Which DTH & Why?

[WHATSINANAME]

Let's compare the various DTH players in India with regard to the following criteria:

1. Quality of Picture & Sound
2. Customer Care (includes knowledgeability of employees, response time, follow ups needed, ease in shifting etc.)
3. Ease of Menu Navigation
4. Features provided (includes features on remote control, add-ons like interactive services, etc)
5. Number of channels and frequency of adding new channels as they become available
6. Price (initial as well as the subscription costs)

I am including all the major DTH players in India at this time. Vote for the one you chose and post your reasons for doing so (if you changed your service provider, please mention why)

 

[baccilus]

Nice thread. But people should also post their location if it is not mentioned in the profile. Most things vary according to the location. I don't have a DTH but plan to buy one with a new TV. I have a 21" CRT so don't really need a DTH. The cable connection is just 170 bucks a month for all the channels I need.

 

[Jigneshg]

1. Quality of Picture & Sound : BIG TV
2. Customer Care (includes knowledgeability of employees, response time, follow ups needed, ease in shifting etc.) : Tata Sky
3. Ease of Menu Navigation : Tata Sky, best software
4. Features provided (includes features on remote control, add-ons like interactive services, etc) : Airtel, Videocon D2H, TS
5. Number of channels and frequency of adding new channels as they become available : Dish TV, Videocon D2H
6. Price (initial as well as the subscription costs) : Videocon D2H

Wud not want to write into details. p.s these are my opinion.

 

[jagadishareddy]

Let's compare the various DTH players in India with regard to the following criteria:

1. Quality of Picture & Sound tata sky
2. Customer Care (includes knowledgeability of employees, response time, follow ups needed, ease in shifting etc.) tata sky
3. Ease of Menu Navigation tata sky
4. Features provided (includes features on remote control, add-ons like interactive services, etc) tata sky
5. Number of channels and frequency of adding new channels as they become available tata sky
6. Price (initial as well as the subscription costs) tata sky

vfm dth player using it for past 4 years

 

[captrajesh]

I'm familiar with Tatasky & Sun Direct. Don't even go anyway near Sun TV.

 

[adder]

I have both big tv and airtel,but prefer big tv because of the Picture quality.

 

[A Mohapatra]

1. Quality of Picture & Sound - BIG TV, Airtel
2. Customer Care (includes knowledgeability of employees, response time, follow ups needed, ease in shifting etc.) - TATA Sky, Airtel
3. Ease of Menu Navigation - DishTV, TATA Sky, Airtel
4. Features provided (includes features on remote control, add-ons like interactive services, etc) - Airtel, d2H
5. Number of channels and frequency of adding new channels as they become available - BIG TV, d2H,
6. Price (initial as well as the subscription costs) - d2H


I'm using Airtel digital TV for around 5 months now and I have totally uninterrupted viewing 24X7(unless there is rain; during heavy rains blackout occurs for max. 2-4 minutes) in truly Digital clarity.

I left DishTV because of poor Picture/Sound quality and frequent low Signal Strength/quality.

Note : Above views on Airtel, DishTV is based on my personal experience at my location i.e. Bhubaneswar.

 

[deba]

I went for Tata Sky as none of the dth operators provide quality a/v reception which includes my choice......

 

[borg]

I moved to Big tv from tatasky, when i bought the 50" I had issues like flickering, pixelisation,etc and overall PQ was not upto the mark , TS guys (both local and various CS guys calling from all over india)keep insisting that it is the problem with tv and they cannot do anything .They didnt bother to swap the box and see. I also asked for an HD box and they said it is not launched in kerala and they cannot give a timeframe when it will be launched.Finally i bought Big(normal not HD dvr) and all issues went away, PQ is much better.However the menu/software is not as good as TS and everybody says their CS is crap. i hope i dont have to talk to them. Once some good hd channels(like star movies HD) are launched i plan to switch to hd , now there is not much interesting content. I had Dish when i was in banglore imho dish pq is the worst of these 3 i had.

 

[Dushie]

I have used Dish TV in the past along with tata sky, current have 2 connections of TS one SD and one HD, the service rocks.

1. Quality of Picture & Sound
- Excellent never faced any issues as such.
2. Customer Care (includes knowledgeability of employees, response time, follow ups needed, ease in shifting etc.)
- CC has been good, online recharge is fast and excellent. Plan change is also easy. One can add and deleted packages through IVR. Activation of new packages happen within 15 minutes.
3. Ease of Menu Navigation
- Old navigation was good , new one needs some getting used to.
4. Features provided (includes features on remote control, add-ons like interactive services, etc)
- Don't use them much, remote is good , response is also fast in the new HD box.
5. Number of channels and frequency of adding new channels as they become available.
- Usually i get most of the channels i watch, benefit is special channels that come on HD like the champions league which is being shown now without any ads.
6. Price (initial as well as the subscription costs)
- Paid Rs 2600, one year Free HD subscription, and 2 months free MS subscription.

