Finally got my iptv installed this afternoon after a couple of days of phone calls to the customer service and the myway local tech guys. I think what finally shamed them into coming in and installing it today was my striking a comparison between them and BSNL.
Anyway, the installation was pretty painless, the tech guy came in, checked some internet settings, pulled out the tiniest settop box you will ever see, its about the size of a wireless
router, looks nice and sleek, plugged it in to my router and attached an AV cable to the telly and voila! It was as simple as that. The entire process would have taken all of 15 minutes.
The startup takes a bit of time, about a minute and a half to come from 0 to
tv. This stuck me as the only real major negative, considering that I live in Gurgaon where power cuts are frequent and even when the power back up kicks in the power does switch off for a few seconds, waiting for a minute and half each time may be quite an annoyance.
For those worried about broadband speed being affected, I have run both connections simultaneously and there is no issue with the quality of either.
Now to the actual quality of the reception; The reception is excellent (audio and video) as good if not better than other DTH services. Am still getting around the user controls and things, but no problems or issues here, everything seems simple enough and is laid out in an attractive and user friendly interface.
I had read somewhere that the channels take too long to load when channels are changed, now I have found nothing of the sort, the lag is as much or as little as that for other dth providers. There is a minor delay remote response but i think this is more a question of getting used to it than anything else.
The connection is free for three months so I am looking at really testing it before I take the plunge. Added services include movies on demand, I briefly browsed through the list and they seems to be a mix of very old and relatively new films, no real blockbusters yet, 50 free movies for the first three months so I am not really complaining.
A point to note, while their website and promotional material states that they don't get CNN, BBC and Zee Cafe, they actually do, maybe someone should call and tell them.
Games, Karaoke (which is quite interesting) and a revision aid for students of class 8 to 12 are the other peculiar features.
Apparently you can also send sms with the aid of this service as well, haven't quite explored that yet.
Also, haven't explored the time-shift tv technology which apparently should be available for a few of the channels, although the guy who installed it said that this may only be available after the first three months.
Overall, two thumbs up to the quality of the reception, user interface and devices. The customer care is not fantastic, but since its been outsourced to a private agency and is not being done by BSNL, there seems to be hope yet!
Will post further information (will try posting pictures of the interface etc) as I get more accustomed to the device and technology.
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p.s. I should mention that the tech guy who installed my connection also said that this was the fastest he had ever installed any connection and that it usually takes him anywhere between 2-5 hours. I don't know whether this is because of lesser connections in my area or for some other reason, but I am not complaining.
😀