Thursday, March 15, 2007

Much improved broadcast of World Cup

According to reports the broadcast of the matches by Dialog TV yesterday was very much better than those of Day One of the World Cup. This hopefully means that things are finally becoming stable. It should also be noted that EPG has been activated for SET Max and Sab for the benefit of the viewers.

Some viewers have reported of a few black outs on the Sab channel but not many seem to have caught that one since the match on Sab was between Kenya & Canada and it seems that only a few have watched that one but overall it seems to have been less freezing, black outs and interruptions yesterday.

We hope that the improvements will continue as the days progress and we will be having a close eye on the broadcast quality.

50 comments:

Priyantha De Silva said...

@ Bwick,

I also agree with you. Set Max must keep the ratio.
Then anyone who wants to see different kind screen mode,
Can be able to choose from Channel Eye or set Max. If DTV gives
The same Channel Eye gives, Set Max is useless. But it isn’t.

I mentioned before , It’s better to give ability to us choose a screen
Mode using the Remote Controller . Then anyone who wants another
Ratio will be able to do that. This affects the films that shows
Mostly on HBO , Cinemax & AXN.

Jughead said...

re-setting has a 14 step process and not 5.

i emailed 'SU' and they gave me instructions on how to address the issue. now my DTV is back in action.

Thanks guys! had it not been for you guys i would have had to call DTV, be on hold for more than 10 minutes to get through as well as waste more time understanding how to get about fixing it.

As for the matches it was definitely an improved transmission especially on SETMAX.

so far channel 'EYE' has very little ads compared to 'SET' channels but i think it will be a different scenario when SL play. Everybody would want to join the band wagon as such to advertise leaving the viewer one 'Deliver less'

Unknown said...

ICC World Cup 2007 - Points Sheet

Please click on the link below to download you very own points sheet for the World Cup.

ICC World Cup 2007 Points Sheet

Angelo said...

Satellite signal interference can be due to rain and sun-spot activity (due to solar flares). Very high radiation levels during solar flares can disturb our signals. From where has Hush has got this data? How reliable is it?

Angelo said...

Jughead; would you mind giving us the step to do a restore. We dont want to do the wrong steps. As I said, CBN messed it up 1.5 years back.

Unknown said...

http://www.sundaytimes.lk/070311/FinancialTimes/ft303.html

I hope all of you have seen this article.
Looks like Muhunthan is not good in Arithmatics. Or Nushad Perera is not good in that.

Earlier CBN Sat claimed they have 25,000 subscribers and now Nushad says it had 10,000.
Maybe 15,000 subscribers discontinued after the last May close down. Or the arithmatic capabilities of some guys are very bad, OR CBN was telling lies in public about their subscriber base.

Maybe what they deny about their links to LTTE is also a lie too.

It seems LBN who also claimed 10,000 connections was doing much better as they only confined to a part of Colombo while CBN was covering the whole island.

I also heard that the LBN picture quality is much better than CBN and also they have more channels.

One of them had compared DTV to VCDs and LBN to DVD. I havent seen LBN still but if this is true, I want to know why we get lower quality pictures.

Jughead said...

free-man

instructions received from 'SU'

1. Turn on the decoder and go to menu by pressing the menu button on the
remote (Ignore what ever u see on the screen)
2.
Selected "Installation" and press ok
3.
Enter the 4 digit password (It’s 9949 by default)
4.
Select "Restore Factory defaults" and press ok, You’ll see a warning
saying all settings will be erased, press ok to that too.
5.
Now you’ll end up in Channel search screen with message "NIT Search
Failure". Press Exit button in the remote to go to the LNB/TP edit page.
6.
Press the red button (Modify LNB).
7.
In the modify LNB screen select Universal LNB and set it to ON. Then
Press Exit.
8.
Press the blue button (Manual Scan)
9.
In the manual scan screen make sure "Transponder" setting is set to TP1,
if not set it. As soon as you set it to TP1 the signal strength indicators
will light up.
10. On the same screen select "Start Scan" and press Ok.
11.
On the "Search Type" screen set "NIT Switch" to ON and "Scan Mode" to
All and press Ok.
12.
Scan will be done in few seconds. TP1 will show 18 TV channels
13. Do the same to TP2 (from step no. 9) TP2 will show 18 TV channels + 9 radio
14.
Press exit to go to the normal mode. You’ll have the channel list

it works. i have kept a hard copy @home in case somebody plays with it and screws up again.

btw as most of you guys who watched the match would have experienced, DTV went out of order very frequently at the begining of the match.
now I'm from the outsation and i dont get channel 'EYE' clearly and was kept in the dark. further freezing and blackouts continued for a long time.
'Mala panalai hitiye'

i didnt know what was happening initially. whether the fault was from my end or what.

so i would like to suggest to DTV, in future if you guys experience technical difficulties from your end or the satellite, please put up a message (since the facility is already there) so the viewers would know what exactly is the problem. i'm sure others also would agree with me.

bank_dude said...

