Monday, February 23, 2009

DTH or Cable TV?

Enjoy the ad of Dish TV by clicking on link given below. Don’t waste much time in watching this complete video, as I am going to explain you in this blog, how people wastes their valuable time dealing with DTH service which provides just for shear entertainment.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHpkPKhYUjY

"Thoda Aur wish Karo. Dish Karo" ("Wish a little bit more, install Dish TV") is the slogan of very popular and famous DTH Service provider Dish TV by Zee network. I have a Bad experience of Dish TV to share with all you guys.

I am regular user of Cable since last 15 years and Dish TV since last 1.5yrs. When DTH was launched in India, I was very much excited about it. I was eager to know how it is different than the normal cable. The difference is there, but it comes with the cost of money from your pocket and time of your life. Yes I mean it. There are lot of DTH services available in the market like Dish TV, Tata Sky, Airtel, Big TV and a lot more. All comes in the range of 1500 to 3000 INR. All provides almost equal number of channels except some more or less channels here and there. Let's take a look on the basic and common features of Dish TV as per my experience.

My punch line for this blog is:

"YOU NEED TO COMPROMISE WITH YOUR VALUABLE TIME TO GET THE QUALITY SERVICES FROM DTH AS AGAINST CABLE TV WHICH DISTURBS YOU ONLY ONCE(MONTHLY) WHEN THEY COME TO COLLECT MONTHLY CABLE PAYMENT"

Advantages of Dish TV
-----------------------
1. Digital Picture quality
This feature is really admirable as all the channels are very clear and having an excellent sharpness.
2. Dolby Audio
Don't even dare to compare it with Cable TV audio. Fantastic Superb.
3. Information Bar
This bar provides all the Current and future program details, but sometimes you will find that information is not updated over there. Still its very good feature.
4. Special features like channel recordings, special camera angles for cricket, movies on demand etc. but of course you need to 'pay' for all these services.

5. Highly advance payment options like recharge cards, online payment, drop boxes
Facility etc.
Risks are always there while making online transaction of say Rs. 350 or 500 Rs. As far as drop boxes are concerns, God only knows when the guys come to collect your cheque. It’s pathetic and very unsafe. You will remain in tension till you will get the updates from Dish TV that your payments are being received.

6. Dish TV never goes in down mode unless you do not have electricity at home and
Your set top box is working well.

No doubt these are very advance features which really changed the face of the cable TV. Lot of people opted for Dish TV and thus Cable TV business goes down. But if you compare DTH with cable TV, it comes with great relief of course at the cost of quality but the saving of money and your valuable time.

How do you waste your valuable time with DTH?

1. Recharging every month. (Monthly 10 minutes + mental stress of extra payment and online banking transaction + remembering the recharge dates every month)
Yes you have to log into respective website every month and recharge your subscription without fail. Otherwise, these people will call you and make your life tough. Moreover, these people will charge you more in case of late recharge.

2. Studying of different schemes of the DTH company.(30 minutes + end up with dilemma about various packages)
You will have to pay hell lot of time while selecting a suitable scheme from lot many schemes available on this DTH website. Its very time consumable and when you select particular scheme, while watching it on your favorite TV set, you will find you have missed some of your favorite channels.

3. Paying penalty if you recharge late.
This is pathetic. Why this penalty is required?

4. Every month you need to log in into the website and pay the money. Or you need to go to dealer and pay some extra money and then submit the payment (assuming I am recharging monthly and not annually for which I am getting only 5% to 10% concession of total annual amount).

5. For any issue you need to call to customer care which is very hopeless as compare to local support provided by cable guys. At least you need not have to pay huge phone bills due to calling to customer care services.

6. In case, you’re set top box is faulty then everything will be on toss for you. You will have to pay Rs. 150 to call the service man to check the set top box and pay the repairing cost for the same from your pocket.

7. NO local channels. Suppose you want to check what’s happening in your city like Pune. Like Live “Ganesh Visarjan Miravnuk”. No option in DTH. You will have to satisfy it by seeing in news. But Cable provides this very special customized channel and broadcast anything happening in your city. I think this is the best point in Cable.

8. You can request to your cable guy and ask for any specific movie as per your request. Cable operator will take time for this to execute. But once he will find that lot many people are demanding for this movie, he will definitely play it. Or else if you have good friendship with cable guy, he will play your favorite movie without many requests. Believe me it happens in India.


9. Cable charges are fixed.

As against of this, Cable guy comes once at your home, connects cable wire to your TV and only sends his payment collectors to collect the monthly bills.

Following are the benefits of the Cables as per my opinion
No online transactions,
No customer care phones,
No late charge,
No maintenance cost,
No set top box issue,
No mental tension to remember the charging dates.
No need to delete sms from your Inbox due to unnecessary sms from DTH providers.
No need to study hopeless schemes by the DTH providers.
Huge time saving due to avoidance of above issues.

So what do you think? Do you want to enjoy the superb picture quality and Dolby sound at the cost of your precious time plus mental stress plus risks of small amount online payments? I would like to hear you.

So let’s change the slogan of Dish TV

“Aur mat Dish karo….Cable Karo” (Don’t go for Dish Tv, Go for Cable Tv)

Love
Ashwin Shende