No more Idiot Box, The Digital TV is Here

Those were the days, the days when watching your own TV was Royal. Classic times, when movies were telecasted once in a week. The mythological shows were everyone's favorite. Making sure that no single episode should be missed. The time when changing channel wasn't that easy. When TV was only a "tele" "vision" (only limited channel views).

Gone are the days of those Idiot Box (Idiot Box is a slang for television), requiring efforts. Its the time of digital TV. The time in which Royal not only means big & costly. The Royal means digital, the quality, the feature and the applications. Watching "Interactive" TV is Royal now. Having 100 TV channels is not the only thing people want today. You have 100+ channels, Music, Games and a lot more. You not only watch your TV, you now even have the Triple play options. Triple play, the technology which enables voice, data and video on your TV. What does that mean? That means you can access internet on the TV and a lot more. You use Web cams and do video conferencing through your Digital TV now.

IPTV is making all this possible, it is making television Interactive. It has Shopping, Classifieds, Play-Pause-Rewind LIVE TV and many other options for interactive TVs. Its the time when missing an episode does not mean end of the world. You no more rush to watch your favorite show. You smartly go back to the time and watch the missed show using Time Shift features. Shopping or window shopping, whatever it is you can do all on your TV. Just use your TV Remote and buy what you want. A lot more than 500 Movies are there in the video libraries (Video on Demand). iControl IPTV, MyWay IPTV and Airtel IPTV are three big IPTV players in India. Though iControl IPTV wins the race with its better features and facilities. FTTH is the latest buzz today, making the interaction more faster. And iControl wins here too, as it recently launched FTTH in Jaipur.

The Digital TV is making television as good and fun as it was in the golden era. Who thought of pausing the LIVE TV in the Golden Era. All that we missed in our idiot box, is now present in the Digital TV. Its the Smart TV Era – The Digital TV Era .

DTH - Making Indian TV Viewing Better

DTH is becoming prime mode of entertainment nowadays. Its bringing a revolution in TV viewing. The quality of picture got improved. We are now moving towards the digital picture quality. No VCD and DVD collections required if you are a DTH user. DTH has a collection of movies, its video on demand provides a good collection of movies. In fact now the multiplexes are scared of DTH, since DTH is show casing latest movies.

Some of the attractive features and applications of DTH, making it popular among the people are : Pause-Play Live TV (no Rewind Live TV), Save TV programmes on STB for Later viewing, interactive games and applications like (telephonic) shopping etc. I even read an article or rather say a blog saying DTH now reaches 18 million homes, it is the 13 percent of 134 million TV homes in India. It is getting Rs 3000 odd crore. For more Read : http://www.indiandth.com/2009/11/dth-industry-glimpse-of-profits-at-last.html

DTH for sure is better than Local Cable Operator. Though a new user switching from local cable to DTH faces the common adjustment problems. But once you are familiar with it, you find it easy to use. With additional options of shortcut keys, list of your favorite shows and storage of shows for later viewing, DTH is able to attract its customers.

Now the challenge for DTH is not only to attract Local cable users, but also to compete with its competitors. We got many options for the DTH services: Dish TV, Tatasky, Airtel, Sun Direct, Reliance Big TV and Videocon d2h etc. The competition is tough, each is trying to lower the price in order to attract customers. Though the price is more or less same, but what customer wants is a complete package of entertainment.What I found after researching on internet is that today Dish TV is leading and Tatasky is next to Dish TV. In my words Shahrukh (Dish TV) beats Aamir (Tatasky) and wins the top title. The competition is even going one step ahead, DTH Vs Multiplexes. On one hand I buy a ticket of Rs100 – Rs 150 from multiplex to watch a movie, plus other expenses. While on the other hand I am watching a movie for Rs75 – Rs 100, without spending on expenses. Not only this, you can watch it with your whole family and friends at one person's ticket money.

The future of DTH is bright, but with lots of competition. Because IPTV is also emerging in India, which I already talked about in my previous posts ( IPTV - big leap in Television viewing and WHY IPTV ). And not only this DTH till now is investing more than its gaining. The investment in each new movie telecast is really a challenge for DTH. Unlike multiplexes its not getting paid per head, its getting paid per home. Even the content cost is more than 50 percent for DTH services. Well every new technology faces competition but lets see how DTH beats the competition and gets customers.

WHAT PEOPLE SAY ABOUT IPTV

Till now my posts were saying what IPTV (Internet Protocol Television) is, but now I just wanted to know what people say about IPTV in India. What are their views about it. As I strongly believe every research begins at home , so I asked my brother who visits regularly from here to there outside India that " IPTV is now in India so what do you feel its future is? " Firstly He was amused that India is having something that Developed countries like USA are following successfully but he doubted for India as our infrastructure lacks when compared with developed nations.

This was something my brother felt and people in India too feel something like this – ready to accept new technology in India but with some doubts. Doesn't matter I think every new invention goes through phase of criticism and doubts first and in a way its good. A major issue I felt IPTV in India is facing is awareness about it. 98% people are not even aware about IPTV in India ( says just4kix - an Internet user). A very true statement and I really would like to see IPTV industry promotion in India. Infrastructure is my brother doubted on and many other Indians feel the same. But by introducing IPTV in India, India is actually trying to come up from these myths that we have and successful implementation of IPTV proves that Indian infrastructure is not that weak. Some people feel third party involvement in IPTV industry is an issue but if its functioning well and the roles of all parties are well defined and published then that is not a problem. Who knows tomorrow we might have more options of third parties and direct parties too.

