It has been a year after my last review posted on the 20th of February 2006 and I thought that this would be a good time to post a sequel to the same. Why so ? Because a large number of people ( but not to the extent as expected by providers of DTH services) are now hooked on to one or the other
DTH service and also because we now have two major contenders providing the service.Prospective customers who are thinking of whether to go DTH or not and which of the the the two providers are better, my current review may be of some use.
I personally have subscribed to Dish TV , primarily because of the fact that when I decided to chuck my not so endearing cable guy out, I had no other options. Tata- Sky was still on the drawing board evaluating as to whether Tata- Sky or Tata- Star would be a better name !!! But from thence, much water has flowed under the bridge and I had opportunities galore to compare between the two: Dish TV and Tata- Sky and given below are my observations:
- Picture Quality: The picture quality is phenomenal in both
and way ahead of the quality provided by the local cable operator. The quality
is real digital and the picture reproduction is faithful and true to life. Both
Tata - Sky and Dish TV scores equal here.
- Sound Quality : Again both providers score equal here and
the sound is of stereo quality and much better than anything the local cable
guy has to offer. Both offer multi language facility and therefore in the case
of channels which are offered in multiple languages ( NatGeo, Discovery,
Cartoon Network, Euro News, etc.) you can select the language which you desire.
This is a real advantage over the local cable network where you have to be
contented with language selected by the cable operator ( eg. Discovery in Hindi only) and have
little say in the matter. Moreover both providers offer multiple radio
programmes ( including FM) making your radio obsolete !! The FM channels thus
provided have excellent clarity and minimum intereference from other waves around.
- Service: Now here is where the men start apart from the boys. Remember that while technology can be provided by anyone, it is the human element that brings out the real difference. Its the same in any industry - airlines, cellphone operators, consumer non-durables, etc. Subscribing and installing the service from one or the other operator is the most easiest thing. How they respond to your problems and difficulties ( like in other areas, in DTH too, you are bound to have them) is the crucial aspect. Tata- Sky scores here with both hands tied. Subhash Chandra’s Dish Tv speacialise in one are and that is in successfully recruiting and deploying the most apathetic nincompoops available in the country. Or maybe he is paying peanuts and we all know that peanuts attract only monkeys !!! When it comes to renewing your subscription, or re-installing the antena due to change in your residence, or because your antena needs position correcting ( frequently happens during the monsoons), you can make all the calls that you want and still end up waiting months for the technician to make his appearance. Calling up their Customer Care toll free number is also useless, you get passed on from Karan to Kunal to Usha to Poornima ( a good idea if you are evaluating names fr your new born child !!!) and then virtuall end up back with Karan again without your problem getting resolved. AND PLEASE DO NOT USE YOUR CREDIT CARD TO MAKE AN ONLINE RENEWAL PAYMENT. Your account will be debited but your channels will still not appear. Then you have to make umpteen STD calls to sort of the issue. Another form of payment is through Zee’s ITZ cards where you pay up for the number of months renewal you need and get prepaid card which you have to scratch and activate your account online. Here the problem is that it takes close to about a fortnight for your channels to get activated, but your account is debitted the moment you enter the numbers online. The other routes of renewal are more cumbersome...post your cheques to their Gurgaon office and then follow up on STD !! On this point, Dish TV is PATHETIC.
On the other hand, Tata Sky is quite professional and their technician is at your doorsteps within a day of your call. Queries, compaints or other calls are professionally attended to and issues resolved within acceptable time frames ( maybe this depends on their franchisee in your state, but I have experienced this in 4 states - A.P, Maharashtra, Kerala and Gujarat and that is enough to convince me !!!). The best part is that you can register your complaint / query and you are given a time by which it is resolved and this is more often than not honored. Here Tata- Sky is just SUPERB.
- Variety : Lastly on the issue of variety, Dish TV has got more number of choices and channels as compare to Tata- Sky. You can easily check up as to whether your favorite channel is being offered or not by visiting the website of both these providers. Maybe this has to do with the first mover advantage that Dish TV enjoys and maybe with time both providers would have all the channels ( as per the Government rules, which aims to dissuade monopoly by one provider or the other).
There are a lot of issues on which one can compare, in addition to the 4 I mentioned above eg. ease of operation of the set up boxes, ease of navigation, tariffs, bunching of bouqets etc., but I would feel that these differences are of no great significance compared to the basic objective why one goes DTH. All key factors are outlined above and should you have a query on anything else please do write in or post your query on this site.
Regards,
ajith262matrix@yahoo.co.uk