Monday, September 24, 2007

Of Bugs and Upcoming Channels

Yesterday (Sunday 23rd Sep 07) seemed to be quite an eventful day for Dialog TV subscribers since there were some hitches at Dialog TV broadcasting center. We are not sure what the cause of the problem but we believe the problem started with the disappearance of Ten Sports very early in the morning and then the sudden loss of Star Movies thereafter. In the afternoon there have been several interruptions with a major proportion of channels getting stuck for a few hour. Subscribers who contacted customer care have been given conflicting answers with some being told that there is a problem with their broadcast and some have been told that the engineering department is upgrading the system. Confusion at customer care as usual.

As per the reports received last it seems that Ten Sports is still off air. We hope that whatever the problem with Ten Sports, it should be corrected as soon as possible and put back on air. A down time of over 24 hours for a channel is totally unacceptable. If the channel continues to be off air for some more time then Dialog should take steps to reduce the monthly rental for the month so that the loss of Ten Sports for the said time period will be reflected on the bill.

In other news Dialog TV have introduced the "Islam Channel" as a replacement for SET SAB from last friday onwards. Those who want to view this channel will have to call their customer care hotline and request for activation. In some unconfirmed reports it seems that Dialog TV will be launching their very own Local Home Box Office Channel called "City Hits" by 10th October. We are not sure whether this will be starting on the existing transponders or whether the fourth transponder will be active by then. They seems to be also planning on adding "Set PIX", "Channel V" and a few Tamil Channels too. We hope that "Channel V International" is introduced and not "Channel V India".

Dialog TV indicated about a month back that they were raising subscription rates for subscribers who join after October 1st 2007. Advertisements were carried out on certain media such as Sun FM regarding this but now for some time there has been no advertisement regarding this price hike. It makes us wonder whether Dialog have dropped the idea of increasing rates since it will have an adverse effect on their sales.

We welcome all of you to continue sharing your opinions on the topics discussed in this blog and please keep us updated on the latest on Dialog TV as the days progress.


46 comments:

TechnoGuy Sri Lanka said...

Cheack your decoders. Yesterday there WAS a message from Dialog about the disruption. it mentioned that it was a problem with the signals and they would fix it as soon as possible.

Anyway, hope TEN Sports will come soon.


@ KIDO-CMB
Thanks. Give more info about TP4 please.

619 said...

I have a question

they replaced SET Sab with Islamic channel and its free for all subscribers.

so now there is no Setsab.

what will happen to the "setpaln 6"? do we need to pay Rs 100/= only for Star World ?

619 said...

last few days there were some interruptions in Tensports.
It showed "No(or Bad) Signal" many times.

I think DTV is going to sort out that problem.!

Unknown said...

Transponder 4 will be end of the year or beginning of next year.

Vishkid said...

Well, Star Channels (including Nat Geo etc) and sme Zee channels were out (for me, atleast) for a few hours. There was a message from the Sat operator so I don't think it's a DTV issue ... Who knows... but made me miss Kyle XY and s I'm pissed.

Here below is an excerpt from Sunday Times. Somebody (Hulla? :D) is complaining about the Neo+ RWC bullshit. These ppl should hv visited this blog and known the reality of it.

[quote]
Cheating on Rugby

R. De Silva of Dehiwala writes....

One of the biggest frauds perpetrated on the sports loving public of Sri Lanka has been the recent telecast of the Rugby World Cup 2007 by a private TV channel. This channel boasts and brags about its technology and duped the public by engaging in a media campaign advertising the Rugby World Cup matches live on its channel.

Many including the writer fell into the trap and discovered that all they show are repeats of one or two world cup matches by passing the rest of the games. On verbal enquiry, its Customer Relations Officers sounds apologetic and weakly mumbles that only 15 games are been televised. If that was the case, why was not it mentioned in the advertising campaign?

Is this not a blatant violation of marketing and trading ethics? These are supposedly responsible corporates claiming to be among the best in the country - at least they are voted by various publications.

Is this not a clear case for the Consumer Affairs Authority? It is sad that companies like this using public money conducts itself so unethically. The Management and Shareholders have a responsibility by the unsuspecting sports loving public of Sri Lanka to deliver what is promised.

There is little use of these companies been voted the best etc., when they are in fact engaging in fraudulent activities of this nature, to boost their share values.

[/quote]

alf said...

VISHKID

HULLA OR NOT THIS SILVA GUY IS CORRECT AND THEY EVEN USE "EXCLUSIVELY" ON DTV WHICH IS ANOTHER BIG LIE.A NORMEL SUBSCRIBER DOESNT KNOW ABOUT THIS BLOG AND THEY GO BY THE ADS AND THIS SILVA GUY AND MANY OTHERS HAVE BEEN MISLEAD BY DTV ON THIS ISSUE AND ITS A FACT.

