Video Airtel Digital TV Review !!

R

rahulmumbai

Disciple
Introduction

hi everyone!! Airtel Digital TV is making good progress and many of you must be eager to know more details then whats available on Techenclave.So here i am with my first review on Techenclave.I will be honest with all the pros & cons so that it helps you buy whats good for you.please note that i wont be comparing it with other DTH services providers since i personally not used those but have some info on that.But if you have any questions about Airtel DTH/my review i will surely answer them once you post them.

Packaged Bundle consists of following.

1.Digital TV Set Top Box with View card inserted in its Slot
2.Universal Remote
3.12 volt AC to DC adapter + separate power cable.
4.AV cable (three separate pins with 3 wires for audio Left,Audio right,and video of white,Red & Yellow colour respectively.
5.TV out cable
6.Product manual
7.Customer Relationship Form
8.Desiccant silica.(sand balls)
9.2 AAA batteries for remote.
10.Activation Kit(consists of sealed Activation Voucher of amount of minimum Rs 2000 or more amount equivalent to type of package you have chosen)

The package does not contain Dish.The Dish will be brought by the installation personal at the time of installation.

The Set Top Box specifications are as follows.

STB input Voltage --- 12V DC
power supply --- AC 70-350V@45 to 60 HZ adapter.
power consumption --- Max.25W on full load.
Mains ---- 2 pin plug.
dimension ----------- 270x200x50 mm.
signal format system-- PAL B/G
the set top box is pretty compact and with black finish. A large square shaped red colored indicator gives it a stylish as well as sophisticated look.STB is made in china by a chinees company using technology transfer from "Kaonmedia company" of Koria who seems to hold the patent rights.The bottom of STB is fully grilled for ventilation whereas top right corner has sort of feather touch type button to operate varies STB functions.these come handy if you cant find your remote.the red coloured square indicator glows ON indicating STB in ON.

The remote control is of very good build quality and fells nice
to hold in hand and looks better then most TV remotes available in india.It can be programmed to copy 5 basic functions of your TV remote to your Airtel remote.my "samsung Easy view Tv remote"s following function were successfully copied to Airtel Remote which had same markings indicating the function.
1)TV power ON/OFF
2)Sound Mute
3)AV selection. (for changing AV1/AV2/DVD etc)
4)TV sound volume +
5)TV sound volume -

For using all other specialized functions of your TV set like sound equalizer or picture settings etc of you will still need your TV remote only.Now all the above 5 functions cannot be copied in one go.you have to follow procedure mentioned in manual and repeat it five times to copy each of the function.

there is no previous channel button on Airtel Remote which i miss a lot.

Installation

Installation was done within 24 hours of calling airtell customer care to schedule its installation.installation personal used a magnetic compass(not digital)and other equipment to find the exact dish direction.the maximum signal strength i got was 80% and signal quality too was at approximately at same level.i was expecting more signal strength but since i live in an apartment there were some restriction on placing of dish.
I spoked to installation personal if i can get more signal strength but he assured me that once i see my dish running i will have absolutely nothing to complain about.

Picture Quality other functions & conclusion

As expected the picture quality was simply brilliant even at 80% signal strength.my 29 inch CRT was full of vivid colours and there was no pixlation or any other problem i could complain.I guess The larger dish size plays important role here.the channel Lag while changing channels is same level as that you get to see on your TV remote.the sound quality too is good but its not stereo sound as in reliance big.
Airtel is currently the only service provider to offer various world space radio channels and liked few of those.while radio is ON you will see a moving screen saver on your TV screen.
what i liked about the channel package is the inclusion of channels like discovery,national geographic,animal planet in under 200 rupees package.on the negative side the exclusion of popular sports channels is sad for sport lovers.but then you have the choice of using cheap top-ups whenever there is an important cricket series or any other sport event coming up on particular channel,and instead of paying for all sports channels all the time when there is not much of sports happening its a good option.so everything depends on choice of your channels and its for you to decide what suits you best.i am pleased with Airtel costumer care center service right from scheduling installation to answering my various queries related to DTH.overall iam pretty satisfied with Airtel DTH & would definitely recommend to everyone.
hope this review is helpful.please post your queries below i shall ans them.thanks!!
 
Could you please check the terms & conditions and clarify who owns the STB and the dish? Will it have to be surrendered at the time of discontinuing the service?
 
psynaps3 said:
Could you please check the terms & conditions and clarify who owns the STB and the dish? Will it have to be surrendered at the time of discontinuing the service?
Click to expand...

well thats the first thing i looked for in the terms and conditions and it does say that the stb etc is a property of airtel.
 
I have also got the airtel digital TV and must say the picture is not as rosy as painted by rahulmumbai.

I have following points to make

1. The universal remote is just nice feature on paper. My Samsung remote is not working with it.
2. There is pixeallation in almost all the channels ( I am getting 100% signal strength) and colors are soft.
3. The only crystal color channels are Cartoons Channels.
4. There is major problem of sound sync in channels if you change them quickly
3. There is more than 2 sec lag and black screen while changing channels.. which is irritating.

Have a demo before buying !
 
netwitx said:
I have also got the airtel digital TV and must say the picture is not as rosy as painted by rahulmumbai.

I have following points to make

1. The universal remote is just nice feature on paper. My Samsung remote is not working with it.
2. There is pixeallation in almost all the channels ( I am getting 100% signal strength) and colors are soft.
3. The only crystal color channels are Cartoons Channels.
4. There is major problem of sound sync in channels if you change them quickly
3. There is more than 2 sec lag and black screen while changing channels.. which is irritating.