I started to watch the cricket match around 8pm and during that time it was cloudy. But I got signal 73% and quality 48%. One of my friends said that he had no signal aroung 7.30pm. I checked the quality and signal strength around 9.30pm and I got signal 74% quality 61%. But past few days it was aroung 74% & 56%. I think DTV had done something to improve yesterday's transmission because it is hard to obtain 74% & 61% levels during the night these days.

Looser said...

Yesterday it was much much better. Thanks to DTV for there action to fix the freezing problem. Blackouts were there only for few seconds.

Kalu DTV eken gihillada?

Jughead - Thanks for your info.

Mario said...

Yes, except for the beginning of the match when there was some rain and lighting and DTV went really crazy... the rest of the feed was close to perfect. Tks DTV, we hope this will improve.

DLR said...

Yesterday when I switch on the decorder around 7.30p.m. light is red , so I try to contact dtv customer care, as usual they kept me on hold around 20min. sky is cloudy but not very strong clouds. suddenly my decorder signal came with 58% quality. Earlier it was 49%.
thks if dtv has done to improve the quality. But why they kept my such a long time on hold? Then I contact dialog gsm customer care to check the bill.

they have charged 4x21=Rs.81+vat for calling dtv customer care.But gsm customer care person give some instructions about decorder reseting too. they may know better than shit dtv Customer care peapole.
Thank you dtv for giving me a oportunity to spend my money for future today

Jughead said...

d.l.r.

Thats the very reason i said DTV should put a notice (as & when such things happen)giving reasons for the interruption whether it be an internal problem, turbulent weather etc.), then customers need not call them and spend their hard earned money just to be on hold.

Remember long time ago when ITN was the only channel available and they used to put a notice whenever there was a power failure. although it was irritating to see such messages on a positive note it was informative.

Looser said...

Can some please tell me how to get Porgramme fro Zone Reality??

Looser said...

Can someone please tell me how to get the Programe guide for Zone Reality??

Mario said...

Looser, go to

http://www.realitytvasia.com/tvguide.php

Jughead said...

looser

try

http://www.realitytvasia.com/

it has a 7 day guide starting from the current date.

i think we get the indian feed so you'll have to pick India from the drop down list.

i dont watch that channel but since you do you may know whether its the correct one or not. :)

Looser said...

I already tried that but it's not the Indian feed we are getting.

Thanks Anyway

Priyantha De Silva said...

I'm out from Colombo,
My decoder had shown red light last night about 6.40 till 10.00 .I was unable to touch with Customer Care as usually. But After the Match I contacted with them about 2.00 am quickly. They told me they had a technical problem. But I don't think so 'Couse it was some cloudy sky & about 20 minutes rain.

Priyantha De Silva said...

Thanx DTV,
We are able to watch both matches on same day same time that is happening
live 'couse DTV. Even channel Eye doesn't telecast other recorded match or evenhighlights.

Priyantha De Silva said...

Looser,
Above addresses are correct.
Also you can try
"http://www.realitytv.co.uk/tvguide.php?sf=2"

But yu have to do something.On left hand side (Near the auto date)of the screen,
Change the country to " India" otherwise you'll get "UK" guide.

Unknown said...

Comet has got caught to SETMAX,trying to plugin the TATASKY broadcast of SETMAX yesterday,They have tried to cover up the logo and the scroll indicationg that the signal was the property of TATASKY.

I think SETMAX got involved and immediatly stopped the feed.

Mario said...

So coment does it again ! I think we should infrom the Tata sky and Set max management about this..But i guess the news may have got to them already .. I cant undersatand why comet has to resort to such action. Eighter get a proper legal feed or ,If they cant get the feed, fine, jus say they cant, THATS IT!

