Comments from a lurker

[NOHDjunkie]

I have to agree with Charrasqueado in everything he said about voom. In reading his post I felt I had written it (excluding the comments about the VOOM forum)

My VOOM Summary = Exactly What Charrasqueado said

"These VOOM only channels are great for showing off your HD system to friends but that's about it (my opinion)"

* * * * * * * * * *

Anyway... I actually called VOOM today to cancel, with full knowledge they would offer free programming as incentive to stay. My intent was to just tell them to cancel me and avoid trying to keep my business with incentives.

I spoke to a woman who said she was a supervisior and gave her my reasons for cancelling

1) There is no real content on the VOOM exclusives except for Rave, but with too much repitition (my opinion)

2) What I watch in HD are OTA locals, HBO & Showtime. I have an extensive DVD Library and the PQ I recieve from DVD is more than adequate for movies. And Most of what is on the pay channels I have seen or do not wish to see.

2a) I have my own OTA setup and do not need Voom to watch them.

2b) In essence I am paying $96.40 a month to watch Sopranos, Deadwood Six feet under, The Chris Issac show and Dead Like Me on HBO & Showtime HD.

3) The MOTO box issues. (the ones that affect me)

3a) The sound missing sometimes when changing channels ( because of this I lost two episodes of Deadwood and the Sopranos and a couple of OTA shows I set up My Replay to record) .

3b) The PG is terrible.

4) I currently have E* and my wife refuses to give up her E* DVR's and USA, HGTV, Sci Fi, and a few others VOOM does not yet carry.

5) All of this considered, Dish is a better choice for me right now. I can live without HBO HD and Showtime HD. Paying $200 plus a month for two services is just too much.

Long Story Short, THe VOOM Supervisor offered me a free month to think about it and when pressed a little on the DVR, she said that when it's released there will be a lease option and it will be under $20 a month for the DVR lease. (insert Grain of salt here)

I agreed to think about it and take the free month....

Although I doub't it will change my mind unless Some of the Missing SD channels are added and some REAL Info on the DVR solution is released in that time frame.... Hell, I am wondering if the software Download will be released by then.

Remember, This is just my opinion after 5 months of VOOM.

 

[vurbano]

Ok I looked at the bill and it says:

June 25-July 24 79.90 VaVaVOOM Service (a $109.50) value. I guess this is what you are referring to.

Yes it is I am glad you finally looked at your bill instead of accusing me of not knowing if I had been billed correctly. Get your facts inorder first next time. That crap they put on their website is not a bill but rather sum kind of summary. Your paper bill is a legal record. LMAO

 

[Ilya]

I suppose the software update is speculation as well since it hasnt happened yet.

Wrong. It has happened at least 2 times over the past few months.

 

[rkr0923]

I believe everyone is referring to the 6.0 update and you know this

 

[vurbano]

Wrong. It has happened at least 2 times over the past few months.

speculation........ I love it

 

[Ilya]

I believe everyone is referring to the 6.0 update and you know this

What I am saying is that we've been told in the past (by Wilt and others) that the update is coming and it came (5.5c and then 5.68). So, when the same people are telling us that the next updated is coming we have all reasons to believe them... Don't you think so ?

 

[rkr0923]

not in this case

 

[Indy]

Ok I looked at the bill and it says:

June 25-July 24 79.90 VaVaVOOM Service (a $109.50) value. I guess this is what you are referring to. If it is, man this is more speculation than Swann. Just because they are telling you that you are getting a package that has a probable market value of $109.50, you jumped to the conclusion that the value is going by $30 next year. That's wild...

Sean. When I subscribed to Voom the main thing that got me on board was the 79 VaVaVoom pack price freeze. I asked her how much the price would go up to at the beginning of the year and she quoted 109. But she said in her opinion the price would stay at 79.
The implication was buy now at 79 or wait and pay 109. As with everything else the CSR passes on to us, take it with a grain of salt. But then again remember Voom is owned by a cable company.
I received a ad from Bright House Cable the other day and they quoted a price for cable with a disclaimer of "prices only guaranteed for 3 months."

 

[Ilya]

NOHDjunkie, Charrasqueado and vurbano, if you believe that VOOM exclusive channels are worthless to you, then what are you still doing with VOOM? You should switch to another service that better suits you. Not everyone shares your opinion, in fact a lot of people would completely disagree with you. Numerous polls in this forum confirm that. And there is really nothing to argue about, since this is a matter of taste and preference.

Thanks for sharing your opinions an preferences with us. Good luck!

 

[Sean Mota]

Sean. When I subscribed to Voom the main thing that got me on board was the 79 VaVaVoom pack price freeze. I asked her how much the price would go up to at the beginning of the year and she quoted 109. But she said in her opinion the price would stay at 79.
The implication was buy now at 79 or wait and pay 109. As with everything else the CSR passes on to us, take it with a grain of salt. But then again remember Voom is owned by a cable company.
I received a ad from Bright House Cable the other day and they quoted a price for cable with a disclaimer of "prices only guaranteed for 3 months."

