Any news of Tamil & Malayalam Channels on Tata Sky DTH

[ronaldo81]

No pestering. I like answering questions as long as they fall in my area of interest. Actually I was thinking about mpeg4 and how much Tata-Sky will have to spend to do a roll out, when I pressed F5 and your question came up.

mpeg4 will allow about 240 channels; 20 per transponder (figure from Sun Direct press release). But it is a complicated and long drawn process.

1. Tata-Sky will have to change all the relevant equipment in its transmission centre.
2. New set top boxes capable of decoding mpeg4 transmission will have to be provided to all subscribers.

Once this is done, 240 high quality channels may be broadcast. But it will be a very costly process. Assuming an expenditure of INR 5000 per subscriber and INR 100 crores on its centre, we get a total figure of about INR 600 crores (INR 5000 * 1,000,000 subscribers + INR 100 crores). This is just my opinion.

This will result in a partial/ complete blackout for the amount of time it takes to complete the process, if it can be completed at all.

If Tata-Sky is willing to foot the bill and is capable of doing it, then it should do it


I am a Tata-Sky subscriber, and I think they have a good future ahead of them (as long as they can get their obstinate behaviour sorted out). I believe that they are technically far superior to any present or future competition since they have the same lineage as DirecTv and Sky UK.
But technical superiority is a poor selling proposition without good content which can be delivered using that technology. Content is king and they are sorely lacking on that front.

Gregory,

What do you think SUN Direct is gonna use MPEG4 compression technology. I got a news that INSAT4CR is going to be launched on 1st Sep 2007 and suppose if they are going to use this particular satellite for their DTH platform they can fill in more channels in their TPs. (but it is also heard that they will using INSAT4B). We as a subscriber will be benefitted from this as we can watch more channels. Steve is of the opinion that HDTV transmission can also be achieved through MPEG4. Do we have to buy an HDTV for watching all those channels? Manorama News are using MPEG4 compression and DISH TV is beaming the same. Is DISH TV using MPEG4 compression and how many more channels can DISH TV add to their current list of 170 channels?

 

[India]

Gregory,

What do you think SUN Direct is gonna use MPEG4 compression technology. I got a news that INSAT4CR is going to be launched on 1st Sep 2007 and suppose if they are going to use this particular satellite for their DTH platform they can fill in more channels in their TPs. (but it is also heard that they will using INSAT4B). We as a subscriber will be benefitted from this as we can watch more channels. Steve is of the opinion that HDTV transmission can also be achieved through MPEG4. Do we have to buy an HDTV for watching all those channels? Manorama News are using MPEG4 compression and DISH TV is beaming the same. Is DISH TV using MPEG4 compression and how many more channels can DISH TV add to their current list of 170 channels?
Well Dish Tv uses MPEG2 and they beam Manorama News on NSS6 with retransmission.

They have at the moment 121 Tv channels + 2 Radio Channels + 17 Network service which makes 140 channels on 8 TP. They already buy 4 TP from NSS6 which give atleast 60 to 70 channels because they have better compression method and new method makes good job because now Dish TV quality is really match with Tata Sky. They also have 8th TP which have only 8 channels at the moments.

So at the same method and rate they can still beam 70+ channels.

 

[gregory house]

What do you think SUN Direct is gonna use MPEG4 compression technology.
Sun Direct have 7 transponders on Insat 4B. And they are going to use mpeg4 compression to provide their channels.
Indiantelevision.com's Digital Edge: Sun ready, DTH play becoming hot chase for satellite space

I got a news that INSAT4CR is going to be launched on 1st Sep 2007
This satellite is for Reliance BlueMagic and they have reserved 8 tps on the same.

Steve is of the opinion that HDTV transmission can also be achieved through MPEG4. Do we have to buy an HDTV for watching all those channels?
He is correct. mpeg4 allows for a substantial improvement in compression ratio as compared to previous codecs (especially mpeg2).
MPEG-4 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
H.264/MPEG-4 AVC - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Although buying a new HDTV is not essential, you might not enjoy the full benefit of improved picture quality on standard definition sets. Even in HD video there are two resolutions specified in four ways - 720i, 720p, 1080i and 1080p. The i and p stand for interlaced and progressive respectively.
1080p is also known as Full HD.

