Home audio & video forum: VOOM vs Dish Network vs Direct TV

We scheduled the installation of a new home theater system for last Saturday, Dec. 11th, and also scheduled voom service to be installed that morning. By late afternoon no one had showed up from voom, and our installers were getting ready to leave. We called voom; they could not explain why no one showed up or what to expect next. We were told to call back on Monday. On Monday, after being put on hold several times over a two hour period, we gave up and ordered comcast. What a bust!

I've been a Voom subscriber since August. The picture quality has been outstanding. They have a large number of HD channels. My only complaint...they do not offer local broadcast channels. They do provide an antenna and the converter box can decode local broadcasts. But where I live I can only receive ABC over the air. It has been a disappointment on Sundays when I want to see the NFL on my widescreen and instead have to watch on my analog TV in my beadroom hooked up to cable.

I had no problems with installation. They arrived when they were supposed to. I have had no weather related outages (heavy rain) unlike when I was a Dish Network subscriber in the past.

It's hard to compare. I don't spend much time watching non-HD material on my big screen. Dish has a better selection of non-HD. Voom definately has Dish beat on the HD front. I feel I made a great choice in Voom.

I have DirecTV with TiVo and LOVE it! I say get that. It's cheaper than cable and right now the combo box is only $50 (TiVo is having a rebate). You can record 2 things at the same time, watch a third you've already recorded. Set up Wishlists to grab any type of show you want (by actor, title, keyword, dates, whatever!).

TiVo just did come out with a HD DirecTV/TiVo box. It's around $1000 though. I say buy the standard version, wait a year or two for HD prices to come down (and more channels to broadcast in it) then buy a HD box.