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

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

Hey there visitors, SaveOnDish.com’s moderator and top contributor Mr. Roh_Style has posted a comprehensive comparison of all the existing DTH services in the market today. We at SaveOnDish hope that this official SaveOnDish comparison of DTH services will help you decide which DTH service to go for.

This review contains the advantages and disadvantages of each of the DTH services, point by point, and enables you to minutely observe the good and bad so that you may see through everything before actually taking the decision of buying a DTH system. So here goes!:

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DD DIRECT PLUS :

Advantages :

(1) DD Direct Plus is India’s first and only DTH service that offers its services absolutely free of cost. No monthly subscriptons to be paid when you are with DD Direct Plus.

(2) Small one-time initial investment on STB and Dish and you can use it life-long.

(3) Apart from all DD chs, DD Direct Plus offers several popular private FTA (Free-To-Air) chs.

(4) As a bonus, DD Direct Plus also offers additional chs, from Dish TV’s satellite which are FTA from time to time.

Disadvantages :

(1) DD Direct Plus does not offer any EPG Click here for reading the rest of this comparison

Reliance ADAG has launched its own DTH service called BIG TV DTH Service on 19 August in Mumbai. This is the 5th DTH Service to be launched in India besides Dishtv, DD Direct+, Tatasky, and Sun Direct TV. Of the Five DTH that are existing right now, including the recently launched BIG TV, Four of them are pay and one of the DTH called DD Direct+ is Free services provided by Public Broadcaster Doordarshan.

BIG TV will be using MPEG 4 technology, thereby becoming the second DTH player to use it besides Kalanidhi Maran’s Sun Direct TV India Ltd. Even though Sun Direct has just launched in South India, it has become the fastest growing DTH network in India with over 1 millions subscribers in just 200 days.

BIG TV will be available with 100000 outlets across 6500 towns.

BIG TV will be using Measat 3 satellite and will be providing up to 200 TV Channels including 32 PPV channels and 10 audio channels in the beginning and will increase to 250 channels in coming months. BIG TV with the use of MPEG 4 technology will be able to accommodate more channels per transponder with digital quality than its rivals Dishtv and Tatasky who are using Mpeg 2 technology which can accommodate only 12 channels per Transponder. The new technology will be seen as a revolution against the growing number of channels and the demand from subscribers to add them.

Effects on other DTH:

With the Launch of BIG TV DTH services the other 2 leading DTH operators like Dishtv and Tatasky are surely going to revamp their pricing and packaging strategy in order to meet the competition with BIG TV. Dishtv already is providing STB Free and Tatasky is providing Free installation in South. Dishtv has presently fixed a monthly charges ranging from 100Rs  to 300Rs, apart from ADD On packages, whereas Tatasky is having packages ranging from 175Rs to 310Rs plus Add On packages. BIG TV has also fixed its monthly packages from 100Rs to 175/- Rs plus Add-on packages, so by this look definitely BIG TV is going to have lot of boom in market and Tatasky will have to surely cut down its monthly subscription rates hugely.

The Quality of Channels viewable on BIG TV is completely different and wonderful than to other DTH like Tatasky or Dishtv as BIG TV is using Mpeg 4 technology. Reliance is already knows for Quality service and affordable rates.

Also Reliance BIG TV has planned to launch more than 250 TV Channels in next few days and some of Channels are only available on BIG TV like Firangi, IBN Lokmat.

Price War and Offers:

BIG TV has started with different offers for North as well as South users. They have launched two offers for South with an offer at 1990/- Rs and 2190/- Rs, both these includes 12 months FREE subscription. In these offers we can get most of the regional channels along with few English Movie channels, Hindi channels, Sports channels, Kids channels. Apart from this Reliance is giving one regional pack FREE and 3 months of PPV Movies FREE.

The difference between 1990/- and 2190/- offer is that in 2190/- we can get ESPN, Star sports and Star Cricket free for 12 months, which is good deal considering that ESPN and Star Sports pack is being put at 40Rs per month and Star Cricket at 25Rs per month. The South Offer is available only in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Pondichery and Kerala.

For North Users there are different packs ranging from 2490/- to 4990/- depending on the channels choice from the subscribers in which they get 3 months free complimentary subscription. If a subscribers likes to watch maximum number of channels then he could enjoy it for 12 months Free by subscribing to Max pack of 4990/-. Max Pack comes with all 158 channels excluding south Indian pay channels. It also included all channels like Neo Sports, Neo Cricket and other Add-on pack.

Why BIG TV is best?

It is quite simple. It has the Latest technology, lot of package choosing option and what else it is costing very less compared to Other DTH. In BIG TV you have wide range of packages to choose and you can save at least 50Rs per month if you choose what you like to watch. And to add, it is going to launch its own 20 channels in future, so these channels will be first available on BIG TV DTH service. BIG TV presently has lot of channels which are missing on other DTH. Also BIG TV has the capacity to add more channels per transponder as it uses MPEG 4 technology and still give Digital Quality picture and Stereo quality Sound, and also it belongs to Ambani’s who are going to see that the DTH reaches almost all homes in India like they did with Reliance Mobile.

Thanks to our forum member MJ who put an efforts to write this Article.

So then friends, as we all know, Reliance Big TV is now in the market of DTH, and since I’ve been using Big TV for three months now, I feel I should give you some advantages and disadvantages of Reliance Big TV as compared to its counterparts in the market.

BIG TV Advantages:

• BIG TV is using the MPEG-4 technology which provides more space to carry channels then MEPG2. At the moment BIG TV channels providing 186 TV channels and 10 radio channels. They also have plan to add more then 250 channels in next few months. The MPEG Compression will allow space for much more channels as compared to Dish TV and Tata Sky.

• BIG TV has better picture quality then any other DTH.  You can’t find pixellation problems on any channels and really enjoy digital quality. Sounds also better then other DTH providers due it being of Digital Quality, one can honestly say that Big TV can promote true DVD quality pictures as well as DVD quality sound (Although not the best, but still good)

• Their starting offers and packages are better then other DTH and provide more channels. Which will mean we will get more while paying less! Reliance is known to crush the market this way and they’re doing nothing different.

• One of the big advantage of BIG TV is they have all popular channels except Sports channel in their base pack which only cost Rs 175/month. This package contains all of the most popular channels

• You can enjoy crystal clear picture quality with BIG TV.

• You can enjoy 12 channels on one screen with their Select option, which means there will be no more troublesome channel switching.

• During rain, BIG TV’s signals are working better then other DTH and you hardly found Signals loss. This is because Big TV has learned from the experience of Tata Sky and DishTV about how to prevent signal loss in rain.

• You have detailed EPG for 2 days right now and it will be 7 days soon. You will also be able to set reminders for programs seven days in advance so you will never forget or miss another program again!

• You have Toll Free numbers for your help.

But as it is said, nothing can really be flawless. Therefore there are some disadvantages with Big TV as well, albeit they are heavily outnumbered by the positive points, nevertheless, here they are:

• BIG TV STB has random problems. Possibly because I was trying it when it was still in Beta stages? However all the problems have since been reported and most likely would have been fixed by now.

• Channel navigation is slower, it takes a little more time to browse through them.

• BIG TV logo is quite big, although it would be corrected in future.

So there you go, a detailed Big TV review from someone who has tried it first hand right here at SaveOnDish.com, if you have any other questions, queries or you just want to Discuss about BIG TV, check out our Reliance Big TV forum here: Advantages and Disadvantages

Yours Truly,
Dish