# Voom no more... at least for me



## jrb531 (May 29, 2004)

Well add me to the list of people dropping to HD Essentials. I had heard some rumors that the Voom programming was getting more sparse but last night I sat down to set my recordings for the week and the main channel I record is (or shall I say was LOL) Monsters and now I see basically two movies a day on repeat all day long!

WTF is this? Out of that entire package I only watched Monsters and HD Movies so now that Monsters is now gone I just could not justify paying $10 for just HD Movies although I will miss that one channel.

So I dropped to HD Essentials and moved that $10 toward Showtime now that Showtime has that $25 rebate deal (send them 3 bills and you get $25) which basically is pay for 1 month and you get 2 free.

So I'll try Showtime for three months and maybe in that time they will add some "real" HD programming to that package.

I was just utterly shocked when I saw what Voom was doing. I know they have some sort of dispute with Dish but if they think this will help their case it most certainly does not. I suspect others, like myself, will just drop Voom and take the hit with HD Net Movies.

Now I do see that Showtime and Starz has most of their channels in HD (not sure about HBO) yet with Dish we only get 1 HD channel for each set of channels. I suspect this is due to room so now you know where I'm going with this 

If Starz and Showtime are $12.95 for 5+ channels of HD showing "real" movies and shows in HD then I suggest they dump Voom so we can switch our $10 to a package that has some "real" HD programming.

Enough said... I once was a real fan of Voom. Now it just a waste of space IMHO.

-JB


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## bthessel (Oct 26, 2004)

jrb531 said:


> Enough said... I once was a real fan of Voom. Now it just a waste of space IMHO.
> 
> -JB


I too dropped it over the weekend. I just used the 10 to up my package to the 250 over the 200. Much more useful to me.


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## jrb531 (May 29, 2004)

bthessel said:


> I too dropped it over the weekend. I just used the 10 to up my package to the 250 over the 200. Much more useful to me.


I was seriously thinking of doing that myself but I was looking for more movies in HD. I love the encore channels because I prefer the older movies and if they even get them in HD I'm all there.

I might still move to the 250 package if Showtime proves to be a bust. I basically picked Showtime because I read that they have some nice shows and the $25 rebate for three months.

-JB


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## rrmills (Jan 29, 2007)

jrb531 said:


> I was seriously thinking of doing that myself but I was looking for more movies in HD. I love the encore channels because I prefer the older movies and if they even get them in HD I'm all there.
> 
> I might still move to the 250 package if Showtime proves to be a bust. I basically picked Showtime because I read that they have some nice shows and the $25 rebate for three months.
> 
> -JB


If Dish just dropped the VOOM channels and replaced them with a few better national-HD channels - I think the crying for the loss of VOOM would be minimal, and drowned out by the applause of adding some national HD (USA, SciFi, Speed, etc)


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## jrb531 (May 29, 2004)

rrmills said:


> If Dish just dropped the VOOM channels and replaced them with a few better national-HD channels - I think the crying for the loss of VOOM would be minimal, and drowned out by the applause of adding some national HD (USA, SciFi, Speed, etc)


I agree 100% but then what would would they have in that second $10 package? I'm all for having only a $10 charge for all HD but Dish would have to give up their "Nickel and Dime" approach for doing business.

I wonder when they will figure out how many people would upgrade old SD equipment if they changed their per DVR fee to a per account DVR fee like D*. I know I would call them and replace my 501 with a 722 in a matter of seconds but I just cannot justify adding $13 ($6 DVR fee and $7 rental fee) to my account.

They want more revenue and people subscribing to HD.... then get rid of that silly fee. How many others shun the thought of adding a second HD DVR if it will add a $13 a month change.

