Compare Voom with Dish

[vurbano]

1. The HD PQ of Voom is definitely inferior to dish 811.

Ive heard this before and I do not doubt it. But how many HD channels does E* have?
Voom does have some channels that look outstanding IMO. And as a former D* customer I can say that that handful of channels is more than the entire offering of most sat services. Of course if you offer only 5 or 6 channels you can jack up the bandwidth and have a superior picture and monitor them closely. I think Voom is searching for the magic number and the magic codec in WM9. As long as they offer more and keep improving I will stick around.
The question is relevant, how do you compare? How does one compare a partial basketball team of SHAQ, KOBE and say Peyton against another full team of players? I think the analogy is appropriate here. If E* and D* offer 37 HD channels then we should compare. And compare the same channels. I would bet you that if V* added HDnet, Cuban would demand a high bitrate from V* like he does other services and you would see no difference in that channel from D* to V*. I do believe it is not just bitrate, there are some deficiencies in the software affecting PQ that will improve in time as well. Implementation of WM9 is supposed to free up space. I think we will have outstanding PQ then better than anyone elses at that point in time when they get it working correctly. The question is, beyond that point when they start loading up the channels, where will the quality "point" be defined? I think this issue will dissappear for awhile but be revisited again next year.

 

[barth2k]

The problem isn't space; the problem is priority. Voom rather boasts about 39HD channels. They could have gone with fewer and made sure the HD channels got adequate bandwidth. Instead they went with the most compression they could get away with and still got a semi-decent picture to maximize channel count. (I imagine they went to the engineers and ask "how many channels can you squeeze out of this satellite and still get 'plausibly HD' picture"?) I mean, if they'd had 30 HD channels instead, it would still have been more than anyone else had. But nooooo.

You say wm9 will increase space. Sure. But if their priority remains the same, then we'll just get more channels with the same crappy compression.

It's just frustrating to me people seem willing to accept inferior PQ from a co. whose whole focus is HD. I mean what are you in HD for if not the PQ? You take it as faith that Voom will improve PQ. I take it as faith that companies will give the customers the lowest quality they're willing to pay for.

 

[ChetK]

I feel the exact same way barth2k! Preach on!

 

[smodak]

The question is relevant, how do you compare?

I was comparing Discovery HD which is available on both. Even my wife can figure out the difference it is so apparent.

 

[Sonnie Parker]

While I will admit that HD PQ is maybe a notch or so below E* (except HBO I really couldn't tell a difference), the SD makes up for it IMO. We watch more HD on Voom than we did on E* but we still seem to be watching more of the SD channels than we do the HD on Voom. We watched NASCAR 360 on FX last night and there is no doubt that Voom looks much better than E*. I know Voom is all about HD but I give them credit for those channels we like that are not HD yet.

We did have our first experience with rain fade yesterday too... of course these were very strong storms that we don't get that often.

The jury is still out for us with Voom... I'm waiting for the software upgrade and maybe a little while longer to see what else they plan on doing but I'm only so patient. It may come down to having to weigh out the pro's and con's of D*, E* and V* and try to decipher which one to go with. There's so much to consider with DVR's, pricing, # of HD channels, quality of HD channels, how often we watch HD, quality of STB's, features of STB's... it's hard as heck to decide.

 

[Sonnie Parker]

In almost all respect the Voom Box is superior to Dish 811 which I had before. Its much more stable.

smodak... can you tell us (or me at least) the con's of the 811? Why is the Voom STB so much superior? Is it just the stability issue?

 

[smodak]

smodak... can you tell us (or me at least) the con's of the 811? Why is the Voom STB so much superior? Is it just the stability issue?

1. 811 OTA is horrible. It never locked for me except one channel, even with a Good antenna setup. The voom locks like it is another SAt channel. Serach 49% problem in the dish forums for more detail.
2. No OTA digital Program guide. If 811 cannot lock into OTA for long, it loses the mapping.
3. If I am watching OTA for long and then press guide even by mistake, It goes into endless loop of retrieveing program info... and ultimately I have to do a hard restart.
4. 811 is very unstable and "hangs" pretty often and requires hard reset.
5 The SD outputs are very dark and so is DVI.
6. If I shut it off even for a while (with the remote and not powered off), it has to "boot" up, acquire signal, manual check switch etc. etc. etc. Same happens if I am watching OTA for a long time and then want to watch a SAT channel.
7. The closed caption does not work after two hours of a fresh re-boot.
Those are the ones I had, Browse the dish 811 forum for more.

Before I got my voom, I almost started to believe that I would never receive the Digital OTAs being only 25 miles from Boston Towers.

IMHO, just for stability alone and superb OTA, I would buy Voom over dish 811 anyday.

 

[msnyder]

Save yourself some headache and stay away from Voom, Dish is the best HD provider right now... See my thread for more info:

http://www.satelliteguys.us/showthread.php?t=20909

 

[vurbano]

Save yourself some headache and stay away from Voom, Dish is the best HD provider right now... See my thread for more info:

http://www.satelliteguys.us/showthread.php?t=20909

Bring some cheese with ya when you read this. Cause theres plenty of WHINE.

 

[smodak]

Save yourself some headache and stay away from Voom, Dish is the best HD provider right now... See my thread for more info:

http://www.satelliteguys.us/showthread.php?t=20909

I will have to quote Sean on this
"Just because you had such a terrible experience does not mean that the rest of us had the same"

I am a new Voomer but so far Voom STB looks way better than dish 811.
Dish 811 receiver is a Joke.

Dish is the best HD provider right now

Yeah? How many HD channels dish carry? LMAO! :haha

 

[1080iBeVuMin]

After a month of VaVaVum I finally called and canceled our old Comcast cable this morning. You know... "Comcast, the leader in HD" (according to their local radio ads).

Funny (gag) to watch DISH and Comcast fight over who is the "HD leader."

 

[theph0xx]

Voom picture quality is no good compared to Dish Network. Just wanted to let you know.

See this thread.

I have both dishnet and voom active and my tv can display both at the same time split screen, which is a real fun feature. In a side by side comparison I would say that Voom definitely has better SD picture quality. There are SOME exceptions, but on the whole I was really impressed out of the gates with V* SD. Therefore I have to disagree with Chet >=]

 

[ChetK]

No doubt Voom's SD quality is better than Dish's, but then again, I didn't switch to Voom and pay MORE to watch SD.