Dish Networks India

The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has given the Letter of Intent to Reliance ADAG for operating a Direct To Home (DTH) service in India. A letter of Intent is basically a go-ahead signal which is given after a comapany is approved for providing such services.

Reliance has completed the few formalities which were remaining for this work and has submitted them to The ministry, and it is now waiting for its license, which it will receive in a few weeks.
Reliance had applied for the license back in 2005 and it is now that they are finally on the verge of receiving it, however Reliance is completing all its arrangements to launch Reliance Blue Magic with a blast. Current arrangements include the purchase of STB’s, branding etc.

So lets hope for the best! When Reliance comes in, there sure is going to be a decline in prices and a rise in quality! Be optimistic.

Mr. Channel

A few days back. When I was browsing through some channels on DishTV, it started showing “Please Check Smart Card” and all of a sudden I couldn’t view any channels.

I was quite shaken (obviously) and went on the DishTV website to check out my account balance, which was Rs. 850/-, this meant that I need not pay till the next month.

Now, what happened was that I called up the DishTV Customer care and they insisted I go to the dealer and have the smartcard checked out, I was like… Fine probably something to do with an error.

As soon as I reached the Dealer, who is a good friend of mine, I noticed at least four or five people with their smartcards, which explained the situation, many people were having the same problem.

The dealer took our cards and put them into his STB, they started working fine, so he gave the cards back to us. I came back and put the card in my STB and it worked just fine. So I continued browsing through the channels like I always do.

End one hour and I received a call on my cellphone, DishTV customer care was on the other end, a girl asked me “Sir, did you like our customer service?”. I said yes and counter questioned her asking “Was this exercise to prove that your customer service is top notch?”, the phone was hung up!

So people, sometimes this could happen that your SmartCard could stop working, if you have not paid your bills, then its that issue, but if you have paid/have balance, then don’t worry about it because it might just be another DishTV customer care exercise, just insert the card in another STB and take it out and it will work just fine.

Mr. Channel

I received this Rant as a comment, but I felt it deserves to be a seperate article.

This is NOT my article, it was written by Nanur of Kolkata about the poor service and signal quality he received from Tata Sky staff in Kolkata

——————

TATASKY AND THE DTH GO TO HELLLLL
Nanur, Kolkata

They have totally cheated us here in CAS affected Kolkata at least.I (a resident of CAS affected locality in KOLKATA) bought two tatasky digicomps(as part of my multiroom service) on the 28th DEC 2006 and was told that it would be installed the next day AND YOU KNOW WHAT ? It took them over 10 days to install it (after repeated reminders amounting to over 30 phone calls to their helpline numbers which are NOT toll-free).

For most of my neighbours, who ironically bought the service, have a similar harrowing story to tell. (for many of them, it took nearly 15 days to installthe dish antenna and others..) The picture quality of a number of the channels (esp. ZEE group of channels and also HBO) leaves a lot to be desired.The picture quality of ALL the ZEE channels and HBO are of poor quality VCD.

After comparing with the quality offered by our local cable operator’s set-top box I can definitely state that the quality of these channels are far better in my neighbours set-top boxes. And STEREO SOUND ???

I have fitted the logitech THX certified speakers to the digicomps and even tried the old and faithful headphones. Only ’star movies’ offers somewhat good quality stereo sound. For the rest, I can say the sound quality is no doubt stereo,but clarity is not so superior as claimed -mainly ’FM quality’.

And after it all, I found that I am not able to watch the Ind-W.Indies cricket matches- just because all on a sudden NEO-SPORTS disappeared from their network. On the 21st January 2007,the day of the ind-W.Indies first one-dayer we tried contacting the helpline at least 20 times, but nobody responded.

My local cable operator CAS based set top box delivers better picture quality of most of the channels, not to mention that all my neighbours are able to view all the cricket matches (NEO-SPORTS is available there).

Moreover there are no good english movies/music channels (Hallmark, Zee MGM, B4U etc) and no foreign language channels in the so called ’superior technology’ DTH service- all of which are available in my neighbours set-top box of the local cable operator- all at a much cheaper rate too. I have heard that Hallmark was available about 4 months back but suddenly disappeared from their network.

A large majority of the 100+ channels which TATASKY show us are the regional language channels which are mostly free to air I do not think that I require so many channels of other states.

The same applies to people in other states too-say a person in Gujrat-shall he require so many Tamil/Kannada/Oriya etc channels ? In this respect I am to state that here in Kolkata, our local cable operator offers 9 bengali channels; Tatasky offers only five.

In order to hide so many deficiencies, Tatasky is advertising so much about the so called ’active sports/active news’ and the absolutely nonsense ’showcase’.

WHAT IS THE USE OF ’ACTIVE SPORTS’ IF , DESPITE PAYING THE PREMIUM, YOU ARE NOT ABLE TO VIEW THE POPULAR SPORTING EVENTS BEING HELD IN OUR OWN COUNTRY - TAKE FOR EXAMPLE THE INDIA-WEST INDIES SERIES? Going by their service, I would not be surprised that by the time the WORLD CUP arrives, ESPN-STAR SPORTS too all on a sudden disappears from their network.

Moreover would a subscriber pay 300 bucks per month for only entertaining their children with the video games provided in the package ? And about their showcase ??!!? It is simply an advertising gimmick- how many people would, I wonder spend Rs.75/- to see a movie JUST FOR ONE DAY and that too only a few restricted hindi movies, no English?!?

