Friday, August 31, 2007

Set Plan officially launched

According to a report in the Daily News today titled "Worlds First from Dialog TV" it says that Dialog TV have officially launched "Set Plan" which is a method of selecting channels not in your package for an additional fee.

It is best to call customer care and get more information about the channels available in the Set Plan. However we have some information that was submitted by one of our fellow bloggers and we are listing it below.

1. Z-Studio, Z-Cafe, Australia Network, Vijay TV --> Rs.50
2. Z-Cafe, Z-Studio, Nick, MTV --> Rs.50
3. CNN, Cartoon Network, AXN, Zone Reality --> Rs.150
4. History, Animal Planet, Discovery, National Geographic Channel --> Rs.200
5. Z-Trendz, VH1 --> Rs.100
6. Star World, Set Sab --> Rs.100
7. SRTV, Set Max, Star Plus --> Rs.150
8. Discovery Travel & Living, National Geographic Adventure, Star Sports --> Rs.150
9. Animax, Set, BBC --> Rs.150
10. Neo Sports, Hallmark, Cinemax --> Rs.200
11. Pogo, Star Movies, Ten Sports --> Rs.200
12. Neo Sports Plus, ESPN, Star Cricket --> Rs.200
13. HBO, HBO Family, HBO Signature, HBO Hits --> Rs.400

The Rs 100/= Package Holders can choose from any of the above Plans. The Rs 500/= Package Holders can choose from Plan 5 to 13. Rs 900/= package holders can choose between Plan 11 to 13. There is no plan for the Rs 1400/= package holders since they have all the channels in the Dialog TV lineup at the moment. According to information subscribers would be able to order their plans from tomorrow onwards. Dialog claims this to be the first in the world, however SKY Digital UK and American DTH providers have similar plans where viewers can choose between particular channels for an additional fee.

The above plans give subscribers greater flexibility and freedom to choose channels according to what they can afford. It would have been much better if Dialog had categorized the plans as "Educational Pack", "Sports Pack", "News Pack", "Music Pack", etc. It could have been further separated into English, Hindi and Tamil Packs too giving subscribers greater flexibility in choosing their desired package according to their language of preference.

In other news it seems that the rain fade issue on Dialog TV (Rain fade is a problem with all DTH providers anywhere in the world) has been reduced to a great extent. It seems that over the last few days even during heavy rain the fade was limited to a few minutes only. We hope that our fellow bloggers will be able to provide us further information on the time period of rain fade that they encountered.

Dialog TV should take steps to reduce the time taken for the EPG to load when a channel is selected and they should also update the software so that the EPG for other channels can be viewed without changing the channel that one is watching. It should be said that Dialog TV have finally renamed "A1" to "Nat Geo Adventure" in the broadcast information screen as well as on the website but looks like they forgot to update the logo since the old logo still exists on the website instead of the new "Nat Geo Adventure" Logo. They have also stopped classing Zone Reality as a new channel and hopefully they will correct the Zone Reality EPG soon since this problem has been highlighted over and over again but no corrective steps have been taken. We hope that Dialog TV will refrain from making silly mistakes such as these in the future. We urge Dialog TV to make sure that their October programme guide is totally error free. There are some errors in the September programme guide and these were highlighted in the previous post.

Please keep us updated on the latest on Dialog TV as the days progress.

48 comments:

soorapappa...සූරපප්පා said...

Finally, with this plan DTV will get a market grip again (According to my understanding, of course :-). One of my comet friend who is about to get Dish connection, now decided against it. Because he needs most sports channels + infotainment and he can only afford < 1000 per month. Now he can get what he wants, according to his budget.
Also DTV can introduce more menus as well and attract more customers (I can say that these are the REAL innovative marketing, not that setting a deadline and asking do or die from their loyal customers).

619 said...

Good work DTV !!

Thanks Soorapappa !

kumara said...