 

[sivakuru]

I am not in a position to suggest which DTH you need to go for. However I can suggest which
DTH you need to avoid.

Why?. Read here (post # 4 and above) :
http://www.hifivision.com/digital-cable-dth/11052-airtel-hd-installation-problems.html

 

[guru98]

I had experienced Dish TV and TataSky. TS is the choice for me in terms of service, pic and sound quality, meny interface.
I hate TS just for one reason - quickview is missing (alternate between 2 channels) which DishTV has.

 

[slayer_tiger]

I had experienced Dish TV and TataSky. TS is the choice for me in terms of service, pic and sound quality, meny interface.
I hate TS just for one reason - quickview is missing (alternate between 2 channels) which DishTV has.

how come...?? :clapping: :clapping: :clapping: :yahoo: :yahoo: :yahoo:
just use back button ... i have been using it for last 2 years dont know if they have provided you some other remote...:yahoo::yahoo::yahoo::yahoo::yahoo:

 

[WHATSINANAME]

I'm familiar with Tatasky & Sun Direct. Don't even go anyway near Sun TV.

Thanks, Captain!! I think if you went into a little more detail about why to avoid Sun, it could help a lot of people out there!

I am not in a position to suggest which DTH you need to go for. However I can suggest which
DTH you need to avoid.

Why?. Read here (post # 4 and above) :
http://www.hifivision.com/digital-cable-dth/11052-airtel-hd-installation-problems.html

Sorry to read about your terrible experience, and here I was under the impression that Airtel was one of the better companies out there when it came to customer service!

I had experienced Dish TV and TataSky. TS is the choice for me in terms of service, pic and sound quality, meny interface.
I hate TS just for one reason - quickview is missing (alternate between 2 channels) which DishTV has.

how come...?? :clapping: :clapping: :clapping: :yahoo: :yahoo: :yahoo:
just use back button ... i have been using it for last 2 years dont know if they have provided you some other remote...:yahoo::yahoo::yahoo::yahoo::yahoo:

I think there is only one remote (of course there is a slightly different one for TS+, but even that has a back button)! Just shows how important it is to read the user manual at least once to have an idea of all the features!!

 

[spirovious]

a feature comparison-
HD DTH Comparison: TataSky HD vs Airtel HD vs Dish TV HD vs BIG TV HD vs SunDirect HD

 

[captrajesh]

Thanks, Captain!! I think if you went into a little more detail about why to avoid Sun, it could help a lot of people out there!

They have a pathetic customer service and the whole operation, (be it your requests for adding or removing packages etc) have not reached the professional level that Tatasky has. Of course, things are improving from what I notice but still not up to the mark.

 

[heynownow]

My compllaint with teh HD channels in Tata Sky (disco, NatG) is the sound levels are too low. Could it be because they're 5.1?

 

[sanjay0864]

My compllaint with teh HD channels in Tata Sky (disco, NatG) is the sound levels are too low. Could it be because they're 5.1?

The volume level of both 'Discovery HD World' and 'National Geographic HD' are on the lower side, regardless of DTH service provider. The assumption is that for DD 5.1 one will be connecting the receiver to a HT setup and thus volume levels are accordingly set as per industry norms. Also, unlike analog audio the technically challenged Indian DTH operators are not able to mess with the DD5.1 encoded audio.

 

[sanjay0864]

Today I had the opportunity to demo 'TataSky HD' and one issue stood out. Why does 'National Geographic HD' have chinese subtitles? This is not the case with either 'Sun Direct HD' or 'Dish True HD' then why so with 'TataSky HD'? Even more importantly does it not bother you guys who have 'TataSky HD'? Have you guys not bothered to complain to 'TataSky' and if you have complained, then what is the 'silly/stupid' excuse given by them?
To me it seems as if TataSky is using the National Geographic HD chinese feed, which is meant for China and is different from the feed being used by the other Indian DTH operators. Which would also means that since technically each feed is a seperate channel, TataSky is breaking the law by showing a channel that does not have permission/license to uplink/downlink into India.

 

[spirovious]

Is there user online manual available for DL of Tatasky-HD & Airtel STB?
Or anyone can upload?