[civic-sense]

Got Dish TV HD today. Booked yesterday and got installed today. Pretty quick. Cost: 3225 inclusive of installation and tax.

Pic quality looks good. Similar to the 720p MKVs that I download. Panning shots are a bit jerky. A few disturbances in picture too, ocassionally. Biggest dampner is that there is only 2.0 channel audio. Even through SPDIF.

Got it only for the FIFAworl cup. Will review situation after it is over, and decide whether to keep it or not.

[Ketan]

So,
It looks like all the players are out with HD now. we really need someone to review them.
I read reliance is already there with their DTH services in HD and the STB with DVR functionalities for around 7.5-8K.

Airtel is going to announce (must have already by now) their HD services today.
Tsky is busy selling their new HD STBs now.
Lets figure out which one is going to be the better one.

[tsk13]

Originally Posted by ghodlur

In both Tata sky and Dish TV case, the existing users will have to shell out additional amount for the HD set top box and and in both case no offers are present for existing users having STB. Also the no of HD channels are min and do not justify the additional cost one would put in to get the new STB. I feel it should be wait n watch until the no of channels are increased considerably. Till then I am happy with the existing set up.

Ghodlur, Tata Sky is offering one year subscription free for existing customers who upgrade to HD.

Offer for Existing subscribers:

Existing Tata Sky subscribers can purchase a Tata Sky HD digicomp by paying the full price of Rs 2,599. When purchased during the offer period they will also be entitled to 1 year free subscription to the HD Gold package.

Tata sky HD offer

[MutantX]

Originally Posted by bharanidharang

Very few boxes have been given to shops. The shops mentioned that they would be getting more boxes next week.

Yeap, i visited the experience zone near my house and booked a STB. He said it would take atleast 2 days for the STB to arrive. But I see that the online booking of the STBs are still not enabled. Let us wait for the games to begin. It would be great to see Discovery Turbo on HD *if FX goes HD in the near future*

[ghodlur]

Originally Posted by tsk13

Ghodlur, Tata Sky is offering one year subscription free for existing customers who upgrade to HD.

The one year free subscription is for HD Gold package which presently consists of only 3 channels. Also if you are an existing subscriber and want to go for an HD STB, there is no exchange for the old STB. Either it has to be sold or kept idle or use it as second connection. I had called up Tata sky customer care, they are not ready to exchange the old STB for the new HD STB which means I pay 2600/- for HD STB and also keep the old STB. No Sir, I would not go for that deal. I will wait till Tata Sky comes up with a good offer and greater no of HD Channels.

[ashish22]

@Ketan...plug the STB directly to the TV through HDMI cable and audio through STB's co-axial to the a/v receiver. By your posts i can make out that you are thinking of plugging the STB to the a/v receiver through HDMI, why???
@ sanjayc...Sound quality wise both optical and co-axial give identical output with the only difference being that optical has better noise insulation. But a good quality co-axial cable will take care of that as well.

[tsk13]

Originally Posted by ghodlur

The one year free subscription is for HD Gold package which presently consists of only 3 channels. Also if you are an existing subscriber and want to go for an HD STB, there is no exchange for the old STB. Either it has to be sold or kept idle or use it as second connection. I had called up Tata sky customer care, they are not ready to exchange the old STB for the new HD STB which means I pay 2600/- for HD STB and also keep the old STB. No Sir, I would not go for that deal. I will wait till Tata Sky comes up with a good offer and greater no of HD Channels.

Thanks for the information, maybe some Diwali offer will undertake the exchange of old STB's. Is the HD Digicomp with DVR (Tata Sky Plus feature)?

[ghodlur]

Originally Posted by tsk13

Thanks for the information, maybe some Diwali offer will undertake the exchange of old STB's. Is the HD Digicomp with DVR (Tata Sky Plus feature)?

Hope Tata Sky sweetens the deal during the festival period. The HD STB does have a recording facility, its available only in Tata Sky+ STB which is retailing around 6K.
As of now "life is not zhingalala".

[Ketan]

Originally Posted by ashish22

@Ketan...plug the STB directly to the TV through HDMI cable and audio through STB's co-axial to the a/v receiver. By your posts i can make out that you are thinking of plugging the STB to the a/v receiver through HDMI, why???

Ashish,

I have got multiple sources feeding HDMI (xbox, xtreamer, DVDP) and STB will now be added. Hence I have to use multiple HDMI inputs on AVR.

Currently, the video o/p from normal STB goes to TV directly and audio is been fed to AVR. with new HD STB, I shall use HDMI+S/PDIF.

Does anyone know about the availability of the HD STB in Bangalore? I called a couple of local delaers and they are confirming the HD STB in another day or two.

Does anyone know about the approx price / availability of TSky HD STB with DVR? I'm really confused if I need to wait for one with DVR or go ahead and spend 2599 for this plain HD STB!!

[ashish22]

i went through hifivision forum as well and looks like tata sky HD is the real deal whereas dish tv HD just has plain vanilla stereo sound. I guess they might be thinking of giving 5.1 with their dvr box?
Also people generally recommended to use 720P mode rather then using 1080i.

[Ketan]

I also read that Star Sport HD is added to TSky now, Wimbledon feed starting at 4.30.
This is tempting guys, I dont know whether to wait for HD DVR from TSky or to go ahead with this right away.

[mykal shoemaker]

I always felt this business of Tata's is the only one which is not customer friendly.

I paid 4000/- for their connection. (3000 STB+1000 instillation charges).I think Tata and Zee looted public in the early days,as there were no competition. Their mass subscriber base also due to that fact.

I took one Sun direct connection in home town and they gave everything for 5 months bundled for <1500. Now I think they charge 350/- only for the connection(of course installation charges hidden from the ads).

Sun has lots of customization option.
One thing I noticed in Tata sky is the way they give FTA channels with heavy price.
I've 310/pm package,but still no NDTV imagine,real,movie channels like utv ,utv bindass,or sports channels.
Sun has options to add single channels ,that too single cycle or multiple cycles (months).Tata sky added this feature very late,but still it gives just one month addition option. Also,tata sky's customization options are terrible comparing to other players.

But I've 4 etv channels which airs the same content on all of them 80% of the time.
ETV Rajasthan,ETV bihar,ETV MP,ETV UP (or jharkhand ). I think ETV is FTA channel.

Somehow I feel I'm getting cheated.
My cablewallah gives 250 channels + 30 audio channels for 150/- pm. (his STB cost was 900/- ).

I think unless we've 10+ HD channels,thats the best way to go.

[theragingbull]

Guys, is this the right time to switch to HD DTH or should I wait for a couple of months more? Will there be any price decrease later and when will we get more HD channels?

[Newpunter]

Seems like Dish TV has the following HD channels in their Tru HD package :
Nat Geo HD, Discovery HD, Zee TV HD, Zee Cinema HD, Star Sports HD, ESPN HD. I think this is as good as it gets. I doubt any other channels will start broadcasting in HD anytime soon, although i wish Star Movies and HBO start an HD version of their channels soon.

[ghodlur]

Originally Posted by ghodlur

Hope Tata Sky sweetens the deal during the festival period. The HD STB does have a recording facility, its available only in Tata Sky+ STB which is retailing around 6K.
As of now "life is not zhingalala".

TSK13 - extremely sorry for the typo error. The HD STB from Tata Sky does not have a recording facility.