Indy,

I agree with you 100%. If this was the price a year from now, it will not be competitive (assuming other providers will remain at the current level). However, right now all of this is speculation at best. We do not know what's going to happen a year from now. The price can go up or down and if it does all of us have the option of cancelling because nobody is tied to a contract.

I am ok with the fact that you clearly have said that it is speculation and we'll have to wait and see if anything comes out of it one year from now. On other hand when statements are made as facts that's not right either (I am not saying that you have). There's a big distinction between speculation and fact.

 

[NOHDjunkie]

WOW! I took 10 minutes to write my post and I come back and there's a whole page of new posts arguing about Speculation of billing increases.

I'm with Vurbano on most of the PQ, bandwidth and content (not much) issues... but you guys gotta chill out. It really is just TV.

I really just watch DVD's in my theater and enjoy watching just about everything else SD From E* on my two 27" TV's (in the bedroom and office)

And of course as previously stated "the VOOM exclusives are great for showing off your HD system to friends but that's about it." (my opinion)

I once thought like Sean and said I'll never watch SD again.... but the HD buzz has worn off after 5 months and I'd just a soon watch good SD on my smaller TV's than repetetive HD stuff that I would normally never watch or Movies I've seen, and probably have a DVD copy of, just because it's in HD.

I'll stick with my FREE OTA HD and wait till somebody does what I need for HD offerings.

 

[mattyro]

FYI

DTV will add starzhd and TMC HD and cinemaxHD. Thats a no brainer, it means more revenue. as well as fox HD. they already offer 2 CBSHD feeds. I would expect BravoHD and TNTHD and EncoreHD. Once that is added you have everything voom has less the exclusives at better PQ. As well as hdnet and hdnet movies. With the addition of an HD PVR the east and west feeds of vooms premiums become irrelevant.

hey-you know what, if you take my little league team and swap the yankees for them and then have them play against all the other kids--they will win all the time.not only that, but if you make me tall and black and give me acting ability(That a no-brainer) I would be Denzel Washington.!!! Can VURBANO be more of a d--k? "DTV will do thsi" and "then they will do that" and "if they then add more worthless cbs(20 hrs of hd a week!!)" as Jimi said... if 6 was 9.

 

[DarrellP]

WOW (not the PQ), but damn, 4 pages already. I'll throw my $.02 in regarding the price. I have the Basic package at $39.90 and I feel it's overpriced. When they raise prices in Jan, I will probably drop Voom. I rarely watch it as it is and put $24 for equipment on top of the programming fee and I am literally throwing $64 down the toilet monthly, that's a lot of Latte's!

They need to open up their pricing to other tiers, maybe offer only HD or only SD in addition to what they now have. Unless the PQ goes way up by Jan, I am not paying another $10 for this crap.

The only channel I ever watch are MonstersHD, Rave, Rush and OTA. The other channels either don't have content that I care to watch, or I can't stand the PQ. I watch DiscoveryHD, ESPNHD and TNTHD on Dish since I like the PQ better. EquatorHD has some great programming but I can't watch it, the PQ just totally stinks.

That's all folks!

 

[Seawaves]

FYI

DTV will add starzhd and TMC HD and cinemaxHD. Thats a no brainer, it means more revenue. as well as fox HD. they already offer 2 CBSHD feeds. I would expect BravoHD and TNTHD and EncoreHD. Once that is added you have everything voom has less the exclusives at better PQ. As well as hdnet and hdnet movies. With the addition of an HD PVR the east and west feeds of vooms premiums become irrelevant.

hey-you know what, if you take my little league team and swap the yankees for them and then have them play against all the other kids--they will win all the time.not only that, but if you make me tall and black and give me acting ability(That a no-brainer) I would be Denzel Washington.!!! Can VURBANO be more of a d--k? "DTV will do thsi" and "then they will do that" and "if they then add more worthless cbs(20 hrs of hd a week!!)" as Jimi said... if 6 was 9.

Wow, quoting Jimi Hendrix on a forum about SAT TV, you are my choice for irrelavance of the day! Or maybe slamming people- is easier for you than posting actual facts, like Denzel Washington is African American.

 

[vinnyv07]

I wanted to see why this topic has 4 pages!!! WOW. Lots of bickering here. So , I'll add to it. I love how alot of people are saying DTV will do this and add that...just when are they going to add StarzHD and TMCHD and CinHd and TNTHD and EncHd and all the locals in HD. I bet they dont anytime soon. Dont get me wrong ...I sub to the DTV everything package...and I'll get all those HD ch's if they add them...but I really dont think it will be this year. Its a matter of opinion ....about the VOOM exclusive ch's. I think for 50 bucks a mth they give you a great deal. So what if there is something on that you dont want to watch...I usually find something that interests me when I scan all the HD ch's....including DiscHD, ESPnhd, and TNTHD. When I had DTVHD package I was done scanning in about a min....HDNET repeats everything they have also...and HDNET movies repeats all the time also...actually its like only having one Voom Cin ch instead of 10. I'll take the ten ch's. Overall VOOM gives you alot for your money....they will get better with time. Yes it will take time...but so does everything else that has to do with HD...like the combiner in NYC....like DTV adding any HD at all....like TWC adding any HD at all...like Dish Net adding any HD at all...these things take time...and alot of it.

