TataSky or Airtel DTH

Kaleen Bhaiya

Kaleen Bhaiya

Level H
So my LCO(hathway) has been giving me lot of trouble and want to get rid of him for good. As the title says, which should I go for.
I would have straight gone for Tata but then I have Airtel FTTH and they are giving some discounts so included it as an option.
Already 3 members in my building have suggested to go for Tata, so more inclined towards.
Need your feedback regarding experience and after sale support. My uncle had Airtel and he had a torrid time with it around 2-3 years ago. So don't know if the situation has improved or they are still crap.
Another thing, My location(Mumbai)is severely affected by rains during monsoon. How is its performance during the rainy season? Any chance of improving the signal during cloudy conditions?This is one thing which is keeping my Dad away from DTH service. We had DD DTH and there were similar issues.
 
I have both and I can't find much difference between both in terms of quality. Both of them go down during heavy downpour and Airtel is marginally better as when there is slight drizzle it still works unlike Tatasky. Airtel CS if full of crap, you will not need them mostly but when you do it is difficult to reach them. Tatasky, I don't know as never had to call customer support as of now.
 
hi got tata sky binge last month had to replace it as my old box went bad so upgraded to this as i dont have a smart tv. also it had a trial of all ott channels for a month then its 300 per month if you wanna continue or you may recharge your regular pack also best things during rains it connects to the internet via wifi network and works :)
 
Tata Sky Binge+. Option to stream from Internet when the network is down due to rain is godsend for parents. One click and the same channel will be streamed through Internet. Ofcourse you need to have the relevant OTT subscriptions. I don't pay for Binge+ and just reuse the subscriptions which I got from JioFiber. You can bring your own. Look for desidime trade section for cheap codes for OTT subscriptions.
 
TinTinSnowy said:
Tata Sky Binge+. Option to stream from Internet when the network is down due to rain is godsend for parents. One click and the same channel will be streamed through Internet. Ofcourse you need to have the relevant OTT subscriptions. I don't pay for Binge+ and just reuse the subscriptions which I got from JioFiber. You can bring your own. Look for desidime trade section for cheap codes for OTT subscriptions.
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I think this will most probably the way forward since this "Rain Fade" issue affects every Dish provider. Just curious as to which OTT platform are you using. Are there any which provide channels showed on TV. My knowledge wrt OTT is limited so I assume it's mostly providing seasons, movies, sports. I was also to subscribe for Disney+Hotstar but held back as they didn't have much serials as shown on cable tv.
My Dad would be using TV most of times so I will ask him to prepare a list and see which OTT suits him.
The +h0p tv app was good till it lasted since I could stream live tv whenever my cable went off. With that gone, I have no means to watch live tv.
 
Is the usb port on the binge+ box usable? I watched videos on YT and there is some confusion with some saying that they have disabled it, some saying you can plug pen drive to watch any video. Can anyone confirm it for me?
Also what is the status about Netflix? I believe binge+ doesn't come with this ott.
And is there provision to disable SDR to HDR?
 
Kaleen Bhaiya said:
Is the usb port on the binge+ box usable? I watched videos on YT and there is some confusion with some saying that they have disabled it, some saying you can plug pen drive to watch any video. Can anyone confirm it for me?
Also what is the status about Netflix? I believe binge+ doesn't come with this ott.
And is there provision to disable SDR to HDR?
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1) You can use the USB Port. I used it to play 10 bit HEVC video files and was able to play them smoothly via VLC media player app.
2) Netflix app is not available. I was also not able to enable ADB on this device. You can install 3rd party apps but Netflix is not working.
3) Yes. You can disable auto SDR to HDR.
Kaleen Bhaiya said:
I think this will most probably the way forward since this "Rain Fade" issue affects every Dish provider. Just curious as to which OTT platform are you using. Are there any which provide channels showed on TV. My knowledge wrt OTT is limited so I assume it's mostly providing seasons, movies, sports. I was also to subscribe for Disney+Hotstar but held back as they didn't have much serials as shown on cable tv.
My Dad would be using TV most of times so I will ask him to prepare a list and see which OTT suits him.
The +h0p tv app was good till it lasted since I could stream live tv whenever my cable went off. With that gone, I have no means to watch live tv.
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Yes. This feature is most useful during rainy season. It's just one click for my parents to watch through Internet during heavy rain. Saves my time as well not open the relevant OTT app and navigate to the channel. :)

Hotstar & SonyLIV covers most of the TV channels my family watches.
 
