This is my first review on mouthshut, though I have been a regular visitor to this site never felt like writing my own review. But this time when I decided to go for DTH and was interested in Airtel in particular as I had like their interface(so much like Apple TV) and the technology(MPEG4, didnt wan to go for BIGTV and SUNDIRECT yet to arrive in Pune). my experience with Airtel DTH promoted me to write this review Here goes my review.
This is my first experince with DTH so actullay cannot comment much on quality(I have seen Dishtv and Tatasky at my friend’s place so my comparison would be w.r.t these).
I have ordered the DTH connection from a local electronics dealer at around 11:30 am on Monday on my way to office and when I reached office I got a call from the dealer and an appointment at 5PM was decided on.It was okay with me as I can go early home and get the work done as I have heard horror stories of getting an appointment. I got call from the Airtel installation guys at 4:30PM and they were at my home.I rushed home and they were waiting for me.My first impessions was these guys were very courteous and professional. The Dish was fixed and the activation was done in an hour.
The technician’s work was very professional and they co-operated with me in every ascpect, like I wanted the cable to drawn thorugh certain path.
The installation work was PERFECT and NEAT . No cables hanging around anywhere.
Then they activated the connection through their GPRS phone and one of the guys went through all the features of the remote, They also programmed my TV remote into the Airtel’s.So I could use just one remote to control both TV and the settop box.
I quickly verified if the proper package(took South Economy) has been activated and it was.
The video quality is good and a notch better than others that I have seen(its DVD component video quality) and miles ahead of cable TV that I have been using for so long
Audio quality I cannot comment as mine TV speakers arent that good.
The switching between channels was better(which I wanted).
The settop box looks really cool(its not that big as seen in the pictures) and goes well with my black Philips DVD player.
The remote is a bit bigger but not much of a problem here and is comfortable to use and has the added advantage of being a universal remote(note you can program only your TVs remote vol+/-, channel+/-, power, av button and mute button)
I liked the interface very much as it is non-intusive and clean. Just blank and red colors.
The Airel logo is also small and transparent.
My only problem so far has been with the customer care, I guess they have not yet set it up properly and only provides minimal service.I had 5 recharge vouchers and I had to call them more than 10 times(I have a airtel mobile so no problem and I wont be recharging using vouchers again.) You cant recharge all the cards in a single call:-(Also the call got disconnected several times and I was never able to talk to a customer car executive:-()
So in short lots of work needs to be done from that side.
I haven’t checked their interactive services as I am not interesed in them and also their movie-on demand service is not functional, which I wont be using anyway
Will keep this review updated as I experince more of Airtel DTH
-Ravi