Airtel- living up to its name

I start with the actual review in the next paragraph so for those of you who are not interested in some personal chit chatter u can skip this paragraph. I don't usually write reviews for everything that i purchase. The reason I am doing this is twofold. Firstly because before I actually wanted to purchase an airtel digital tv connection for myself and searched around so much for reviews, info related to the same, i was disappointed for the scanty response from subscribers. Secondly because i really want to clarify a certain doubts about the service, quality,etc about the product from "MY" point of view. I would also like to state that i was previously an unhappy dish tv customer. I am writing a review about dish tv as well and the reason why i decided to change so it should be available on this site pretty soon. Ok now without further ado i'll begin with my review.

I went to the dealer on a Saturday evening and asked the dealer about Airtel digital tv. He said it is doing pretty good as he had a good number of sales. I was surprised when he recommended it to me over reliance big tv. Now am the kind of person who googles a lot on the internet to get enough information about something when i have a choice between alternatives. So from what i heard, reliance had a tremendous response when compared to airtel. This was solely because they provided a more economical package and more flexibilty and control to the channels you want to view. Their remote looks a bit snazzier and bigger than the airtel one and the set top box looks quite ordinary but its menu system is a bit more attractive(in a fancy way with more animations and stuff) albeit quite laggy which is annoying on the long run. Ok i'm getting a bit carried away here.. Ok so he recommends it to me. And from what i understood, Airtel outstands the other digital services in terms of clarity, resistance to heavily clouded skies. The only two concerns about Airtel(one of which is still a concern for some) are the package costs and customer service.

Now let me tell you something about the customer service. I am an airtel customer in terms of cellular connection, broadband and landline connection and now even DTH. Let me tell you Airtel customer service( in my opinion) is the best in terms of broadband,landline (as i've had previous experiences with them). I don't know about cellular( as i did not have to have a previous experience with them). But by far i have seen the best customer service for the DTH. I placed an order for the digital tv service that Saturday evening and i did whole cash payment of Rs. 3500 as i opted for Platinum package. I gave my address and some other details and the guy told me that they'll come the next afternoon to install your connection. I told him its a Sunday will they come for sure. He said they will after which i collected the Set top box and a recharge coupon from there and left. Just moments after i left, i received an sms on my cell providing my customer id and it mentioned that my installation date was on Monday. But sure enough, the next afternoon, i get a call from the airtel people and they ask me if i'm at home so that they could come to install the connection. They arrive immediately in their uniform bearing a smile on their faces. Then they set up the connection in no time and do not take a penny for the excellent job. Before they left, they tuned the set top box remote for my tv as well and even explained all the features and how to use them. Then one of them gave me his number and even noted down mine and requested me to give his a call anytime if i have any queries. I was requested to recharge with the voucher within 24 hours which i forgot to do for which i get a call from airtel customer care to remind me to. Now with such an experience with the customer care I can't understand why people would say that its lacking. According to me, I could not ask for a better customer care.

That was about the customer care, the topic of emphasis when it comes to any platform. Now i will explain some generic details about the product which includes some minor details that some reviewers miss out. The set top box and remote are really good looking in my opinion. The set top box comes second in looks only to the tata sky plus receiver which is gorgeous to look at. The remote controller is sleek and accurate. Its not got a very fancy look like the big tv or tata sky remote if thats what you are looking for, but it looks tonnes better than the dish tv remote. The receiver is very responsive, when you turn it on, it displays the previously watched channel in less than a second. It's got a nice red LED glow around the lower right section. The led display also has a yellow mail icon which lights up when you get new mail from airtel regarding your connection. They have a very nice menu system. All channels are well sorted out with details and info provided for everychannel and schedule updated appropriately for the next 7 days. One nice feature i noticed is in the menu, you have this option where you can sort channels based on mood. If you are in a mood to watch action films, the STB automatically filters out all the channels showing content of the Action genre. Really neat.
The channels change quickly, sound almost changes instantaneously but video takes about a second to switch. The clarity is very good. I have compared the quality of this with dish tv on my 32 inch lcd tv. Actually though people say there is a big difference between the two, there is noticeable difference for real graphics enthusiasts such as myself but its not even remotely close to high definition. Now for those of you who want to tell me that its not possible to get high definition content without an HDMI wire, let me tell you, what is being provided by any indian DTH service is not even pushing the standard( yellow,white,red) to its limits. And by the way, the receiver has only standard and RC outputs. No S-video or anything as such. But again that should not make a difference as justified by my earlier statement. The receiver has got a usb connection at the side which will be used later on for extended functionality. The remote controller as you might be knowing can be programmed to record button functions of your television set or whatever IR compatible device you so choose.That way you can change the volume on your tv set and change channels on your set top box.

There is also support for Worldspace radio. Bear in mind that this does not encompass all the radio channels of Worldspace. Only a few selected ones so don't get fooled and think that they are they are providing Worldspace radio so they are charging extra. And the most listened to radio channel Radio Jhankaar is not one of the provided channels so for some people its almost worthless. Do not buy this because you feel they are providing WorldSpace channels. But there is a good chance that they might add channels in future.

Overall I feel it is an excellent product. The best in the market when it comes to DTH. I would like to mention here that TATA sky + provides many extra capabitities and good service at a very pricey initial cost so if you can deal with the initial cost, you may have to check out reviews on the set. Airtel is better than TS+ in terms of faster channel switching, and more compact STB, universal remote. If you are not interested in TS+'s extra recording and playback facilities then Airtel is your best option. You can't go wrong.


P.S: I would appreciate comments for my review but please don't say i have included too many details coz thats the way I am :) Cheers..