Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Dialog TV HD Pack... too little for too much

We have got breaking news about the Dialog TV HD Pack. The channels available in the pack as per the "demo" page on the Dialog TV website are as follows.
  1. Star Movies HD
  2. AXN HD
  3. Ten HD
  4. Nat Geo HD
including the following non HD bonus channels for those who subscribe to the above package
  1. Fashion TV
  2. History Channel TV18
  3. Ten Action
  4. BBC Entertainment
It seems that subscribers will have to upgrade to the new HD PVR enabled decoder for Rs 2,990/= (inclusive of taxes) and then the HD pack costs you a whopping Rs 990/= excluding taxes per month. For that amount subscribers would be getting only 4 HD channels whilst the other channels on the special HD package are non HD, what a joke. The worst part is that a subscriber with a non HD TV will be forced to purchase the HD package with all the works to watch the other 4 non HD channels such as Ten Action & the other 3 channels non HD channels. This is guerilla marketing Dialog Axiata style. The non HD channels should be allocated to the standard set of non HD packages at a reasonable cost. It's quite sure that this feature would follow the path of the Dialog PVR, which was valued at Rs 800/= per month initially and due to it being unsuccessful it was brought down to just Rs 250/= a month.

We urge the Dialog TV management to distribute the new HD enabled PVR FOC to the subscriber since the decoder is the "property of Dialog TV" at the end of the day and will be removed from subscriber premises upon disconnection so there is no point in an existing subscriber making an addition payment for  it and also a thumping additional rental. The rental too should be reduced since its clearly overpriced and the additional rental should be aimed at the 4 HD channels only, it's utter bullshit on the part of Dialog TV to call the non HD channels as "bonus channels" since looking at the bonus channels & the rental it's quite clearly that Dialog TV is also charging the overpriced HD rates for the so-called  non HD "bonus channels" and is also trying to capitalize on the popularity of Ten Action being the most requested channel as of late and use it to entice subscribers to purchase the HD pack. Therefore the star attraction of the "HD Pack" may not be HD at all, rather it's "Ten Action". The non HD channels should be allocated separately to the regular non HD packages at reasonable cost, since they are clearly basic channels on any pay television network and not premiere channels. 

It's cheaper for a subscriber to purchase a rival pay television connection which has these channels on their basic package that to pay these thumping rentals to Dialog TV. We hope these rates are revised before the package is officially released. Remember Dialog TV not many people in Sri Lanka have HD enabled TV sets as yet and among those who have not many can afford to pay these thumping rentals in the name of "HD". This is another example of an attempt by Dialog to make a fast buck with no long term plan.

Attached below this post is a screen shot of the Dialog TV website containing the HD package details (to enlarge it please click on the image), this screenshot was taken from this link at http://www.dialog.lk/demo/hd-pack/ which hasn't been released to the public as yet, this link was blocked a few moments after we took the screenshot. Please keep us updated on the latest on Dialog TV as the days progress.


23 comments:

E2C said...

fist of all thank for the admin to letting us know the this news

does anyone know what is the feed of the star movies Asia or India ??

kappa said...

If its Star Movies it should be the Indian feed, cause the asian feed was renamed as Fox Movies Premium as per my knowledge.

Can some one please share a contact number of a person who i can contact to get a videocon (Indian) digital TV connection installed please.

SankaSoft Audio Video Productions said...

Dialog TV HD Pack ‍ඉතා හොද ආරම්භයක්.. නමුත් ඒ සදහා වන ගාස්තු අය කිරීම් නම් කිසිදු සාධාරණත්වයක් නෑ.. අප ඉල්ලා සිටින්නේ Dialog TV HD සදහා පාරිභෝගිකයන්ට දැරිය හැකි ගාස්තු යටතේ පැකේජ හදුන්වා දෙන ලෙසයි. Dialog TV පාරිභෝගික සේවාවෙන් මේ පිළිබද කරන ලද විමසීම් වලදී පවසන්නේ ස්ථිර යමක් ප්‍රකාශ කල නොහැකි බවයි. සාධාරණ ගාස්තු යටතේ සේවා ලබා දෙන්නේ නම් ඉතා අනගි බව නැවත මතක් කරමු.

