Aug 22, 2011 11:53 AM
4469 Views
(Updated Oct 14, 2011 05:21 PM)
2011 Oct 15: Even after 2.5 months of writing this review, I still recommend the same. One disadvantage of these DTH vs the Hathway kind of cable connections is the signal availability when there is a heavy rain. When there is a heavy rain these DTH Dish signal just vanishes. But that is a good trade off for the normal picture quality from the Airtel HD DVR.
2011 Aug: For a long time I was suffering from Hathway set top box and the irregular signal quality of my local cable TV provider.
But when I wanted to change to one of the bigger brands like Airtel TATA SKY or SUN TV Videocon, they used to have either a High Definition (HD) or Digital Video recorder (DVR) and not both. but recently they launched HD and DVR together in the same box.
Elimination of other DTH providers:
NO to HATHWAY :
Even though they provided the best channel package for me, they failed on consistency in delivery. In Hyderabad they provided me the ALL Telugu channels and that is why I had their connection for many years. They had a decent set top box. But unfortunately their signal failed too many times. They have ability to provide excellent quality signal but a junk process in place to ensure it.
NO to SUN DTH: Being a southern service provider and the first one to introduce HD, this was my first preference. My relatives had SUN HD, they had a big mess, they paid for HD channels for 6 months and they never got the HD channels, customer service was very bad, quality of picture was also not satisfactory. Cost has the * factor. ( there are hidden conditions )
NO to TATA SKY DTH:
Service: Their cust service people talk like a Public Sector cust service like BSNL. Very arrogant.
Monopoly ideas : They say my set top box is not transferable!!!. Why are they against reuse of electronics? After all they didn't provide it free and there is no technology limitation. My sister bought a box and she was leaving for USA and handed over the box to me. When I said I want to take a connection, they said my sister has to take a connection with my address. Rediculous. Set Top Box is like a GSM phone and they have a subscriber card inside like a SIM card in mobile. They could have issued me a new subscriber card. They said not possible.
Channels: They are the first DTH to come to HYD. But even today they donot have some of the very popular Telugu channels like Bhakthi TV. In Andhra Pradesh many telugu families they watch the devotional program channel which is provided by all DTH guys except these people. I called Tata Sky multiple times and provided feed back, but they think they are selling channels in Delhi.
Videocon: I have not explored much. I like their Satellite LCD with DTH. I am planning to get it as a 2 nd connection. That will remove the wire clutter.
Why Airtel?:
Better customer service among the available service providers.
They have a reasonable collection of regional channels ( atleast workable).
Excellent quality in HD channels. We are addicted to the 7 HD Channels they provided.
The online account management. You can create your online account in minutes with your customer id etc. Make payments online. Oder movies online. Check instantaneous update of payment.
Toll free number for customer service. And mobile alerts.
I can link this DTH service to my existing online account of my Airtel post paid mobile. So I log in to my Airtel mobile account and handle both mobile account and DTH account.
Advantages of HD DVR:
Since DVR allows you to record, pause live TV and rewind, our TV experience has taken a big leap with this HD DVR box. We don’t miss any program.
Also 550 hrs of program can be stored on the disk. So kids record the program that they like and watch it when ever they like.
Conflict resolution. When 2 people want to watch different TV programs at the same time, one can record and watch it later.
Audio Language options work in a couple of channels like Toon Disney and National Geographic. This is a plus, because family can enjoy these programs in Telugu rather than Hindi/English. I can change the language between Telugu/English/hindi/Tamil etc..
Some of the things which Airtel needs to improve:
The picture quality in some of the regional channels like Maa and Z Telugu was a little inferior. I observed this more in movies than the studio programs.
They donot provide you cable through the concealed ducts at home. They just want to do their job easy; they will mess-up the apartment building outlook, by running their cable on the walls. If you don’t insist they even leave loose cables in corridor. They don’t plan for casing for the cable in corridors( that is not expensive).
They donot have Doordarshan Telugu channel (Saptagiri)
Package selection: When I went for a 1 year subscription along with initial purchase of HDDVR, my total cost was Rs.6300. They say the HDDVR box is Rs.3200 and adding one year subscription fee (Rs.215 per month for South Economy sports Rs.2580) My net installation cost was Rs.520. For normal settop box, your cost will be nil for long term packages.
In summary I find the AIRTEl HD DVR to be a good choice with good price performance, quality. Go for it.
