Dish Networks India

Some days ago, we got this complaint by Mr. A. Kapoor. He seems to have had a bad experience with Reliance Big TV. Since SaveOnDish is the only website that gives people’s complaints and grievances a platform, we decided to highlight their complaint and put it on our main website.

So here’s a description of the experience Mr. A. Kapoor has had with Reliance Big TV, in his own words.:

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I recently purchased 3 connections of BigTV & got cheated. The salesperson (Dealer: APPCO) pointed out the merits as already explained above (Bigger disk, LNB to ensure fading/blanking free viewin during rains, MPEG4 etc etc) and that transmission was already HD while as other were gearing up to made their transmission HD.

Mr. Channel’s note: Be very careful when dealers tell you about the transmission being HD (High Definition). There’s a difference between High QUALITY and High DEFINITION. A very vast difference. Make sure you repeatedly CONFIRM that it’s High Definition, from your dealer.

I was planning to replace my analog TVs one by one. I paid for all the 3 conenctions, the dish was installed and that was the start of my problems. They kept on changing the STBs as they either were hanging or channel dropping (going back to preview for no reason). One STB is still frequently hanging, another dropping the selected channel frequently & the third ond much less used seems to be stable.

After I installed a new Samsung HD 32″ LCD, I found that the picture was not of proper resolution. On closely seeing the STB, I found that it is ordinary DVB type (Digital Video Broadcast) & not HD. Now, they are demanding Rs 6000 more (difference of STB price & HD DVR price) per STB for upgading them to HD DBR (coz thay have not launched HD type STBs and only their DVR is HD capable with recording facility.

I am spending Rs 610 appx per month for 3 conenction for diamond packs which is ok but doesn’t have enough sports channels. Both the poor quality made in China STBs continue to misbehave. I got a mail 3 days back that they will replace them within 24 hours but nothing has been done so far. As is the modus operandi, the sales person simply changes his mobile number after duping a large number of people like this.

Mr. Channel’s note: In a situation like this, when your dealer is goofing up. Do not wait and torment yourself further, always call up the official helpline and make sure you get your complaint registered, get a complaint number, and in case there is no follow up, DEMAND to speak with a manager when you call the helpline and get personal assurance to get the problem solved.

I never bought a reliance product earlier, gathered courage hoping that they might have improved but this is probably how Reliance works. I increased my expenditure from Rs 200 pm (cable charges) which seems to be wasteful expenditure. Now, I am looking for HD STBs and Airtel is offering HD STB for 3140 with 3 months free Mega Pack which is double the price of ordinary DVB STB. Besides, the information I got from Airtel is that at present transmission of only one channel- National Geographic is HD and others will be done in 2 months time. So, new connections buyers should buy only HD type STBs now otherwise they will be asked money by the respective service provider to upgrade them.

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Mr. Kapoor does get a point across. The old STBs do not come with HD, so maek VERY sure that the equipment your purchasing is HD ready. If you are not that fascinated with HD and are happy and content with watching the regular feed, then you’re in the green, no problems there.

Hopefully people will learn from Mr. Kapoor’s experience and try not to fall prey to marketing techniques.

Mr. Channel

Founded in 2003, Dish TV was the first DTV television provider in India, they started a new era in home entertainment ever since their inception. As the market grew, the potential in a DTH market was realized and an year later, Tata Sky was incorporated, but launched its 205 channels package in 2006. As of right now, both providers offer great packages with immense value for their users and subscribers, with high quality in picture and sound to boast. However, if you look into the minute details of their packages, differences, flaws, shortcomings and overviews in general, the better one becomes apparent.

Over the years, Dish TV has made a name for itself, they got the initial market of users due to essentially being pioneers, however they couldn’t keep with their quality for too long. Upgrade in their services is not entirely concentrated on channel availability, image quality or sound capability. What this means is, Dish TV does offer a lot of things, but they miss out on the essentials far more often than not. A couple of examples would be the overall lacking quality of Star Movies and Star Cricket. The EPG feature on Dish TV isn’t very competent either and continues to host problems.

Unfortunately for it’s subscribers, Dish TV’s problems don’t seem to go away and appear on a regular basis. Customers often complain about the picture quality and audio, as stated previously. There has been a dim focus on the addition of International channels, also, Dish TV has been known to not add channels like Neo Sports in the past when the demand was at it’s biggest during cricket tournaments. In the customer care department, Dish TV doesn’t exactly shine either, with the more complicated problems going unsolved for long periods of time frequently. All the good things about Dish TV can be found in Tata Sky in the same capacity or better as well.

