Airtel DTH - Helpless!

[sethu]

Airtel lacks techies
I am awaiting hd channel additions after migration to SES7 for 20days despite hot persuit. Anybody got HD channels from airtel hd?Plz inform

 

[paritosh]

ya... i faced the same problem (see my other posts)

i got it done after 7 days of first requst... they promised it would be done within 48hrs

you'll need to be patient with these guys... Airtel is the best option considering channel counts, pkg price and PQ... they lack severly on service front though but one learns to live with that

 

[sethu]

Hi
This is miracle that hififorum has cleared my deadlock
I finally got HD channels Moviesnow DiscovryHD NGHD for 44 Rupees
So cheap but with reason no Dolby 5.1 Any takers

 

[prankey]

^ Do you mean the HD channels on the new satellite are broadcasted in stereo?

 

[sethu]

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

 

[VSG12777]

I've been using Airtel HD for almost a year now. From July 2010, when I got it along with my LG 50PJ560 plasma. It's been ok, but I can confirm that there is no 5.1 sound from the NGC HD channel. I have a Yamaha RX-V459 AVR (2007 model) without HDMI, so the HDMI out from the HD STB is connected to the plasma. I tried the coaxial out from the HD STB to the coaxial input on my AVR, but in vain. It shows only Prologic. Meaning, the incoming signal is stereo. Or maybe even mono. Who knows.

None of the customer service people or technicians who landed up at my place even understand what I am trying to say. Airtel is clearly cheating the public by saying the HD service supports upto 7.1 channels of sound.

I am sure even the new HD channels - Movies Now HD, Discovery HD World etc - won't have 5.1 sound. I had asked the CC exec after seeing these channels listed in the onscreen guide, and I was told about the shift to the new satellite, realignment etc.

However the technician has not landed up at my place.

Is Tata Sky better in all these aspects? Are all the HD channels on Tata Sky HD broadcast with 5.1 sound? If so, I seriously wouldn't mind changing.

Nothing like catching a nice movie in HD on the Movies Now HD channel 5.1 surround sound. Or NGC HD documentaries with 5.1 sound for that matter.

---Venkat

 

[VSG12777]

I've been using Airtel HD for almost a year now. From July 2010, when I got it along with my LG 50PJ560 plasma. It's been ok, but I can confirm that there is no 5.1 sound from the NGC HD channel. I have a Yamaha RX-V459 AVR (2007 model) without HDMI, so the HDMI out from the HD STB is connected to the plasma. I tried the coaxial out from the HD STB to the coaxial input on my AVR, but in vain. It shows only Prologic. Meaning, the incoming signal is stereo. Or maybe even mono. Who knows.

None of the customer service people or technicians who landed up at my place even understand what I am trying to say. Airtel is clearly cheating the public by saying the HD service supports upto 7.1 channels of sound.

I am sure even the new HD channels - Movies Now HD, Discovery HD World etc - won't have 5.1 sound. I had asked the CC exec after seeing these channels listed in the onscreen guide, and I was told about the shift to the new satellite, realignment etc.

However the technician has not landed up at my place.

Is Tata Sky better in all these aspects? Are all the HD channels on Tata Sky HD broadcast with 5.1 sound? If so, I seriously wouldn't mind changing.

Nothing like catching a nice movie in HD on the Movies Now HD channel 5.1 surround sound. Or NGC HD documentaries with 5.1 sound for that matter.

---Venkat

 

[no1lives4ever]

5.1 sound works on TS. All HD channels do have Dolby Digital 5.1 streams. TS had advertised 7.1 sound with the TS+ HD DVR box. But to get DD 5.1 working, you need to connect a optical or coax cable to your avr. DD 5.1 streams are not sent to the avr using HDMI cable.

The quality of the 5.1 mixes are not so great at times. 5.1 mixes on cricket matches are sometimes extremely irritating with commentary and crowd sound moving all over the room. The sound on Discovery HD world keeps on having dropouts. NGC HD has the audio encoded such that vocals used for narration come from the rear channels. I do not have an issue with this, but many expect narration to be played from the front center channel.

Now I do not know if any of these are creations of TS or if they are from the original channel. The cricket & NGC HD issues seem to be channel specific and Discovery HD world seems to be a TS issue to me.

Do note that there are no other HD channels on TS HD service. No Movies Now. There is a fake hd version of star plus, which to me looks worse than the regular SD star plus because of the stretching of 4:3 content to fill a 16:9 screen.

