DISH welcome back offer (VOOM HD?)

[David D.]

I just received an offer in the mail today (10/Nov/05) for a $125 "Get-you-back Kickback". (Offer ends Nov/15.)
It says, "We're pulling some strings! Over $125 worth, including a free DVR equipment upgrade", (The *E contract is for 18 months).

We dumped DISH for VOOM last March, and as you all know VOOM went dark the end of April . We then signed up (no contract) for Comcast digital package and HD. Comcast is not that bad, Discovery , INHD and INHD2 are watched most of the time, HBO & Showtime are limited in their movie selections, we seldom watch them.

We were waiting until this Fall to see what the future holds for HDTV offerings from DISH and DirectTV. Judging from some of the posts I have read, DISH may be the best choice for HD. We haven't heard if *E offers locals, we may keep basic cable for that. (Our Sony XBR has the tuner and our local channels are available in HD without the box.)

Of those of you that have the HD package from *E, can you offer me any suggestions?

 

[riffjim4069]

I signed up for digital cable service after VOOMs demise. Although I enjoyed being able to rent three low-cost HD DVRs, they were of poor quality and the local cable service was unreliable...and customer service was even worse. I terminated my cable subscription within two weeks and signed up for E* because they had the best HD PQ, VOOM HD Pak, and the Dish 942 HD DVR (excellent receiver). I have enjoyed E* service (although not as much as VOOM DBS) and would recommend it to anyone looking for the most HD, highest quality HD, and best value programming package of any current DBS or Cable provider out there.

Having said that, at this point I would wait for E* to come out with their new HD receiver and take advantage of a new customer offer once the receivers hit the streets. I have the feeling most new HD channels will be encoded with MPEG-4 and you will require a new MPEG-4 receiver (211, 411, 962) in order to view them. DirecTV is also trying to transition to MPEG-4...but I would only sigh up with them if they drastically increase HD PQ and expand their national HD lineup. Currently, VOOM is only available on Dish Network but I am expecting this to change after the new year.

Is Verizon FiOS TV coming to your area? If so, I would recommend sticking with cable and weighing all your options when more choices become available. Anyway, that's my 2 cents worth...

 

[David D.]

I just received an offer in the mail today (10/Nov/05) for a $125 "Get-you-back Kickback". (Offer ends Nov/15.)

Thanks to all of you who PM'd me, I have put my plans on hold, waiting for MPEG4 rollout!

 

[Tom Bombadil]

According to information shared at the Tech Chat on Monday night, you might be waiting a while for the MPEG4 rollout. Still, it appears that E* is going to make a couple of non-DVR MPEG4 receivers available soon and as we all expect E* to eventually use MPEG4, it would be nice to have a receiver which supports it.

No news as yet on the 962.