I have tried tata sky hd, airtel hd, dish tv and videocon d2h. Based on using them I have put forth a review, hopefully useful to guys. Installation - all were equally fast and pleasant. Zee’s dish tv guy needs a spl mention though because he came on a rainy day and finished the job in rain. The tata sky guy was good too. Note - however none of them wore a uniform
Which is strange because I read somewhere in a reputed publication that people making maintenance visits to home from big corporations are enforced to wear neatly pressed uniforms for which corporate spend a huge fortune of their earnings. Ever seen a courier or others wear it? Nope. But govt. Enforces it to all its employees correctly. It gives us a feel of security.
Big basket and pizza houses also do it. But big corporations? I have never seen it frankly. Assures a feel of security in homes when they arrive with uniform. I am not saying this against dth.merely pointing out that such good things are not there here like advertised.
Settopbox quality - note that iam comparing only by size and looks as I have not looked into internals. Tata sky and videocon are equally sleek but videocon is good lookswise.
Remote - this is one place where videocon is a show stopper. The remote is very light and easy to handle. Others are normal remotes.
Responsiveness in using remote - tata sky hd is little better than airtel hd. Videocon hd though has the slekest settopbox and remote, it lags in responsiveness definitely.
Picture quality - airtel hd, tata sky, dishtv are way ahead of others. Both tata sky and airtel hd are really good.
Service - I never had to call dishtv even once to troubleshoot a problem while I was using it . Does it get better than that? Airtel hd and tata sky hd offer good service. But waiting time in the telephone queue for both these(tata sky hd and airtel hd) are quite long and our mobile’s call meter ticks for a long time in waiting to be serviced only. But in the end, with patience, problem is resolved.
Package offerings -
This is the ultimate decision making criteria for all of us.
Here each dth has its own advantages and disadvantages. For example in airtel hd, theres a hd top up where you get most hd channels(around 30) for rs. 125/-. Tata sky has packages starting at rs. 90/-. So know the channels you may watch and choose the dth carefully. Airtel hd is a master in topups. Airtel has so many topup options as the number of its cellphone network users( joking of course but they have lots of options).dishtv and tata sky also have good offerings. Remember that once you see the clarity of hd content, you cannot see normal channels. The difference is obvious and glaring between hd and others. Even a thread outside of the seam is captured clearly in hd. So hd offerings and hd topups will make huge difference in selection.
I would say tata sky hd or airtel hd or dishtv are equally good. The main difference is in hd channel offerings and topup packages offered. Choose wisely.