They want people to dump the old Mpeg2 boxes so they can move everyone to Mpeg4 and save all the bandwidth. Well they sure don't want to make it easy do they? LOL

-JB


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## theoak (Nov 5, 2007)

jrb531 said:


> I agree 100% but then what would would they have in that second $10 package? I'm all for having only a $10 charge for all HD but Dish would have to give up their "Nickel and Dime" approach for doing business.
> 
> I wonder when they will figure out how many people would upgrade old SD equipment if they changed their per DVR fee to a per account DVR fee like D*. I know I would call them and replace my 501 with a 722 in a matter of seconds but I just cannot justify adding $13 ($6 DVR fee and $7 rental fee) to my account.
> 
> ...


This is why I kept my 301 for as long as I did. Paying a DVR fee is just lame in my books.

So, I eventually talked myself into getting the DVRAdvantage package. With the recent price increase to $32.99 plus the cost of locals, that puts me close the the $40 mark anyway, so under those terms I was okay with paying another $1 as the DVR fee.

I refuse to get another DVR however due to that fee.

To record my OTA HD, I would sooner get perhaps the new Echostar OTA recording box coming out this summer than pay a monthly DVR fee.


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## Stewart Vernon (Jan 7, 2005)

Are there any new programs on USA or SciFi right now? Seriously... Monk and Psych finished until the summer, BSG and Dr Who are not coming until April... so right now every time I tune to USA or SciFi everything is a repeat.

It's certainly a fair point to talk about repeats... but I see repeats on lots of channels, not just Voom. It's more fair to say you don't like the Voom content than it is to complain about repeats. I don't watch Ultra, for instance, ever... the content doesn't interest me.

I too have been disappointed that Voom went to more repeats on their movie channels... but this is a Rainbow Media thing in general. Check out IFC, for instance, also owned by them and note that the repeat pattern on that channel is eerily similar to the Vooms.

I also see folks who want FX, but when I look at the FX channel schedule I often see the same movie coming on at night back-to-back airings... which seems kind of repetitive to me.

My hairs go up when someone goes off about repeats, when most of the channels do it to one degree or another... but it's absolutely fair if you like more content from one channel than another.

During new-episode runs, I watch USA and SciFi a lot... but when they go into repeatoff-season, I find myself not tuning there any more often than I do the Voom channels.


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## HobbyTalk (Jul 14, 2007)

Too funny. First people ***** because they have to pay $20 for HD. Now they give you a choice of HD packages that is no more expensive then if packaged and people still ***** because they are being nickel and dimes. Guess the old saying goes, hang 'em with a new rope and they'd *****.

And we wonder why ala cart wouldn't work.... they'd nickel and dime you to death by charging for each channel


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## BillJ (May 5, 2005)

I find just enough on VOOM to hold onto the subscription. I sure wish they'd start getting some new programming though. Love "Chasing History Home" series, for example, but where are the new episodes. And there are a lot of new "Soundstage" episodes that have never been on RAVE.


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## jrb531 (May 29, 2004)

Ok lets look at Monsters today:

The Island of Dr. Moreau
Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter
A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors
Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter
The Island of Dr. Moreau
Terror Beneath the Sea
The Island of Dr. Moreau
Terror Beneath the Sea
The Island of Dr. Moreau
Terror Beneath the Sea
The Island of Dr. Moreau
Terror Beneath the Sea
The Island of Dr. Moreau
Terror Beneath the Sea
The Island of Dr. Moreau
Terror Beneath the Sea

I'm so impressed 

Check the rest of this week. Prime time every night alternates between only two movies.

-JB


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## dbconsultant (Sep 13, 2005)

HobbyTalk said:


> ...Guess the old saying goes, hang 'em with a new rope and they'd *****.


I love that! Kinda goes along with "You can't please all the people all of the time!". It's all relative!:balloons:


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## tomcrown1 (Jan 16, 2006)

jrb531 said:


> Ok lets look at Monsters today:
> 
> The Island of Dr. Moreau
> Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter
> ...


Good point while other have repeats it is not the same two movies all week long.


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## tedb3rd (Feb 2, 2006)

I dropped the VOOM channels on 2/1 and haven't really missed anything except EquatorHD. However, I get NationalGeo since I have the 250 package so it's not like I don't have some provider along those lines.

