ESPN HD replaces Ten HD

ESPN HD has officially replaced Ten HD as a full time channel on the HD pack. It is still unclear whether AXN HD & Ten HD will continue to share one channel, however it's its highly likely that it will be shared whenever a cricket match is telecast or some other important "live" sporting event is telecast.

As of late ESPN HD has been very popularly requested to be incorporated as a permanent channel on this blog & it's great to note that Dialog have made an attempt to satisfy subscriber requests. However this has come at the cost of dissatisfying Ten HD fans.

As far as we are concerned Dialog cannot continue with this present trend of replacing and time sharing  channels because one of these days subscribers may begin to replace their Dialog TV connection. So in light of present trends Dialog should immediately invest in some transponder space or urgently speed up the MPEG2 to MPEG4 conversion, so that more HD & SD channels can be added to the Dialog TV lineup. It's quite surprising that Dialog TV have carried out some real short term planning when it comes to their HD channel lineup & future expansion plans.

Please continue updating us on the latest regarding Dialog TV as the days progress.

ESPN HD full time, AXN HD/Ten HD time shared

Dialog are time sharing AXN HD with Ten HD whilst keeping ESPN HD full time. This could be applicable either for the period of the olympics only and then ESPN HD & Ten HD might time share and AXN may be available full time.

Whatever the case is, Axiata should make a considerable investment into Dialog TV in order to improve the situation otherwise in a few years, all the channels will be time shared and we will not have any channels available 24hrs a day.

SD channels are being time shared, high cost HD channels are being time shared. This should come to an end and Dialog should carry out the MPEG2 to MPEG4 conversion on all channels immediately.

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

Channel "Time sharing" spreads to HD channels

In a not so surprising move, Dialog have followed up the positive HD channel launch with a negative move. The time sharing of channels has spread to other channels and this time the highly priced HD channels are being targeted. Ten HD will be time shared with ESPN HD from today or tomorrow. According to official information on the Dialog Facebook page, it was indicated that the time sharing will be for the F1 races but other information suggests that it would cover the time period of the Olympic games too.

Regardless of how and when it will take place it's now almost certain that Dialog has no more capacity to add another HD channel to their brand spanking new transponder otherwise why would they want to time share Ten HD with ESPN HD. Which means that Dialog will have to purchase additional transponders to add new channels or accelerate the MPEG2 to MPEG4 conversion programme to free up space in other transponders.

Dialog haven't learnt from the past that time sharing is not an option for them and continue to do so despite protests raised by subscribers. If time sharing of HD channels occurs then many subscribers will discontinue the HD pack that they activated only a month or so ago. Dialog in a hurried effort to launch HD before others are now in the process of messing it up.

We urge Dialog TV to immediately scrap the planned time sharing move and add ESPN HD as a separate channel to the HD pack or refrain from adding it totally until transponder space is available.

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

MPEG4 conversion to be resurrected

Several years after abandoning the MPEG4 conversion program, Dialog seems to be resurrecting it after launching HD and incorporating MPEG4 based broadcasting into their system. According to reports being received, one or more transponders will be converted to MPEG4 initially. New subscribers will be issued MPEG4 compatible decoders plus existing ones will be converted. A few years back Dialog TV did convert some of their existing subscribers to MPEG4. If they are converting to DVB-S2 MPEG4 then we believe that all the decoders will have to be replaced once again or if its going to be DVB-S MPEG4 then it's only the ones who were not issued with MPEG4 decoders who should be issued with new decoders.

We are unable to confirm which broadcasting standard Dialog TV will adopt, this move will benefit Dialog V on the long run since they will be able to free up space for new channels and would be able to add more channels without leasing new transponders.

If Dialog TV are able to carry through with this project & complete it, then Dialog TV would be able to provide their subscribers with a much better service. Unlike in previous years where a lot of negativity has engulfed Dialog TV as each year progressed and drew to a close, now with just over half the year gone Dialog TV can end the year 2012 on a positive & successful note if they are able to stick through and complete everything satisfactorily.

Looks like the rumored developments at a particular competitor has awoken the sleeping giant, who hopefully for everyone's sake does not go back to sleep again.

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

PVR tips for recording with incorrect EPG information

We have received several comments about the problems with EPG on Dialog TV resulting in problems with recording since the programme being recorded doesn't get recorded properly. Dialog TV EPG mostly reads the wrong information specially on Star Movies India HD & SD.

As one of our bloggers pointed out the safest way to make sure a movie is being recorded proper is to record using the "Timer" record function rather than the "EPG" record function. The most accurate EPG is on the channel website. But we do know that sometimes that too is wrong but in rare cases. Most of the Star Movies "One Break Movie", "Sunday Firsts" & "Movie of the Month" start & end according to the information given on the website but some of the others do tend to start late and end later than the stipulated time. 

Therefore when doing a "Timer" recording, please set the scheduled start time to at least "15min" before the stipulated start time on the website and set the end time to at least 1/2 hr after the stipulated end time for a Movie, if there is sufficient space even a 1hr late end time would mean that the entire movie would be recorded. If its a regular TV series then an end time 15min later than the stipulated end time would be sufficient we believe. 

We do hope that Dialog TV take immediate steps to sort out problems with the EPG.