In this respect I can compare Tatasky parallel to a mobile service operator who advertises a lot about the ringtones they offer, but is mum about the coverage area.

For an average customer what matters is the quantity and quality of channels which the provider should give. For quality, tatasky is satisfactory, but for quantity— too much overpriced.

I therefore feel that in CAS areas like us in kolkata, the public must stick to their faithful old cable operator, instead of jumping to the traps of DTH cheats like TATASKY ( which inspite of the ’towering advertisements- claiming to be superior to the cablewallahs’ are simply tall talks ) - who I feel, should be dragged to the consumers courts.

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4 Responses to “ A Tata Sky Rant (Kolkata) ”

Comments:

1. Dimu says:
   January 28th, 2007 at 3:53 pm Well my experience in email support is great. They normally reply within 24 hours.
   Also Neo Sports is back on air now.
   ESPN or Star Sports won’t dissapear from Tata Sky as they belong to Star network & they are the Co- Partners of Tata Sky
2. Mr. Channel says:
   January 28th, 2007 at 3:59 pm Hmm I wonder why Star Movies is missing from Tata Sky? When the Star Network is a partner, they should provide all the channels, right?
3. Atul Kumar Rohatgi says:
   February 1st, 2007 at 10:50 pm My experience with TATASKY was not so great. After installation on 10 Jan, the digicom became defective on 25th.(1-238860649 comp no.)
   This could not be repaired till 30Jan evening, inspite of several reminders and telephone calls when i decided to to go back to cable TV.
   Now i am waiting for refunds.
   Not what i may call exciting
4. Mr. Channel says:
   February 4th, 2007 at 8:36 am Thats sad to know Atul, really…

   There is a huge contrast in the customer service offered by Tata… all over the country.

   Where are you from? and if you could elaborate further that’d help more.

Recently there was an email to the subscribers of DishTV India stating that there was an Adult cine package now available on DishTV and people could subscribe to it by paying DishTV through PayPal.

I was one of the many people who received it as well and for a second I thought that it was all true, because the email seemed so genuine… but I was wrong. I replied to the email asked the senders whether DishTV would give an official announcement on their website and they replied that it would be done in three days. Three days x 4 have passed and there has been no confirmation of this email on the official website.

This sure would have been a giant leap for the Indian CAS Industry, but as it is said… not so soon! I sent an email to the official customer support which then confirmed to me that there was NO such thing yet available on DishTV neither was an email sent to the subscribers of this nature.

What I can sum up is:

(1) Someone got access to an esselgroup email
(2) They got access to the email list of DishTV subscribers as well
(3) They planned this fraud and executed it.

The factors which led to my suspicion were:

(1) PayPal: PayPal isn’t recognized by Indian companies and DishTV is no exception, if they were to include PayPal as a mode of payment, they would have said so on their website, but no… Also, paying for material of adult nature is prohibited on PayPal, and any company would not want to get into a problem with PayPal by doing signups through them.

(2) Prohibition to pay through official website: The email clearly stated and WARNED that one should NOT pay through the official DishTV website. Which seemed absolutely ridiculous as there would have been no better and safer way than the website itself.

(3) Nothing on the official site: Since there was nothing on the official site about this, it was an automatic red flag to be alerted.

Therefore people, don’t fall for this scam, it was well planned and executed, and undoubtedly some would have fallen for it, but I can confirm that the DishTV adult cine package is a fraud done by some people. So do not pay anyone for this. Regards.

Mr. Channel

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9 Responses to “ Adult Cine Package: A FRAUD ”

Comments:

1. Tiger says:
   January 9th, 2007 at 9:46 am Are you satisfied with Dishtv? will you recommed to others? I am talking about dishtv with upgraded equipment.See ya.
2. smily says:
   January 12th, 2007 at 3:45 am This is the mail from activations@dishtvindia.esselgroup.com sent to my friend. So the peolpe who have already used their Credit Crads and have been cheated, BE CAREFUL.Dear Sir,

   We have received the authorization to activate adult channels on DishTV on 12 January 07. Your payment on PayPal has been received and we are going to activate Dish Adult Cine package after receiving service tax of 10%. Your channels will be activated within 1 hour from the time of commencement.

   Please send scan copy of your credit cards (front & back) for deducting the 10% Service tax at our end, at adultchannels@dishtvindia.org.

   Thank you for your cooperation with us.

   Activation Team

3. Mahboob Hossain Chintu says:
   January 15th, 2007 at 11:29 pm I’ve got the similar e-mails, once on 21 Dec and then on 15 Jan 2007.
   I’ve spoken to a Dish TV customer service excetuve who categorically confirmed that such e-mails are fraud. Dish TV has never sent such an e-mail.
4. Trojan says:
   January 16th, 2007 at 3:09 am I think lots of people have fallen prey to this spam. Sending the scan copy of your credit cards, you are bound to loose many thousands. So just don’t do such stupid things. If you have done so, talk to your bankers to cancel your card or at least stop any such transactions. Also you can raise a dispute / claim to PayPal to recover any money if you have paid through credit card.
5. raveen says:
   January 16th, 2007 at 4:46 am hi there, had a query - whether dish tv/tata sky has signal coverage upto beijing, china. am aware that users in the middle east are using it.raveen
6. Dimu says:
   January 21st, 2007 at 11:10 am Tata Sky don’t cover Beijing, China.
   Don’t know about Dish TV.
7. sanjay says:
   January 30th, 2007 at 11:36 pm Thanks about it.I am a dishtv sub.thanks a loat about it
8. RishiRaj says:
   February 22nd, 2007 at 2:03 pm Dear Raveen. If do some homework with the antenna of dishtv then you will get signal coverage to China as well. For more info. contact scatmag.
   Reply me only via e-mail i.e. rishiraj.in@gmail.com
9. Vamsi Krishna says:
   May 12th, 2007 at 11:46 am I myself am a DishTV subscriber and have received the above e-mail. I was immediately suspicious of the E-mail.The main reason being the clearly visible typos in the E-mail (like ‘broadcaste’). I decided to look deeper and so checked a bit into the full header of the e-mail. Guess what ???
   The e-mail hasn’t been sent from the original DishTv site, rather it was from a dummy site. In reality the message was being delivered through a site “ICPBOUNCE.com”.
   This clearly is a scam, but what makes it even more worrying is the fact that the people behind have successfully got hold of the consumer email-id list of DishTV.
   I have already sent the Dishtv customer care a message about this scam and a probable leak in their security. But haven’t heard anything from them yet ….

