Big News for Voom on E*, can D* get a similar deal

[Ricknau]

I would wait not because I don't think many of these channels will come but for these reasons alone. To start I'm assuming that you have never been a D* customer in the past and even if you have you should wait.

That's probably good advice for those with access to cable with no contract. But if you aren't one of these people then waiting is much less of an option. Unless you want nothing but OTA for however many weeks/months it takes for all this to become reality.

I just want to know what the likelyhood is, in the next few weeks/months, of Directv picking up the Voom channels that Dish now has. The ones they have picked up cover all of those I watched with any frequency. Do you think Dish has exclusive rights to them? I think these channels are a more valuable addition than more movie channels or 1500 locals. HBO and Showtime are enough for me.

 

[JerryVolunteer]

They should also offer monthly plans instead of the ala carte deals for the other adult stuff. That's one thing I miss about E*. :dev

I AGREE WITH YOU !!!

 

[kfried001]

If memory serves me correctly the channels have to be offered, however, the pricing does not need to be fair. This is not really an "addition" anyway. I had Voom and hated the exclusives, perhaps that was becuase I had to watch them live and not on TiVo. Either way, I think our and D*'s best interests will be served if they move to the mainstream first like StarzHD and TMCHD, etc.

With D launching 3 birds in 3 months year end is looking very good for D* and not so good for E* ... in the big picture.

I am/was a Voomer and and a D* sub. I am dropping the D* HD Pack because E*'s HD pack with the VOOM channels in only $14.95. They are only charging $4.95 for the Voom originals. Guy TV and Monsters HD is worth that alone. Yes, D* should just get all 21 and put that to rest. BTW, United Cable just signed up for 14 Voom Originals.

 

[LonghornXP]

The voom channels will be offered to any pay TV provider who wants them just so you all know. Now D* is working on a deal and will have a deal soon for the Voom channels but again no new HD channels will be offered until around football season. Right now there isn't much that D* can do because their bandwidth is on the spaceways and until all HD customers get both the new boxes and dishes they can't offer new channels. But from what I've heard is that existing HD customers will get upgraded before they start selling spaceway services to new customers. From what I hear they are working with installation companies to get existing customers upgraded while having longer delays for new customers to get installed.

Now D* from what I hear will be offering a trade-in offer for customers who decide to rent their HD multiroom DVR. From what I hear is if they have delays on releasing their MR HD DVR they would give free replacements for the time being and customers who rent their MR HD DVR when it comes out will get a credit only if they return their replacement box and from what I hear D* will only allow the MR HD DVR to be installed by them so that means that if you get a credit the installer will be required to bring your old HD box with him to be returned to D*.

I'm hearing that the credit for existing customers would be 250 bucks. If you have more than one HD box you will have to wait because I haven't been told how that would work.

 

[beast37799]

well i hope they find out soon what there gonna do

 

[madpoet]

Given how Dish is screwing the new Voom customers, I hope D* handles it better . The so-called "deal" from E* is turning into a nightmare for most Voomers. If D* can figure out a way to let us use the existing 61.5 dish or whatever, then wahoo!

 

[beast37799]

i doubt that cause d* doesnt have licence at the 61.5 location but they will use the new 5lnb dish when they switch the hd customers this summer

 

[NVBlue]

Out of the Voom Original Channels, the only one worth having as background noise is Moov channel. It is so psychadelic.

 

[HDwonderer]

BTW, United Cable just signed up for 14 Voom Originals.

Where did you see/hear that. Do you have it now?

-scott

 

[Sean Mota]

VOOM may come to cable

http://www.mediainfocenter.org/television/televisioncategories.asp

Voom Vanishes From High-Definition TV Landscape
The Wichita Eagle (Wichita, Kan.)April 30, 2005
Apr. 30--WICHITA, Kan. -- After about a year of offering a large slate of high definition channels nationally, Voom is going out of business today, stranding thousands of subscribers in the Wichita area. But 14 of the most popular Voom HD channels are being picked up immediately by Dish Network and are available locally through United Cable Direct.