By the why, have ul have heard of a DTH called EUROSTAR ? Iv seen the dish on lots of homes.

SAD® said...

Yes, Comet showed the match for a while and there were notices on the screen saying if you are watching this on Cable please call a number (which was an Indian number I suppose). Comet tried to block that message but I think ultimately gave up.

After a while they switched back to VH1 saying the Indian feed has been terminated.

There were some blackouts on Eye too - one which lasted about 10 minutes. Sometimes they didn't have audio. So I guess this could be a problem at the source in WI.

Anyhow the quality of the transmission is not on par with something we would have elsewhere, like if the WC was in India, Australia or SA. I think Nimbus doesn't have the technological maturity of say Ch9, Australia which gives superb coverage.

Eye also displayed a notice saying SLRC has the sole right to broadcast the WC in SL and any other media that broadcast this is liable for legal action by SLRC. Don't know if this was aimed at DTV and not sure where they stand in legal terms.

Priyantha De Silva said...

@AMD,

Also I’ve seen “EUROSTAR” DTH systems.
Then I contacted one of seller . He told me it cost
17,000 rupees & there are 42 FTA channels.
Like Zee channels, DD channels & TV Lanka.
I think it is the same one that sells on Global,
Maharahama. ( see on Sunday Times “Hit Add”)
I think , It’s real value will be Rs.9,800. Nothing worth
Of it.

@SAD,
After I ask from DTV, They said It's not about him & they've sign
to show Eye on DTV , with knowing
that DTV going to show the World Cup using another channel.
SLRC's message is published today's
Lankadeepa too. I think It's to get publicity for their Rights.

SAD® said...

@Priyantha

Guess you are right. The World Cup site says Sony (SET MAX) is licensed to show the WC in SL as Pay Television and also states that CBN Satellite has a sub license with rights for DTH.

http://cricketworldcup.indya.com/event/broadcaster.htm

Mario said...

Tks Priyantha, yes i saw the global ad.

SAD - From what i understand, SLRC has the rights for pay television, and DTV has a sub-license for DTH.
So both have a different license for different transmission, both are legal. I dont understand what the confusion is between SLRC and DTV.
The issue is with DTV & COMET.

Unknown said...

No guys,The issue is with LBN they are rebroadcasting the eye signal through their cable system which is illegal as the third grade act of comet showing the DD feed and unsucessfully trying to pirate into the SETMAX feed of TATASKY.

The advertisment is aimed at LBN, and with stricker laws,i think comet and LBN are going to have it for this illegal activities,even which they have done in the past.

Mario said...

guys do u think, we should write inform Tata sky or Set Max and infrom them ? what do ul think ?

Jughead said...

i personally feel that ALL THE CABLE/SATELITE OPERATORS in SL should have been given the right to show the WC. after all we all want to watch SL play & win the WC again.

Had it been shown on ESPN/STAR this issue wouldnt have occurred.

All the people who have got other connections are left high & dry for no fault of theirs.(opportunity cost? nah, i dont think so.)

kaluperuma said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Vishkid said...

Almost everyone in SL can watch the world cup (at least all Sri Lankan matches) through Eye. Eye is visible to 90% of the island and your capital cost (at most) will be a good VHF antennae.

So all this crap about this pay tv having WC and this pay tv not is a matter of egos.

Let us not worry about world cup worries or glories of other channels (let Dialog and Eye worry about infringements) and try to get DTV to improve service .. which they hv done a little bit since the last match.

However, he fact that something is available does not make it legal. That's a fact that we should keep in mind when getting pay-tv but even then if you like the odds and risks .. what to do :D

You hv come some way DTV - show us some more effort.

Unknown said...

I ALSO AGREE THAT EVERBOADY SHOULD BE GIVEN THE OPPORTUNITY TO WATCH THE WORLD CUP,BUT I DONT AGREE ON COMET CABLE GOING TO A LOW LEVEL AS THIS.WHEN A REPUTED MEDIA INSTITUTION TRIES TO COVER UP A PIRATED FEED IT IS UNACCEPTABLE AND LACK OF ETHICS AND EXPOSES THE CALIBRE OF THE PEOPLE RUNNING THE COMPANY.

THEY SHOULD HAVE COME TO AN AGREEMENT WITH EITHER EYE OR DTV TO BROADCAST THIS

Priyantha De Silva said...