ADMIN,

DTVs CLAIM THAT THESE SET PLANS ARE INNOVATIVE AND FIRST IN THE WORLD IS NOT THE TRUTH. THIS IS AGAIN INNVOVATIVELY MISLEADING CUSTOMERS. THERE ARE SO MANY CABLE OPERATORS IN OTHER COUNTRIES WHO HAVE OFFERED PACKS WITH GREATER FLEXIBILITY TO CUSTOMERS.

ADMIN YOU HAVE RIGHTLY POINTED OUT THIS.

AS YOU SAY IT WOULD HAVE BEEN MUCH BETTER IF DTV COULD HAVE DESIGNED PACKS FOR " MOVIES" " NEWS " " SPORTS " " ENTERTAINMENT " " EDUCATION " " COMPLIMENTARY " ETC.

BUT DTV CANNOT DO IT NOW. BECAUSE THE BASIC PACKAGE STRUCTURE DOES NOT WARRANT THEM TO DESIGN PACKS LIKE THAT. THIER BASIC PACKAGE IS SO INFLEXIBLE THAT THEY CANT DO THE WAY YOU ARE PROPOSING.

AND ALL NEW CHANNELLS WHICH ARE GOING TO BE ADDED IN FUTURE WILL BE GROUPED IN TO PACKS LIKE THIS ANF BE OFFERED TO CUSTOMERS.

yakuza said...

nice package structure

i will be able to select interesting channels and pay the same amount

619 said...

one of my friends said he receive life-time warranty for his DTV Dish & decoder. But as my knowledge we have only 1 year warranty for that.

can this be true ?

russel said...

cant dtv just fix the problem with set sab or just get rid of that channel.

not only in set sab but also in SET channel also there is freezing problem now.

Neo and plus also have the earlier freezing problem.

the pic quality in tensports, espn, hallmark is like a piece of shit. ( i mean, dis evening.)

But you have to say that the pic uality in STARMOVIES is really superb and they are showing really good new quality movies. Thats the only movie channel i am watching.

MACHAN ALF

will you pls give me the contact details for your dish tv guy. I 'm gonna try dish tv also.

pls help...

russel said...

Jesika

does your friend have a heart attack or a cancer?
if so he/she/it etc.. will be given a life time warranty.

Ekendra Edrisinghe said...

I notice that there appears to be an imbalance in the audio levels of each channel. Anyone else experiencing this?

kavanr said...

Algazeera just now announced a program on the war in Sri Lanka after the News i.e. maybe around
2 AM and probably repeated

yakuza said...

hey
did any of you get a 'set plan' activated?

can we downgrade to 100/= from higher packages and get new channels according to the 'set plan'

619 said...

yakuza

I called CC
but she said still they cant activate and they will let us know when its available.
I know they will never call us. we have to check it again and again...
its DTV cc no? LOL

Thanura said...

In every pack DTV has allocated Good channel with a hindi channels. It's Better if they can introduce sports pack, movie pack etc...........

If someone wants sports channels they will have to pay money for some useless channels too. and will have to buy 5 packs to get all sports channels.

This is a tactic used by dialog TV. They have allocated hindi channels to most packs so they can make money out of those channels too. Otherwise no one will buy those hindi channels.

Guys any comments..........

kumara said...

THANURA,

DTV CANNOT IMPLEMENT PACKS AS YOU HAVE PROPOSED. EVEN ADMIN HAS SUGGESTED SAME. IF YOU CHECK THEIR BASIC PACKAGE STRUCTURE YOU WILL UNDERSTAND WHY THEY CANT DO IT.

DTV HAS DONE THE BEST ACCORIDING THE PREVAILING PACKAGE STRUCTURE. THERE IS NO WAY THEY CAN INTRODUCE SEPARATE PACKS. EVEN IF THEY IMPLEMENT SUCH PACKS, IT WILL BE ONLY USEFUL TO 100 AND 500 PACKAGE CUSTOMERS. THEN AGAIN THE COST OF SUCH SET PALNS WILL BE SO HIGH, THERE WILL BE VERY LITTLE DEMAND FROM THAT CUSTOMER GROUPS.

