My initial search started with my local cablewalla who is providing service through Incable. After a lot of pestering he agreed to give a demo last month and one fine day the Incableguy turned up at my residence and gave me a demo.
The picture quality was good and I was impressed but I noticed that STB was not able to show many of the channels (error no signal). He explained to me that the main reason for this is that I had two TVs through one connection and also the signal which I was getting was low on quality.
So he asked me to first get in touch with the localcablewalla and rectify this problem and also install a cable splitter (for 2 tvs).I rang up the cablewalla many times and asked him to rectify the same but he just turned up once and said he would do it but till date nothing has been done. Hence got frustrated and decided to dump him and move to DTH.In the meanwhile I had done quite a lot of reading aboutvarious DTH providers. I mainly needed punjabi channels and the other main-main channels.
DishTV:
This was my initial choice earlier (coz 7 punjabi channels)but I was surprised when I enquired about the multi-room connection. They are charging 155 for the second connection and were giving around 150 channels in child pack instead of 185.(Today the website is updated and shows 170 channels for child but still many important channels e.g. star plus and news etc. are missing). All other DTH providers are giving the full parent package in themulti-room connection. Call centre fella told me that in case I needed all the channels I would have to take two connections. That would take my monthly bill to around 600. No way!! Hence dropped from list.
Tatasky:
Has good list of channels but ETC Punjabi missing plus topups Lifestyle gold and sports make it expensive. Main reason for dropping was missing ETC punjabi. Saw their new PVR advt for 5000 but in my opinion it is still damn expensive and there is nothing much I need to record anyways. Why spend a bomb for something you are gonna use once in a while?
Big TV:
Dad said strictly no for reliance- chor company. Although I liked their STB’s component out option as it would have given me good quality picture on my sony LCD. Good channel list but have heard that CC is little problematic. Dropped from list.
Sun:
Has too many south channels which I dont need. All important SABTV missing.
Airtel:
Had a look at their new packs and Mega pack looked promising. Has all the channels I need. Plus recently they added 14 channels which brought in the earlier missing ETC punjabi channel. So that took count ofpunjabi channels to 6 (good!!). Ultra pack seems to be expensive but the good thing is that the difference between ultra and mega is only the sports channels, which I can skip easily. The three channels ESPN, Star and DD Sports would make up for the other missing sports channels. Plus easy options to topup sports channels gives me the flexibility to add and remove at any time. Hence2200 offer with three months mega pack attracted me.
20% larger dish is an advantage over others. Software interface also looks very good. Plus had also heard about their professional way of installation. So had a final discussion with my parents and decided on 7th evening to go for Airtel. While coming home from office dropped by in Croma at R City mall and bought multiroom connection for 2 tvs at 1800hrs. By 1845 I got sms saying that my installation was scheduled at 1000hrs next day. Wow!!! Fast work.
The installation:
Airtel engineer called up at 0900hrs and said that he would come by 1100. I agreed. I had taken leave from my office for full day since I personally wanted to supervise the installation. True to his word he was at my residence at around 1110. He was dressed in the trademark red T shirt and black dangri (I dont know what you guys call that but this is what we used to call in our engg college while doing our workshop). They had two STB boxes and one very large backpack which I asssume contained the dish. They started work immediately by surveying the site.
I was planning to install the dish on my window grill so that the society members would not object to using the terrace.Airtel engineer said that I can get a clear line of sight from my window and their would be no problems installing the dish. He however told me that I would have to pay 100 extra for the window grill sandwich mount. He then showed me the sandwich mount which was essentially two rectangular metal plates with many holes for nut-bolts and one of them had a L shaped pipe welded to it for attaching the dish. Build quality was very solid and so decided to go for it.
There is some construction work+painting going on in my building so decided that they would hang it from the terrace and then mount the dish assembly. He then asked me whether I wanted the white cable or the black one. I selected the white one since it would look better on my walls.They started the work and installed the dish and cables etc. One of the STBs was switched on and signal strength was shown as zero. They then startedadjusting the dish to get better signal. But hard luck. Max signal strength they got was 142.
Tried adjusting many times but same result. The presence of bamboos was creating some problems. So finally engineer suggested that we move the dish to outside the kitchen window grill to get better reception. Again they had to remove all the assembly and fit it again. Here the signal was slightly better but did not go more that 185. Airtel engineer told me that 200 is needed for good reception.After adjusting umpteen times and still no luck with signal strength, I finally decided that we had no choice but to install it on the terrace.
So me and the airtel engineer hunted for a good spot on the terrace and finally managed to install the dish out there. After some 10 mins of adjustments the signal became constant at 247 (what an amazing jump from 142:cheers:). Locked at this strength and came down for the other remaining activities. By this time it was1700hrs. The rest was pretty easy going and the two STBs were updated and activated by them in no time and I was given a demo. Picture quality is simply amazing on my 21" Sony wega. In the second connection on my SonyBravia 32" LCD also the picture quality is good. Universal remotes were paired easily with the two sony remotes.
Airtel engineer was very patient during all this time and together they did a step by step professional job of installation. All cables were neatly tied up with cable ties and extra edges snipped off. Cable was installed using clips on the wall which looks very neat (while color also helps). Overall am extremely satisfying job. They left at 1800hrs. I must say that this must have been their longest installation till date but they left behind a very satisfied customer. Yesterday the clouds cleared up and now my signal strength shows 252. New model STB is very good and I have no problems. Remote works properly with them and no hanging problems reported till now.