What happened to Channel Eye on DTV ?
Anyone can explain exactly ?

@ Anea , Where are you these days ?

Angelo said...

SET Max is OK, despite freezing once in a while. However, ads in the middle of the screen can be annoying – disturbing view of the ball during play. Still they don’t show a complete over without interruption.

Channel EYE may be paying a hefty amount monthly to DTV, to come on board. Now, DTV has removed channel EYE. EYE is not received throughout SL and DTV was the only way some people could have watched it. Now that’s gone and DTV puts an ad demanding Rs. 200/= to show the match. This is certainly not cricket. DTV could have kept EYE and made it a marketing tool for future matches. They better learn some marketing methods – not to kill your golden goose.

All bloggers here (including me) are DTV users who want a good service. We like DTV to be a top class pay-TV provider. DTV better take note of our comments. To brush off criticism as being from competitors, is certainly not professional. This blog site can be a very good marketing tool for DTV, if authorities take note of what’s happening here without going into deep slumber or dismissing as competitor views. You have still time to wake up. Over to you, DTV Team!


Jug head, Thanks a lot for the info.

sonik said...

The signal failure or "rain Interruptions" on dtv are not caused due to a signal loss at the
customers end. I know this because i was able to recieve "maharshi veda vision" (one of the other channel available on IS12) on an
FTA reciever using the dtv dish, while dtv signal was still out. Hence, it is a problem between dtv and IS12.

And as for "sun outages", satellites are equipped with backup batteries which are capable of supplying power to the entire
satellite so that it can handle its maximum capacity of bandwidth. Dtv has to fix the problem at their end. It is their transmitters that seem to be not powerful enough.

Rasika said...

I am in the process of buying an DTV can anyone tell me wether LOST is shown on AXN?

Priyantha De Silva said...

@ Rasika,
U can download monthly schedule & see what on AXN ,
Go to
"http://www.axn-asia.com/schedule/"

Radikal Zee said...

can any1 enlighten me on how to receicve FTA channels, reusing sum resources available with DTV ?

Sudhar said...

How about rain issues!
This was the article on the Sunday Times, today

Inter-monsoon rains expected shortly
By Nadia Fazlulhaq

Despite certain climatic changes prevailing around the country, the inter-monsoon season is about to begin, a Met. Department official said.


http://www.sundaytimes.lk/070318/News/110news.html

Unknown said...

Dear Dialog Tv,

It is with great displeasure that I write this e mail,your service on dtv is horrendous to say the least.I was a comet cable subscriber till january of this year and in mid january sold that connection and bought one of yours and sorry to say all I've had is problems,problems and more problems.

During a light shower or heavy shower no signala on dtv and when I contacted customer care which in itself is a real task simply that you keep your phone lines engaged the simple answer is it is a regular the ku band signals.

My question to you when you sell your connections do you say

1.This unit does not work when it rains.

2.When it rains in the uplink area this does not work

3.customer service hotlines will be kept busy for hours until the rain stops.

4.you can rectify the problem in your area by using a bigger dish which we don't provide you buy it if you want to.

5.Channels will be taken off when dtv wishes (eg:VH1)

6.we will deduct from your subscription the days there is rain and thus you don't have signals.

I dont know about all you guys and gals in this forum but i after having dtv for just over 2 months i'm really sick of their services if you'll dtv have problems with ku band you should change it to C band and give us better quality without giving us pictures with slight pixels.

You'll also have increased the prices of subscriptions/tranfer fees & amounts when shifting to another location.

Before all this you'll should think of your subscriber base who have taken a beating from the time cbn sat was there by adding more channels like star world,star movies,ten sports,disney tv,boomerang etc which other satellite tv providers like dish tv are giving all 160 channels for a monthly subscription of Rupees 1550 even if 60 channels are of no use still there is 100/lbn gives around 60 still lesser than you'll so what do you'll have to say hopefully not (we are doing are best so please bear with us) you'll should have checked all these factors before you launched dtv hope something will be done soon

amilarox said...

Guys,
I've heard that LBN is going to give HBO family, HBO hits channels.

I think if dialog tv is going to add new channels they must add those channels too.

Here's the channels i think DTV should add to the line up.
1. STAR WORLD
2. STAR MOVIES
3. TEN SPORTS
4. HBO HITS
5. HBO FAMILY
6. CHANNEL V
7. BLOOMBERG
8. TOON DISNEY
9. DISNEY CHANNEL

AND IF THEY CAN NEO SPORTS TOO.