My only concern is when so many customers drop to the $10 HD package is that new HD channels will only be available in the $20 HD package in attempts to get people to upgrade/go back to the more expensive package.


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## icmoney (Jul 29, 2006)

rrmills said:



> If Dish just dropped the VOOM channels and replaced them with a few better national-HD channels - I think the crying for the loss of VOOM would be minimal, and drowned out by the applause of adding some national HD (USA, SciFi, Speed, etc)


Amen brother...then we would have something.


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## Stewart Vernon (Jan 7, 2005)

You want to talk about redundant repeats... how about when Wizard of Oz was on both TBS AND TNT! What's the point in that? On both channels at exactly the same time... and pretty much any package that contains TBS also contains TNT, so who needed that movie to be on both channels at the same time? And then come on again several times that night.

HDNet movies, while having more variety one day to the next, also tends to repeat movies at night... showing one, then a second, then the first one repeated, and then the second one repeated.

When I look in my EPG I see a lot of channels repeating stuff.


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## braven (Apr 9, 2007)

jrb531 said:


> Ok lets look at Monsters today:
> 
> The Island of Dr. Moreau
> Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter
> ...


To be fair, that's three movies.


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## Jersey Girl (Oct 11, 2007)

HDMe said:


> HDNet movies, while having more variety one day to the next, also tends to repeat movies at night... showing one, then a second, then the first one repeated, and then the second one repeated.
> 
> When I look in my EPG I see a lot of channels repeating stuff.


Yes a lot of channels do repeat thngs, including just about every premium movie channel. But the same two movies over and over and over again all day long?

Any attempt to compare what Voom is doing, to what the other movie channels are doing, is sheer rationalization.


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## Paul Secic (Dec 16, 2003)

jrb531 said:


> Well add me to the list of people dropping to HD Essentials. I had heard some rumors that the Voom programming was getting more sparse but last night I sat down to set my recordings for the week and the main channel I record is (or shall I say was LOL) Monsters and now I see basically two movies a day on repeat all day long!
> 
> WTF is this? Out of that entire package I only watched Monsters and HD Movies so now that Monsters is now gone I just could not justify paying $10 for just HD Movies although I will miss that one channel.
> 
> ...


I was told by a CSR this week that I can't remove VOOM. They took VOOM & HD counterparts off last month. We called back the next week & got everthing back. I could live without it, but my caregiver likes ULTRA HD. I would add AT 250 for extra HD ENCORE'S full slate of channels and TMC. I love movies!!


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## Stewart Vernon (Jan 7, 2005)

Jersey Girl said:


> Yes a lot of channels do repeat thngs, including just about every premium movie channel. But the same two movies over and over and over again all day long?
> 
> Any attempt to compare what Voom is doing, to what the other movie channels are doing, is sheer rationalization.


I never said they weren't repetitive... I also don't like their new configuration as compared to the old schedules... but I have a lot of channels SD and HD that are repeating things more than seems necessary to me.

Like I said, I understand folks who don't like the content on the Voom channels. That's a very valid complaining point for preferring one channel over another. When Battlestar Galactica and Dr Who and Monk and Psych are new... I want USA and SciFi more than most other channels too... but only for those couple of hours of programming. The rest of the time, the channel is equally unwatched by me because of lack of programming that I want to watch.


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## Stewart Vernon (Jan 7, 2005)

Paul Secic said:


> I was told by a CSR this week that I can't remove VOOM. They took VOOM & HD counterparts off last month. We called back the next week & got everthing back. I could live without it, but my caregiver likes ULTRA HD. I would add AT 250 for extra HD ENCORE'S full slate of channels and TMC. I love movies!!


I think it is all about semantics here. You can't remove just Voom. You can downgrade to DishHD Essentials, which does remove Voom but also removes some other HD channels like HDNet Movies and Universal HD. So if you're dealing with a CSR who wants literal instructions, you wouldn't be able to ask to just drop Voom.