 

[Neutron]

The voom channels will be offered to any pay TV provider who wants them just so you all know. Now D* is working on a deal and will have a deal soon for the Voom channels but again no new HD channels will be offered until around football season. Right now there isn't much that D* can do because their bandwidth is on the spaceways and until all HD customers get both the new boxes and dishes they can't offer new channels. But from what I've heard is that existing HD customers will get upgraded before they start selling spaceway services to new customers. From what I hear they are working with installation companies to get existing customers upgraded while having longer delays for new customers to get installed.

Now D* from what I hear will be offering a trade-in offer for customers who decide to rent their HD multiroom DVR. From what I hear is if they have delays on releasing their MR HD DVR they would give free replacements for the time being and customers who rent their MR HD DVR when it comes out will get a credit only if they return their replacement box and from what I hear D* will only allow the MR HD DVR to be installed by them so that means that if you get a credit the installer will be required to bring your old HD box with him to be returned to D*.

I'm hearing that the credit for existing customers would be 250 bucks. If you have more than one HD box you will have to wait because I haven't been told how that would work.

I'm looking forward to this. My wife and I have been wanting a multiroom DVR system like this for Directv. I'm glad they are getting close to having it worked out.

 

[T2k]

The only reason Rave, Rush, and Equator aren't mainstream is because only 26,000 people got to see them.

You mean 46,000...

 

[Pete In Plano]

I just got off the phone with one of my contacts and I type as I heard it over on Tivocommunity so I'll post it here for you all.

I'm talking to another one of my contacts as I'm typing and was told pretty much what Dan was told that a very very big announement with tons of HD channels will be made in June. I wasn't told after Spaceway 2 launches just that it would occur in June. Here is what I was told were being talked about and please note I'm not saying these are coming just they are being talked about as far as working deals.

Firstly all 21 Voom channels are getting talked about but even more after the E* release.

Other channels that are being talked about are as follows.
HBO HD West
Cinemax HD East and West
Showtime HD West
TMC HD East
Starz HD East and West
InHD 1 & 2 (InDemand is talking with D* and ignore the only on cable logo because it means nothing in the future but is true today because its marketing)

TNT HD
ESPN 2 HD
Scripps HD Networks

Also I'm hearing that D* might be launching their own set of HDTV channels using programming from many of News Corp networks and will also offer the package to any cable and satellite provider who wants them as well.

If you read the info from D*'s press release, it is not just 1500 locals in hd they are talking about--

The launch of Spaceway F1, and Spaceway F2 in June, marks the beginning of an historic expansion of DIRECTV's capacity that will include the launch of two more next-generation satellites, DIRECTV 10 and DIRECTV 11, in 2007. The four satellites will provide additional capacity to deliver more than 1,500 local HD and more than 150 national HD channels and other advanced programming services to consumers.

 

[mdonnelly]

...The four satellites will provide additional capacity to deliver more than 1,500 local HD and more than 150 national HD channels and other advanced programming services to consumers.

Capacity is one thing, channels showing up on your TV is another thing.

 

[beast37799]

well if we know anything about dbs theyll add channels any channel that makes them money

 

[LonghornXP]

If you read the info from D*'s press release, it is not just 1500 locals in hd they are talking about--

The launch of Spaceway F1, and Spaceway F2 in June, marks the beginning of an historic expansion of DIRECTV's capacity that will include the launch of two more next-generation satellites, DIRECTV 10 and DIRECTV 11, in 2007. The four satellites will provide additional capacity to deliver more than 1,500 local HD and more than 150 national HD channels and other advanced programming services to consumers.

If you go by this quote below...

"The four satellites will provide additional capacity to deliver more than 1,500 local HD and more than 150 national HD channels and other advanced programming services to consumers."

The quote above if you understand english means that all four satellites when launched can offer 1500 HD LIL channels and 150 national HD channels but it doesn't mean no new national HD channels will come until 2007. If you go by that logic that means no new HD LIL markets besides the top 12 would be offered until 2007 and we know that isn't true.

Again this quote states how much bandwidth all four of these sats have and doesn't state anything about how many national HD channels will be offerd on each sat nor at what year either. This is very simple English and people need to stop over thinking everything. In that quote please notice all the "ands" and the period at the end and that should tell you what they are talking about.