People in India are very optimistic, ready to accept challenges, willing to experiment and always welcome new technologies, so is the case with IPTV. Indian are taking initiatives of using IPTV at their home and existing users are loving its features of Time Shift, Video on Demand (VOD), interactive applications, classifieds and so on. Not only the features even picture quality of IPTV is appreciated by its users. Time shift is the TRP of IPTV, IPTV saves all the programmes on your TV 24x7 automatically. VOD too is user favorite, of course with DVD-like features that too latest list of movies are heart winning (iControl is showing Bolt, Kambakhat Ishq on its IPTV -Tweeted on Twitter). No manual efforts for Time shift are needed, working Indians need this only. Working people can now watch what they want whenever they want and that is the reason IPTV is becoming their favorite.

Why IPTV ?

Internet Protocol Television (IPTV), is something that attracted me. IPTV, sometimes referred to as broadband television, is becoming a more popular means of receiving one's television programming. It is estimated that IPTV will conquer a huge number of users in the coming few years

Why IPTV is the question arose in my mind when I first heard about IPTV. We have an N number of options to go for, then why should one go for an IPTV? May be because its a new technology, its something different or may be because its a term related to internet – the future. My mind was juggling with these answers which were not satisfactory, so I searched for my question's answer – WHY IPTV?

So here is what I found. Not only the technology but the idea behind creation of IPTV is to provide the comfort, the ease and the INTERACTIVITY. Its the time when we all believe in interaction with our machines, gadgets, devices etc. And IPTV adds television in this list, yes now even our TVs are interacting with us. Not only this, IPTV comes with solution of the problems faced by existing Television technologies. IPTV provides the benefit of a more efficient means of delivery, allowing for higher quality and more interactive features. When compared with other existing TVs, IPTV gives you a clear vision of what benefits it is providing you.

Lets talk about the satellite television (DTH services) the one requiring a dish antenna for the channels to be telecasted . One of the most common complaint about satellite television service is that there may be a loss of signal in poor weather conditions. When the weather is particularly bad, you can lose all reception, missing your favorite shows. Also, the weather does not even need to be particularly "bad". Sometimes, only partially cloudy skies or windy conditions have been known to interfere with the satellite signals.

While satellite TV is not necessarily a poor service, IPTV does provide more reliable and higher quality service every time. The weather plays no role in the quality or consistency of IPTV service. Still if you missed your favorite show because of the power cut during bad weather, a very common problem faced, your IPTV service provider auto saves your TV shows 24x7 so that you can later on watch the show you missed.

Another common problem with satellite television is that the satellite dish needs to have a clear view of the southwest sky. If there is a particularly high, or very close tree line or building blocking the view, service cannot be provided. This can also be a problem if you live in an apartment or condominium, which is facing the opposite direction, as there may not be a proper place to mount the satellite dish. As far as IPTV is concerned it works through your telephone line as its name broadband TV signifies. So no worries for the installation and placement of equipments.

That was the problems faced by a satellite user, another range of TV users are the traditional cable television users. It is a simple and old method of television viewing where your local cable operator provides you the service. Its not an interactive TV, all you can do with it is just watch the limited number of channels your cable operator is providing. IPTV is definitely benefiting from a competitive edge, provided by new capabilities that integrate Internet content, features, and usability into the TV set.

IPTV has many advantages over conventional cable, including high-speed internet access, Video on demand, hundreds of channel choices, games, educational contents, classifieds and benefits that traditional cable does not provide.

IPTV is growing in popularity due to these advantages over alternative television service. And I guess this is the answer to my question – WHY IPTV? And I am quite satisfied now. If anyone having more about IPTV and its benefits, I will be glad to know.

IPTV - big leap in Television viewing

Okay so what is IPTV. A big jargon or something that's going to change the way I watch the television today. IPTV or Internet Protocol Television is a big leap in TV viewing. It will change the traditional TV world with more interactive feature like Video on Demand (VOD) and many more Services. IPTV basically receives and display encoded video stream through Internet lines laid down for broadband purposes, thereby offering a new concept of affordable televiewing. These internet line are connected to your TV through a set-top box. This makes IPTV, a technology more advanced and better than DTH technology. With DTH customer has to install a Dish antenna and still face problems of distorted videos due to bad weather. Whereas for IPTV only and most important is broadband connection on your existing telephone line. Some of the features and services facilitated by IPTV are:

Video on Demand(VOD)
Security/Parental control
Stop-Play-Forward-Rewind
Ability to watch Television Programmes missed

Messaging through your TV
Games
Classifieds

IPTV is a TV just like restaurants, you sit and order and get what you want. Thus unlike DTH or any other mechanism you can watch the movies of your choice at a time convenient to you. IPTV has a good video quality, giving competition to DTH. No Worries if you feel that there are some channels you wish not to let your kids watch, you can lock the channels disturbing your child's studies by simply putting a code (just like your passwords) and you are relaxed.

The Stop-Play-Forward-Rewind feature works just like your DVD player and hence no need of wasting your money in buying a DVD player. And if you missed your favorite programme or movies, no worries IPTV saves Automatically all your programmes/movies telecasted. That too 24x7 all the things appearing on your TV are saved. So don’t worry if you missed your country winning the cricket finals or that shot being talked about.

Not only has this you can communicate using IPTV as it provided the messaging feature just like SMS in your mobile phones. You can make your own address book save your contacts and whenever you feel lazy to pick your mobile phone simply use your IPTV's remote to send messages to other IPTV users.
Gone are the days when you use to buy a gaming console for playing games, its the time when people get to play games in almost all gadgets/devices then
why leave your TV behind. Yes, IPTV has interactive games not only Entertaining you also increasing your knowledge.
Well what else? You get Classifieds too, so no need to go and find some papers or connecting your internet and search for your things. Simply press your TV remote's button and there you go. Everything is on your fingers.

I have a good news for all Indians – you can get IPTV through MTNL and BSNL lines (the widespread network and cheap too that we all know)