Tatasky Signal Quality

vbhoj74

Active Member
Joined
Aug 16, 2008
Messages
102
Points
28
Location
Kolkata
I feel my HD channels are washed out of details, checked the signal quality and found it to be low/similar in most HD channels. (Pic below). Pls suggest what is the minimum quality we should look at for good HD picture and maybe ways to improve it other than alignment of the dish. I've the 1st model tsky dish which seems to be slightly smaller than the new dish they install.

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Issue resolved by replacing 60cm dish with new 65cm dish. I was told that the 65cm dish would be required after tatasky moves to new satellite in couple of months. Was also told by the service guy that there would be plenty more HD channels and 5 (Nat Geo, Discovery and 3 sports) 4K channels launching then.
 
For the past weeks I have been experience some kind of stutter when I view the regional channels. This does not happen when I view Sports or Movie channels.
 
Seems like they are upgrading their service. Just saw the ad on Channel 100. At least now there's a warning.
 
It is a service upgrade glitch. Watch channel 100 to give missed call for customer service.
 
They have enabled GSAT10 transponders according to some people on another forum. Mass migration is scheduled over the next week according to ads on 100.
 
Yes. I too have been seeing a lot of issues on several HD and SD channels. Hopefully it'll all be well when done.:indifferent14:
 
Seems like they are upgrading their service. Just saw the ad on Channel 100. At least now there's a warning.
AYlgpr
 
My signal keeps getting disrupted for 12 to 36 hrs + several times over the past 1 month. It is getting really frustrating, in that TS has made it so difficult to register a complaint. "Press 4 " or whatever to "Hear this message again" comes BEFORE Press " 2( or whatever) to Register a complaint" ! after this a message says " we have a logjam/problem and promise to get back in 24 hrs. Apart from a call to say a " Service Person" will shortly visit you" nothing happens. :(
A peculiar thing I notice is that Programs Recorded, plays OK !
Anyone have a service person attend in the past weeks for a " no signal" complaint, if so what did the technician do to resolve the issue?
 
I too had no signal issue with tata sky hd in last month and since the beginning of this month. I sent an sms to the number which was being flashed in the screen but no one came to check back. Then logged in to mytatasky.com and registered a complaint there stating no signal and some scolding. Next day i got a call back and day after a technician came and adjusted the dish direction and all the channels came to life. So yes it seems the satellite is changed and orientation of the dish needs to be adjusted accordingly.
 
For the duration from the day when the SMS is sent to the date the satellite realignment is done and the issue is resolved, you should get credit in your TSky account balance. It is not advertised but I got it for 4-5 days I believe.
 
Insat 4A, which was launched in December, 2005, was expected to have a mission life of 12 years, i.e., upto 2017. It has about 12 Ku band transponders which have been put to use by TATA-SKY for its DTH service. Insat 4A is now technically nearing the end of its life-cycle.

TATA-SKY initially was using MPEG-2 encryptation which was less efficient and required more transponders for the same number of channels in comparision to the MPEG-4 encryptation that some other DTH providers were using. When TATA-SKY HD came in, MPEG-4 was being used for the HD channels, and MPEG-2 for the SD channels. Since MPEG-4 was backward compatible with MPEG-2, and the TATA-SKY HD STBs were MPEG-4, there was no problem with this arrangement. But at some point, adding any more channels without reducing the bit rate (i.e., image information, not to be confused with the resolution) for the existing channels became impossible for the TATA-SKY. Initially they tried to circumvent this problem by deploying Ericsson's MPEG-2 encryptation technology (which claimed "MPEG-4 like" efficiency) at the head-end. When this did not solve the problem, they went whole hog and shifted to the MPEG-4 encryptation, in the process exchanging millions of MPEG-2 STBs installed at the customers' places with MPEG-4 STBs free of cost. By doing so, TATA-SKY could add few more channels to its bouquet.

