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Reviews Wanted for MTNL IPTV
- Thread starter vebk
- Start date
- Replies 29
- Views 13,844
Ok. Here is a second hand point of view on MTNL Mumbai IPTV.It was installed in end December 2006 at my sisters place.The quality is comparable to Cable TV, but every 5 mins or so the picture 'cracks' - like a scratched VCD. It is irritating, but then you get used to it. also every 15 mins or so the picture freezes and within 10 secs it comes back. There are about 125 channels. All Star, Sony and the Regional channels. No Zee, HBO, ESPN, BBC, CNN as far as I recall. Supposedly they yet have to sign an agreement with Zee for relaying their channels. Get Al Jazeera though (it's good trust me)Ok reasons for opting for IPTV... 1)Cable operator aka robber was charging 3K for installation which was literally string a cable 3 meters to the tele from the building passage. Highway robbery and you are held to ransom.2)The Balcony does not face the desired direction for DTH. Society would not allow to put the Dish on terrace (think because they were trying to throw their weight aroun and also cable operator / thief stays in same building).3)The place where I stay, we have cable TV with CAS. Now the cable guy cut of all the pay channels. When we gave him a list of channels that we wanted, he said pay 320 for all channels. thus no pick and choose. Add to this rental of the box... goes upto 350+. Thieves.4)The Service of MTNL may suck big time but the problems will get resolved at about the same time that it would take 'private' players to do so. No Smile, No thank you. I can live without them if the problem is solved. What about you?Hardware:They replaced the D-Link modem with a UT Starcom 304R2U router consists of 4 LAN ports but no USB one.The set top box they had given earlier was a Kreatel which had dimesions similar to a small DVD player. They replaced it with one called 'Amino' which is literally the size of 3 single CD jewel cases stacked one on top of each other. So it is small. And powerful The picture quality apparently improved over the previous one. (Second person account)Cost:1000 for installation. Not yet received the first months bill.Verdict:Out of the clutches of the cable operators.Quality getting there but not yet. It can only get better.Other facts:You get VOD for a few titles have not checked it out but it's great pausing your signal and starting whenever you feel like. Also quality of the VOD is slightly better that rest of the content. Probably as less processing may be required (just guessing). Also the download speed shows as 4 MBps however the net is on a much slower speed. Also necessary that you setup a Bridge connection to connect to the Internet. PPPoE does not work.Additional Info:There is a Wireless LAN at home and the Wifi router has a RJ45 port at the back which is titled WAN. Connected a LAN straight through cable from the port labeled WAN to 1 port of the ADSL 2+ router. The Router is setup in Bridge mode. Setup the connection in the WiFi config page giving the username and password of the MTNL connection. No DNS server no Gateway nothing. DHCP is on in the WiFi router. The WiFi router connects and authenticates automatically as soon as it is turned on. Thus no need to give each PC in the LAN IP address of 192.168.X.X. Got WEP turned on though 
Any queries you guys may have may take a little time to answer. Please be patient.
Any queries you guys may have may take a little time to answer. Please be patient.
they have zillions of reasons to improve already. i am not sure if any of them is going to heaven after getting so many curses from us the end user. maybe they should just get things in order to have peace after death.
ok i called my local exchange person who handles IPTV services.what i liked most is he answered patiently and was dead honest.didnt hide anything. he clearly told me that it is still under trial andasked me to wait some months. he also said that even then ifi want it i can go for it.then he explained me process that. my place should be max 3kmfrom exchange and signal loss should be less than 30.he said first i need to apply then mtnl will check the criteria as abovethen MTNL person will install broadband modem (or change if alreadytaken on rent). if customer has own modem then he will have to purchasenew modem, he used some word i dont remember, but i think its just thatmodem should have min 2 ports (1 for broadband and 1 for iptv). so asstated above the utstar modem shud be enough.he then said that mtnl will then inform IOL and IOL will do the rest. i.e.come with STB and install it.then he said cat5 cable from router will goto IPTV stb. he also said thatif pc /broadband modem is in other room then its customers responsibityto get cat5 cable to tv room if he wants concealed wiring.he also said that 999rs is installation cost and it will not be returned evenif u cancel after using just for one hr.he said that it can take about 15days for whole process.then i asked him if i can have demo. so he said soon exchange will helda demo and he asked me for my phone number and told me that he willinform me when demo is to be held.overall good polite clear and MOST IMPORTANT honest conversation.
Subscribed to MTNL IPTV sometime in Nov/ Dec. Got it immediately. Video quality much better than cable. Initially not much of a choice, but the number of channels have gone up. MTNL had replaced the router with a new one having four ports.IPTV stopped working mid - January. Lodged complaints. IOL came and changed set top boxes, routers etc. MTNL guys came, saw that braodband is working fine, so no problem from their side. IOL guys have absolutely no idea on what they are doing. Lousy guys. MTNL guys may have limited knowledge, but they are very open about what they know and what they do not know. IOL guys will come and sit the whole day groping around in the dark - trying to fix the problem. In the process they screw up the modem settings, do not know what the default settings are.IPTV still to be fixed. IOL guys have stopped responding. They will not accept that they cant fix it. Waiting to see the end.
a few more additions to my previous post:1) The Set top box 'boots' up like a Laptop. Notice that I used the words laptop and not desktop. It is a considerable amount of time since you power on the box and when a picture comes on. something like 2 whole mins.2)In Dec the IOL guys mention that only about 12 had IPTV connection in the exchange. Approx 100 in Mumbai in December.3)The number of channels earlier offered was nothing to write home about but now a whole host of channels is there.4)Here is a killer suggestion for the MTNL/IOL guys to improve the number of users. Let each user have 1 GB space on MTNL servers and enable users to pause live TV. With a cricket mad country lot of people would like the option of pausing live TV to answer a phone etc.
supersoulfighter
Newbie
Being a User of Mtnl's IPTV, - let me tell you - The iptv which was installed 2 months ago in my house - and the iptv that i watch today - is COMPLETELY different - weather it be clarity wise, content wise - and Service wise. WHAT CLARITY - Simply UNBELEIVEABLE - and now they have also introduced some HD content which i am totally FLAWED by. For those of you who were not happy with the service provided - you guys need to call the hotline - which is 126000 - which i have to say is THEE most efficient service. The way things have improved is justsimply unbeleivable. we need to understand that this is the latest technology and hats off to mtnl who have actually succeeded in providing this to us. Give these guys another few months and take my word for it - u will share the same view that i have. cheers
yes i am waiting. i just hope by the time CAS comes in my area, IPTV has taken stable form. else i will be forced to STB from cable op. i also hope that IPTV STB rent is also reduced or they give direct purchase option for STB.