DISH to carry all 21 in 2006

[jbphoenix]

It really means nothing other than at the time it was written V* expects that E* will carry all 21 at some point in the future. It isn't a guarantee.

"by 2006" seems to set 2006 as a deadline
"by the end of 2006" would be 'no later than the end of 2006'
"in 2006" would say that they are not planning to try until January

The plan before Voom was announced by E* was to convert to MPEG4 'this fall' and add new HD channels at that time. Which puts us 'on schedule' for late 2005 or early 2006. The receiver needed for MPEG4 is the 411 which is expected in August (read: December ) and the satellite needed for MPEG4 (E10) is expected to launch late in the year as well.

"by 2006" as in before 2006 seems reasonable, but as I started with --- it is expected with no guarantees.

JL

Justalurker, do you know if they will move all of the HD over to a Sat. that will be able to be picked up by the Superdish eliminating the need for a second dish to be installed when MPEG-4 arrives? This is why I may wait till MPEG-4 to get E*. I don't really mind the $250.00 DVR upgrade cost, but I don't really want to put up a second dish and have equipment installed that may be obsolete in less than 6 months!

That is why I think I will just keep my HD Cable service with Cox until I find out what will happen with MPEG-4.

 

[James Long]

Justalurker, do you know if they will move all of the HD over to a Sat. that will be able to be picked up by the Superdish eliminating the need for a second dish to be installed when MPEG-4 arrives?

I don't believe anyone "knows". We "knew" a lot about HDTV at 105 until E* tested the satellite and decided to go with what they do today (national HD at 110, CBS HD at 61.5 and 148). E* carrying Voom at 61.5 is a new challenge, and not one that was planned as much as a month ago.

Will E* get E10 launched and loaded, develop a non-crashing MPEG4 receiver (including a DVR) and do it all in the next 8 months? That is the gamble.

Today we know that the move to MPEG4 and potential move of HD to 110 is at least 5 and probably 8 months away. We only have the facts of today to guide us. If you are willing to do without the Voom programming for 8 months don't bother with the dish.

JL

 

[calikarim]

As soon as direct tv add Voom 21, Dish will get it

The competions is so fierce that as soon as Direct tv gets voom 21 in July, dish will be quick to add it. Charlie is a fierce Midwester, he can't stand to loose. He is a cowboy. I have watched his chats for years. Dish is so fiercely guarding the "leader in Hd" position and now that he has tasted it with voom trust me, we will get voom 21 next day that direct tv does, or voom will upstage Direct tv. I think even with locals in hd.

 

[jbphoenix]

I don't believe anyone "knows". We "knew" a lot about HDTV at 105 until E* tested the satellite and decided to go with what they do today (national HD at 110, CBS HD at 61.5 and 148). E* carrying Voom at 61.5 is a new challenge, and not one that was planned as much as a month ago.

Will E* get E10 launched and loaded, develop a non-crashing MPEG4 receiver (including a DVR) and do it all in the next 8 months? That is the gamble.

Today we know that the move to MPEG4 and potential move of HD to 110 is at least 5 and probably 8 months away. We only have the facts of today to guide us. If you are willing to do without the Voom programming for 8 months don't bother with the dish.

JL

Thanks JL, I am going to wait at least 6 months to see what E* gets going. If they are able to add all 21, get MPEG-4 out there including a new MPEG-4 DVR and put everything on one dish, then I am in, even if it cost me over $500.00 for installation and DVR lease upgrade.

Oh, and the addition of Universal HD would be great also!

I will make due with the Cox HD-DVR for right now. I already miss MonstersHD, but I can survive for a few months without it.

 

[mdonnelly]

Justalurker, do you know if they will move all of the HD over to a Sat. that will be able to be picked up by the Superdish eliminating the need for a second dish to be installed when MPEG-4 arrives? This is why I may wait till MPEG-4 to get E*. I don't really mind the $250.00 DVR upgrade cost, but I don't really want to put up a second dish and have equipment installed that may be obsolete in less than 6 months!

That is why I think I will just keep my HD Cable service with Cox until I find out what will happen with MPEG-4.

Even if they switch the HD over to another dish, you could still swing your 61.5 dish over to find it. Not as clean as a one-dish setup, but still effective.

 

[weagle]

you could put twice as many hd channels on mpeg4 so the reason 2006 they will offer twice the voom channels. charlie has done this in the past with ethnic channels that were on fta/another mpeg2 system on kuband they migrated everyone over to dishnet so he's doing the same thing here which is cool it means voom isn't really dead and also easier to subscribe no need to pay an installer.

 

[nicholassjenkins]

Ditto

It is a shame that Voom did not wait until this deal was completed before they announced the shutdown. Given this info I would have gone back to E* as I am sure many others would have.

I have now had Comcast for the past 2 weeks and the family loves the DVR and VOD features. True, there is no contract with Comcast but it would simply cause to much disruption to switch yet again. In the meantime I will just have to hope that Comcast picks up at least Rave and Monsters.

TimeWarner here...but more or less, same applies. Aggravated this was not announced in advance. Silver lining is, I guess, that MPEG4 is not yet in production/available, nor are the whole-house solutions (any of them)...so this gives time for both to deliver/mature before switching back to E*. Still, sad about losing the EquatorHD, HDNews, and RaveHD that could be had today, if only the timing were better communicated.