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## jrb531 (May 29, 2004)

Years ago before many (most?) people had DVR's you could see at least some justification on showing the same movies over and over. It was kind of like a poor mans Pay Per View.... every two hours the movie would restart 

But today, with the advent of DVR's I do not need the same shows over and over. Sure... show them a few times each week in case I missed one of them but each night alternating between two movies.... give me a break!

It's all about $$$... it costs them less to show a 2 movies 10 times each than it does to show 10 movies 2 times each.

I suspect Voom is starting to lose money now that Dish allows you to get an HD package without them and they could have taken two roads to recovery.

1. Increase their programming to make people "want" to subscribe to Voom and thus increase their revenue

2. Decrease their expenditures thus increasing their revenue

#2 is pretty risky because you risk people cancelling like I and many others did.

Now I will seriously miss HD Net Movies but once Universal HD started showing commericials that channel was no longer a must have for me.

I record most of my HD Movies and with the limited recording time of the 622 (yes I have an external drive also) I do not need 25% added to the recording time of most movies to account for the commercials.

I could also debate the Voom channels one by one but that has been already done to death. Suffice it to say that for most people 75% of the Voom channels are a waste of space and a constant thorn in our side as there is no room for more HD channels yet we have this crap being shown.

I will concead the point that "some" people love the Kung Fu channel but I would love to see the percentage of people who actually watch that HD Fashion channel that shows nothing but weird people wearing things that look like they were tossing in the garbage  My wife and I turn it on from time to time for a few minutes when we want a good laugh.

Do real people actually wear that crap? ROTFL

-JB


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## Stewart Vernon (Jan 7, 2005)

I have to say... that when I see how "popular" shows like Survivor and American Idol are... I strongly question people who bash Voom. Granted, Voom has many flaws worth pointing out... but when people seem to actually like "reality" TV... I've determined that quality new TV is apparently not what people are looking for anyway.


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## jrb531 (May 29, 2004)

HDMe said:


> I have to say... that when I see how "popular" shows like Survivor and American Idol are... I strongly question people who bash Voom. Granted, Voom has many flaws worth pointing out... but when people seem to actually like "reality" TV... I've determined that quality new TV is apparently not what people are looking for anyway.


QFT!

Putting up a tripod with an HD camera watching weird people wearing freakshow outfits that cost more than I make in a month is cheap TV as is the reality CRAP. Why produce expensive quality shows when the masses will watch the cheap crap?

Never forget that crap in HD is still crap.... it just looks better 

-JB


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## moman19 (Oct 22, 2004)

BillJ said:


> I find just enough on VOOM to hold onto the subscription. I sure wish they'd start getting some new programming though. Love "Chasing History Home" series, for example, but where are the new episodes. And there are a lot of new "Soundstage" episodes that have never been on RAVE.


I realize we all have different tastes. In my case, I justify the $10 VOOM fee each month merely for RAVE access. I love the channel however, all the concerts I enjoy already reside on my external drive. It's been months since any new concerts or Soundstage programs have appeared although new ones have been "in the can" for some time. While I don't want to cancel VOOM, I must question what's the point of keeping it if there is never anything new to watch? Personally, I could justify the expense if there was one keeper each month. But sadly, that's not the case lately.:nono2:


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## Paul Secic (Dec 16, 2003)

HDMe said:


> You want to talk about redundant repeats... how about when Wizard of Oz was on both TBS AND TNT! What's the point in that? On both channels at exactly the same time... and pretty much any package that contains TBS also contains TNT, so who needed that movie to be on both channels at the same time? And then come on again several times that night.
> 
> HDNet movies, while having more variety one day to the next, also tends to repeat movies at night... showing one, then a second, then the first one repeated, and then the second one repeated.
> 
> When I look in my EPG I see a lot of channels repeating stuff.


 I see NG HGTV, FOOD Network show repeats 12 hours apart. But then again so do HBO ETC. I found something interesting: HGTV and EquatorHD uses the same production company in Canada.


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## Friendswood (Jan 17, 2008)

That's no fair....no bashing Voom!
No matter how honest or valid your point, we must pretend Voom is still an essential part of the Dish Network package and not merely a tool to pad it's hd numbers.
Speaking for myself....I just can't get enough of Canadian Football League reruns or pulse-pounding action from this past summer's Pan American Games!!!!