That would be no different than HP selling an Athlon 64 computer and saying in the future when Microsoft releases Windows XP 64 bit edition this computer can run it. In the future it can run it but that doesn't mean you can't use Windows XP and new Service Packs in the mean time. Windows XP would be like the current D* lineup while a Service Pack would be new HD national channels while Windows XP 64 bit would be the full blown new services offering all the great features.

That isn't the best example but you get my drift.

I'll break it down this way below.

Current D* HD = Windows XP as it is on an Athlon 64.
Future D* by years end = Windows XP 64-bit beta with a taste of what the future will have.
D* after 2007 = Full support with all the benefits of 64-bit Athlon via Windows XP 64-bit RTM.

 

[rad]

LonghornXP, not disputing you but mixed signals aren't helping. From this link: http://www.directv.com/DTVAPP/aboutus/headline.dsp?id=01-06-2005A

There's this section:

Local HD programming in the first group of markets will be available mid-year following the successful launch of the Spaceway 1 and Spaceway 2 satellites in the second quarter. The launch of these satellites and two others - DIRECTV 10 and DIRECTV 11, scheduled to go aloft in early 2007 - will play a vital role in the dramatic expansion of programming capacity for DIRECTV, announced last September.

The Boeing-built Spaceway 1 and 2 satellites will have the capacity for more than 500 local HD channels, bringing local HD programming to most of the U.S. population, and will enable DIRECTV to continue to expand standard-definition local offerings and other enhancements. DIRECTV 10 and 11 will have the capacity for more than 1,000 additional local HD channels and more than 150 national HD channels and other new programming offerings. All four satellites will use spot-beam technology to deliver local channels.

The announcement about Spaceway 1/2 mentions nothing about national HD channels, just LIL. The only mention about 150 national HD channels are in the D10/D11 announcement in 2007. So reading that press release I don't see where any new nation HD channels will be on Spaceway 1/2. So IMHO we need D8 for any new HD national HD channels since http://www.directv.com/DTVAPP/aboutus/headline.dsp?id=04_19_2005A says
DIRECTV 8, a new satellite that will reinforce the DIRECTV satellite fleet and provide support for the expansion of new digital and high-definition services for DIRECTV's more than 13.9 million customers, is being readied for a mid-May launch at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.


but that announcement doesn't say how many HD channels it will carry. So in usual fashion we're all left guessing exactly what will happen until D* makes an official announcement.

 

[socalpanman]

I'll break it down this way below.

Current D* HD = Windows XP as it is on an Athlon 64.
Future D* by years end = Windows XP 64-bit beta with a taste of what the future will have.
D* after 2007 = Full support with all the benefits of 64-bit Athlon via Windows XP 64-bit RTM.

Sorry, but can you translate for a Mac guy who is really hopeful that Dtv will overtake Dish in HDcontent and tech. I don't mean in locals or every sport channel in the world. Or if you all think that's the goal please let me know.

 

[T2k]

Sorry, but can you translate for a Mac guy who is really hopeful that Dtv will overtake Dish in HDcontent and tech. I don't mean in locals or every sport channel in the world. Or if you all think that's the goal please let me know.

Doesn't matter, it doesn't mean crap, sorry. I use XP 32bit on Athlon64/Opteron and it's FAR the fastest 'GUI-centric' OS (so minus console-centered linux installations like my RHELs ) on Earth and I also use XP x64 Edition on Athlon 64 machine and it's almost as fast as 32 bit. All these now, in present because the final x64 version been released on WinHEC (Apr 25 IIRC). (I was a beta tester for long time already.)
Sorry but this whole analogy is false.

 

[LonghornXP]

Sorry, but can you translate for a Mac guy who is really hopeful that Dtv will overtake Dish in HDcontent and tech. I don't mean in locals or every sport channel in the world. Or if you all think that's the goal please let me know.

Dish Network would be a mac and would be catered to a niche market while DirecTV would be a Windows PC catering to the mass markets. Now that above is a very bad example because as you know I'm a very big mac guy (don't pay attention to my handle) and I can't stand Microsoft. I have a better option below.

Dish Network would be Linux going after a very small core of specific customers in the future. Cable companies would be like Microsoft and DirecTV would be like a mac catering to the high-end educated customers but as always would still get many low-end customers ala mac-mini. Now with all that said I need to recompile Alsa so my new card would be supported. Off to get my kernel headers and sources now.