Have a demo before buying !
Click to expand...

well the unviersal remote works great in sony tvs,pixelation is there in every dth i also have big tv the pixelation is a bit less compared to airtel,overall big tv has the edge in video department,but if u are talking about channel change lag airtel is by far the best compared to other dth providers.
 
Are there any DTH providers where the customer gets to own the STB and the dish? I believe with Tata Sky, you get the STB at least with the same pricing.

Wonder why Airtel mentions in their website that we buy the STB and the dish along with the subscription package! Has anyone taken this up with Airtel yet?
 
psynaps3 said:
Are there any DTH providers where the customer gets to own the STB and the dish? I believe with Tata Sky, you get the STB at least with the same pricing.
Wonder why Airtel mentions in their website that we buy the STB and the dish along with the subscription package! Has anyone taken this up with Airtel yet?
Click to expand...

Dish TV offers the same i think
 
psynaps3 said:
Could you please check the terms & conditions and clarify who owns the STB and the dish? Will it have to be surrendered at the time of discontinuing the service?
Click to expand...

point not 10 of terms & condition clearly says airtel equipment remain the sole property of airtel & must be kept by customer in good working condition & shall return Airtel equipment in working condition on deactivation or termination of service.
 
psynaps3 said:
Could you please check the terms & conditions and clarify who owns the STB and the dish? Will it have to be surrendered at the time of discontinuing the service?
Click to expand...

point not 10 of terms & condition clearly says airtel equipment remain the sole property of airtel & must be kept by customer in good working condition & shall return Airtel equipment in working condition on deactivation or termination of service.
 
netwitx said:
I have also got the airtel digital TV and must say the picture is not as rosy as painted by rahulmumbai.

I have following points to make

1. The universal remote is just nice feature on paper. My Samsung remote is not working with it.
2. There is pixeallation in almost all the channels ( I am getting 100% signal strength) and colors are soft.
3. The only crystal color channels are Cartoons Channels.
4. There is major problem of sound sync in channels if you change them quickly
3. There is more than 2 sec lag and black screen while changing channels.. which is irritating.

Have a demo before buying !
Click to expand...
1)i have already conformed univarsal remote works with all samsung easy view TV models.you are out of luck.
2)iam not the only person who have not faced pixallation problem.saveondish.com has similar opinion.your claim of 100% signal strength is also rare as far as airtel DTH is concerned but mind you its not just signal strength but signal quality too is very important factor in reducing pixalation.colours are rich in my case,i cant understand why its soft in your case,may be your TV set to blame.
3)as far as channel lag is concerned there is nothing better then airtel as off now.
 
rahulmumbai said:
1)i have already conformed univarsal remote works with all samsung easy view TV models.you are out of luck.

2)iam not the only person who have not faced pixallation problem.saveondish.com has similar opinion.your claim of 100% signal strength is also rare as far as airtel DTH is concerned but mind you its not just signal strength but signal quality too is very important factor in reducing pixalation.colours are rich in my case,i cant understand why its soft in your case,may be your TV set to blame.

3)as far as channel lag is concerned there is nothing better then airtel as off now.
Click to expand...

Pixallation is there. And its clearly visible on all DTH services including Airtel. Youa re not seeing it because you are on 29'' CRT. On any 720P lcd and above its clearly visible unless you site more than 10 feet away from TV.

The best of the lot at the moment is Reliance when it comes to picture quality. TATA SKY + with good set of component cables gives slightly better quality than Composite signal. Airtel is also similar, its ok ok when it comes to picture quality.
 
Shripad said:
Pixallation is there. And its clearly visible on all DTH services including Airtel. Youa re not seeing it because you are on 29'' CRT. On any 720P lcd and above its clearly visible unless you site more than 10 feet away from TV.

The best of the lot at the moment is Reliance when it comes to picture quality. TATA SKY + with good set of component cables gives slightly better quality than Composite signal. Airtel is also similar, its ok ok when it comes to picture quality.
Click to expand...

i got to agree with u since iam on 29"CRT i am not seeing the pixallation.
 
thanks a lot for the review, but i guess there might some pixellation on the tv sets due the very low resolution of the screen , which i guess is more apparent when go in close otherwise from a safe distance i don't think it is that visible.
 
rahulmumbai said:
i got to agree with u since iam on 29"CRT i am not seeing the pixallation.
Click to expand...

well i have big tv connected to a sony lcd while the airtel is connected to a 21inch sony crt t,but i can clearly see the pixelation in airtel on a 21inch tv,in big tv u can see pixelation in images of low contrast.my parents dont see any difference but for me ,i can see the pixlelation since i am curious and determinend to find the drawbacks and flaws in both the dth providers.
 
rahulmumbai said:
1)i have already conformed univarsal remote works with all samsung easy view TV models.you are out of luck.
2)iam not the only person who have not faced pixallation problem.saveondish.com has similar opinion.your claim of 100% signal strength is also rare as far as airtel DTH is concerned but mind you its not just signal strength but signal quality too is very important factor in reducing pixalation.colours are rich in my case,i cant understand why its soft in your case,may be your TV set to blame.
3)as far as channel lag is concerned there is nothing better then airtel as off now.
Click to expand...

i want to also make some correction in my review.there is a "back" button on remote that also acts as previous channel button.just realized that today.
 
Today I enquired with the staff at Airtel Relationship center and they confirmed that the STB belongs to the customer. Only the dish will taken back at the time of disconnection. Also got the same info from the customer care department.
 
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