TERRY
KIDO-CMB SAID TRANSPONDER 4 VERY SOON OR ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT A DIFFERANT TRANSPONDER OR KIDO-CMB IS FIXING HIS OWN ONE WITH THE HELP OF TECHNOGUY.

ALF REPORTING FROM 80000CM AWAY WITH BLACKBERRY

City Hits said...

TEN Sports back on AIR!

cable said...

@VISHKID

I also think this silva guy has got a point. The ad-campaign run by DTV on the RWC was very,very unethical. The campaign was run in such a way that it gave the impression that all matches would be shown "LIVE" and "EXCLUSIVE"

alf said...

KIDO-CMB THANKS FOR ACTIVATIONG,IT WAS ON AIR FROM ABOUT 2-3 HOURS AGO.

WHAT ABOUT THE 4TH TRANSPONDER? YOU SAID VERY SOON

soorapappa...සූරපප්පා said...

@Kido,
According to Terry, TP4 is not going to be activated near future. If they try to put more channels on existing transponders, hell man... that'll further reduce quality.

Mario said...

I asked this same question from Terry long before this, at the time they started the ad for the RWC.

What he said was that DTV have the exclusive DTH rights.

Unknown said...

@ amd
correct,It was not what i said it was there explanation when i asked your question from them.

@ Soorapappa

TP-4 is palnned for end 2007 or early next year,So far there is no change in that plan.

Unknown said...

The channel brakedown on sunday was due to the LNB of one the receiving dishes at DTV burning out resulting in all channels received from that particular dish going out for some time.

cable said...

@terry

thanks for the info i guessed it was something like that but they should inform the c/c ppl correctly
when c/c person said that they were doing an upgrade on a sunday i was really pissed off.

i wish DTV would look ahead to situations like this and plan accordingly like having a redundant dish and LNB in case of failure of a primary

cable said...

@AMD

How many ppl in sri lanka will know the word DTH or DTH rights? and in the ad-campaign carried out byt DTV there as far as i remeber there was no mention of exclusive DTH only.

This is on top of sounding like covering all the matches live

Mario said...

@ CABLE

Yes, i undertsand, thats why i asked the q from Terry in the 1st place and told him to convey it to the marketing pundits at DTV.

Did u notice that in the past few days the exclusive has been removed from the ad ? Even for the 20/20 ads there was no mention of "exclusive".

Lets see what they will come up with for the England tour, which will be shown on Ten sports, starting 1st Oct, 1st ODI, 2.30pm.

Mario said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Mario said...

@ Terry

Dont they have a stand-by dish / LNB is case something like this happens ?

Looks like there is still no co-ordination between the C/C & other departments ?

September 24, 2007 4:35 PM

yakuza said...

so what will be the changes in the package structure after TP4

hush said...

guys any one of you noticed that on channels travel and living, discovery, animal planet, there is a bar code appearing every 10seconds on top left hand corner which stays few seconds and comes back again in 10 seconds and this has been the case from yesterday evening till today morning and continuing.

as usual CC guys say its a channel upgrade which is crap really.

more than anything its annoying when this happens every 10 seconds.

CSS said...

Several channel names have been jumbled after a auomatic sacn several days ago.

Ex. Rupervahini is under ITN name etc.

Re-scanning did not correct these.

What can you do to correct these please?

619 said...

Lankikaya:

If rescan doesnt work, do the factory reset.
it will surely correct ur problem

Unknown said...

Alf has got a valid point and this seem bogus as GOD TV has emerged from nowhere to be in the top channel and i doubt it and its manipulated by somebody and no one needs an explanation who it is.

TechnoGuy Sri Lanka said...

@ Terry and Alf
Actually such a thing can be easily done by anyone, using any one of these methods:-

1. Delete all cookies and private data saved by the browser. Then the Poll system may not recognize you and you can vote again.

2. Disconnect and reconnect your internet. As the IP address will change (Dynamic IP), once again the Poll system may not recognize you and you can vote again.

3. Use different browsers. You can vote with Internet Explorer, and also with Opera browser and Firefox, and the Poll system may take it as three different computers.

Using methods 1 and 2 will waste loads of time, so only the desperate people will actually do it (well, at least to bring GOD TV from the bottom all the way to the top).

Using method 3 together with 1 or 2 will save more time.

So it is not too difficult to cheat on polls like this.

On the other hand, the results could even have been manipulated.

How do we know for sure?

TechnoGuy Sri Lanka said...

@ Alf
Yes, anyone may be cheating like this. I won't point my finger at anyone, but GOD bless the person who is doing the dirty work. That person will need it when going to hell!


