Tata Sky Plus +

[Sanjay Khanna]

Want to play the devil's advocate

Why would one want to record Tv programs? Most,if not all of them are anyways repeated...not that most would want to watch the saas bahu serials or the reality shows...

Would I pay so much to pause "live action"... it is anyways a replay if you are not watching it live... the TV in the other room has already moved on to the next action piece

Tata SKy or for that matter most of these DTH is getting expensive by the day.. every channel is coming at a price..the world may be moving in that direction..but I'll wait.

I have a Tata Sky..planning to junk it and go to the local cable guy's STB... he still charges me a flat 240/- pm irrespective of the number of connections at home...and I get more channels than Tatasky

Can't fault your reasoning - especially as the local cable wallah has improved his quality of service by leaps and bounds. Even then, I have just ordered the Tatasky + in exchange for Tata sky. Will be able to record those few programmes that are worth it and not often repeated. Cheers

 

[SuhasG]

I have a Tata Sky..planning to junk it and go to the local cable guy's STB... he still charges me a flat 240/- pm irrespective of the number of connections at home...and I get more channels than Tatasky

Before that check the credentials of that local Cable (STB) guy. I have seen at many places , this business is operated by local 'gundas' and 'bhais' . The cheat everybody, they show less number of connections (hardly 25% of total connections) to channel operators , the cheat Govt by not paying legitimate taxes (entertainment tax, service tax and Income Tax) . Further the money the make in this business again goes back to illegal / criminal activities.

If your 'Local Guy' is one such then you are indirectly supporting those crimes and illegal activities!

On technical fronts, equipments are outdated, they don't have power backup to run the show during power failures. They go on giving connections after connections without bothering about signal loss.

Of course there are some good Cable operators who do legitimate business and provide good service.

 

[Libran]

Before that check the credentials of that local Cable (STB) guy. I have seen at many places , this business is operated by local 'gundas' and 'bhais' . The cheat everybody, they show less number of connections (hardly 25% of total connections) to channel operators , the cheat Govt by not paying legitimate taxes (entertainment tax, service tax and Income Tax) . Further the money the make in this business again goes back to illegal / criminal activities.

If your 'Local Guy' is one such then you are indirectly supporting those crimes and illegal activities!

On technical fronts, equipments are outdated, they don't have power backup to run the show during power failures. They go on giving connections after connections without bothering about signal loss.

Of course there are some good Cable operators who do legitimate business and provide good service.

Valid.. I have been in this locality for 4 years...was with the cable guy till I moved on to Tatasky... have provided my parents room with a DTH from Hathway run by the cable guy...so credentials not an issue...

On the point of illegal activities... that is a completely different topic... something we have no control on... right from politicians we choose to the fuel we buy to the daily chores that we pay for..any of them could be into illegal/ nefarious activities...
Few things I certainly don't do... I do not bribe... I do not buy CDs from the roadside( that I believe goes towards funding terrorism..no concrete evidence)

 

[tian]

Tian, You are tempting me again and again for TataSky+ . I am also having LX800, but the PQ from my DTH leaves a lot to be desired. Did you try regular Tata Sky on LX800? How does it look like?

Also, what is your viewing distance from the TV?

I have both, TataSky+ in the front room on my LX800 and the normal TataSky STB on a Samsung 22" in the bedroom. I have also connected the normal STB to the LX800. The is a definite difference in the picture. The PQ through the Sky+ STB is much better.
In addition the Sky+ STB has Component and Optical out which further enhances the PQ and sound.

My viewing distance is 7 feet (least) and 9 feet (max). This is what had really got me worried when I was going for an LCD. I was not sure on how much a small viewing distance would affect my ability to view the picture. But my apprehension were laid to rest after I installed the setup.

I suggest that you a take a demo of the STB before you buy it. I called up TataSky and they provided me with the dealers who has a demo setup available.

Libran, I kind of agree with you on why you would want to record (or pause) live TV. But then one of my resons for the STB was the PQ more than the ability to record / pause. In any case, if me and my wife do have a situation wherein we have to watch two programs at the same time, we can always do that on separate TVs...
Having said that, I have used the record feature twice so far. This was because I wanted to watch two programs at the same time... But I agree with you that this is not a necessity, more of a fancy feature.

 

[Sumain]

Hi,

Is it possible to fast forward while watching a saved / recorded program in Tata Sky Plus?

That is, can you fastforward the ads in a saved episode of a serial?

If so, then perhaps that would be one very great benefit of this device.

Sumain

 

[MPM]

Yes you can..that's one of the reasons my daughter subscribed to it..don't watch much TV myself

Hi,

Is it possible to fast forward while watching a saved / recorded program in Tata Sky Plus?

That is, can you fastforward the ads in a saved episode of a serial?

If so, then perhaps that would be one very great benefit of this device.

Sumain

 

[square_wave]

Someone mentioned that quality of Tatasky + is better than the normal Tatasky.
How can this be ? The source is the same SD signal right ?
Can someone verify ?

 

[rajat13777]

What about component?