I have finally figured out the things DD direct plus, DoorDarshan’s DTH service is good for. I am sorry if I could not give a lot of points over here, but well thats all that is to the “good” of DoorDarshan DTH.

• Changing of SAT: Yes this is a BIG plus with DD DTH now that we have DishTV and Tata Sky with customized softwares that are no good for changing satellites. You can STILL change to the satellite you want with DoorDarshan DTH meaning you can have customized TP and all the FTA channels on DD DTH as well! and I mean all the FTA channels of the world over here!

• Completely free: Something DD DTH has always been famous for, being completely free, although DD doesn’t offer that many channels, only around 30 last I checked, but well at least they are free.

So well these were the only things I found great about DD DTH that nobody else had, although the awesome thing here is that the point no. 1 is too strong already to push DD DTH up in the market and to make people join DD Direct plus, therefore Doordarshan might get some people just because of this!

And as I always say, be optimistic! Who knows if DD DTH gets much more to offer later in the game? Then it’d be all for good!

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50 Responses to “ DD Direct Plus by DoorDarshan ”

Comments:

1. Anand says:
   December 4th, 2006 at 10:42 pm Can you please tell me how I can receive FTA int’l channels on DD DTH. Which STB do you recommend buying for DD DTH?

   Is there any satellite/channel list for int’l channels?

   Pls do reply.

2. aniil babu karuvatta says:
   January 5th, 2007 at 9:42 am sir pls include surya tv
3. Gautam Pandey says:
   January 14th, 2007 at 10:49 am Dear sir,

   Kindly tell me that how can I get DD DTH? Pls advice asap.
   Thanks.

4. Farook says:
   January 17th, 2007 at 8:53 pm DD Direct plus by Doordarshah is low signal Myanmar.I watch to DD Direct plus.Please tell me. Pls do reply.
5. m.k.parida.i.a,s. says:
   January 29th, 2007 at 12:39 pm i had [purchased dd direct plus in arunachal pradesh.it was working there well.i have now been transferred to delhi.its not working.i dont have any card to fill in the set top box.pl advise or send a mechanic. ph 9818257672
6. Mr. Channel says:
   January 29th, 2007 at 12:47 pm Anand: Do get FTA channels on your DoorDarshan Dish you will have to move the dish to the right angle and then configure the appropiate satellite in your STB.

   Anil Babu: Yes we are including Surya TV very soon.

   Gautam: You could try getting DD DTH details from your Local TV tower, the people there will advise you in case there are no dealers around you know of.

   Farook: You might try getting a Dish with a higher signal catching capacity, that will help.

   M.K. Parida: You will have to re-adjust the Dish to match the signal of the satellite, try rotating it around, that will help.

   Mr. Channel

7. vivek says:
   February 10th, 2007 at 1:10 pm kindly tell me what are the private channels available in dd dth
8. peter says:
   February 13th, 2007 at 11:05 am sir,please include espn channel
9. nitin says:
   February 16th, 2007 at 8:31 pm Hi isn’t it possible to include the pay channel to DD DTH by subscribing to them seperately. that will save cost and would be great for watching all the channels.
10. selvalagan says:
    February 17th, 2007 at 5:09 pm as i want some ENGLISH CHANNELS
11. Ginu says:
    February 19th, 2007 at 9:39 pm When will you include SuryaTV in DD DTH. Which are the other malayalam channels added in to DD DTH in future. How to get other free to air malayalam channels like Asianet using the DTH Receiver.
12. aayudh says:
    February 20th, 2007 at 9:19 pm plz send freqency
13. rahul says:
    February 21st, 2007 at 5:50 pm Hi,

    As I am already having a DD DTH service in my residence Kindly tell me how to adjust my Dish and configure the exact position, please inform me in more details.