Tata Sky now, on the other hand, is a far more favorable option than Dish TV for regular customers. It has been in service for almost four years and have shown through time to be customer oriented. They continue improvement in their services, have better audio and video quality than Dish TV, and their software on the STBs is firm and stable. EPG is well managed and updated and the customer care is helpful in most situations. The most important thing, when it comes to Television, is the quality of telecast, even though both Tata Sky and Dish TV sport MPEG-2 digital compression with considerable image quality, Tata Sky has took a step further and launched Tata Sky+ that by far surpasses picture and sound quality as compared to Dish TV. Dish TV on the other hand has made no efforts to reach out to MPEG-4 compression yet. Dish TV recently introduced HD channels, but Tata Sky immediately complied and launched HD on their platform as well.

Even though Tata Sky is the better alternative. They aren’t perfect, and do have their share of problems, thankfully nothing major though, Tata Sky doesn’t boast a high amount of channels, but the ones that are available will accommodate any regular individual just fine, they lack a little on the regional channels part. A lot of times, a few key channels will be missing on the base packages and you’ll have to pay extra just to get those few channels in. Personally, for my needs, I believe Tata Sky’s packages are a little costlier than Dish TV, but other than that there are no problems. Tata Sky regularly adds new channels as well, and as mentioned before, have good customer support.

In the clash between these two pioneers of the Indian DTH industry, it seems as of now that Tata Sky is slowly taking the lead, with more emphasis on new technology (as showcased by their effort at DVR recording and MPEG-4 compression), Dish TV seems to be uninterested for now, but with more and more people switching to Tata Sky, they may have to take drastic action soon.

Working for more than a year, Videocon D2H is experiencing fewer problems with software than other TV Satellite program providers. This is quite evident from the numerous reviews Videocon D2H receives from its costumers online. Not only these problems are minor in quantity, but also they are not that concentrated on picture and sound quality.

A problem most customers are concerned, mostly before they apply for Videocon D2H service, is the picture and sound quality. Picture quality is great almost on all the channels, except, there were reported problems about SAT-DVD contrast. But that has been solved very quickly and efficiently. Some users claim that they have been deceived. Their setup box reveals that it has only MPEG2 and H265 codecs for video, but Videocon claims its picture quality to be of MPEG4 quality. Lip-sync problem occur on MI Marathi, ZEE Talkines, NDTV IMAGIME, ZEE TV and all the news channels. This problem probably occurs because the picture quality is of MPEG4 but they do not provide compatible MPEG4 SetTopBox(STB). Usually people use factory reset as a solution, but it doesn’t work.

Sound quality is low on Tamil Channels and Sun Channels. It is also low on MTV. Sound problems usually don’t occur on the best programs and on the best packages. This depends largely on original broadcasts and the transmission. A simple solution to the sound problem on some programs is to turn up the volume. The good thing is that you don’t have to turn it up so much. There are sound issues, but it is better than the rest of the providers.

There are some requests from customers for Videocon D2H to activate the c-band capability, because some channels won’t be available on DTH soon. The missing option of Autoscan is also needed. It won’t hurt the software, because there are people who are looking for FTA and pay-tv. It is a good reason for those that look for a single box for FTA and paid DTH to go for D2H.

A notice has been made for the composition of the box, mainly buttons and ports on the rear side. The CI slot being to the rear of the box has it’s advantages and disadvantages. The advantage is that it is safe from kids, but it takes a lot of rear space and if you have to look at the card number for some reason, the whole box has to be turned and connections removed. Especially when Customer Care needs to be called and they star to ask for numbers.

Problems with Remote Control starts with the basic one and the most common, channel changing. Some users complain about 3-5 seconds delay in changing channels. This apparently is solved with battery replacement or remote control replacement. No other major problems with the remote control are present. Only requests for it to have universal usage.

STB(SetTopBox) is good and stable. There are some minor “glitches” like when the “home” button is pressed on the remote control, the box displays “sorry for inconvenience”. When selecting D2H movies the menu shows that is coming soon.

These are just few of the problems Videocon D2h faces. An interesting thing about them is that they are minor and easy to solve. A great thing of Videocon d2h is its Customer Care service which provides quick and effective service to their customers.