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## Stewart Vernon (Jan 7, 2005)

Friendswood said:


> That's no fair....no bashing Voom!
> No matter how honest or valid your point, we must pretend Voom is still an essential part of the Dish Network package and not merely a tool to pad it's hd numbers.
> Speaking for myself....I just can't get enough of Canadian Football League reruns or pulse-pounding action from this past summer's Pan American Games!!!!


I actually don't care if people bash Voom... I just get confused when people bash Voom and use criteria that applies to other channels that they are not bashing. HDNet comes to mind in particular because more than one month I have seen movies on HDNet movies that were on Voom previously... so if Voom=evil for repeats, doesn't that make HDNet similarly evil as well?

Then we have Equator programming being sold to either National Geographic or Discovery (I never remember which), so the programming=great when not on Voom, but bad when on Voom?

If people don't like the content, that's absolutely unarguably a fair point. But most of the time we just get into a "I don't like Voom, I want to drop Voom and add SciFi instead" kind of situation... and if we are "going there" then I'd apply that to most of the channels on Dish, since I only watch a handful of the channels in AT250 on a regular basis.. and that is a whole 'nother kind of discussion to be having.


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## peak_reception (Feb 10, 2008)

I have two months left of my 1/2 off HD sign-up deal. Now that there is a drop-down "HD Essentials" package option I've been watching VOOM channels more than ever in order to determine whether or not it's worth an extra ten bucks per month. Plus, now with the VOOM sues DISH news, the possibility of VOOM going *POOF* gives me even more cause to view it while I can. 

I guess that's human nature. So long as VOOM was a given, taken for granted, I never had much interest in them. But now that it's looking more like an endangered species I'm watching VOOM channels probably 50% of the time or more. And actually finding a lot of stuff I enjoy watching. Of course the HD has a lot to do with it; the channels are gorgeous to look at! 

If I do drop down, or VOOM goes POOF, I'll miss Equator, RAVE, and a little bit of Gallery & Treasure. The others, not much.


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## nsps (Jan 4, 2008)

BillJ said:


> I find just enough on VOOM to hold onto the subscription. I sure wish they'd start getting some new programming though. Love "Chasing History Home" series, for example, but where are the new episodes. And there are a lot of new "Soundstage" episodes that have never been on RAVE.


I've been very impressed with Rave's new "In the Basement," which features bands in intimate live settings with no audience. It's probably the best-shot live music show I've seen. The first episode featured The Shins and The White Stripes and the last one had Beck and Jarvis Cocker. Good stuff.

While I wish there were more of it, I prefer the content on Voom to that of many of the channels that people want to trade it for. I would be upset if I lost it in exchange for USA HD.

While World Sports is mostly forgettable, it does offer one new game from the Spanish Primera Division every week. That's the only HD coverage of a top European soccer league that I know of from any US channel (correct me if I'm wrong-I'd love to know about more). Unfortunately, I can't create a timer for the weekly game because my 722 records all 20 reruns of it (which aren't labeled properly).

But the real reason I love Voom is the movie channels-not so much Monsters, but FilmFest and World Cinema. Sure, only three movies aired on World Cinema today, but both "Blue" from Kieslowski's "Three Colors" trilogy and the Scottish film "Ratcatcher" are both very good, and I don't have time to watch all the stuff that I'd like to.

I'd be interesting to see if HDNet Movies actually shows more movies a month than one of the Voom stations. I like its programming too, but it cycles through everything as well.


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## Friendswood (Jan 17, 2008)

I used to be really impressed with Gallery....so much that it really started getting on my wife's nerves!
Gallery is not so much about art or artists in the classic sense anymore, but has evolved into the Opera Channel! At least, that's all that seems to be on anymore when I turn to it.
btw....if anyone has missed 'Humanoids From the Deep' on Monster HD....it's on 8 more times between now and tomorrow evening.
Just a head's up!


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