-- no1lives4ever

 

[VSG12777]

Hmm. The way you have described the TS HD sound on those HD channels, shows the 5.1 encoding is not proper. Voice narration / dialogue HAS to come from the centre channel. Unless of course, it is due to the position of the speaker on screen. Suppose the speaker on screen is shown as behind the viewer, then it may be acceptable to have the dialogue coming through the rear left or rear right channels. This could also apply to other positional audio, such as gun shots, explosions or vehicles moving behind the viewer etc.

As regards the HDMI, newer AVRs have full HDMI connectivity - meaning they process audio and video. This was why HDMI came about in the 1st place. To carry multi channel audio and HD video using a single cable. Newer AVRs can process multi channel DD 5.1 and DTS 5.1 or even 6.1 or 7.1 sound through the HDMI port.

I personally know a friend who uses the WD Live HD Media Player with his AVR and 42 inch plasma - single HDMI cable from WD player to AVR, another HDMI out from the AVR to the TV. That's it. He gets DD 5.1 and DTS 5.1 without any problem.

I have clearly mentioned in my post that my AVR is an older non-HDMI model and I used a coaxial cable to connect the digital out of the Airtel HD STB to the AVR for testing.

---Venkat

 

[no1lives4ever]

Hmm. The way you have described the TS HD sound on those HD channels, shows the 5.1 encoding is not proper. Voice narration / dialogue HAS to come from the centre channel. Unless of course, it is due to the position of the speaker on screen. Suppose the speaker on screen is shown as behind the viewer, then it may be acceptable to have the dialogue coming through the rear left or rear right channels. This could also apply to other positional audio, such as gun shots, explosions or vehicles moving behind the viewer etc.

The narration on NGC sounds like it comes from the rear. And this is with off screen narrators. So to me it seems like a deliberate attempt by NGC. The other audio clues appear in their right places. It feels like someone is narrating while sitting right behind you, and some may not like it. I personally find this a good use of 5.1 audio.

As regards the HDMI, newer AVRs have full HDMI connectivity - meaning they process audio and video. This was why HDMI came about in the 1st place. To carry multi channel audio and HD video using a single cable. Newer AVRs can process multi channel DD 5.1 and DTS 5.1 or even 6.1 or 7.1 sound through the HDMI port.

I personally know a friend who uses the WD Live HD Media Player with his AVR and 42 inch plasma - single HDMI cable from WD player to AVR, another HDMI out from the AVR to the TV. That's it. He gets DD 5.1 and DTS 5.1 without any problem.

The problem with the TS+ HD DVR is that it does not pass DD 5.1 via HDMI. It requires you to use the optical or coax connections to get 5.1 DD streams into the AVR. I had an extra rca cable lying around and it took me a few minutes to set it up, but this was still a bother and adds to the cable clutter for no reason The same is not present with the non plus HD stb. Seems like a firmware issue to me. The thing is that you can not bitstream 7.1 DD+ streams using coax cables, while TS does claim 7.1 surround sound on the TS+ HD box ads.

-- no1lives4ever

 

[prankey]

The narration on NGC sounds like it comes from the rear. And this is with off screen narrators. So to me it seems like a deliberate attempt by NGC. The other audio clues appear in their right places. It feels like someone is narrating while sitting right behind you, and some may not like it. I personally find this a good use of 5.1 audio.
-- no1lives4ever

Dude, Vocals come basically from Main Left channel and not rear. I agree Rear is also mixed with vocals and music (its basically should be the sound of Main LR which comes from Rear). Seems you have your rear speakers volume cranked up and hence hear more vocals through rear. I keep the rear channels volume as calibrated "Balanced" for effect (despite having tower speakers - too much effect from rear sometimes sound unnatural) for 5.1 surround sound. This is the same volume setting I get same level from each speaker from 5.1 speakers when playing games, hence rear volume should not be more than that (else you may hear more rear sound like you get from Star Cricket HD when I get commentary occasionally from main LR as well but hardly from rear as the volume is balanced). I hear precisely the same effect on SOME PROGRAMS on Discovery HD like in Star Cricket when they keep reducing volume of LR and rear LR when someone is speaking as voice comes from all channels.

Also, how would you see someone speaking on screen but his voice is coming from behind or left? Good use of 5.1?

 

[VSG12777]

Prankey,

He referred to off-screen narrators. In that case, the audio coming from the rear may be ok. But in any movie or documentary with 5.1 sound (say BBC's Life or Planet Earth blu ray rips that I have - 720p, DTS), even if there is an off-screen narrator the voice does come out thru the centre speaker and not the front left and right.

