Finally the news I was waiting for. Reliance Communications has just given all us hi-definition enthusiasts in India something to cheer about. Reliance Communication has just launched Big TV - their Direct To Home (DTH) service to compete with Dish TV and Tata Sky and a host of other smaller regional DTH services. In and by itself this would not have been very exciting news had it not been for the promise of launching HDTV by the end of the year!
Finally India will have its own broadcast high definition TV channels - something I have been waiting for a while! Reliance has finally done it and proven that they are indeed delivering incredible value to the customer with the latest technology - not a mean feat considering that none of the other DTH providers today have any plans for high definition broadcasts.
One of the main enablers for high definition broadcasts is the video and audio encoding format - Reliance Big TV plans to use MPEG-4. MPEG-4 is efficient across a variety of bit-rates ranging from a few kilobits per second to tens of megabits per second - making it ideally suited for high definition broadcasts. MPEG-4 supports MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 used by the x264 codec and MPEG-4 SP/ASP used by DivX and XviD.
Reliance plans to launch with about 200 channels and expand that to about 300-350 channels by Q1 2009. They also plan about 8-10 High Definition channels by year end. Big TV will also offer recording of programs to view later similar to TiVo functionality. Very exciting! Watch this space for more updates.
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11 comments:
Hi Maverick,
I have got an LCD TV from US which is an NTSC TV. The STB that Reliance Big TV guys are providing has the component video output. Just wanted to know whether if you connect the NTSC TV with the component output it works or not (I am sure it wont work with composite, but wanted to check with component if it does or not). Have you come across any who has been using in this kind of a setup (tried calling up customer care, but they have no idea what am asking).
Thanks in advance,
Raghu
Hi Raghu - my best guess is that most likely component will not work - as this is most likely analog component - see this article on Wikipedia for details: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Component_video
Hope this helps.
Hi Maverick,
First of all, thanks a ton for all the useful info on your blog. I am currently in the US and am returning to India this June. I had a few questions about what to get and what to buy in India as far as TV, Home theater etc. are concerned. I do not want to make my question a public comment so I would really appreciate if you can drop me a line at dittakavi at gmail and let me know the best email address to reach you at.
Harish.
Hi Maverick,Harish and Raghu,
I am in same problem,I also have a NTSC TV which when connected to BigTV STB's component output it doesnot work.If anyone of you have been able to work out this problem and have solution to it please let me know.It will be great if you could reply soon.
Thanks in advance,
Vikas
BIG TV DOES NOT WORK WITH HDTV NTSC PLASMA OR LCD IN THE YBPR MODE OR IN ANY OTHER MODE , THE TV HAS TO BE 100% PAL, DON'T KNOW WHY RELIANCE CALL IT HDTV , WHEN IT WORKS ONLY ON (LEGACY) PAL MODE AND NO OTHER MODES.I TRIED ALL POSSIBLE MODES ON MY 40" LCD NTSC HDTV , JUST WON'T WORK
There are two types of component output - digital and analog. Most likely Reliance is using the analog variety which will be PAL specific.
I am sure calling their customer support will not help as they may not really know the technical details about this.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Component_video
Hi Guys,
Thanks for your inputs,the problem is when I connect it to BigTV STB's component output then neither video nor audio comes,but when I remove YPbPr cable and only keep Audio points connected then Audio starts working.Same is the case when I use composite output of BigTV STB.When using composite output if I connect all 3 pins(Red,white and yellow) neither Video nor audio works,but if i remove Yellow(video) pin and let other two pins be connected then audio starts working.Any thoughts on it and any idea how to make this TV work.
Thanks in Advance,
Vikas
You need a PAL-NTSC convertor. I have a detailed article on this in my blog.
Hi Maverick
We will be moving from US in next six months. We have bought our TV sets , Washer & Dryer in 2007. Is there any easier method with which my TV sets can work in India. Is it worthwile to bring washer & dryer and will it work in India.
Hi Guys,
I too faced a problem of NTSC TV which I bough Abroad,
Normally PAL to NTSC Convertor cost around Rs.6000 good one,
I do found a go around Solution You can get a DVD recorder like Akai or local DELTRON in the market cost around Rs.3,500 it has option of changing the mode to NTSC like other DVD player, the same unit can be used for recording the TV programmes in the DVD hope it has added advantage and solves the problem with less cost but good qulaity.
Ravi, mfg_lotte@yahoo.com.
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