14. Deepak Kumar says:
    February 27th, 2007 at 6:42 pm Sir
    I want to ask. how many new chennel
    started on DTH servise.
15. Chinmmay says:
    March 12th, 2007 at 11:11 pm Can anybody tell me whether i can watch Etv Mrathi after its encryption on DD DIRECT PLUS?
16. Chinmmay says:
    March 12th, 2007 at 11:12 pm Can anybody tell me whether i can watch Etv Marathi after its encryption on DD DIRECT PLUS?
17. pravash mohanty says:
    March 13th, 2007 at 8:48 pm plz sir what is the new channel of dd direct plus
18. RASHEED says:
    March 19th, 2007 at 11:49 am Sir,
    I am from CALICUT city in the KERALA state. I am a DTH Dealer . I am sending this mail for a complaint that is The ICC WORLD CUP CRICKET is not shown. The matchs of INDIA is not shown that time. That time shown other rugular programs. The match of IND Vs BAN and The bigining match (WI Vs PAK) are couldnot shown in DTH. PLEASE CHECK THAT PROBLEM AND PLEASE SEND REPLY. The MATCH of IND Vs BER please give to the DTH dd national channel.The matches are get in FREE ARIAL CONNECTION.But not available in DTH service
19. RASHEED says:
    March 19th, 2007 at 12:01 pm Sir,
    I am from CALICUT city in the KERALA state. I am a DTH service subcriber . I am sending this mail for a complaint that is The ICC WORLD CUP CRICKET couldnot shown. The matchs of INDIA could not shown that time. I can seen other rugular programs that time. The match of IND Vs BAN and The bigining match (WI Vs PAK) are couldnot shown in DTH. PLEASE CHECK THAT PROBLEM AND PLEASE SEND REPLY. The MATCH of IND Vs BER please give to the DTH dd national channel.The matches are get in FREE ARIAL CONNECTION.But not available in DTH service
20. UMESH says:
    March 20th, 2007 at 2:10 pm India’s world cup matches are not seen in DD Direct Plus. At the time of match, National Delhi is telecasted instead of National channel. Why so? Will we get a chance to see the India’s matches on DD Direct plus?
21. jayesh says:
    March 20th, 2007 at 4:08 pm WORLD CUP MATCH DOES NOT SEEN AT DD DIRECT PLUS
22. um_esh says:
    March 21st, 2007 at 11:44 am It is really unfortunate that DD Direct Plus viewers are not above to see India’s world cup matches, though it’s a Govt’s dth service.
23. Sonal says:
    March 21st, 2007 at 10:13 pm Why we are not able to watch world cup 2007 in DD1 in dth?
    why no match is coming in tv who have dth?
24. Siddique says:
    March 22nd, 2007 at 11:54 am Sir, Surprisingly, Door-Darshan’s National Network during Cricket (World Cup) especially while India is playing, it has not been transmitted, instead DD-Delhi was coming!! Very Disgusting?? I do not understand why? AnyBody DD-Officials?
25. Ganesh says:
    April 2nd, 2007 at 10:53 pm Sir may I know that as ETV MARATHI is encrypted so that it is not visible on DTH+.
    Is it likely to resume its service on the DTH+ platteform?
26. rohan says:
    April 4th, 2007 at 11:06 am i want the angles and frequency for adult channels that can be viewed on dd direct
27. Saurabh says:
    April 12th, 2007 at 10:11 am Respected Sir,
    Hello and Hi,
    i had been a subsciber of cable for the last 4 yrs. I watch english entertainment channels. No one other than me,in my locality,likes watching english channels. As a result of this, he has shifted all the english channels at the end and the picture and sound qulityis very-very low.Even after repeated requests,cable operator does not help.
    After reading your blog, I am quite disheartened by the services of tata-sky & dish tv. like you i am intrested in buying DD Direct+.
    You have written that i can view FTA channels from other countries.I have checked that NBC and CW network are free to air. So please check if I can view these channels and/or any other english channels. Also if you can specify the directi[on,I would feel highly obliged.
    Please help me in deciding,,what is best for me.
    Please reply soon.
    Yours Faithfully,
    Saurabh

    o

28. vysakh says:
    April 12th, 2007 at 4:04 pm sir,plz include surya tv on dd direct+
29. RAJA NAGESWARAN says:
    April 13th, 2007 at 3:21 am I WANT TO HIGHLIGHT THE FACT THAT CRICKET MATCHES WILL NOT BE AVAILABLE ON DTH AS THEY ARE ENCRYPTED.THEY WILL ONLY BE AVAILABLE ON TERRESTRIAL TV.THIS IS DUE TO THE FACT THAT PROVATE BROADCASTERS REQUESTED DD TO ENCRYPT THEIR SIGNALS SO THAT NEIGHBOURING COUNTRIES ARE UNABLE TO GET FREE FEED OF WORLD CUP CRICKET.SO PLEASE ENJOY MATCHES ON DD 1 WITHOUT DTH AVAILABLE FREE TO AIR
30. Raman says:
    April 15th, 2007 at 11:07 pm Dear Sir,
    I learnt recently about DD Direct plus . i am minterested in taking an connection of same. Can yu please guide me in this regard as to waht are the best equipments and any permissions to be applied for. i intend to alternatively connect to Tv as well my music system depending on whether I wish to see TV or listen to Radio. Is it possible ? for that what equipment to be purchased? Eagerly looking forward to yr early response.
31. serein says:
    April 16th, 2007 at 9:43 am sir,
    i want to know whether new channels are going to be introduced
32. chandramohan says:
    April 17th, 2007 at 3:09 pm why the negligence to south indians. we are awaiting more south indian channels in dd dth for the past two tree years.we are looking like THE GROWTH OF HENS BREAST.
33. paras kumar says:
    April 20th, 2007 at 12:11 am sir plz include rajasthani channnel in this service and also send me the details of the
    private channels that are to be added.
34. Fazil says:
    April 21st, 2007 at 11:17 am Dear sir,
    please include surya tv on dd direct plus.
35. a p singh says:
    April 23rd, 2007 at 5:32 pm sir,i want to install dd dth dishes in hotel rooms. do i have to take any permission?
    and how many dishes i require for 20 rooms.
    please answer as soon as possible.
36. Ramesh says:
    April 25th, 2007 at 10:40 am Sir,

    From very recent past yau have changed the DD1 National as DD Direct+ in DD DTH service. We do not recieve DD National signal on that channel.