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

lmao... "Channels are subject to change without prior notice"

In countries like Malaysia, when HD was first introduced, cable tv companies offered the first few months HD subscription for free, to entice customers and create a hype. Because, like in SL most people there had SDTVs and bought HDTVs only after the HD services were launched. That is called marketing, something our friends at Dialog seem to have no clue about.

As it stands, anyone who wants to get this package has a to be born a Maharaja. It is too expensive and has no value for money.

Although I appreciate that at least one of our pay tv companies have set about to launch HD, I didn't expect anything more from a company that replaced Star Movies Asia with the Indian feed and yet still charges us the premium rental. The fact that the ads on Star Movies will also now be in HD will only add insult to injury...

Isura Nirmal said...

SLT seems not to give up the race

http://www.nation.lk/edition/business/item/7177-slt-orders-new-stbs.html

SankaSoft Audio Video Productions said...

දැන් තියෙන තත්ත්වයෙන් වත් PEO TV හරියට පේන්නේ නෑ. හදන්න කියලා හත් අට වතාවක් කෝල් කරලා ඇවිල්ලා හදලා ආයෙත් දවසක් දෙකක් යන කොට හරියට පේන්නේ නෑ. HD නැතිවත් PEO TV හරියට පෙ‍න්නේ නැති එකේ HD ‍දෙන්න බැන්ඩ්විත් එකක් කොහෙද SLT එකට.. හරියට ඉන්ටර්නෙට් වත් වේගවත්ව දෙන්න බැරිව PEO TV HD දෙන්නේ කොහොමද? එහෙම කරන්න ෆයිබර් කේබල් ලංකාව ව‍ටේම අදින්න වෙයි. ඒක සුවිශාල වියදමක්.. ‍HD නැතිවත් PEO TV හරියට පේන්නේ නැති එකේ PEO TV වලට මොන HD ද....? මේවා තාක්ෂණය ගැන නොදන්න අයට කරන තවත් විහිලුවක් විතරයි..

Mario said...

DISH TV HD Connection FROM
SATNET - Thimbirigasyaya

Super HD World Rs.1450.00

HD Premier Rs.1950.00

HD Rolaye Rs.2360.00


Initial cost with 3Ft Dish - Rs 28,000.00

rupavahini said...

PEO TV 3 HD Channels are Testing Since One Year (Three Location-Thangalla,Negombo,Gampaha)M-tune NGC &Discovery

lakmal08 said...

සිරස නැතිව ඔය මොන චැනල් දුන්නත් අපිට නම් වැඩක් නෑ

Jinath Sanjitha said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
TOSS said...

dialo hd channels screen shots and tp details http://www.warunasat.com/showthread.php?tid=2364&pid=14143#pid14143

Nokia said...

Good News,
Dialog Gold Customers can upgrade their Decorders to HD with 16GB Personal Video Recording facility Free of charge till 15th July provided that they subscribe for HD channel set. (Rs 990/=)

In this case customer will not have to pay 2990/= set up box fee.

Lankan Blogger said...

@lakmal08 - That's fine. There are so many smart people in this world, so it's OK if you want to be a gona.

E2C said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Unknown said...

Dialog should setup the system so that those who do not have the HD decoder can subscribe to the non HD channels on the HD pack separately. They should split the HD pack into two components one containing the HD channels and the other containing the non HD channels. Dialog have put themselves into a technological hole by having two separate broadcast systems.

They should do some sort of software upgrade at least on the MPEG4 decoders which will allow subscribers to watch the non HD channels specified in the DVB-S2 stream.

Dialog have actually messed things up further.

Over to the technical staff at Dialog TV.

Nokia said...

Agreed with DUDE

I feel that Fashion TV seems like a trick or to motivate subscribers to go for HD by paying 2900/= + 990/= monthly.

Collision said...

This price is absurd.
Videocon has 19 Real HD channels.

Setup 14,500
Platinum HD pack 1400 a month
with all the channels.

