Anyone going to switch to 4DTV for their HD Needs?

[trm17118]

I switched to Voom from C-Band with a 4DTV reciever just to get the quantitiy of HD channels I wanted. While I was considering buying the HDTV, my assessment was that C-Band was losing subscribers and there would be no significant growth for new services, i.e. HDTV channels on C-Band so the time was right to switch to something new. Also, you needed to buy another $200 decoder to add to your 4DTV receiver to pick up the ten or so HD channels available to C-Band 4DTV customers.

I still have BUD and the reciever, has anyone done any research on the continued viability of C-Band/4DTV as a source for HD programming? I was always pleased with price and performance of C-Band, especially with the 4DTV receiver, but felt they would never be a carrier of significant HD programming.

I'm considering switching back but would like feedback from the group on pros and cons. Thanks, Tony

 

[TheTimm]

I started to look into the 4DTV, but didn't get very far. Didn't have nearly enough HD to interest me. So far, only Voom has.

 

[gutter]

I still have my BUD and 4DTV but didn't aquire the HD decoder as it was around $750 or more. I thought I read that they also stopped making them. I did the same as you and switched to VOOM but left my big BUD connected and dropped its programing from Superstar which is affiliated with DirectTV. I hate them. Don't know what I will do but it won't cost me anything to watch and see what happens.

 

[trm17118]

I still have my BUD and 4DTV but didn't aquire the HD decoder as it was around $750 or more. I thought I read that they also stopped making them. I did the same as you and switched to VOOM but left my big BUD connected and dropped its programing from Superstar which is affiliated with DirectTV. I hate them. Don't know what I will do but it won't cost me anything to watch and see what happens.

Yes, I hated them too. Too many problems with billing and overcharging. I also noted that the decoder and the 4DTV receivers themselves were not selling to well and my biggest surprise was that General Instruments, an early leader in C-Band equipment and the maker of the 4DTV reciever, was essentially gone. Having had an old Houston Tracker VIII, I thought at the time that 4DTV and the digital/analog hybrid would be a hot seller. Alas, it was not to be.

While I was doing my research that led me to Voom, I noticed a statistic that said that C-Band once had millions of subscribers and was down to around 400 K. That's a big loss.

Really hate the crappy overcompression of Dish and can't bear the thought of allowing the evil cable company to run a line into my house. Oh, well. I'll keep looking and watching here for more developments. Until then, I'll leave Voom on as long as there is a signal.

 

[voomvoom]

Never left it myself. I've been watching C-Band programming for 25 years. I've seen a lot of changes come and go. But, getting back on topic, 4DTV, I think the biggest downfall for 4DTV was not allowing mutiple programming on different receivers with a mirror fee. If you had multiple receivers you had (and have) to pay full price programming for each receiver. I feel that's why 100,000's (maybe millions) of people left and went to the small dish. I still have and use mine. My provider is Netlink. If DarrellP would do this he would be in heaven. He wouldn't get any mosquito noise from these C-Band transponders, plenty of bandwidth. There are 9 HD channels available that I'm aware of. Discovery HD Theatre and 7 movie channels and Nebraska ETV. You can find an HDD-200 HDTV Decoder at www.skyvision.com for 400 (it used to be 200) not so easy ones. One of the reasons I went with Voom, besides the many more HD channels, was ESPN was not and still is not authorized for 4DTV, yet (at the time it wasn't on Voom either). But, I still have my hopes up. Right now I can't think of a single reason to have ESPN-HD until september when college football returns. Hope this helps you in your think processing.