    We couldn’t watch the ICC World Cup 2007 which is being telecasted over DD National.

    We have got DD DTH for the superior veiwing of our interested channels DD but we regret your recent move.

    Therefore please make steps to telecast the original DD1 channel rather than DD direct + channel.

    Our aim to have DD DTH is to watch India’s cricket matches on digital format but our expectations were abolished with the new form of DD DIrect+ channel.

    Therefore bring original DD1 National channel.

37. saravanan says:
    April 27th, 2007 at 6:13 pm sir please transmit the world cup final match in FTA DTH
38. sreejith says:
    April 28th, 2007 at 11:34 am IN MY HOUSE SUN TV,KAIRALI,DD NATIONAL,ZEE MUSIC ….THESE CHANNELS ARE NOT AVAILABLE….WHAT CAN I DO PLEASE MAIL ME IMMEDITELU SIR…..
39. sreejith says:
    April 28th, 2007 at 11:37 am RESPECTED SIR,
    IN MY HOME SUN TV,KAIRALI,ZEE MUSIC,AND DD NATIONAL …THESE CHANNELS ARE NOT AVAILABLE …PLEASE GIVE THE FREQUENCY NO. AND THEIR DETAILS…
    THANK YOU

    JEETH

40. Dipak says:
    April 28th, 2007 at 2:10 pm Why we are not able to watch world cup 2007 in DD1 in dth?
41. Dipak says:
    April 28th, 2007 at 2:11 pm Please give me total number of channel relay to DTH with name.
42. dipak says:
    May 7th, 2007 at 2:35 pm Give me info. to new channel in dth.
43. imraan says:
    May 12th, 2007 at 6:47 am Can you please tell me how I can receive FTA int’l channels on DD DTH. Which STB do you recommend buying for DD DTH?

    Is there any satellite/channel list for int’l channels?

    Pls do reply.

44. syam says:
    May 14th, 2007 at 10:07 am sir,

    I am from kerala (trivandrum) having a DD DTH service in my residence please tell me how to adjust my Dish and configure the exact position, please tell me hou many channels you are going to add this servive

45. vishant says:
    May 16th, 2007 at 4:45 pm is ME MARATHI channel which is shown displayed on Cable FREE to AIR channel? and can i view it on my DTH? what are its setting?
46. KAUSIK SANA says:
    May 21st, 2007 at 3:48 pm Dear Sir,

    I am interested to know about the “DD Direct Plus System.

    Please inform me per return mail.

    Reagrds,

    KAUSIK SANA
    Mobile:- 09330970168

    KOLKATA- 700 001. (W.B.)

47. Tushar says:
    May 22nd, 2007 at 7:40 pm Hi,
    I was playing with my STB today and somehow messed up all the settings. Can you please give me details or let me know where can I find the details (like freq / PID etc.)to setup everything again as the scan feature is not working properly.
48. narender dangi says:
    May 26th, 2007 at 3:45 am if any body want any information about dth he/she may contact me @ 09416103219,09896578519
49. sagar says:
    May 26th, 2007 at 9:22 pm sir ,pls include udaya tv sooon.tv9 karnataka also.
50. Farook says:
    June 28th, 2007 at 9:08 am sir,pls include win tv soon.

Something apart from the usual mumble jumble, here we go, now that I do have the Dish upgrade, I am going to introduce you people to the games that are available on my DishTV set.

• Table Football: This game is basically table football as the name suggests, pretty good of a game if you want to pass time, it has a nifty tournament feature as well, although I have never won it, three different levels of toughness namely easy, normal and hard. There are eight different characters to choose from in this game, which doesn’t really matter, they are all the same, they just have different country flags on their shirts.

• Boy Racing: This is a little racing game that relies on the technique and upgrades on your car. There are fifteen races in the career mode on this game. The difficulty of each race increases as you pass forward because your opponent (Chav) upgrades his car and his control on it, this opponent is an NPC, but still seems pretty real at times. For each race you win, you get some in game money which you could use to purchase upgrades for your car, upgrades are available in three areas, Wheels, Accelaration and Top Speed I believe. Its impossible to fully upgrade everything seeing that there are not as many races in the career mode. But still its good to see your car improve as you upgrade it.

• Fruit Splat: You play a dude here who has an enemity with fruits, no kidding! You have to throw rocks at fruits of the same kind in a line and then you will technically SPLAT them up. After a specific number of splats, you progress to the next level. This is maybe all there is to this game.

• Jamble: This is on the same concept as Fruit splat, only that you have to switch between two things so that one of them gets a combination of three of its kind in a row. Then it gets deleted, after a specific amount of deletions, you get advancement to the next level. This game is a bit more thrilling though, because of the time bar at the bottom. Although there is no REAL thrill, just a bit of it sometimes when time starts running out.

• Jinja Ninja: This is a mario-like game, I never completed it, so yeah it is challenging, you play a little kid who is supposedly a Ninja and then you hit people with your lasso and kill them, you can also use the lasso to stick into places and swing to other ones and take items. Basically you have to find a key and then you can unlock the door with it to progress to the next level, if you have surplus keys then you don’t need to find the key for a lock (Meaning that all doors and their keys are the same) the only difference comes when you come to a door which requires a gold key. Finding one is a bit difficult, the game is easy at the start but as the levels progress, this game starts getting more challenging, so yes I can say that this is the best game DishTV is currently offering me.