It has component, Also Coaxial & SDPIF optical

 

[euclid1]

hi,
has anyone tried to record the signals thru TataSky + via the AV out of your tv onto a DVD Recorder or VCR.Is it possible because Tatasky + site mentions that you cannot transfer the recordings to an external device(By using AV out on tv ;we are bypassing tatasky + totally)?

 

[Raghav]

I had the same doubt. you should be able to record programs saved on the STB. At the minimum when you replay them through the AVR, you should be able to record on a VCR or Recorder.

Not 100% sure. Please someone clarify.

Raghav

 

[apar]

i think direct recording should be possible. What tata sky has said is the recorded programmes cannot be downloaded from stb.

 

[anand]

Someone mentioned that quality of Tatasky + is better than the normal Tatasky.
How can this be ? The source is the same SD signal right ?
Can someone verify ?

Square-Wave - I can't answer your question definitively. However, when I upgraded from Tata Sky to Tata Sky Plus, the engineers who came for the installation did the following: They replaced my existing dish with a new bigger dish, they replaced the single cable from the dish to the STB with 2 cables (both new) and they installed the new STB. They claimed that the quality would be better and my perception is that it is indeed better (atleast the audio). I have hooked up the new STB to my AV receiver using Component for video and co-axial for audio (compared to Composite cables used for the regular Tata Sky).
The picture seems to look better and the sound seems to be better too.
As per the engineers, Tata Sky Plus used MPEG-4 compression whereas Tata Sky uses MPEG-2. I don't know if this makes any difference in quality.

 

[euclid1]

Square-Wave - I can't answer your question definitively. However, when I upgraded from Tata Sky to Tata Sky Plus, the engineers who came for the installation did the following: They replaced my existing dish with a new bigger dish, they replaced the single cable from the dish to the STB with 2 cables (both new) and they installed the new STB. They claimed that the quality would be better and my perception is that it is indeed better (atleast the audio). I have hooked up the new STB to my AV receiver using Component for video and co-axial for audio (compared to Composite cables used for the regular Tata Sky).
The picture seems to look better and the sound seems to be better too.
As per the engineers, Tata Sky Plus used MPEG-4 compression whereas Tata Sky uses MPEG-2. I don't know if this makes any difference in quality.

hi,
can u try to re-record the recorded program on the plus stb thru av out on your tv onto a vcr/dvd recorder & post the results please.

 

[amol12]

hi,
can u try to re-record the recorded program on the plus stb thru av out on your tv onto a vcr/dvd recorder & post the results please.

Hi euclid1,
There is no way in which this re-recording is *not possible*.
Think about it by knowing the fact below:
Once the Audio/video leaves the STB (or for that matter *any* device) via the AV outs, it does not in any way know which device (TV/VCR/TV tuner card or whatever device) it is connected to.

So, there is no way the STB can stop playing a recorded program control because it does not know if it is sending signals to TV or VCR.

 

[euclid1]

Hi euclid1,
There is no way in which this re-recording is *not possible*.
Think about it by knowing the fact below:
Once the Audio/video leaves the STB (or for that matter *any* device) via the AV outs, it does not in any way know which device (TV/VCR/TV tuner card or whatever device) it is connected to.

So, there is no way the STB can stop playing a recorded program control because it does not know if it is sending signals to TV or VCR.

hi amol,
i was thinking about macrovision found on copy protected vcr cassettes & dvds which rendered copying impossible thru av out if present on the setop box of plus..

 

[pradeep-ivon]

dear friends,
even i am in 2 minds whether to buy or not but it is confirmed there is no OUTPUT and you cannot store away your favorites in your PC and Signal cable is must so basically you are bound to tatasky! the blokes at tata sky are no great technically and cant give detailed replies. exchange offer costs Rs.6K and one year advance subcription is must.
tell me, is it possible to record their programme with windows media centre PC? if yes, then we dont need this new box. may be better to wait for superior HD technology to arrive.

 

[pradeep-ivon]

hi amol,
i was thinking about macrovision found on copy protected vcr cassettes & dvds which rendered copying impossible thru av out if present on the setop box of plus..

why to re-record the recorded programme, cant we just check if the running programme can be recorded on VCR via AV out of TV?

 

[Raghav]

why to re-record the recorded programme, cant we just check if the running programme can be recorded on VCR via AV out of TV?

There is never a problem in recording the running program. The benefit here is that you can record one program while watching another or pre-program record.

Also there are many things we want to re-record for long time sake. Like a Relative's interview/performance or special match/movie.

 

[SwaFa]

To prevent piracy, the feature to copy the recorded content to another media in a straight forward manner is missing.Even though there are USB and Network ports on the back of the TS+ set top box. These are disabled for now.

Any guess if they would be enabled in future and put to what use ?

 

[pradeep-ivon]

There is never a problem in recording the running program. The benefit here is that you can record one program while watching another or pre-program record.

Also there are many things we want to re-record for long time sake. Like a Relative's interview/performance or special match/movie.

thanx raghav for your input. does it mean i can record it via AV outs of the TV through a VCR or DVR. How much does a good DVR with CD/DVR burn feature would cost? any makes in delhi market, with service back up?