Tata Sky HD plus internet connectivity (via LAN) coming soon!

[Sushubh]

IPTV is great. But the only one available in India is Airtel. And I dont think I'd be wrong if I say it's the worst and most crappiest IPTV experience in the world. Reliance looks good with their Microsoft OS based IPTV. But thats been "coming soon" for last 3 years so who knows how long will that take. Its probably gonna be a competition between Hayai and Reliance IPTV for the Duke Nukem forever trophy

i guess you have not heard about the IPTV services offered by third party service providers using the MTNL and BSNL networks. And I thought Reliance was offering their IPTV connections in some regions?

Airtel has been delivering a pretty decent service. Of course, i have nothing to compare it to. in my own experience, i had take airtel iptv connection over any DTH/CAS/Cable service provider.

 

[rajivkrishnan]

admin... yes well Myway is way crappier than reliance if you ask me. As of now in India Airtel is the way to go and even they could not bring up customers even in the metros. Being on a high-speed internet plan myself, they tried to hardsell IPTV to me. I mean come on, why would I take it with no kinda relevance to the whole viewing experience except the time-shift thingy.

 

[Sushubh]

time shift is awesome. if they had better combo plans like they had earlier, it was a cheap alternative to DTH.

 

[rajivkrishnan]

yeah... i know... but ever since TS folks bought out their remote record i effectively spook "tech novices" out with a similar gimmick. of course TimeShift is spectacular but I would still love to see it extend to every channel onboard Airtel. I dont understand why they cant do that. Some IB requirements or something?

 

[IMNS]

i guess you have not heard about the IPTV services offered by third party service providers using the MTNL and BSNL networks. And I thought Reliance was offering their IPTV connections in some regions?

Airtel has been delivering a pretty decent service. Of course, i have nothing to compare it to. in my own experience, i had take airtel iptv connection over any DTH/CAS/Cable service provider.

lol. BSNL and MTNL iptvs dont even count. Last I checked they didnt even have most of the major channels. I've been using airtel IPTV since the day it was released in delhi and while I liked it, I do not agree its a decent service at all. Only geeks like you and me can put up with such a crappy service. The video quality is way worse than Tata Sky, let alone TS HD. It takes freakin ages just to change channels or load up the EPG. The only thing they have going for them is the 7 day recordings for a select few channels. But finding a good movie is a huge PITA thanks to the crappy OS this box has.

I still liked it but then airtel messed up its broadband plans and IPTV just wasnt enough of a reason to put up with those idiots anymore. And after using TS HD+ for a week, there is no way I'm going back to airtel IPTV again. You do need to plan ahead and set stuff for recording in advance but using the guide on TS is a charm. You can watch the channel/recording while using the guide so unlike airtel, you dont need to waste 20 min staring on the ugly UI just to find a good movie. I can go through 4 days of programming for all of my fav channels on TS in less time than it takes me to go through one channel's EPG on airtel.

Also airtel didnt do anything to improve its iptv in all these years. No netflix type service. All they have is a few expensive movies. Not sure why they have such a limted catalog. I can understand why DTH has only a few movies available on demand but there is no techinical limitation for IPTV. Still they dont have anything. No real internet connectivity even though the servicce is provided by airtel, one India's biggest broadband provider. Can you think of anything they improved since the service launched 3 years ago? I'm trying really hard but nothing comes to mind.

EDIT: About reliance, they havent launched anywhere yet. They have some users who are testing the service for over two years now. lol.

 

[Sushubh]

no competition means no incentive to evolve the service. the fact remains i know a lot of folks who just recently got airtel iptv and they are more than happy with time shift functionality. people with jobs love it mostly as they are the ones with little time to set up recording etc. we need just one more player to launch comparable iptv service in india to push airtel to do more. the fact remains, airtel has not done much to improve their broadband services as well. things have been going downhill from their side in all the departments. whether it is mobile or dth or broadband. competition is not there. and that helps their cause. reliance has been blabbering about their iptv platform for years now. i do not see it as an option in my area or anywhere.

 

[rajivkrishnan]

i agree with admin here.... airtel has established a sort of a monopolistic view and having done that, they are pretty much blindsighted in providing the QoS promised. The only grouse that I have is no ISP licensee has had the guts to challenge their ill-managed setup till date. No kind of advertisement and no kind of forum publicity will do unless some kind of ground force is established. I would probably include Hayai as well in the hogwash list. I know admin will come back at me on this but well, as a layman user, I would love to stick to my ground.

 

[Sushubh]

hehe. i have my own doubts about hayai. but the recent developments have been more positive and the chances of its eventual launch next month are real than ever before.

 

[rajivkrishnan]

yeah well your doubts bout hayai are more than public arent they?and when you say launch.. does that mean in gurgaon?

 

[Sushubh]

not much worried about the launch in gurgaon. it just need to launch in mumbai and deliver what it has promised for so long. that would be a good enough development for me. i am pretty sure for hayai to arrive in my locality, it would take significant time.