[icar]

More details Sun Direct HD services

The company has launched two HD channels, becoming the first to do so on the DTH platform in India. The plan is to take it to four and to increase it to eight in the next eight months, depending on transponder availability. "We have launched Tamil and Telugu movie channels on HD. We have signed an agreement with National Geographic Channel for HD and are in discussion with others. We plan to have a bouquet of eight HD channels and have asked Isro for two more transponders," said D'Silva. Sun Direct currently has seven Ku-band transponders on Insat-4B."

Consumers will have to pay Rs 10,000 for the HD STB and a monthly fee of Rs 100 per channel on top of the the basic pack that they subscribe to.

Sun Direct claims to have the lowest churn rate at 0.3 per cent, despite having the lowest pricing of its service. "We give customers the right kind of service at the right price. We can afford to do it because we have done a la carte deals with the broadcasters and we have bought content from them at the best rate," explained D'Silva.

Unlike Dish TV and Tata Sky, Sun Direct does not charge any carriage fee from the broadcasters. It has seven basic packs which cater to the needs of the various regional markets.

[linuxtechie]

The Hindu : Business : Sun Direct launches HD services

Costs: 10k for STB only!

~LT

[gopinathann]

Think it's worth than the Tata sky plus which doesn't have HDMI output. Hope the rates will get reduced soon.

[Su-47]

10K for a non-PVR box is a little too steep. Add to that Rs. 100/- per channel, surely expensive.

[linuxtechie]

I am assuming that sun has only thought of premium audiences in South. For me, it makes sense if they start having likes of HBO, Star Movies, Discovery, National Geography.

~LT

[oss]

This is an absolute nonsense. What good is the HD transmission when there is no content. That too they are claiming that they will beam south indian movies to startwith where is there is no Indian movies shot in HD.

Wonder what they had in mind when they launched the service.

[vasoo]

Originally Posted by oss

This is an absolute nonsense. What good is the HD transmission when there is no content. That too they are claiming that they will beam south indian movies to startwith where is there is no Indian movies shot in HD.

Wonder what they had in mind when they launched the service.

Movies are mostly shot in analog 70mm format and they can be mastered in HD format onto Bluray without much difficulty. And thats how Hollywood launches Bluray discs of most movies including older pre-HD era ones.

Sun must be in possession of the master prints to do this conversion and air in HD. Else they should get this activity done by the rights owners. Of course they cannot be playing regular DVDs and beam it through HD channel.

[shuvc]

Originally Posted by suprateep

While eventually they did manage to get proper reception and set up the connection - the team did mention that Airtel DTH has somehow slightly (only slightly as they mentioned) better AV quality over TS and DishTV and the others but the service is pathetic in comparision to the rest. Only Big TV was worse apparently. Plus they also mentione that Airtel DTH dish can be set vertically (unlike with a slant as in the case of TS) to get proper signals and would be a boon for people who recide on lower floors and cannot get proper reception due to high rises around.

I have both Airtel and TS at home. The A/B test on the same TV is pending.

Buttt ..

Today there are cyclonic conditions in Kolkata. My Airtel / TS dishes are fixed side by side on a clear open rooftop (roof = 7th Floor).

For the last 3 hours, there's no signal through Airtel. TataSky has been running flawlessly during the same period.

[mjothi]

Have anyone here renewed BIG-TV connection? Seems it has become very expensive + reduced many channels to from the pack.

Also, how do I renew? It says I should always go for Starter + top up. Is it so?

[deepclutch]

@mjothi:My renewal is due for Big TV.The Only Problem I face is the model-2 STB which hangs and freezes due to lack of firmware updates.
Solution for hanging probleme for big tv - Big TV, Tata Sky, Dish TV India, Airtel Digital TV, Sun DTH on SaveOnDish.com
For Malayalam Regional ,I am satisfied.

I have a sun direct connection also.IMHO ,Tamil regional channels are available fine in sun dth.

[mjothi]

Originally Posted by deepclutch

@mjothi:My renewal is due for Big TV.The Only Problem I face is the model-2 STB which hangs and freezes due to lack of firmware updates.
Solution for hanging probleme for big tv - Big TV, Tata Sky, Dish TV India, Airtel Digital TV, Sun DTH on SaveOnDish.com
For Malayalam Regional ,I am satisfied.

I have a sun direct connection also.IMHO ,Tamil regional channels are available fine in sun dth.

Is the Model 2 the one with USB?

I have the one without the USB. I was thinking if I should ask them to change. Not sure if they will. Btw. how much useful is that USB? Have you tried using it?

[deepclutch]

yes.usb and s/pdif audio out is with model-2 .there is a new "model-3" stb also with BIG dth.great they messed up the firmware updates meant for model-1 STB(which works very well) borks out model-2 stb :(

[Sahil]

I have a Big TV connection in my room and need to get DTH for two other rooms. Should I go in for Big TV again, are there any savings by adding the 2nd and 3rd connection? Or should I get Tata SKY or Airtel for the other two rooms?

[StarScream]

Originally Posted by Sahil

I have a Big TV connection in my room and need to get DTH for two other rooms. Should I go in for Big TV again, are there any savings by adding the 2nd and 3rd connection? Or should I get Tata SKY or Airtel for the other two rooms?

It makes sense to stick with one DTH provider. I don't know what offers Big has for multiple TVs but with TSky an additional TV just costs Rs. 120 a month with all channels/packages applicable on the primary connection. My second TV had a regular cable connection and I paid 300 a month. Switching the second connection to TSky saves me money. The cost of the STB will be paid off from the savings in the first year.

[carboy]

Originally Posted by StarScream

It makes sense to stick with one DTH provider. I don't know what offers Big has for multiple TVs but with TSky an additional TV just costs Rs. 120 a month with all channels/packages applicable on the primary connection. My second TV had a regular cable connection and I paid 300 a month. Switching the second connection to TSky saves me money. The cost of the STB will be paid off from the savings in the first year.

I had asked DishTV about a 2nd connection. They said that 2nd TV will only get a subset of the channels the first one gets. Not all the channels.
I think they do this to prevent to your neighbour from using a 2nd STB on your dish & getting a discount.