If you have any questions about any of these games, do not hesitate to post a comment here, I will be more than happy to answer any of your queries.

The games are not good enough but oh well! Lets be optimistic! most probably we will get better games later on.

Mr. Channel

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One Response to “ DishTV games ”

Comments:

1. raja says:
   December 13th, 2006 at 5:41 am dear sir

   the dish tv in which i frequently play is Jinja Ninja in that i happen to see only i can go to level of 5th i can take the gold key after taking the gold key the go to the level of 7th & 8th there is no way to enter the gate even i have 3 life also please suggest me how to complete the total game (or if you have the full version cd please send it to this address

   no 126/8 s-hig-c vphase (opp to neha prakesh hospital) k.h.b.colony yelhanka bangalore

   i had seen to finish the total level but its possiable to complete the total level

   thanks & rgds raja

   my id is jsk_raja@yahoo.co.uk

Many people ask me as of late that what are the good things about Tata Sky? So I decided to compile a guide to the features of Tata Sky that actually stand out from the rest of the Dish Networks in India. This list of Tata Sky’s special features and… of course features which Tata Sky does offer normally.

• 120 Channels (November 2006): Tata Sky boosts 120 channels under its kitty but its still missing a lot of channels which DishTV offers, although it is very much clear that DishTV offers those channels already because it is the senior player in this game as compared to Tata Sky. Although Tata Sky has been EXTREMELY quick to pick up considering the fact that Tata Sky was launched quite later and DishTV was very slow to add new channels.

• No Channel Alteration: This is one thing I like about Tata Sky, the fact that Tata Sky seldom changes the CHANNEL NUMBERS of the channels they offer, DishTV does it for all the time except for Zee Channels (Primarily because DishTV’s parent company, the Essel Group, CEO Subhash Chandra, owns Zee Network as well) and I am seriously fed up of the way I have to search for the channel I want on DishTV after an update, but this is not a cause of concern with Tata Sky absolutely. Tata Sky gets full marks over here.

• SEVEN DAY Program Schedules: Another big plus point with Tata Sky is the fact that you can go browse the Schedules of the programs on different channels (all of them actually) even SEVEN days in advance or less. DishTV as far as I know never offered anything like this, I mean to say a period like SEVEN days here, DishTV can go up to maximum of 24 hours forward and back, but this feature with Tata Sky is just incredible.

• EPG standalone usage: This may sound like a technical term, although it isn’t. EPG means Episode Guide or Everyday Program Guide I believe, anyways, so there is this feature on Tata Sky that allows you to check out what is on a particular channel without changing the channel you are watching, now no more missouts! What a great thing this is which the Tata Sky team sorted out, I am lead to believe that this is one of the most user friendly things ever! Not to mention, DishTV doesn’t offer this at all.

• Multiple Screen Feature: I don’t get the fact that why isn’t DishTV offering this thing? and why haven’t DishTV ever offered this as well? This is such a basic thing, and to tell you readers, I must say that why should we spend a few extra thousand rupees just to have a multiple screen feature on our Television set? (I bet you people remember those advertisements where the TV companies show in their advertisements that they have this new and cool multiple screen feature so their television is now going to cost you a few thousand rupees extra JUST FOR THIS ONE FEATURE. All it has to do is with software, hardware is the same. Now when we have DishTV, which is all in all software based and remotely upgradable as well! So why can’t DishTV offer this facility? But Tata Sky has an answer for this and therefore they are offering us a Multiple Screen Feature service, you can watch up to four channels simultaneously and choose whatever audio you want to! All this at no extra cost as well.

• Active Wizkids Interactive channel: DishTV may be offering a lot of Interactive channels and so is Tata Sky, but the channel Tata Sky stands out at here is the Active Wizkids Interactive learning channel for kids, where kids can go play some games which will also help them in learning something new through the method of games! Things couldn’t get better for kids when its Tata Sky! It was actually good to see that the Tata Sky people do have some creativity to stand out, even if it was just one little channel and that too for little people, but Tata Sky has SUCCESSFULLY stood out from the crowd over here.

• Superior Hardware and Customer Support: Now this is one thing that people are rooting at Tata sky for, the great quality for Hardware which they are selling to their customers as well as their awesome customer support, the good thing about their hardware is that it doesn’t fade out when there are weather problems, it doesn’t have sun outages, it doesn’t have any kind of a blurred picture when the the winds blow, neither does the signal fade out at Tata Sky when there are rains, it seldom happens and if it does, it has something to do with you and not the Dish which Tata Sky has provided. Also if some issue comes up and you need support, Tata Sky Customer support is always more than willing to come help you out as soon as possible. Something I have always seemed to have missed at dishTV, no real customer support, they come to your house days after your request. But Tata Sky has a 24 hours thing which doesn’t let them go late no matter what. Signal quality has also always been great at Tata Sky, with signal strength reaching to the extremes of 90-95%, nothing ever achieved in DishTV as far as I know.