 

[Tvlman]

I have always had at lest 2 services. It was VOOM and D* but now it will be TWC cable and E*. Reason? To get as many HD channels as I can. I have 6 inputs on my HOme Theater and can carry 3 HD lines at one time. Simply flip from input 4 to input 2 or 5. Cost is minimal. I just have to remember to leave it set on the input my wife watches when I finish. If you spent $10,000 or more on your Home Theater it's worth the extra montly cost to fully enjoy it. Around $130.

 

[CDH]

I have always had at lest 2 services. It was VOOM and D* but now it will be TWC cable and E*. Reason? To get as many HD channels as I can. I have 6 inputs on my HOme Theater and can carry 3 HD lines at one time. Simply flip from input 4 to input 2 or 5. Cost is minimal. I just have to remember to leave it set on the input my wife watches when I finish. If you spent $10,000 or more on your Home Theater it's worth the extra montly cost to fully enjoy it. Around $130.

It sounds like you're a candidate for a Harmony remote that can turn everything on and change all the inputs (on the TV and Home-theater receiver) with one touch of a button.

We had a similar issue flipping between sources (a page of instructions for my wife!), but with the Harmony it is very easy.

CDH.

 

[optimusprime]

word to harmony, but...

It sounds like you're a candidate for a Harmony remote that can turn everything on and change all the inputs (on the TV and Home-theater receiver) with one touch of a button.

We had a similar issue flipping between sources (a page of instructions for my wife!), but with the Harmony it is very easy.

CDH.

...Word to Crestron!

 

[Tvlman]

Since TWC currently duplicates all of my DISH channels the only reason I have DISH is for the VOOM channels. So, if TWC decides to carry the VOOM original 21 in 2006 then I would seem to have no further reason to subscribe to DISH.

 

[philhu]

I really doubt you are going to see all of the voom-21 on cable anytime soon.

The bandwidth required is huge for 21 hd channels.

Look at comcast, they are screaming bandwidth limitations when they added TNT-HD

There just isn't any room on a 750mhz or even 1ghz system that holds internet and now, possibly phone and 'on demand'.

 

[Walter L.]

philhu:
You're right. In my area (Portland), Comcast has been unable to add TNT-HD because of the bandwidth limitations.

 

[nicholassjenkins]

Video and equipment quality

Since TWC currently duplicates all of my DISH channels the only reason I have DISH is for the VOOM channels. So, if TWC decides to carry the VOOM original 21 in 2006 then I would seem to have no further reason to subscribe to DISH.

I had Dish for nearly 4 years, and although dismayed with unnecessary technology issues, and certain decisions Charlie made, I can honestly say the video quality was always excellent on the HD channels. SD often was poor, but HD was always excellent - on par or occasionally slightly better than Voom.

By huge margin, both the HD and digital SD channels have poorer video quality on TWC than either Dish or Voom. The analog SD channels are on-par with Voom digital SD channels.

Additionally, the Dish 921, for all its flaws (of which there were many) - it was a significantly better piece of hardware than the 8000 DVR that I have right now on TWC. I would push for an 8300, but it sounds like it has all the same technical issues.

With a new crop of Mpeg4 hardware coming out next year including whole-house DVR, and better PQ, even *if* TWC has Voom21, there may still be very good reasons to convert.

 

[NewMexicoHostage]

Dan,

if they put the voom channels on 61.5 then the package you signed up with will not cover 61.5. Make sure that this is the case because Dish will charge you another $200 for installation of a 61.5 dish and switches... Just be careful we do not know yet in which bird the VOOM channels are going to be. If they are on 110/119 then you are safe but if it is on 61.5, you will not.

Sean,

I'm confused by all the sat location #s I'm seeing and Voom 'great deals!' stuff!

If my locals (Albuquerque/Santa Fe) are on 110, can I can go with the Dish deal and not pay an extra $100 for a 2nd dish to get the Voom offer? Not even sure what loc Voom/Dish are at...
IF I have to pay for it, is this 'Club Dish' $50-off thing legit?

I can't get any HD thru Charter Cable here in the desert - aside from the Voom channels is there any big diff between E* and D8 now as far as HD goes?

 

[Sean Mota]

I have seen that the second dish at 61.5 installation has been waved for some. I have never used the dish club but some have and it has been legit. The difference between E* and D*? E* has the Voom channels and TNT HD and D* has Universal HD. Aside from this and the fact that I see better quality on the HD channels on E* there's no other difference. Is it worthy to pay $100 for the 61.5? It depends. I would do it because I like the 10 V* channels.

 

[cablewithaview]

clean up the bandwidth by changing as much analog on basic and expanded over to digital would give some room. they have a system 45 min or so away from me that has 12 to 15 channels analog and the rest is digital.

 

[havok019]

Ok, so I looked at Voom back in December but didn't go in because they didn't have the HDTV/DVR box ready and didn't know when it was going to happen. I tried to get Dish and Direct put in last September, but there's a huge tree in front of my apartment so no line-of-sight. However, the installer said I could get Voom installed because the line-of-sight was different. It looks like the Voom 10 are broadcasting off the old Voom bird (61.5), but what about the rest of Dish's programming? Would I need to have line-of-sight for Voom's bird and one of the other bird's that Dish owns to get full service?

 

[Walter L.]

Yes, you need to subscribe to the Dish HD Pack (110/119) in order to get VOOM (61.5). Can you cut the tree at night? :dev

 

[cablewithaview]

I believe you could get the Voom HD only for an access fee of $5 plus the cost of the package if you want to spend the money on the HD receiver. You can also subscribe to Sky Angel on that 61.5 bird also giving you some programming also, since line of sight is an issue for the others. SA has recently added Fox News, Hallmark, Hallmark Movies and HGTV coming soon.