All VOOM on Dish to go MPEG-4 August 15th
I received voice mail today from Dish saying that my HD programming was changing and that I would need a new receiver after August 15th to continue to receive the Voom channels I’ve had for a few years. SatelliteGuys.US has more details in a thread that’s about two dozen pages long.
The short of it is that if you have an older MPEG-2 receiver, like the Dish 6000 that I’ve had since about 2000, you’ll need to swap that out for an MPEG-4 receiver, like the Dish 211 which is free with an 18-month commitment, in order to receive any Voom channels. It’s unclear to me whether that will also require an upgrade in programming as I currently only have the original $9.99 HD package and the $4.99 Voom package which, along with one ala carte channel and some add-on fees, means my satellite bill is $22.49 a month.
I’m not really inclined to increase my bill unless I can add A&E HD, ESPN 2 HD, NFL HD, Food HD, HGTV HD, and the other 10 Voom channels they offer for about $5 a month. Currently, counting the six local channels with some HD, I receive 21 HD channels for less than $25/month so permanently bumping my bill to $30/month or so would be worth it if I received 36 HD channels. 
I guess I’ll have to call to get the real story and I’ll report back what I find out when I do.
I think they have started selling just the hd package as a standalone again, but I am not positive on that. You will have to buy the receiver though, if you lease the receivers you have to have a basic package along with the hd package. You must also subscribe to locals if you want guide data for the OTA locals.
the currant printed guide sent out monthly now list one HD package that includes all the channeks formally list as two HD packaages and the amount charged in addition to any other programing packages one might have. They do wish to change all HD to mpeg 4 but I have no idea what the time frame is for that. With all the new HD channels being offered to program providers they may have decided that sooner is better than later regarding the phase out of all mpeg 2 receivers.
It is pretty much a given that nothing new will be added in mpeg2 other than a few sd channels possibly. By the end of the year dish will have everything in mpeg 4, all the current hd and sd channels on the 2 new satellites that are going up in the fall. They will slowly start migrating existing customers and new customers over to these 2 new sats so they can phase out the mpeg 2 channels and reclaim all the current sat positions. I believe by the end of the year if not sooner, all new channel additions, hd and sd will be mpeg4 and require a new receiver if you want to receive them. I think the existing base package will remain mpeg 2 for years but middle and top packages could require a receiver upgrade in the next year or so.