So yeah Tata Sky has many good points to cheer about, and they are also better than DishTV in a lot of ways, I have only tried to specify some points here, but there are many more as well. Although one shouldn’t be unjust which is why I will be putting in the features glossary of DD DTH as well as DishTV pretty soon as well complete with reasons as to why you should choose them over the other alternatives around in the market.
Be optimistic though! There might come a day when all of these services become the same and then we do get to see some sort of a real competition between all these people, errm I mean these companies, the STB and DTH providers. We might be up for Hardware replacements, software overhaulings and don’t know what else! So yeah once again got to say! Be optimistic people! Thanks for reading

Mr. Channel

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15 Responses to “ Tata Sky Features ”

Comments:

1. Rahul says:
   December 11th, 2006 at 5:39 am Our adapter conked out in 3 days after the system got installed. The TataSky Field Service and Customer Support is so disconnected that it took them 2 days to even get their engg to check out what the problem is. Its been 5 days since we have had TV…and I thought TataSky would be better than Dish !!!
2. bipin says:
   December 11th, 2006 at 7:40 am tata is much costly , they should anounce a small package which suitable for top to bottom public
3. anupam says:
   January 2nd, 2007 at 3:51 am Multiple screen feature in Tata Sky!! Who told you that - it’s there only for some fixed channels.
   Seven day program schedule!! My tata sky connection (Bangalore) does not show me more than one day of schedule. And unlike Hathway, if I were to opt for a full screen program guide, there’s no window showing the current channel.
   Outages!! Actually, rare. It;s just that right now I was getting a “No Signal” error and decided to search for it in google - and landed up on this site.
   Picture quality is excellent - and some channels even have digital sound - though these channels have “Tata Sky” logo watermarked in them for some reason. I really look forward to better outputs in the setup box than composite/analog audio though, and support for digital video recorder - which I hear dish tv has…
4. Junjunb Khan says:
   January 2nd, 2007 at 3:56 am on 2nd jan 2007 today, suddenly the signals to tatasky stopped, all their call center numbers are busy, and no information on the status is available on their website.

   we as costomers can audjest with any techenical problem but atleast they should keep us informed.

   Tatasky sadly has got very slow, uninformed, and unmotivated team of people working for it.

5. jadoo says:
   January 6th, 2007 at 12:23 am TATA SKY - Big Mistake.
   1. They do not have a toll free number and one only if u use MTNL/BSNL - do not take tata sky if u do not want govt monopoly.
   2. Got the box on the 31st Dec and now 6th still no sign of the dish etc.
   3. TATA has very poor after sales record [historically] i don’t understand what went wrong in my head i bot tata sky.
   4. If they do not show up today i will return the set top box to the dealer - good thing i used my credit card.

   DO NOT BUY TATA SKY - IF U WANT PEACE OF MIND

   cheers

6. abhishek says:
   January 11th, 2007 at 1:21 am TATA SKY is the best… it rules…
7. Dimu says:
   January 14th, 2007 at 10:56 am Although I saw on many sites that Neo Sports is available on Tata Sky,as at today (14/01/2007) it’s not appear on my channel list.

   Does anyone getting it?

8. sanjay says:
   January 16th, 2007 at 2:16 am hi,

   tata sky is sick … it is like dumping your money in shit.

   booked on 7th and they ayet to install on 16th .

   confirmed me 9th installation . will come back with more problems if any once the unit is installed.

   wachout guys.

9. James says:
   February 4th, 2007 at 10:34 pm one thing strikes me about TataSky and that is they are not giving sufficient amount of information about their product.There aren’t any booklets available at the dealers(they by themself don’t know about the product) and even their website sucks!!.Another thing i got a coupen in Reader digest of last month for a copy of booklet informing about their product guide, the free copy will delivered to only thoes who has the coupen else u gotta purchase fuck!!.i mean who gonna purchase that garbage for nothing.
10. prakash chandra panda says:
    February 9th, 2007 at 12:37 pm I think Tatasky is best cable TV Networks in India. There is Nothing after TataSky. But one draw back is that it has no internet facility. I think Tatasky should deeply consider about this matter.
    from
    Prakash Panda
11. sunil says:
    February 21st, 2007 at 4:37 am I dont understand how companies like this survive. Are the people in India so lazy to raise their voice for their own self. We just take anything that comes out to the market. And that’s the reason why companies sails shits at the cost of gold.

    Tata Sky sucks. The website is the biggest bull-shit. No relevant information is available. People are more intrested in the quality of service than dump of some pig.

12. Jaishankar says:
    February 28th, 2007 at 3:03 am Hi,

    It was sad to say that tata sky don’t have a helpline number of tamilnadu. Although they have a tataindicom phone. If anyone wants to make a call to customer care they should use only bsnl/mtnl what happend to TATAINDICOM especially people in tamilnadu have to make a STD to other state number. TATAINDICOM don’t have a chennai helpline number.

    One important thing i would like to discuss is we all from South India especially from Tamilnadu. We would like to watch tamil music and filims but we don’t have that option. we are watching only jaya and vijaya. what happend to sun tv even if it is cases why not raj and other tamil channels.

    What happend to packages in Tamilnadu. We got only super saver pack. Is it possible for middle class people to invest 300 rupees on montyly basis. We request the tata group to comeup with some economical plan.

    I hope they do so.

    tanks
    Jaishankar

13. viral says:
    March 29th, 2007 at 12:17 pm tata sky is not shoing the charges after instollaion, if after 2 days their is the problem in hadware or dish thy will chared for reparing .you want to change the space they charged up to 1000.rs. can any one bilev it. then after in the form they given a point that if the party does not renual they will take the hardwear.it is very bad.
14. Ravi says:
    April 7th, 2007 at 4:03 pm Dishtv is a sick, they don’t reply ur message. very poor service.
    ravi
15. vasanth says:
    May 15th, 2007 at 2:33 pm SUN NETWORK is not avaiable in tatsky tdsat has already fixed 11 may as for final hearing .but still the case is pending in court tdsat are careless they should order sun to give signals to tatasky at al a carte bases at 50% of that of cable rates

    for further update in this case visit

    http://www.tdsat.nic.in/orders.htm

Alright so as I mentioned earlier, DishTV software has been updated on my Zenega Set Top box, now I have realized how much I have lost with this upgrade of the DishTV software.