TinTinSnowy said:
Netflix app is not available. I was also not able to enable ADB on this device. You can install 3rd party apps but Netflix is not working.
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Quite a bummer. They must have disabled it to keep the OTT costs below ₹300. But they could have added this provision for those with subscriptions just like Amazon prime. Don't understand why. :rolleyes:
TinTinSnowy said:
You can use the USB Port.
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Can we connect external hard drive? Some comments mentioned the FS should be Fat32 instead of NTFS.
Thanks again for your replies.
 
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Kaleen Bhaiya said:
Quite a bummer. They must have disabled it to keep the OTT costs below ₹300. But they could have added this provision for those with subscriptions just like Amazon prime. Don't understand why. :rolleyes:

Can we connect external hard drive? Some comments mentioned the FS should be Fat32 instead of NTFS.
Thanks again for your replies.
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I have not tried connecting a HDD. I think it won't support NTFS.
 
girish925 said:
hi got tata sky binge last month had to replace it as my old box went bad so upgraded to this as i dont have a smart tv. also it had a trial of all ott channels for a month then its 300 per month if you wanna continue or you may recharge your regular pack also best things during rains it connects to the internet via wifi network and works :)
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Could you please elaborate the "it connects to the internet via wifi network and still works". This was the exact same thing told to me by a tatasky(TS) representative when I was inquiring about the same. He told me that if signal goes bad during rains, it connects to wifi automatically and you can still watch tv. I mean how is this possible? Or is he trying to say you can continue watching your tv on OTT platform when it rains and then revert back to antenna once it stops raining.
@TinTinSnowy incase if you have any experience, could you please share. Either this is something novel from TS or I am being played out dumb.
 
Kaleen Bhaiya said:
Could you please elaborate the "it connects to the internet via wifi network and still works". This was the exact same thing told to me by a tatasky(TS) representative when I was inquiring about the same. He told me that if signal goes bad during rains, it connects to wifi automatically and you can still watch tv. I mean how is this possible? Or is he trying to say you can continue watching your tv on OTT platform when it rains and then revert back to antenna once it stops raining.
@TinTinSnowy incase if you have any experience, could you please share. Either this is something novel from TS or I am being played out dumb.
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Pressing ok button when the signals are not available will take you directly to the Live Channel on the OTT platform. Saves time navigating to the relevant OTT and looking for the channel. Pressing back button will take you to TV again.
 
There is another teeny tiny aspect you may want to be aware. I used airtel dth about 2 years back, and after which I retired dth for good. The thing I noticed is the minimum recharge at any given time need to be atleast 100. I dont exactly recall though. But thats not the case with tata sky. Tata sky recently increased the min recharge to 50/-, earlier it used to be min of 10/-. These minimum recharges will be handy to time the subscriptions as per vacations/need etc.

Currently I'm managing my aunt's tata sky connection. The web interface has lot many options than airtel interface. I dont need to talk to customer care to keep the connection in safe custody whenever there is a vacation. I could schedule the vacation time on the account's portal so that the balance doesn't go down the drain. Not to mention comparitively tata sky has much more offers when it comes to recharges.

Quality wise I didn't see any difference. Both go down when it rains.
 
Kaleen Bhaiya said:
You mean ₹153/-. Tata guys told minimum recharge must for using ott services.
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OTT part is different and I'm not much aware of it. I'm referring to normal TV channels, once you have a base plan for normal TV channels, say 355 per month. You dont have to recharge every month on date 355 to have the show running, but can topup say 50/- or whatever amount and you get to view the content on pro rata basis.
 
I have some confusion regarding billing, hope you guys can help me here.
So let me say, I am subscribing to Kannada basic pack which costs Ru132.52(as shown in website). I also will be paying Ru299 for their OTT services.
So my total bill per month should be 153(NCF)+132.52(Kannada pack)+299(OTT)=584.53, right?

Also does it mean that Ru 153 will be added to whichever plan I opt for?
 
Kaleen Bhaiya said:
I have some confusion regarding billing, hope you guys can help me here.
So let me say, I am subscribing to Kannada basic pack which costs Ru132.52(as shown in website). I also will be paying Ru299 for their OTT services.
So my total bill per month should be 153(NCF)+132.52(Kannada pack)+299(OTT)=584.53, right?

Also does it mean that Ru 153 will be added to whichever plan I opt for?
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Didn't avail OTT services, so can't comment on that, but yes 153 (NCF) will be added to choosen pack
 
Yes NCF will be added to whichever plan you choose. Are they now asking to pay for OTT separately. Earlier, one could just login to Tatasky.com and watch any of the channels that one has subscribed to. I used to use this feature whenever signal went down due to weather.
Or by OTT, you mean they are giving access to Prime Video, Netflix, Hotstar etc.
 
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