Dish TV India and Videocon D2H are satellite providers who offer their services in India. The founding span of these providers is 5 years, Videocon D2H being the youngest. There are differences as there are similarities in their offers as well as their Customer Care Service.

The main things that customers want to be informed about are the offered packages, or more specifically, how many packages are there to choose from; how many channels does a package contain; the product itself and its potential; and most of all, how much will it cost.

The packages offered by Dish TV India are divided in two: South pack and Rest of India pack. Each of them contains 7 packages. The South Pack contains: South Silver, South Silver Saver, South Gold, South Gold Saver, South Platinum, South Child and South Titanium. The Rest of India pack contains: Silver, Silver Saver, Gold, Gold Saver, Platinum, Child and Titanium. This pack also contains additional a-la-carte package, which allows picking extra channels.

Videocon D2H packages are the same South Packages and Rest of India packages. South Pack contains South Gold Pack, South Gold Sports pack, and South Diamond pack. The Rest of India package contains: Gold Pack, Gold Sports Pack, and Diamond pack. This package also includes three additional special packs: Gold South pack, Gold Sports South pack, and Diamond South pack.

The difference is obvious: Dish TV India has 14 packages equally divided among the South of India and Rest of India pack, plus a-la-carte package. While Videocon D2H has 6 packages divided among the two areas and plus three additional special packages for the south.

Dish TV India has three main offers: Dishtv on TV, Dishtv on PC and Dishtv on Wheels. Videocon D2H offers four types of products: Satellite LCD, Satellite TV, Satellite DVD and Satellite Box. Although these offers look similar, the difference is that Dish TV India has a feature which allows watching their program while moving. This is very practical as an option for people who travel a lot. Videocon D2H, however, has an option for a DVD connection, a feature that Dish TV India doesn’t provide.

Accent must be put on Customer Care service. Whenever there is a problem with the equipment (installation, tuning and etc.), customers call the service center. A quick and effective service is required to have appreciative status among the customers. Many people have favored Videocon D2H over Dish TV India, stating that Videocon D2H responses quickly to customers problems and effective solution. Maybe this is due to the 1 year youth of the company, and a present ambition to expand the number of users.

It is more than obvious that customers initially are interested in the price of the product before they decide to purchase the service. Dish TV India offers prices from rs.125 for Silver and South Silver package to rs.170 for Child and South Child package. Titanium and South Titanium are available only with annual payment of rs.3590. Videocon D2H has a different way in offering their packages. Their prices vary from rs.150 per month for the Gold packs to rs.275 per month for the Diamond packs with possibility for twelve or six month subscription of each package.

Different packages, for different taste. Not only do customers pay attention to the price, but the channel content in the package itself. Some people are ready to pay more just to watch their favorite TV Channel and above all, for great picture and sound quality.

The DTH players are all geared up. Not for providing you cheaper prices this times, but something as equally important if not better, which is getting you new features (and no, we are not talking about a new game or another active channel this time). These features are all the things you’ve always desired on your STB, and the stuff we’ve been talking about since quite some time now. As the title of this article goes, expect the unexpected. But let me list some features we at SaveOnDish are looking forward to from DTH players.

1. Recording facility: Tata Sky Plus already has this, and now it is expected from the other players including Dish TV and Airtel DTH to start offering their viewers with an option such as this so that they could also record their favorite programs in one go and watch them later. I personally am getting TS+ for this very feature and there is a lot of room for clientele when it comes to services like these.

2. Internet: The rumors have been doing the rounds since quite some time now. Big TV is giving out Internet trials on their STBs as well, and it can very well be anticipated that soon Internet on your STB will be a reality. Especially when it comes to players such as Tata, Big TV and Airtel who already have separate Internet services going on. It shouldn’t be that big a surprise if they incorporate Internet into their STBs as well in the near future.

3. Better Games: I remember someone suggesting an Xbox live type orifice inside STBs, so people can connect and play games with other DTH subscribers, and games that are of decent quality none the less! We at SaveOnDish have heard such plans being in development way too many times, and it is only a matter of time when we actually get this on our very own STBs.

4. Many other things: This list could go on and on and on for a long time. DTH companies are sure gearing up for the upcoming competition as well as taking steps to stay in business with the existing ones. It wouldn’t be much time until they have a host of new features knowing at your door… er… I mean TV screen.

So just sit back, relax and enjoy your STB as the new updates roll in!

Mr. Channel