost $75.3 million.
Since the Dolan agreed to sell Voom, speculation has swirled that the cable pioneer might decide to sell his Cablevision stake. Time Warner Inc., which owns cable systems in adjoining areas, was seen as the most likely buyer, but recently put in a joint bid with Comcast Corp. for the bankrupt cable operator Adelphia Communications Corp.

So unless you can prove otherwise switching to VOOM wouldnt be the right choice at this moment.
Click to expand...

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=508012

We are getting new capacity here in a few days, DVR within a few months.... these are not signs of a company going bankrupt.
Click to expand...



hm....whether or not they will servive I will leave to fate, but there is NO DENYING that they went bankrupt....that is actually old news.
 
Originally posted by: arod
Originally posted by: funboy42
This was from this month showing VOOM is dead.

Since its inception, Voom has burned through roughly $1 billion or more, by some estimates, but added just 26,000 subscribers. In the third quarter alone, the business lost $75.3 million.
Since the Dolan agreed to sell Voom, speculation has swirled that the cable pioneer might decide to sell his Cablevision stake. Time Warner Inc., which owns cable systems in adjoining areas, was seen as the most likely buyer, but recently put in a joint bid with Comcast Corp. for the bankrupt cable operator Adelphia Communications Corp.

So unless you can prove otherwise switching to VOOM wouldnt be the right choice at this moment.
Click to expand...

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=508012

We are getting new capacity here in a few days, DVR within a few months.... these are not signs of a company going bankrupt.
Click to expand...

The artical I linked was on 2-11-05 and it says different and I have to search again because I saw it in other places they were selling it all off. That is where I read direct tv is getting it new hd channels thats supposed to come from they are advertising.
 
LINKAGE

More Bad

And more

And more....

I could find more if I wanted to but hey the company I was working for bought all the big wigs new company trucks to drive and then they laid alot of us off claiming they lost to much money. Same thing here. keep going till like nothing is going on and your making all kinds of money then before you know it it will hit the fan for sure. He is grasping on to what he can for as long as he can till it all finnaly goes belly up. I wouldnt hold my breath to long in thinking they are going to be around. DONT get me wrong here I wanted to get VOOM when I had the funds to get a tv to support it and thought they had the stuff going on with all the channels so I am not hating them but I hate to see people throwing money towards somthing that shows all signs of going under leaving thier 26,000 cunsomers going duhhhhhhhh.
 
voom sold the satellite to Echostar but they have a new leased bird they are going to use for the time being.... will give them more capacity than they currently have.

I would trust the people on AVS Forum much more than some person (who doesnt know crap about the HDTV market) interpreting press releases and calling it news and if you read there you know most people dont think voom is going to fail anytime soon (unless like i stated earlier the dolan buyout doesnt go through)

http://www.satelliteguys.us/forumdisplay.php?f=24

this forum is dedicated to voom news and developments and people there have some inside contacts at voom.... read the last few days of posts there.

Can they survive long term? Probably not if the sub numbers dont improve but if the Dolan sale goes through it will be a year at minimun before voom is sold. A few weeks ago (beofre the proposed dolan buyout) I would agree with you that voom is dead but its been resurrected if the dolan buyout goes ahead.
 
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