ChrisDuncan said:
I hope I'm wrong, but I don't expect anything positive for HD customers to come from the April 18 meeting. I certainly don't expect D* or E* to have any interest in the Voom originals, if they were interested in adding more HD anytime soon they would aleady have added more premium channels.
Face it, the amount of HD content will continue to be dumbed down for the foreseeable future. Half of all people who buy HDTVs don't even realize they're not watching HDTV when they're watching SD. Mediocrity is all it takes to placate the sheeplike masses, and that probably won't change anytime soon.
This is sad, but true, but I don't believe the majority of people, if really given the chance, would turn down the VOOM 21--in some form, as long as the HD PQ were great. The content is unique and above all else on either C-band, cable or Little Dishes.
I think this is more than a VOOm issue as far as The Mass Mediocrity situation--that's the sad part--if people really would choose mediocrity, when they have a choice for better, the question is "why"?
If I had known about VOOM's quality--I would have subscribed years before--but I also did not want to pay for the receiver. I had no outlet where I could watch the Large Scrren HD PQ for VOOM. Sears is really the culprit here--but they should have gone for Walmart or Sam's Club.
Dish or Direct Customers were probably lulled into a sense of false security--hypnotized (or was it subliminal seduction--which is easy with a blurry picture--once you sharpen the picture--that gives away the subliminals embedded!) by the quantity of channels (addictive channel surfing--much akin to addiction to internet surfing just for the sake of surfing--with no intended goal of edification or education in mind). I.E., the little Dishes became a "habit", a drug of sorts on the masses to keep them "dumbed"down.
With what they have to spend, they felt like the "had" to watch "all" the channels most of the time to get their "money's worth".
With VOOM, I felt like I had a choice. Now that choice is gone.
AGain, just like Terri Schiavo--her death took a lot of choices with her--for us, especially--so, the plug is pulled on VOOM and now it will just get worse, I am afraid, not better. No competition or incentive anymore for the D's to do anything to provide choice and quality, both of content and PQ.
I would like to remain optimistic. One last hold-out is the 300,000+ subscribers (probably equivalent of 1 million viewers if you multiply the household members and neighbors viewing at one subscription address) of C-band, but Motorola has deserted the 4dtv customers --no upgrades or fixes, and also none for the HD add on receiver, which are going on EBAY for probably $200, but there are no more channels to watch than on the Little Dishes.
Can we find another billionaire to replace Charlie and try to resurrect this Phoenix from the ashes? What about Warren Buffet?