The surrounds are designed for extra positional effects while the centre is designed for dialogue and onscreen action and sounds for the front left and right. If the onscreen narrator moves to the left, the dialogue may be played thru the front left speaker and so on.

Hmm ... what you say about the TS HD DVR box is not very encouraging. Why can't they give a full pass through, using the HDMI cable? It would make things far more convenient. For people using older AVRs though, I don't think they really have a choice but to use the coaxial or optical cables for 5.1 sound.

But otherwise overall, is TS HD better than Airtel HD? If it is really worth it, I can consider switching over.

Would TS have any kind of trade in offer for an old HD STB? How much would a new TS HD connection cost? With and without the HD DVR?

 

[addy]

Even my Airtel HD STB does not give out 5.1 audio on NGC HD. I am receiving Disc HD and Movies Now HD since yesterday and I have not checked the output from those channels yet. But going by what I have seen till now, I'm not the least hopeful of getting 5.1 DD sound.

I have connected my STB to my Denon 1910 AVR through HDMI cable. I want to know whether this is the problem of the STB or should I connect the audio out through optical or co-axial?

 

[Kittu]

I have connected the same way to AVR still no use I dont get 5.1 default.

 

[no1lives4ever]

Dude, Vocals come basically from Main Left channel and not rear. I agree Rear is also mixed with vocals and music (its basically should be the sound of Main LR which comes from Rear). Seems you have your rear speakers volume cranked up and hence hear more vocals through rear. I keep the rear channels volume as calibrated "Balanced" for effect (despite having tower speakers - too much effect from rear sometimes sound unnatural) for 5.1 surround sound. This is the same volume setting I get same level from each speaker from 5.1 speakers when playing games, hence rear volume should not be more than that (else you may hear more rear sound like you get from Star Cricket HD when I get commentary occasionally from main LR as well but hardly from rear as the volume is balanced). I hear precisely the same effect on SOME PROGRAMS on Discovery HD like in Star Cricket when they keep reducing volume of LR and rear LR when someone is speaking as voice comes from all channels.

Also, how would you see someone speaking on screen but his voice is coming from behind or left? Good use of 5.1?

I use the same settings for 5.1 setup with my TS+HD box as I use with movies. The system is calibrated using Audyssey and when playing movies with a proper 5.1 track, everything works as expected.

Now with NGC HD, I have never faced any issue with 5.1 mix being incorrect, except that off screan narrators typically seem to be speaking from behind me. On discovery HD, the 5.1 mix normally keeps the narrator somewhere in front of me.

Any vocals from someone on screen comes from the expected location with either of these channels. The main problem with Discovery HD is that on my system there are frequent audio drop outs. The audio track seems to switch between 2 different streams with Discovery HD.

The HD + surround sound promos on both the channels typically look and sound better than the programming on these channels.

Overall, I do not feel that the 5.1 surround mix from any of the HD channels really make a big difference. NGC HD has the best sound amongst all the HD channels.

-- no1lives4ever

 

[sethu]

Hi everybody
I got finally Dolby Digital 5.1 in AIRTEL HD thru coax audio
still lots to be improved
No Dolby audio pass thru HDMI
AirtelHd provides DD5.1 thru coax

 

[Kittu]

Hi everybody
I got finally Dolby Digital 5.1 in AIRTEL HD thru coax audio
still lots to be improved
No Dolby audio pass thru HDMI
AirtelHd provides DD5.1 thru coax

Really , thanks for confirming that . Any changes in the volume level after using coax ?

 

[VSG12777]

Sethu,

On which channel in Airtel HD are you getting DD 5.1 output? Does your AVR show Dolby Digital in its display? I checked with NGC HD and there was only stereo sound. Your information would be really helpful. Till now, nobody has got 5.1 sound on Airtel HD I think.

 

[sethu]

kittu
Volume level drops after coax in sd channels
In Hd channels NGHD brightest
Moviesnow Medium DiscvryHD low
Volume level fluctuates, maybe signal strength needs to be improved
I hav not tested ESPN HD
In moviesnow rear channel crackles in some scenes
sethu

 

[VSG12777]

Hi Sethu

In which channels are you getting 5.1 audio in Airtel HD? I've been using Airtel HD for almost a year now and there has been no 5.1 audio. I have only NGC HD for now. Have not added the other HD channels yet, as the dish realignment has to be done.

Also, what is the home theatre setup you are using?

---Venkat