EVEN IN FUTURE THE SET PALNS WILL BE AS ABOVE, FOR NEW CHANNELS THAT WILL BE INTRODUCED.

MAY BE, WHEN DTV HAS ABOUT 50 NEW CHANNELS THEN THEY CAN INTODUCE SET PLANS LIKE THAT, GROUPING SIMILAR CHANNELLS TOGETHER. BUT THAT IS FOR THE FUTURE. BUT NOT FUTURE TODAY

619 said...

What will happen to the set plan when new channels introduce ?
Will they change the prices?
What happen to excising set plan users ?

619 said...

I have already select the setplan groups I need.

Pogo,Star Movies,Ten Sports --> Rs.200 is the Best !!!

Fahim said...

@yakuza

About downgrading to Rs. 100 and activating set plans, called CC to find out about it. Apparently, downgrading to the Rs. 100 plan involves some delay since you need to request it via writing. Apparently, DTV has recently changed the Rs. 100 plan to include a Rs. 1000 (one time) installation charge in addition to the Rs. 12,500 one-time charge for normal installations. I asked the CC guy how come this charge is there since it is not mentioned on their website. Got the usual response of "we haven't gotten around to it yet".

According to the guy I spoke to, I can downgrade to Rs. 100 after sending them a letter, then wait for the downgrade and then select the set plan of my choice via the IVR itself instead of having to call CC. At least, that's what I was told. But then again, the guy also told me that Rs. 500 and Rs. 900 package people don't get a printed channel guide ... and two hours later, I got my channel guide in my postbox. So I am not very confident that DTV CC guys actually know what their own organization actually does :p

yakuza said...

dfsf

yakuza said...

@jesika

maybe we'll have to wait till monday to get set plan

@fahim

it's rubbish if we have to go through that much to get downgraded.

did you call english or sinhala c/c line?

kavanr said...

The setplan groups are useless for me. I will remain on 900.

When I called CC and asked why I haven't got program guide, they said they are no longer sent to 500 and 900 customers.

Clearly if DTV wanted to give flexibility set groups should have been divided based on language and content.

Fahim said...

@yakuza
I called the English CC line but given the lack of knowledge they showed, I doubt it's any better with the Sinhala line :p

@kavan
They told me the same thing (that the program guide is not given to 500 and 900 customers) but I got my first program guide in the mail a few hours after that. Of course, I've been a DTV customer for about 2-3 months now and this is the first guide I've received.

City Hits said...

Finalized SET PLAN:
Lite 100 Package

Set 1 Z Studio / Z Café / Australia Network / Vijay TV 50/-
Set 2 Z Café / Z Studio / Nick / MTV 50/-
Set 3 CNN/ CN / AXN / Zone Reality 150/-

Set 4 History / Animal Planet / Discovery / NGC 200/-

Lite 100/Super 500 Packages

Set 5 Z Trendz / VH1 100/-

Set 6 Star World / Sony SAB 100/-

Set 7 SRTV / Set Max / Star Plus 150/-

Set 8 Disc T&L / Nat Geo Adventure / Star Sports 150/-
Set 9 Animax / Sony Set / BBC 150/-
Set 10 Neo Sports / Hallmark / Cinemax 200/-

Lite 100/Super 500/Great 900 Packages
Channels Price (Rs.)

Set 11 POGO / Star Movies / 10 Sports 200/-

Set 12 Neo Sports Plus / ESPN / Star Cricket 200/-

Set 13 HBO / HBO Sig / HBO Hitz / HBO Family 400/-

City Hits said...

Sorry for the late Lads & guyz...
SET SAB & SONY SET channels are down due to an urgent (FINAL) upgrading. i'll inform once the channels back.
@yakuza,Fahim,Kavan:
PG (programme guide is available for both 1400 & 900Pkg holders. 500pkg holders can get it from the nearest service points.(arcade, ODEL...)
Hope every this is perfect... sorry for the big delay.

justavisitor said...

