Well, sitting here enjoying Voom in the background while doing some C# coding, I figured I'd post my final decision here for now.

I'm more and more bitter I am going to lose the service now. It's odd, but they still air commercials hilighting the new shows and changes the Voom 21 channels were undergoing. Showing shows I'd actually be interested in. Lab TV as odd as it is provides an interesting ambient/trance background at night, complete with interesting visuals to eye while thinking of a way to solve a coding problem.

I guess the best way to describe my fealings would be to equate it to the empeg. Imagine you bought an empeg Mark 2 with 1.0 software. You get it installed, start really using it, and hear about (then 1.1) 2.0 software coming in the future. Two months go by where you really get to like the empeg, and start anticipating 2.0. Then, just as some early leaks of 2.0 start showing up, it is announced the empeg is dead, and all existing units will stop working due to a license agreement and nothing can be done to keep it going. Well, thats about how I feel. Sure, Voom doesn't appeal to a ton of people, but honestly back in 1999, the empeg didn't either. It only appealed to a hardcore group that we all fell into.

So, keeping my feelings in mind, and not wanting to jump into something else without some benefit, I've decided to forgo any HD service at this moment. The provider at the top of my list is DirecTV due to them carying Universal HD, but the speedbump in the way is still equipment. If I go the PVR route, I invest in a $1000 box that at some unknown point in the future will not be able to record any newer HD channels DirecTV adds in MPEG4. There are hints of a migration path, but none detail what it is. It might be a free upgrade, it might not, and noone can say for sure. Noone can also say exactly when anything new will appear at all. If a new HDPVR comes out at $1000 for new, or $500 at tradeup pricing, thats a $1500 investment. If DirecTV did leasing on the PVR, I'd be signed up already. If I go the normal HD receiver and non PVR route, I still have an equipment investment cost that could be lost in the future.

Dish is a close second, but lacking Universal HD, I really have no reason to go HD with them now. They also have (for me an existing/past subscriber) a buy only option where I would have to buy any HD equipment. Thankfully Dish has been crystal clear on some things unlike DirecTV. Dish will not lease HD equipment to me until they make the switch to MPEG4. They will also not add any more HD channels until MPEG4 is working. They have no solid timetables on this, with the transition of Rainbow 1 to them still in federal red tape.

Adelphia would be tempting since I could lease equipment, but the problem is that I have to stack so much service on my bill to get HD. And they offer the least amount of normal HD channels, leaving me with a high bill for things I wouldn't watch.

So, come April 30th, I'll call Dish and upgrade my service to the Top 120 again. This gets me the cable channels I want to see shows on. And come April 30th, I will watch the occasional HD show off the local antenna, and wonder what happened to HD. With only CBS and FOX in true HD here, and problems with both, I'll see a very limited amount of HD TV. Apple has said this is the year of HD, but sadly other companies have said the same of HD as well, and it just hasn't happened. The picture is indeed awesome. But for now, it seems my HD investment simply resulted in a bigger screen that I can play computer games on.

I still don't regret getting Voom though. It showed that my TV is indeed capable of much. I just hope I have as much selection of HD content I want to watch in 2 years at least. Sadly I fear this might not come true, as the big providers will probably put more effort into ensuring ESPN2HD is added next, increasing the number of channels filled with american sports I have no interest in.