SunDirect HD: Downgrading of 'National Geographic HD' from DD 5.1 to Mono audio.

[sanjay0864]

Mr. Sanjay, there may be some programs that may not appear in 5.1 DD in NGC HD, if it is all the time then there may be some problem in setting at your end, if you give me your details to [email protected] I will let a technician get in touch with you and get this sorted.

If there ever was any doubt whether this company is dishonest, there are none now. For, it is now confirmed from how they at first ignored this issue and from how they are now trying to simply brush it under the carpet.

After having continously and totally ignoring complaints regfarding this issue for almost a week, SunDirect HD is now claiming this as a user level problem and suggesting that somehow all the customers of SunDirect HD screwed up the settings on their systems or set-top box on the exact same day and time, i.e. when they added 'ESPN HD' & 'Star SPorts HD' and that is why none of us are getting 'National Geographic HD' with DD 5.1 audio. This company is becoming a joke. Either they are the biggest fools or they think that we are, to fall for their false claims.

There is obviously nothing wrong with the settings on my or any other customer's end. Because if the problem was at our end, then none of the channels would be in DD 5.1. 'Discovery HD' and 'Tamil Services HD' are workling fine with DD 5.1. Secondly, although very unlikely, even if there is a program on 'National Geographic HD' which is not in 5.1, the audio would still be in Dolby Digital.

I get the feeling that 'SunDirect HD' is just lying, to buy some time, so that these complaints don't interfere with their 'low price' one week promotion scheme.

 

[nv.trading]

NGC has no more 5.1 after introducing ESPN HD.

 

[sanjay0864]

NGC has no more 5.1 after introducing ESPN HD.

Considering that 'ESPN HD' is also not in DD 5.1, I don't see what the connection is, other than the timing of the two things.

 

[mgdelhi]

I think that time they allocated the bandwidth to STAR-HD (Which was 5.1) which is no more there because Wimbledon is over.

Now they can give the STAR-HD bandwidth to NGC-HD again if they apply their mind.

 

[sanjay0864]

'SunDirect HD' services keep getting better and better. From Sunday, there has been major problems with signal from the sattelite coming and going with lot's of pixelization. But now since yesterday, the entire service is down. No 'SunDirect HD' signal, period. Before someone suggests it. No, it is not a local problem at my end, the entire SunDirect HD service is down since yesterday. No HD or SD channels. I was lucky I had Dish TruHD to watch the FIFA World Cup Semi-Finals on.

 

[deba]

So the same old dirty tricks have started............this is the reason I will wait before I go for HD...I am sure that 1080i HD Quality will fall with time........

 

[alokbharti]

Since Yesterday.. No signals in SunDirect HD.. sometimes HD channels are showing up.. but no SD channels at all

 

[server3249]

Why are you on Sun HD anyway? Not having transmission - that's a pretty big one.

The NGC sound is pretty screwed up on tata sky as well, so it's probably not something the cable operators are in control of.

 

[mgdelhi]

'SunDirect HD' services keep getting better and better. From Sunday, there has been major problems with signal from the sattelite coming and going with lot's of pixelization. But now since yesterday, the entire service is down. No 'SunDirect HD' signal, period. Before someone suggests it. No, it is not a local problem at my end, the entire SunDirect HD service is down since yesterday. No HD or SD channels. I was lucky I had Dish TruHD to watch the FIFA World Cup Semi-Finals on.

Last night, I switched on my Sun-HD to watch FIFA Semi-final and there was no signal on Info/Welcome channel.

However, when I changed the channel to ESPN-HD, it was working fine. So watched the complete match without any problem. In the break, saw Discovery-HD and NGC-HD, they were also fine.

I am in office so cannot comment on the current status.

As someone mentioned on the forum, I guess they take signal from 2 different satellites and link to one of them must have gone bad.

I was thinking to postpone my Tata-Sky-HD purchase till they launch HD-DVR as I spent Rs.7500/- on Sun-HD a couple of months ago (exchange offer). But I guess I will have to get that now.

We were cheated anyways, we paid much more price than it deserves and now this "dabba" is going to be a total waste. :sad:

 

[alokbharti]

Why are you on Sun HD anyway? Not having transmission - that's a pretty big one.

The NGC sound is pretty screwed up on tata sky as well, so it's probably not something the cable operators are in control of.

have one year subscription thats why I am stuck with Sun..
don't want to spend on another HD operator till the subscription is over..

 

[sanjay0864]

The NGC sound is pretty screwed up on tata sky as well, so it's probably not something the cable operators are in control of.

Actually that is not correct. TataSky may be having issues on their own front, but 'National Geographic HD' has no problems at all. I had been watching it very regularly for the past three months and the DD 5.1 audio was always impeccable. That is until the day SunDirect HD decided to grant us the privilege of ESPN HD and Star Sports HD. That is when suddenly 'NGH' got downgraded to MONO from DD 5.1 and it has been that way ever since, even after Star Sports HD was removed post Wimbeldon.

 

[sanjay0864]

Last night, I switched on my Sun-HD to watch FIFA Semi-final and there was no signal on Info/Welcome channel.

However, when I changed the channel to ESPN-HD, it was working fine. So watched the complete match without any problem. In the break, saw Discovery-HD and NGC-HD, they were also fine.

I am in office so cannot comment on the current status.

As someone mentioned on the forum, I guess they take signal from 2 different satellites and link to one of them must have gone bad.

I just checked and I am still getting ZERO HD channels. Almost ZERO SD channels except for a few SD channels, which too are all jumbled up. As in instead of ZXN I am getting 'Teja' channel. Instead of FTV i am getting ESPN (SD). Bottom line SunDirect HD seems to have crashed and gone totally haywire.

 

[rajuwaste]

Actually that is not correct. TataSky may be having issues on their own front, but 'National Geographic HD' has no problems at all. I had been watching it very regularly for the past three months and the DD 5.1 audio was always impeccable. That is until the day SunDirect HD decided to grant us the privilege of ESPN HD and Star Sports HD. That is when suddenly 'NGH' got downgraded to MONO from DD 5.1 and it has been that way ever since, even after Star Sports HD was removed post Wimbeldon.

I wonder if Indian DTH operators could not handle few HD channels then how American operators telecasting 100+ HD channels.I would like to know 1 to 2 year time frame how many HD channels we can expect in India.

 

[gobble]

This may be why this has been downgraded to Mono and all the other problems with HD missing...

--snip---
Due to a power supply anomaly in one of its two solar panels, there is a partial non-availability of services on Indias INSAT-4B Communication satellite, an ISRO press release said.

The INSAT-4B carries a total of 24 communication transponders (12 Ku-Band and 12 C-Band) and has been in operation since March 2007.

According to the release, the satellite experienced a power supply glitch which led to switching off of 50 per cent of the transponder capacity (6 Ku and 6 C-Band transponders) late on July 7. An expert team is studying the possibilities of partial utilisation of some of the transponders that were switched off and restoring the services at the earliest.
---snap---

http://thehindu.com/sci-tech/article507413.ece

HTH

 

[sanjay0864]

This may be why this has been downgraded to Mono and all the other problems with HD missing...

Actually, the INSAT 4B transponder failure has nothing to do with the audio of 'National Geographic HD' being downgraded from DD 5.1 to 'MONO' only. The downgrading happened long before, atleast 10 days before the issues with INSAT 4B happened.

PS: The downgrading of 'National Geographic HD' audio from DD 5.1 to 'MONO' only happened the day of the first, FIFA World Cup quarter finals.