Dialog TV taps ‘sachet market’

Dialog TV with plans to service more viewers while customising its satellite television broadcast is currently looking at launching the new scheme; Set Plans.
Set Plan allows customers to add selected channels to their existing Dialog TV packages for a nominal fee from a wide range of different channel groupings designed to cater to different customer expectations which starts from Rs 50.
Dialog Telekom Ltd. General Manager - Sales and Marketing Nushad Perera told Sunday LAKBIMAnEWS FEB that the new strategy will help expand the market while providing the viewers the chance to decide what channels that they prefer to view.
“Currently our customer base is almost 31,000 and with this affordable Set Plan scheme which offers 13 plans, we are looking at reaching the ‘sachet market’ which is highly potential,” he said.
He also confirmed that the company has no plans in expanding its services in the areas of IPTV where the existing decoder box is not capable of handling uplinks.

lakbimanews

kumara said...

SO NUSHAD PERERAS " INNOVATIVE MARKETING " IS OVER NOW. THE NEW CONCEPT IS " SACHET MARKET ". HOW MANY CONCEPTS.. ...

MR. NUSHAD PERERA, WHY DONT YOU TELL THE TRUTH. THIS IS ALL EXPLOITATION OF CUSTOMERS AND MAXIMIZING OF PROFIT .... WE DONT CARE WHAT MARKETING YOU ARE DOING AS LONG AS WE ARE GIVEN A GOOD QUALITY SERVICE FOR OUR HARD EARNED MONEY....

Angelo said...

With the set plan options, DTV will be able to cater to a bigger market than at present. For example, there are many people who like to get educational channels without the movies. Suits them well.

When you use the EPG, sometimes the list jumps from one day to another automatically. What I do is, I set a reminder for a prog. Then it stays in the same day.

Any remote controller can get spoilt if the batteries are weak. It's better to replace the batteries (AAA size?), as soon as you notice slow response.

@Jesika,

There's only a one year warranty for the decoder. Make sure you protect it from power problems. (Have a stabilizer or a power guard.)

Priyantha De Silva said...

The program schedule for this month will be available from tomorrow.

DigitalTV said...

I hv created a small excel sheet to calculate the new Rental with set plan
I know you guyz can calculate it easily. but this is for fun......

pls download from
http://www.zshare.net/download/344697629e8f57/


have fun !!

DigitalTV said...

Note : The above file is only for humans not for dogs!
Download it only if you like to download ! others pls ignore it !

tks

MANIL said...

@ Jesika

I dont think dogs work in the computer,and dont try to deviate from the fact that you are blogging here under three accounts and its a proven fact that you try to create a scene here using them,and your silly and abnormel comments.

@Alf

Dont you get tired of this? And no one takes Jesika seriously other than you.

cable said...

The quality of ESPN,STAR, TEN sports was really bad this past weekend specially during the football matches. Pixelation was very much evident when closeups were shown.I dont know how long i am saying this but DTV dosent seem to care.This is really pathetic service by DTV

Thanura said...

guys,
theres a lil problem......
don't know whether u guys have noticed it.

If someone wants to buy australia network and nick they will have to pay twice for Z cafe and zee studio.
(coz they hav to buy plan1 and plan2)

KIDO CMB, wat do u think ?

Unknown said...

@cable

Even I had the problem and it was prevalent on almost all channels. I checked with a friend of mine who knows a guy with a fair knowledge of satellite tech and he said that when the cloud cover is heavy sometimes pixelation may occur and affects KU band systems more.

Anyway that is what he said. I called DTV yesterday with the complain about the pixelation and they said that it is because of the cloud cover which was prevalent and there were clouds over my house too in the direction that the antenna was pointing.