HBO FAMILY AND HBO HITS are east asian feeds. But LBN is giving them only for Rs. 1100/= + VAT

SO DTV,
IF YOU WANT MORE SUBSCRIBERS, YOU SHOULD ADD THESE TO THE LINE UP. (bcoz now LBN is digital too, and they only charge Rs 10,000/= for installation)

Looser said...

Why do they telecast Matches in both hindi And English Languages?
No one is watching Hindi commentary in SL.

Why didin't they telecast the match between Pak Vs Ireland? It was telecasted on Pix, I thought DTV will telecast all the matches. They should really think about it.

Will this happen to West Indies Vs Zimbabwe match on 19th too?

Mario said...

When there in an Indian match on, SAB will telecast the same match in Hindi. Other time it will telecast the other match in English. PIX is only showing 3 matches.

Jughead said...

@looser

if i'm not mistaken, DTV showed PAK Vs IRELAND matCh on SAB

Looser said...

Jughead - It was India Vs Bangladesh on SAB in Hindi. DTV didn't telecast it.

Vishkid said...

When India plays, Sony will show the English commentary on Max and Hindi commentary on SAB. The other match on the same day would be shown on PIX.

It will happen today too ..

However, it will not be a big issue as India might drop out of the super 8 .. :D

Interesting world cup - even for a non-interested guy like me.

Sattvasia.Com said...

DTV Management - Plz transfer channels like Discovery, Animal planet, Travel&living, Nat Geo, History...etc to their Asian
transmissions instead of Indian. I'm tired of Hindi crap. Because most Asian transmissions of these channels are commercial
free or less. ( Eg - A1, Zonerialty, AXN ). I think time comparison also not difficult and others agree with me.
Sometimes Discovery, NatGeo, Travel n living , Animal palent carry long Hindi commercial programmes.
Nick also carries huge number of programmes with Hindi feeds. Most of these channels have less commercial Asian transmissions. Sri Lanka is not a Hindi country and no one can understand Hindi. Why DTV can't do that. Anyone know.....?

Looser said...

I think DTV get Zone Reality DSTV Africa so like that they might get the Discovery & NGC channels from that.

Even Star sports & ESPN also has lots of hindi programmes now.

sonik said...

Have you guys heard cinemax trailers in chinese? thats hilarious. dtv has to change the audio line of cinemax. and same goes for cartoon network. i heard a programme in tamil one day, which shudve been in english. (i'm not against the tamil language or anything, but i think a majority will understand english)

dtv must change their location of broadcasting and also increase the number of transponders their using. they need at least 3 transponders to successfully transmit the existing number of channels. and i think dtv should move to another satellite. maybe even an insat. coz the pixellation problem is pathetic. especially the zee channels. their unwatchable.

i think dialog shud think about improving their service now rather than expand their customer base. right now, their NOT thinking about their customers, they dont even care! And i dont think they realize that a pay tv service simply doesnt remove and change channels the way they want. they obviously lack the sense of quality and are focussing on their monetary gain only. the removal of channel eye during the matches highlights this. i certainly hope that another DTH operator would begin services in Sri Lanka. that is the only thing that could motivate them to give better service. no service provider should be allowed to dominate, and unfortunately dtv is able to do that right now.

Sattvasia.Com said...

DTV wasting their transponder space. Better they drop unnecessary Hindi craps and improve quality of picture.
Normally 2 transponders can only carry maximum 28 Channels with better picture quality. Tata sky have 12 transponders and
120 channels on their flat form. They carry only 10 channels on one transponder. But DTV have 36 channels+9 Radios.
It is like a DVD with 10 movies..

DTV should transfer channels like Discovery, Animal planet, Travel&living, Nat Geo, History...etc to their Asian
transmissions instead of Indian. I'm tired of Hindi crap. Because most Asian transmissions of these channels are commercial
free or less. ( Eg - A1, Zonerialty, AXN ). I think time comparison also not difficult and others agree with me.
Sometimes Discovery, NatGeo, Travel n living , Animal palent carry long Hindi commercial programmes.
Nick also carries huge number of programmes with Hindi feeds. Most of these channels have less commercial Asian transmissions.
Sri Lanka is not a Hindi country and no one can understand Hindi...........