Dialog PVR recording woes.. 2nd time running

So Dialog doesn't learn from it's mistakes. Well that is something that goes without saying. The new "HD" PVR has some recording issues, this is the second PVR to have issues.  The other Techosat PVR issued with the SD channels and the 4GB Pen Drive too has unresolved issues. It seems that they haven't checked it before issuing and are now using the subscribers as guinea pigs.

Well here are some of the issues of with the previous non HD PVR.

• When Time Shifting a channel the video gets stuck for a second or two every few minutes. It looks like a manufacturing issue with the decoder and the problem has been deemed as unsolvable.
• When recording one channel while watching another, the entire decoder gets stuck and scrambles the channels being watched and recorded, only after switching off the decoder and turning it on again does the decoder function properly but only to get stuck again later on if the recording is resumed. However it is reported that this problem has been sorted, however we are unable to confirm it.
• If there is a signal loss due to rain, recording indicates and disk space in the storage device gets used up but sometimes no picture gets recorded.

The issues with the brand spanking new HD PVR

• The basic recording function is faulty. The recorded video cannot be watched. So much for it being a PVR.

Looks like the new HD PVR cannot carry out the basic function it was built for. Yes, the geniuses at Dialog TV engineering will sort out the matter provided it is not a "manufacturing issue that is unsolvable". But truth be told, did Dialog TV ever test this HD PVR, or did they just dump it on unsuspecting subscribers who are asked to pay thumping rentals. Now how ethical is it to treat subscribers as guinea pigs unless they are informed beforehand and are waived of additional rentals until the problem is solved.

The above is just one of the faults of the HD PVR and only time will tell of any faults in the other functions.

On other news it is highly likely that SET SIX will telecast the SLPL cricket tournament. Is it going to the next new channel on the "HD" pack. It would be quite interesting to see what happens.

We have launched our Facebook page on facebook.com/tvradiosrilanka, please "LIKE" us on facebook and get updates to the newest stories on this blog and all our sister blogs, plus much more.

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

Dialog goes public with HD pack

Dialog went public with the HD pack details which was leaked publicly first on this blog. As per the details released, they are the same to what was leaked a couple of days ago by a fellow blogger who shared the details with us.

Whilst appreciating the fact that a major Sri Lankan company has taken steps to launch HD channels to our tiny island nation, we wish that the product pricing was better suited to the Sri Lankan market. Dialog have tied their own hands thanks to short sighted use of new technology by them. We know that there are many non HD television owners in Sri Lanka who will be happy to add Fashion TV, History TV18, Ten Action & BBC Entertainment channels which are included in the HD package as Non HD channels, to their existing packages. It's hilarious that Dialog includes non HD channels in a pack containing HD channels, makes you wonder if the one's who priced the product actually knew the difference. It's a total ripoff to ask subscribers to purchase the HD pack to view a bunch of basic non HD channels.

There have been rumors about a special promotion by Dialog issuing the HD decoder FOC to Gold package subscribers until July 15th under the condition that they will subscribe to the "HD" pack. A good incentive for those who have HD televisions but not at all favorable to those who just want to view the non HD channels. Although we haven't been able to confirm this yet and if it's true they will probably release it to the public when they find out that yet again we leaked it to the public from right under their noses thanks to our fellow bloggers.

The addition rental which exceeds Rs 1000/= with the inclusion of taxes for the HD pack is way beyond the means of ordinary middle class Sri Lankans &  like one of our fellows bloggers put it, one "has to be born a Maharaja" to subscribe to this pack.

As per the information gathered by us, the pack is activated as a set plan, and they will issue the decoders to the subscribers site which should take a couple of days. It's actually a pity that all of Dialog MPEG4 decoders that were issued to the subscribers were never fully utilized. Maybe Dialog TV can do some form of software upgrade to make use of the MPEG4 decoders at least to watch these non HD channels in the HD pack. However it is highly unlikely since the major stars of the HD pack are actually the non HD channels namely "Fashion TV" and "Ten Action".

Another point worth mentioning is that the content of the HD channels is the same as their SD counterparts which are available in other lower priced packages on Dialog TV. For example Star Movies India SD & Star Movies India HD have the same content, AXN Asia SD & AXN Asia HD have the same content, Nat Geo India SD & Nat Geo India HD have the same content, Ten HD is a mix of the content of their SD channels Ten Sports, Ten Cricket & Ten Action. Therefore you will not watch anything different from the SD version in the HD version apart from far more clearer sounds & pictures.

As a matter of fact the non HD History TV18 channel on the HD pack is originally a HD channel which Dialog converts to SD and broadcasts. So elevating History TV18 to HD makes sense plus they should have added Discovery HD World plus some non Indian feed HD channels to which Dialog doesn't have the SD counterpart would have made the HD pack far more appealing. Well one thing is for certain, it would be very interesting to watch when Star Movies HD interrupts the movie to telecast HD advertisements in Dolby Digital sounds.

Well it wouldn't be fair if we didn't say "Congratulations Dialog" on being the first in Sri Lanka to introduce HD but it's a "boooo" when it comes to pricing & channel selection, basically a "boooo" for the way the entire thing was handled. Dialog went from "Hero" when we first announced the rumored HD to "Zero" when the pricing got leaked. They have no one else to blame except themselves.

It's still not too late for Dialog to rectify the matter if they want. Please keep us updated on the latest on Dialog TV as the days progress.

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