GSAT-10, launched in September, 2012, became operational in 2013. Its 12 Ku-band transponders were pre-booked by TATA-SKY. But then, there was a minister in the earlier Union Government who owned a DTH service that ran into trouble because of a failed satellite. This minister started arm-twisting the TATA-SKY folks to let go their claim on the GSAT-10 Ku-band transponders. This went on for sometime, and only towards the middle of 2014, things started clearing up (we all know why), and TATA-Sky has finally got to use the GSAT-10's Ku-band transponders. GSAT-10 is expected to have a mission life of 15 years, i.e., till 2027.

Now the question comes as to whether TATA-SKY will be able to add "many more channels" including the HD ones, once the GSAT Ku-band transponders become operational?

GSAT-10 has 12 Ku-band transponders, just like the INSAT 4A. The number of channels that can be crammed into each transponder is fixed, and is unlikely to be any different from the INSAT 4A, unless the bit-rate for individual channels is drastically reduced. So how would TATA-SKY be able to accommodate more channels once it shifts to the GSAT-10?

A telecommunications satellite's death is generally not sudden, unless its Master Control decides to destroy it by making use of the explosive payload that every modern satellite now a days contains. When a satellite dies, transponders go off one by one, and this would sometimes take years. My personal opinion is that TATA-SKY will continue to use the functional transponders on INSAT 4A along with GSAT-10. That way, it will get more transponders, and so will be able to accommodate more channels. If this is not the case, then the TATA-SKY's fundamental problem remains as it is, i.e., how to add more channels without reducing the bit rate for the existing channels?

As to the alignment of the dish, not the slightest change in alignment is required, as both the satellites are parked at 83 Degrees East in the geo-stationary orbit, and appear to be exactly the same spot from the Earth (even though in space they may be hundreds of kilometers apart). Only in case of those dish antennas which got slightly misaligned due to rain / wind, some kind of realignment would be required. This may be so, because GSAT-10 has a tighter Ku-band beam.

Finally, the signal from INSAT 4A / GSAT 10 is digital. It is all or none. So the "washed out" images are certainly not due to poor signal. They may be due to reduction in bit-rate for individual channels, and the reason for this may be cramming of more channels into each transponder. It has nothing to do with shifting of the service to GSAT-10.

Also, a larger dish would provide slight cushion against misalignment with respect to the azimuth / elevation / skew angle. But not much.
 
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In case you are willing to spend little money and experiment, Titanium Satellite's PLL (Phase Locked Loop) Ku-band LNBFs are available for as little as $12 each. You can replace your DRO (Direct Resonant Oscillator) LNBF supplied by TATA-SKY with this one, and can get very good results. Nothing else changes in your set up ; old LNBF goes out, and the new LNBF drops in at exactly the same skew angle into the holder / bracket.

PLL technology was out of reach of the common man till an year back. Only high end companies like Japan Radio and Norsat were selling such LNBFs at high cost. The founder / inventor at Titanium Satellite, Brian Gohl, reduced the whole PLL technology on to a chip, and started mass-marketing them. Hence the low cost.
 
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After this upgrade, a few channels are not visible - Zee Marathi and HBO, being those important to me. I had registered multiple complaints last month to finally got a call from their tech service. When I told them that I can see most of the channels except a few, they didn't visit.

I had a very interesting conversation with TataSky customer care regarding this issue. Now after several more calls and hearing "your wait time is 10 minutes" for 20 minutes - thereby wasting money on the call, I finally got in touch with them. They told me to switch-on the STB. When I did that, they told me to switch it off and then on again after 10 mins, and then call again if it still doesn't work. :mad::mad: When I protested saying this can't possibly solve this problem - the lady on phone finally took down a complaint and said I'll be charge Rs. 170. :mad::mad::mad: When I protested again saying this problem occurred only after the upgrade and has continued since then, she said ok, I won't be charged.

It's really interesting to see this policy of charging customers who don't protest.
 
Off the topic but at last good news for Tata Sky subscriber. From 10th May to 31st May you can watch every channel of tata Sky irrespective of your pack. I tried last night and Star movies and all premium english channels were there whereas my pack is Supreme Sports Kids pack...Enjoy
 
i too have observed that some(NDTV 24x7, CNBC Prime etc) of the channels are not available (I get no signal error) but other channels including HD ones work just fine
 
A beautiful, well-constructed speaker with class-leading soundstage, imaging and bass that is fast, deep, and precise.
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