• No Tuning: Now you cannot tune your channels and see the signal strength of the satellite transmission. You cannot just go to the Menu and delete all channels, reset them and check the signal strength to get new channels etc.

• Customized SAT no more: You can’t feed your DishTV set top box with any new satellite information now. The only satellite you have access to is what the DishTV people have given you, which is NSS6

• No more Free To Air!: Now because there is no tuning and setting options available on DishTV, we can NOT tune to any new satellite and catch its channels that are free to air, no more international access anymore!

• Channel browsing!: Earlier it was so easy to browse through the channels in DishTV, you could just press ok and the whole channel list would come and then you could easily select the chanel you wanted and go on it, but now for going to a channel you don’t know the number of, you must go through each channel, and sometimes to add to it you can also miss the channel somewhere in between and go through the whole cycle again multiple times to find the right channel.

• Can’t edit TP: You cannot edit the TP settings anymore, the TP are provided by DishTV whenever they upgrade the box and you got to live with it.

• Sound Quality degratory: The earlier DVD quality sound is not even CD quality now and there are lot of mismatches and lags which cause the sound to go behind the movie or ahead of it sometimes.

• Video Quality: Sometimes in the new DishTV updated channels, horizontal slanting lines start appearing which degrades the quality of the video signal provided by DishTV. This is not the problem of the NSS6 satellite, but this is the problem of the software that it is unable to translate the signal properly into the telecast.

Therefore the recent DishTV update has removed a lot of things from the software which was earlier available on our set top boxes. So now well lets be satisfied with what we have, at least this software has quite enough to offer so that we don’t get too hurt because of what DishTV has removed from our lives! I’ll mention the new features in my upcoming posts, the things that will give you happiness of mind that oh well Dish TV gave us something good at least!

OHH and I forgot to mention the BIGGEST thing we lost in this update! God how can I forget it, well ladies and gentlemen, we have also lost the BELOVED Block Game, yeah and I know all of you are very sad right now at the RIP notice of the Block Game, oh well good times and bad times! (That was on the good side of mine, but actually , to inform the newcomers to this website, NOBODY liked that stupid block game)

Be Optimistic!
Mr. Channel

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3 Responses to “ The problems with DishTV update ”

Comments:

1. lokesh dhureja says:
   December 20th, 2006 at 3:38 am If I rotate the disk towards some other direction and use the restore to factory setting feature on set top box, Will it bring back the software to its original version and then I can rotate towards any other sattelite to receive other Free to Air channels. I think it is possible. Any comments
2. chandrashekar says:
   December 27th, 2006 at 11:39 am yes i agree with you dish is not upgraded well ……useless engineers…. comparing the performance,userfriendly,features faactors with what it was earlier it is overall a software degrade …..dish people i hope u read this!!!.
3. rahul says:
   March 15th, 2007 at 7:21 pm tell me wether it is good to go for DD DTH?

   which are the channels that are being broadcasted over?

   Can one tune to any satellite?

   Does it had got any features of like internal tv tuner card (play pause store )etc?

Finally after a long long wait of around three months, my Dish Set Top Box has been upgraded, I can now see Five games, I have access to active services, channel timing and lots of other stuff has become available now. Although I do miss some features in the old DishTV software, which I will inform you about in my later posts!

Here is a list of features I think Dish Systems should have:

• Internet Connectivity: Yes, you have a direct connection to the satellite through the Dish, why can’t you get a meager Internet connection through which you could browse the internet, check your email etc. on the TV itself? You also have the remote remember.

• Custom Zoom: We should have the ability to zoom as much to whatever area of the screen we like, as it is not a hard feature to be implemented into the Dish Systems and it is pretty handy as well considerin when you want to Zoom into something you could at least do it, like sometimes text on screen is super small (for example in news when they show documents) so you need a Custom Zoom feature as well.

• DVR: They have been announcing this since Adam and Eve now, I wonder when are they going to actually have it…

• Real information: We need to have some REAL information in the screen where it shows what program is showing, all it shows is a basic synopsis of the show, but we need some more specific information, for example, how long has the show run for, what episode is this, who is the anchor, what is the production house etc.

• Multiple way quick viewing: Multiple way quick viewing is a must, there must be three our four or custom programming of how many channels you want to browse through on the click of one button.

• Multi Screening: Dividing your screen into multiple parts to view different channel action at the same time, it isn’t AT ALL difficult for these people, somehow they never just get the idea.

There are many many more things I’d like to be added but you know who afterall listens, I’ll rant more later on, if you peeps have any comments or suggestions just comment.

Mr. Channel

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2 Responses to “ Features I think Dish systems should have ”

Comments:

1. Niranjan Nayak says:
   February 1st, 2007 at 3:57 pm Many peoples like me are waiting for Internet through DISH. Let us see which one (TATA SKY or DTH INDIA) gives this fascility to their customers first.
2. Mr. Channel says:
   February 4th, 2007 at 8:37 am I believe Reliance BlueMagic will go for it first since Reliance already offers Internet to people.

   Or maybe Tata