 

[theph0xx]

correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't 99% of us get Voom because as of this very second Voom has the most HD and no contract?

"this second" means: right now. no speculation. no conjecture. simple addition and mathematics. barring future changes.

"most HD" means: most channels and broadest selection, no it might not be for everyone but the numbers don't lie. could this change tomorrow? absolutely. that's where my third key term comes into play.

"no contract" means: whenever you want for any reason cancel and your finished. someone else has more channels? LEAVE. picture quality is bad? LEAVE. pigs fly and hell freezes over? LEAVE. wake up on the wrong side of the bed? LEAVE.

Leave and you will only be missed by Voom. Not by anyone else.

I personally don't find it worthwhile to bitch and moan about what may or may not occur. I'm pretty sure Voom isn't holding a gun to anyone's head forcing them to stare at the bad PQ of poor channels until their eyes bleed.

I rest my case.

 

[squicken]

Did I miss out on this or what? My $.02 since everyone else has given theirs.

1. mattyro. A little out of line

2. Sean isn't some hand puppet. He's probably the most vocal critic of all the PG errors VOOM's been having on the exclusives.

3. Vurbano, I used to think the Voom exclusives were worthless. They still are IMO, except for the Cinema 9. The library has really gotten much better.

4. I have no idea what D* plans for HD are, but as long as they expect me to buy a receiver for $300, I don't care. Even with ST.

5. PQ is a big issue. I echo the sentiments that it must improve.

6. I also have a problem with ESPN-HD being "stuck" at 1080i for the past 5 weeks. It seems that whatever malfunctioning piece of equipment should have been replaced by now. Just like the pending software release, it doesn't seem to be passing the smell test.

7. In regards to the original poster, why do people bitch so much about this stuff? As I see it, the Internet's primary functions are for porn and to give crazy nut-jobs a place to voice their various opinions. Which is why I really enjoy the Internet.

 

[Vicki]

NOHDjunkie, Charrasqueado and vurbano, if you believe that VOOM exclusive channels are worthless to you, then what are you still doing with VOOM? You should switch to another service that better suits you. Not everyone shares your opinion, in fact a lot of people would completely disagree with you. Numerous polls in this forum confirm that. And there is really nothing to argue about, since this is a matter of taste and preference.

Thanks for sharing your opinions an preferences with us. Good luck!

Ilya, couldn't have said it better...NOHDjunkie, Charrasqueado and vurbano...Different strokes, you know...I adore many of the channels you malign...but that's just me...., or you could check the polls...

Vicki

 

[Seawaves]

Ilya, couldn't have said it better...NOHDjunkie, Charrasqueado and vurbano...Different strokes, you know...I adore many of the channels you malign...but that's just me...., or you could check the polls...

Vicki

I- like the others find many of the Cinema Ten useless, poor PQ, but I know others like them, so fine. We all have different tastes. They could slim them down to five and uncompress some of the other HD channels.

Voom HD is NOT real HD! Give us 39 channels of HDnet quality.

 

[vinnyv07]

I- like the others find many of the Cinema Ten useless, poor PQ, but I know others like them, so fine. We all have different tastes. They could slim them down to five and uncompress some of the other HD channels.

Voom HD is NOT real HD! Give us 39 channels of HDnet quality.

This is true...I really dont watch the Cin10 either...they are supposed to be HD and very often the quality lacks that wow factor. But MonstersHD looks great to me ...and EQHD looks really good. Yes, everything is judged by HDNET....but when you are a system that has a total of 6 HD ch's you could give a higher bandwidth to whatever ch you want. VOOM is HD...I could tell it is, but the cin 10's movies are often so old that nobody would notice anyway. I watched Terminator on the Cin 10 and it blew away my DVD. There wasnt even any contest. I guess its all a matter of taste. But since I have had VOOM I dont like to watch STD ch's anymore. HD or not ..its alot better than what I used to have. I still sub to DTV and I dont want to watch DTV's STD ch's either....I watch VOOM's compressed HD. Because its still ten times better than what I have had in the past. Maybe...and its a big maybe...if VOOM gets their act together they could get the new dishes up and roll out the new bandwidth with all the space they are going to have on their new Sats. Voom is a work in progress....I dont think anybody could tell you what is going to happen in the future. But I know right now , VOOM's HD is better than what I used to watch on Directv. I hate those STD ch's now.