Anyway I was told that if there is pixelation on a clear day, I was told to file a complain and their engineering team will have a look at it.

I noticed over the last few days that during heavy rain the rain fade does not last too long but this has resulted in pixelation during cloud cover.

This is what I have noticed, I guess the rest of you will have to post your observations on this issue for us to compare what happened during the weekend.

As for me if it is going to be a bit more pixelation over very less rain fade on rainy days then I am willing to accept the pixelation on the rainy days. But as everything goes the lesser the better.

It will be interesting to notice your observations on this matter.

Hopefully admin will do a post regarding this for us to start a good discussion on this subject.

kumara said...

CABLE,

YESTERDAY I WAS WATCHING INDIA - ENGLAND ONE DAY MATCH. THE PICUTURE QUALITY OF ABSOLUTELY RUBBISH. THEY CALL THESE ARE PREMIUM CHANNELLS AND CHARGING US ACCORDINGLY.

PROVIDING THIS TYPE OF SUBSTANDARD SERVICES IS CALLED " SACHET MARKEITNG " AS PER NUSHAD PERERA.

THIS MAN IS FULL OF CONCEPTS WHICH ARE NO USE TO CUSTOMERS. EVERY MONTH HE PULLS SOME CONCEPT OUT OF HIS HAT AND GIVES NEWS BRIEFING WHILE DTV IS PROVIDING TOTALLY SUBSTANDARD SERVICE TO EXISTING CUSTOMERS.

I WONDER WHETHER THIS NUSHAD PERERA IS WATHCING HIS OWN DTV CHANNELLS OR WATHCING DISH TV..

Jughead said...

this set plan thing........can we activate/de-activate it anytime we want to? like have a set plan for this month then do away with it the next month. or even have one plan for two weeks and get another for the remaining weeks cos i would like to have set 12 during 20/20 and Rugby WC only and have St 13 during christmas time.

Thanura said...

DTV, Kido CMB, Kumara,
please look at this set plan.
I think this is better than what DTV has given.

For Lite 100 package
Set1 - Z Studio / Z cafe / Nick / Australia Network 50/=

Set2 - Vijay tv / MTV 25/=

Set3 - CNN / CN / AXN / Zone Reality 150/=

Set4 - History / Animal Planet / Discovery / NGC 200/=

"For Lite 100/Super 500 Packages"
Set5 - Star World / Hallmark / Cinemax 200/=

Set6 - VH1 / Discovery T&L / Nat Geo 150/=

Set7 - Neo Sports / Star Sports / BBC 150/=

Set8 - Animax/ Sony Set / Star Plus 150/=

Set9 - Z trendz / Sony Sab 100/=

Set10 - Set Max / SRTV 100/=

"For Lite 100/Super 500/Great 900 Packages"
Set11 - Tensports / Star Cricket / ESPN / Neo Sports plus 275/=

Set12 - Pogo / Star movies 150/=

Set13 - HBO / HBO Sig / HBO Hitz / HBO Family 400/=

Comments please.
this is a set plan i made. the total cost is equal to total amount of DTV set plan.

and the channels are grouped better i think. But i need others comments. specially Kido CMB, Riky, Kumara, etc.........

kumara said...

Thanura,

IT SEEMS YOU HAVE PUT LOT OF EFFORT IN DESIGNING THE SET PLANS. WHAT YOU HAVE DONE IS GREAT. BUT YOU SEEMED TO HAVE IGNORED ONE ASPECT WHEN SET PLANS WERE DESIGNED FOR 900/- PACKAGES.

THERE ARE CUSTOMERS IN 900/- PACKAGE WHO ARE HAVING ESPN AND POGO. THESE ARE THE OLD 850/- PKG CBN CUSTOMERS. THEY ALREADY HAVE ESPN AND POGO.

THIS SET PLAN BUSINESS HAS BECOME VERY COMPLICATED BCOZ THE WAY DTV HAS DESIGNED ITS BASIC PACKAGE STRUCTURE. THIS WILL BECOME MORE COMPLICATED AS AND WHEN NEW CHANNELLS ARE INTRODUCED.

soorapappa...සූරපප්පා said...