@ Hush
Those codes appear on most of the channels from time to time, and I've seen it on all pay television providers.

I don't think it is done by Dialog. It is a code embedded on the video by the broadcaster itself.

ESPN, Nat Geo, History and STAR channel all show a code from time to time.

Unknown said...

channels going UP
Comments going DOWN

Shit! Kohoma thibba blog ekkakda meka.

Finaly we caught in to the Dialog trick.
No 2100 Package.
No Rugby Live

Citi HITZ - Comming Soon
as I said in month ago, Old Sinhala Films and teledramas in Sri Lankan Home Box Office Channel.

Sri Lanka's First Digital Movie 'Love me if you can'Produced by 'CitiHITZ' for Dialog tv.

Well Done Dialog tv

2007 ta Invest karapu Million 33 ta monawahari karala pennapann putha.

Thanura said...

@ KIDO CMB, TERRY
Guys, have u noticed that there are no commentary in WWE RAW and Smackdown after Tensports came back.

I think DTV has disabled an audio stream allocated to tensports. It's very dull without commentary. This only occurs when a wrestling match is in progress.

DTV please take this matter into consideration. Please get the commentary back before "UNFORGIVEN" on the 30th. (next sunday)

russel said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
russel said...

yeah. I also agree with what ALF and other guys say.
How on earth can GOD TV become 1st place in that poll coming from no where? Maybe poll is also this 619. Or 619 had cheated, like the way Technoguy had said earlier.

Its absurd.
hey "Poll" !!!!!!!

we arent interested in your poll anymore.

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

I did not think this polling would cause problems. I created this polling just for one reason. The reason was I did give very interest to know people's favourite channels on Dialog TV (It was my fualt not to mention this). This interest came to my mind because some channels are replacing. So I try to find out myself what channels are to be replaced. Thats why I did also state bottom 5 channels on my comments. I now undertood this was silly thing and this was not my job.
I thought you people also did not take this polling seriously. I never try to cheat anyone. So I have just closed the polling. Sorry for inconveniece caused by this polling .All bloggers and Admin Please forgive me. I think you all try to understand me.

Thanks

City Hits said...

:: DTV going to introduce the New TV channel named HINDU TV shortly.

:: CITI HITZ Local HBO starting the TEST Transmission on 2nd of October & the Official launch is on 10th of October.

:: ANIMAX channel is not available after the new channel launch till the TP4 comes.

Looser said...

Thanks Admin for deleting those shit. You better open a seperate blog for those fighters

Kido-cmb

What is this Local HBO thing? What are they going to telecast? English, Hindi or Local Films.

soorapappa...සූරපප්පා said...

@kido,
Why they try to remove Animax ? Why not one of hindi crap ?

kavanr said...

Buddhist, God, Islam and now Hindu. I am a Scientist with no need for religion.

Could we please have "Discovery Science" so that Lankans will also be educated on the Real Universe.

yakuza said...

@kido-cmb

how will the new channels be allocated to packages.

hopefully not only to 1400/=

Unknown said...

There is going to be no Hindu channel and Citi is going to be more less tele dramas kind of things.

Mario said...

@ KIDO-CMB

Ten Sports EPG is not working from a few days. Pls check.

Ur DTV webmaster is very slow ! Amend the DTV site as it still shows SET SAB. There is nothing yet about the SET PLANS on the DTV site.

dialog tv mf said...

jesus man!!!!!!!!!!

hush said...

@ technoguy,

yes you are right on the money of the bar codes but with discovery, travel and living and animal planet this codes appear every 10 seconds and linger on for 3 seconds and this continues from a week now and still on only on these three channels on other channels it comes once or twice a day but goes off.

Thanura said...

TERRY, KIDO-CMB,
Tensports EPG is back. But still no commentry on WWE wrestling matches.
this happened after tensports relaunch.(24th sept)

I think DTV has disabled an audio stream allocated to tensports.
DTV PLEASE CHECK......

TERRY, KIDO-CMB please comment.

Unknown said...

'RAN FM'
Now on air
102.2 Colombo

leyland said...

@Thanura
I have to agree with you. Some other programs on TENSPORTS also does not have commentary such as the repeat broadcats of the Japanese MotoGP. Only the sound of the bikes going around the circuit was audible.

Hope this is corrected before the SL v ENG ODI series starts!!

rupavahini said...

15 SUN CHANNELS ADD DISHTV NOW
176 CHANNELS For DISHTV
139 CHANNELS For TATA SKY

TV & Radio Sri Lanka said...

Please continue commenting under the new post titled - Local Channel "Citi Hitz" to launch soon.

Admin

manula21688 said...

plaese replase ndtv goodtimes with USA channel.