Airtel DTH - Helpless!

[Kittu]

Thanks Venkat. I will try that and let you know the results.

 

[proprashanth]

Hi guys... was busy watching the awesome match.. what a proud moment for all of us
and yea optical cable works like charm... NGC, discovery and movies now channels all have 5.1 surround sound.. not impressed with the sound of movies now though...

 

[angynagpal]

I GUESS THE ISSUES WITH AIRTEL WILL NEVER DIE DOWN.

have been using airtel for almost 3 years now but the service has never been good. till date cant even find a good replacement to them (as all views are subjective, i feel)

i had request for the sat change some 20 days back and now i am even least bothered if they give me a service or not. just feel that i am living is the days of DD again, which means that i dont have any choice. no ones better then the other.

god save us from these guys... i think the cable guys were still better in terms of services atleast.

Well, in my case, it was the airtel people who kept calling me day and night to get the sat changed :lol:! At that time I thought its not for any use so I kept making excuses as I didn't want my current setup to be touched, and anyways I have the non-HD settop box, so didnt make much of a difference :indifferent14:

 

[Kittu]

I tried with coaxial cable and AVR showed Dolby Digital for HD channels. But now I have to change TV input back to AVR mode manually . Wonder why DD audio is not working on HDMI port in airtel boxes ? :indifferent14:

 

[prankey]

This looks like the same issue what we have in TS+HD! You should escalate this matter to Airtel immediately to resolve as they market their STB to be supporting DD+7.1 which can only be supported through HDMI.. Seems to be a SCAM untill they fix this issue instantaneously.

 

[gk@hyd]

After failing to get 5.1 with single HDMI connection between my Airtel HD STB and Denon 791 AVR, I used a optical cable between STB and AVR along side of HDMI between them, but it didn't solve the problem either (despite of changing the input setup in my Denon 791, looks like HDMI and Optical audio cant co-exist, or I need to play more with the settings like input type)

Finally connected as below and now I am able to get 5.1 Dolby digital(same displayed in AVR) of HD channels
STB --HDMI1--> TV
STB --Optical--> AVR --HDMI2--> TV
I must say, the 5.1 audio on MoviesNOW along side of excellent picture quality is just awesome

the challenges are
- I need to put TV on mute while I listen to 5.1 audio from AVR (I switch on AVR only incase I want to watch HD channels though)
- I miss out on the upscaling capability of my Denon 791 while watching any SD channels (one workaround could be to use composite cable between STB and AVR)
- incase I need to access AVR menus, I need to switch to HDMI2 on TV

advantages are
- I can leave my AVR off for general TV viewing, and switch on AVR only incase I am seriously gonna watch something on HD channels

Do let me know if anybody ran into similar problems and have better solutions to get 5.1 from Airtel HD STB

 

[navinmra]

After failing to get 5.1 with single HDMI connection between my Airtel HD STB and Denon 791 AVR, I used a optical cable between STB and AVR along side of HDMI between them, but it didn't solve the problem either (despite of changing the input setup in my Denon 791, looks like HDMI and Optical audio cant co-exist, or I need to play more with the settings like input type)

Finally connected as below and now I am able to get 5.1 Dolby digital(same displayed in AVR) of HD channels
STB --HDMI1--> TV
STB --Optical--> AVR --HDMI2--> TV
I must say, the 5.1 audio on MoviesNOW along side of excellent picture quality is just awesome

the challenges are
- I need to put TV on mute while I listen to 5.1 audio from AVR (I switch on AVR only incase I want to watch HD channels though)
- I miss out on the upscaling capability of my Denon 791 while watching any SD channels (one workaround could be to use composite cable between STB and AVR)
- incase I need to access AVR menus, I need to switch to HDMI2 on TV

advantages are
- I can leave my AVR off for general TV viewing, and switch on AVR only incase I am seriously gonna watch something on HD channels

Do let me know if anybody ran into similar problems and have better solutions to get 5.1 from Airtel HD STB

I have a pre-HDMI Denon 2106 (but powerful outputs though) so I have a component video and optical audio out from the STB to the Denon and component video out to the HD projector. That way I do get 1080i ouput over component and 5.1 output over optical to the AVR and I let the AVR do the switching between the STB and the Seagate Theater+ and DVD sources.
I am not sure if my situation maps one-to-one with yours but in the end I get my 5.1 output and 1080i resolution on NGC on Airtel HD without needing HDMI and it works fine for both SD and HD channels.

 

[prankey]

I doubt any receiver will accept optical or coaxial audio when connected through HDMI for the same source. One workaround could be to change the HDMI connection type to DVI (only Video) and then try to route audio through digital inputs by assigning those inputs to this "DVI" port. Let me know if this works.