1080p gives a resolution of 1920 pixels x 1080 pixels which is qualitatively four-six times better than the resolution your standard DVD provides.
1080p - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Manorama News are using MPEG4 compression and DISH TV is beaming the same. Is DISH TV using MPEG4 compression and how many more channels can DISH TV add to their current list of 170 channels?
Although Manorama News are using mpeg4 compression to broadcast their signal, dish tv is downloading the same, decoding it and re-encoding it using mpeg2 compression.

DishTv has 8 transponders on NSS 6 and seem to have purchased the tps vacated by DD Direct. If they follow the same compression that Tata-Sky use, they should be able to broadcast 144 channels (excluding DD ones). Since they seem to compress some channels more than the others, there is no saying how many channels they can provide. And if Tata-Sky too follow their lead (as they seem to be doing; not all channels are clear), we may not need mpeg4 at all as both may then provide about 144-to-infinity channels using existing capacity and heavy compression.

 

[SVK]

Thanks Gregory for the good information :thumbsup:, you really search deep! inside the topics

 

[gregory house]

Some corrections to the mpeg4 post.

This will result in a partial/ complete blackout for the amount of time it takes to complete the process, if it can be completed at all.
Satellite receivers like the Sky HD Box can receive both standard definition as well as HD broadcasts. So a blackout may not be required. Programming in both formats may continue side-by-side till the entire transition takes place, and even after that.

But it will be a very costly process. Assuming an expenditure of INR 5000 per subscriber and INR 100 crores on its centre, we get a total figure of about INR 600 crores (INR 5000 * 1,000,000 subscribers + INR 100 crores). This is just my opinion.
The bad news is that the Sky HD box costs UKP 300 (INR 24000 approx). So we can forget it. Another option is to get a low cost receiver made to suit the Indian market. Whether Tata-Sky really wants to do such things remains to be seen.

 

[tech_enthu]

Sky offers only 12 HD channels, I think. I think we have to wait for at least one year for the HD dust to settle down; all - tv, STB, mpg4 and subscription must become affordable.

 

---

[gregory house]

HD programming in India will take time. But this thing was less about HD and more about Tata-Sky's excuse of transponder shortage. mpeg4 blows that excuse away. But it gives them a better excuse. Cost of changing over to the new system.Maintaining status quo means less work, less headache and less spending. Maybe that is why they are doing it (nothing, I mean).

 

[ronaldo81]

Gregory,If I want to upgrade my package, Can Tata Sky and Dish TV people do it through their Satellite or Do they come personally to me and change my viewing Card? If they are doing it through Air how are they accessing my Card or STB through Satellite?

 

[gregory house]

No one needs to visit your place to change any packages. Everything will be done at their end.And they are not going to access your STB or card either. It is not possible. The only thing that they can do is upgrade the STB firmware, and even that is done by the existing firmware itself which keeps on checking from time to time to see if fresh updates are available.I am not sure how they do such things, but I guess that the signal has data with it which specifies which subscriber ids are able to decrypt which signal. If your id is included in the signal, your set top box will decrypt it.Some people keep trying to modify the set top box so that it shows the signals even if it is not authorised. But this requires out-of-the-ordinary technical skills and knowledge. Also, this is illegal in most countries.If you want to upgrade you package, call up the cc and they will do the needful.

 

[tech_enthu]

The STB receives all channels including a specific channel with data. This data set will contain the subscriber or STB id and the channel group (package) it is entitled to. The STB does the rest. This updating may be done on a cyclic basis, or only when data changes. Even the ids can be grouped and sent depending on the content. e.g. if subscribers with ids from 40000 to 90000 have selected the same package, all ids need not be sent. The SW people will know how the header of data packet can provide information about the contents of the packet.