TataSky

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Taka Sky

Tata Sky is a joint venture between the Tata Group and Star TV (A News Corp Company) to provide DTH services in India. It was launched in October 2006 with much fanfare.

"Tata Sky Satellite TV service is here to completely transform your television viewing experience. More Choice, Greater Convenience and Amazing Control. Prepare yourself for a television experience that will truly amaze you."

http://www.tatasky.com/why_tata_sky.htm

Why Move To DTH?

Freedom from cable operators. This is the single most important reason to move away from them.

  1. Cable providers in India have organized themselves into regional cartels. It is impossible to switch providers in a given area since there is no alternative provider. The areas of operation is clearly demarcated for each operator by the association
  2. Difficult to negotiate with the operator. Simply put, the last mile operators (LMOs) are thugs.
  3. Poor quality of service. No operator guarentees broadcast quality signals on all channels.
  4. Frequent interruptions. It is common to have blackouts during strikes or important sporting events. These are negotiation tactics by the Multi Systems Operatots (MSOs) and the content providers/broadcastors.
  5. Rampant under declaration of subscriber base by the MSOs and LMOs which hike up the per channel monthly rentals
  6. Channel bouquet is decided by the MSO/LMOs. There is no provision for ala carte or access control in the present system. This is a calculated move by broadcasters and MSOs to secure revenues. All moves to regulate the channels by the regulators (TRAI) have failed

Why Move To Tata Sky?

  1. In the long run, the odds of niche content appearing on Tata Sky is higher than the rivals (Dish TV India) because Tata Sky has access to other News Corp subsidiaries like 20th Century Fox, BskyB, Star TV Asia etc
  2. Tata Sky is nore likely to deploy newer technologies like HDTV since its already being provided by News Corp owned DTH services in Europe and the Americas

Why Does Tata Sky Suck?

Tata Sky is definitely better than Cable but it does not live up to its marketing propoganda. Since the servive launch in October 2006, the service has not improved despite repeated support calls.

All your favourite channels in DVD quality picture and CD quality sound

Both claims are false.

  • The video signals are not DVD quality. There is clear and noticable pixelations across all channels. The encoding and compression ratios used are below DVD quality. To experience the pixelations, just wait for fast moving action scenes like explosions. Even a fade in/fade out sequence will catch the pixelations especially in heavy animations (Animax).

I have compared the Full Metal Alchemist broadcast on Animax with the DVD vesion of the same and they are just not the same. The video is no better than SVCD quality.

See http://www.indiantelevision.com/headlines/y2k5/nov/nov131.htm

  • My Tata Sky STB is hooked up to a fairly above average http://shankerbalan.net/equipment.php home theatre setup. The audio quality is not the same if the same material was played from a CD.

At best, the sound quality is slightly better than regular cable broadcast in terms of Signal To Noise Ratio.

Shameless Logo on News Corp Affiliated Channels

We already have to bear with ugly logs by the broadcasters on the top right hand of the screen. Now we have Tata Sky inserting their logo as well to the bottom right of the screen. This is being done only on News Corp channels (Star TV and ESPN/Star Sports).

How shameless can Star get? I am not paying good money to see logos.

Actve Logo

Isn't having two logs on the screen bad enough already??? Not a chance. We also have to put up with the "ACTVE" logo which lights up on the top left hand of the screen during Cricket broadcasts indicating special content.

I am sure the smart people at Star are now thinking on ways to light up the bottom left of the screen right now.

Forcing Channel Bouquet

Can the viewer finally decide on what he wants to watch? No!

Star has hiked the monthly rental on their so called Super Saver schemes whic allows one to watch all channels for Rs 300 per month. What if you dont want to pay Rs 300 pm? Sorry, at this time they have no option of alacarte. You either get all channels or you dont get any.

This is dumb cause they already have pay per view system in place for their Showcase range of channels which screen Hindi Movies. So will they revert back to the "introductory" Rs 200pm rates? No!

Forcing people to pay for channels that they dont care about. The only reason why I can think of why they are doing this is to increase revenue till the time enough people complain about their pricing structure.

Pogo Is Available Only In Hindi

Wassup Doc? Tune in to Looney Toons on POGO to watch Bugs say it in Hindi. Can we get this fixed please? Per Customer Support, the provider has provided only the Hindi feed.

Well, thats not my problem is it? If Zee Turner can provide a English track to my MSO, they sure can do the same for Tata Sky customers. Does Tata Sky expect the customer to battle it out with Zee Turner?

Out Of Sync Audio

The audio tends to lag behind the video.

Adding New Channels

Go to http://www.lyngsat.com/in4a.html and http://www.lyngsat.com/packages/tatasky.html

Now navigate to "System Settings" -> "Add Channels" and do a find with the following fields set: 

Freq: 11.630
Polarization: H
Symbol Rate: 27.500
FEC: 3/4

The full frequency list is on the lyngsat page.

Looks like all the KU band transponders on INSAT4A are leased out to TS. There is nothing more out there> :(

Join The Mailing List

The call centre has been unable to sort out any of the concerns. Escalations via the help desk has not had any positive impact either. There is a Tata Sky Users mailing list up at http://tv.groups.yahoo.com/group/TataSkyUsers/. Please join up,

Perhaps together we can make a change. Eventually.

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