However, all the subscribers of Airtel HD should COMPLAIN to Airtel for not getting DD5.1 through HDMI. Seems they are committing the same SCAM like TS+HD by claiming to be DD+7.1 capable and not even passing DD2.0 through HDMI. Unless they fix this issue, there is no way we could get DD+7.1 from this STB (coaxial or optical can't pass DD+ signals).

 

[sethu]

Is there anything software update available in Airtel HD STB that solves HDMI DD5.1 issue

 

[Kittu]

Is there anything software update available in Airtel HD STB that solves HDMI DD5.1 issue

Nope , spoke to airtel customer service and tech support guys many times and they have no idea how it works.

 

[prankey]

Then you should escalate to the highest level.. TS HD (with the latest manual software) and TS+HD also have EXACTLY the same issue.

 

[addy]

I have put in a mail to Airtel and they are yet to respond. Now, after I connected my STB to the receiver with a co-axial cable, I am getting Dolby Digital 5.1 sound from the HD channels.

 

[no1lives4ever]

I doubt any receiver will accept optical or coaxial audio when connected through HDMI for the same source. One workaround could be to change the HDMI connection type to DVI (only Video) and then try to route audio through digital inputs by assigning those inputs to this "DVI" port. Let me know if this works.

I can do this on my Denon 1910 and it looks like that the same works with the Onkyo 3300 HTiB also.

On the denon, there are 2 steps to getting spdif coaxial/optical audio working with HDMI video on the same input:
1. Go to input setup and assign the coaxial input to which you have connected the STB to the HDMI input. This was not done by default for the HDMI input to which I had the STB connected to.

2. Go to the parameters menu and change the audio input from HDMI to digital for the current input. This sets it permanently.

When I was demoing the Onkyo 608 AVR & the Harman Kardon AVR 255, I saw similar settings on those models also. This seems to be a fairly common setting that most AVRs support.

However, all the subscribers of Airtel HD should COMPLAIN to Airtel for not getting DD5.1 through HDMI. Seems they are committing the same SCAM like TS+HD by claiming to be DD+7.1 capable and not even passing DD2.0 through HDMI. Unless they fix this issue, there is no way we could get DD+7.1 from this STB (coaxial or optical can't pass DD+ signals).

Where do we lodge a complaint for such blatant false claims made by various companies? Is it the consumer court? The advertizing standards council? TRAI?

-- no1lives4ever

 

[prankey]

Where do we lodge a complaint for such blatant false claims made by various companies? Is it the consumer court? The advertizing standards council? TRAI?

-- no1lives4ever

EVERYWHERE. We (I am not an exception either) get scared of the time it takes to pursue such issues legally and hence keep mum. However atleast you should escalate to the highest level within those companies and consumer court should be a fairly easy process.

We should definitely complain atleast through a small email to Advertizing Standards Council and TRAI. This should not take much time for us to send these emails.

 

[Kittu]

EVERYWHERE. We (I am not an exception either) get scared of the time it takes to pursue such issues legally and hence keep mum. However atleast you should escalate to the highest level within those companies and consumer court should be a fairly easy process.

We should definitely complain atleast through a small email to Advertizing Standards Council and TRAI. This should not take much time for us to send these emails.

Please share if you have some email ids ?

 

[abhijeet.ghosh]

Yes I get only PrologicII signal in HD channels
I am yet to be confirmed by AirtelHD
Anybody getting DDplus audio as assured by AirtelHD

Hi, I have got Airtel DTH HD recenty and connected the HD box to my Denon 1911 via optical cable. I am able to get DD5.1 for all the HD channels. Not to mention the SQ is very good.

 

[jagdish_p]

Hi, I have got Airtel DTH HD recenty and connected the HD box to my Denon 1911 via optical cable. I am able to get DD5.1 for all the HD channels. Not to mention the SQ is very good.

Did you use an Optical or a Coaxial cable? My Airtel HD STB does not have an Optical out, only Coaxial/SPDIF.

 

[abhijeet.ghosh]

I am using an Optical cable..check out or HD box closely.. mine has optical/SPDIF, it should be same in your case too. In my setup i have connected my TV by the HDMI and gave an audio out to the AVR. So when i watch sd content i normally dont power on my avr but when i watch HD i power it on and get 5.1DD

 

[jagdish_p]

Thanks. Looks like I have an older version of the STB which I took in Aug 2010

I got your point on the direct connection to TV.

 

[prankey]

Thanks. Looks like I have an older version of the STB which I took in Aug 2010

I got your point on the direct connection to TV.

You are LUCKY to have coaxial output which should be the best for us. Optical do not offer any benefit and infact could be more unreliable and EXPENSIVE to using ANY SPARE RCA cable.