About set plans: I too don't say this is the best. But I always believe something is better than nothing :-)
They really aware the fact that they cannot sell hindi crap alone. I agree with kumara, they don't have allocated channels very well in the first place (CBNSat is way ahead over this and DTV vision is not even closer with them). So I don't expect those from DTV anymore. That's why I'm happy with this.

Last month I've downgraded to 500 and now upgraded to highest pack this month to watch RWC and 20/20. But pissed off because we cannot do this after 30th Sept. But with set plans I can settle with 500+star world+star movies (Rs. 800). Additionally can get sports pack whenever the event. Also, I totally agree, this is NOT the best and not suited for all.
Regarding printed guide : I think kido is correct here, I haven't got printed guide this month.

@dude,
I don't think the rain fade is the actual cause for pixalation of sports channels. Because yesterday I've stopped watching football on my 29" and watched it on 14" due to heavy pixalation in star sports. This is NOT due to clouds. You can check this by pressing the red button and check the signal quality. If this is > 40, there is no effect (with clouds and rain, this will change frequently). Rain pixallation occur when this is down from 30. Otherwise, the problem is with transmitting end. I suspect they enable VBR when encoding sports channles as well (but they cannot gain anything by doing this to sports channels, where frames changes too quickly). They should use CBR for sports channels if possible. (I'm not too sure about DTH encoding/tools, but I suspect they can)

Thanura said...

@ kumara,
I know it's a bit hard on old 850 CBN sat customers. I used to have old CBN sat850 package. But i changed it to 1400 before third transponder channels came.

But DTV should think about the future. I think the problem for old 850 cbn sat customers are setplan 11 and 12.
They can give two optional set plans for old cbn sat customers.
1 - Tensports / Star Cricket / Neo Sports plus 225/=
2 - Star movies 75/=

i think thats the way to go.
what do u think kumara ??

cable said...

As soorapappa said pixelation is not caused by cloud cover. i checked the quality level of the channels at the time i was watching the matches and they were over 50%. The c/c guys as usual are clueless about this and telling nonsense.

I feel that every one if us should complain about this to DTV as the service given is quite pathetic.

cable said...

called customer care about pixelation issue on sports channels and they said to do a reset to factory defaults. i dont really think that this would solve the issue as i am sure it is to do with the badwidth given to the channels.

@KIDO-CMB can you help us with this? could you get info from the technical team about this issue

Angelo said...

Thanura

Yr set plan suggestion is great. But DTV wants us to commit to the maximum no. of plans possible. If more operators too offer set plans, we will get better choices.

Sometimes, its better to go to the 100/= pkg and order more sets; this way, you can skip unwanted channels too.


@Anyone walking in the dark

I'm not Jessika or Rukmal or any other person. I'm freeman.

619 said...

Is Setplan active now? or when will ?

City Hits said...

@ Cable:
Pixilation problem will be sorted out in other few days time. DTV engineers are working hard on this.
SET MAX – DOWN
SET SAB - DOWN

cable said...

@KIDO-CMB

thanks for the info.

Could you inform us when the work done by DTV engineers are finished so we can give some feedback

TV & Radio Sri Lanka said...

Please continue commenting under the post titled "Pixelated days".

Admin

Angelo said...

@Anyone trying to create controversies again

I'm not Jesika or Rukmal or anyone else. I said this over and over again. Do I have to repeat this again?

DO

I

MAKE

MYSELF

CLEAR?

karan said...

Visit our dialog tv forum in dishnews satellite television forum
http://medianetwork.co.in/dishnews/YaBB.pl?board=68654644

sahan said...

hi,

how can i watch dialogtv in two televisions? i also have an old cbn sat decorder.. how to configure that to watch DTV in the tv located in my room with same account?

thanks...