Dishtv has mostly upscaled channels.

Dialog should re think!

lakmal08 said...

@lankan Bloger
ඔබ දැනගත යුත= කරණු කිහිපයක් ඇත
ඩයලොග් සේවා මුදල් ගෙවා ලබාගන්නා පාරිභෝගිකයින් බොහෝදෙනක=ගේ සංවාදයක් මෙම බ්ලොග් අඩවියෙන් ගොඩ නැගේ එහි ඔබ කියනා පරිදි ස්මාටි පිපල්ලා මෙන්ම ඔබ විසින් ගොන්නු යනුවෙන් හැදින්වූ අප ද ඩයලොග් සේවා ලබා ගැනීමට වියදම් කරන්නේ දුක් මහන්සියෙන් හම්බකල මුදල්ය අපද මෙම බ්ලෙග් සංවාදයට විශිෂ්ඨ අදහස් සපයා ඇත එසේ සිදු කලේ හා කරන්නේද ස්මාර්ට් පීපල් යැයි හදුන්වා ගන්නා ඔබ වැන්නන් හා සිතාසිටින්නන් ගේ ව්‍යාපාරික හා සේවා සැපයුම් පිළිබද චින්තනය සාමාන්‍ය සරල පාරිභෝගිකයන්ගේ ච්න්තනයට වඩා අඩි පහ හයක් උඩින් නිසයි එම අදහස් ස්මාටි යැයි කියූවද එය ගසේ අත්තක සිට ගස කපනවා වැනි අදහසකි මා ද ඩයලොග් සැටලයිට් විකිණිම සිදු කිරීමේදී මා දැනගත් කරණු පිළිබද අදහස් විටින් විට එකත=කලේ වඩාත් හොද සේවාවක් බලාපොරොත්ත=වෙනි ඔබගේ අදහස සපම මට සුනිල් එදිරිසිංහයන්ගේ ගීයක අරැතක් මතකයට නැග=නිග ඔබද දෑකැති නලවන ක=ඹුරක් ඇස නොගැටුනු දරැවෙකි

SLP said...

A technical review for Dialog HD Channels Bandwidths
.
Sounds is 192kbps except for one channel and Video is 7mbps. HD Video bandwidth is superb.
.
Technically a tremendous job. But financially, as always is, its historical shitload...

Lankan Blogger said...

@lakmal08 -
Right, first of all I must explain that my issue is with Sirasa and not with you wanting Sirasa. Maharaja has said clearly that they don't want their channels on a pay television platform (Dialog, PEO or anything). Until recently PEO didn't show Maharaja channels. I think Dialog is still angry with them to some extent. I presume this is because Maharaja want to earn money from any service that broadcasts their channels. At one point they did want to launch their own DTH service.

This is why Sirasa, MTV, etc are not on Dialog yet.

Also, the quality of content on Sirasa is really the lowest of the low. It used to be good, but not any more. That is why I refer to Sirasa viewers who can't live without it (like you) as idiots/gonas. Sirasa fills in their time with scripted reality shows and dubbed Hindi movies, they add little to society apart from sensationalist news. There is no worth in paying for it, and certainly no worth in avoiding HD channels like Nat Geo and Ten HD for a rubbish channel like Sirasa.

If you believe Sirasa isn't rubbish, then fix an antenna and get it for free. Don't ask Dialog to avoid HD channels like Nat Geo and Ten HD that give specialised, quality content in exchange for some crap channel like Sirasa.

IF you want Dialog to do exactly what you want because you give them your hard-earned money, then don't expect that. If there really was a census that the majority of customers want Sirasa, then they should introduce the channels. But until then I think adding three more local channels, especially Sirasa, is a waste of transponder bandwidth and money. IF you want them, switch to PEO. You as the customer have the power to switch your DTH service. But you will need a lot of support from other customers to change Dialog TV for your benefit.

Mario said...

DTV site updated

http://www.dialog.lk/personal/tv/value-added-services/hd-pack/

TV & Radio Sri Lanka said...

Please continue commenting under the latest post titled "Dialog goes public with HD pack".

Admin