Manufactured and Packaged in Sri Lanka with the Finest Sri Lankan Material.
I'm now registered on YouTube to provide videos related to Pay Television and IT in Sri Lanka. Of course I only have Dialog TV at home, so most of the videos will be related to it. Through this I hope to tell the world how good/bad the situation of Pay TV in Sri Lanka is, and educate future customers through real life videos so that they can see the truth for themselves.
Its time for new channels once more on Dialog Satellite Television. This time the channels are not essential for Dialog's survival (at least for the moment), but will be pleasant additions if package prices are not increased.
Here are the channels that have already been launched:-
CH55 - Shruthi Television - Hindu religious channel
CH56 - Rana Ru - Entertainment and news for members of armed forces (scrambled for ordinary subscribers)
Unfortunately, this year there is no complete list of channel which will be launched. But here are the channels thought to be launched on Dialog TV on their 4th Transponder, according to unverified sources:-
Fox FX - Dedicated to programming targetted at men
Fox Crime - All about crime
Fox News Channel - Popular news channel based in U.S.A.
Fox Sports - Sports channel which is available only in the Middle East so far
Fox Movie Channel - Movies from U.S.A.
Deutsche Welle TV - News and entertainment from Germany
TV5 Monde - Movies and entertainment from France
E! Entertainment Television - #1 channel for hollywood gossip and rumours (already on Dialog Mobile TV)
Channel NewsAsia - News channel based in Singapore
Baby TV - Entertainment for toddlers and information for parents
SS Music - Music from all Southern states of India
Channel C - Sri Lankan Music channel backed by Torana Music (already on Dialog Mobile TV)
There is a possibility that Dialog is in talks with Sun Network to provide India's most popular Tamil-language channels on Dialog TV. Hopefully these talks will have a positive result.
Picture Quality
Shruti Television has a high picture quality so far as only 10 channels are active, and 8 channels are probably not working at their fullest yet. Unfortunately the quality of Rana Ru cannot be accessed as the channel is scrambled for ordinary customers.
Sound Quality
It is difficult to measure the sound quality as many programmes on Shruti Television do not have professionally recorded audio.
EPG
None of the channels have Electronic Programme Guides so far.
But another interesting piece of information is that the EPG will be given a dedicated data channel. That means the EPGs of all channel will load faster and all EPGs can be accessed without changing the channel.
Acknowledgement
I thank all those who post information regarding new channels and improvement on Dialog TV at the Dialog TV Forum. The information provided here is solely based on the information they have provided.
NOTE: The switch to MPEG-4 is probably not going to happen so soon, but this article will remain here if anyone want to get a faint idea of what may be planned.
Dialog Satellite Television is planning to add a wide range of new channels within the next few months using MPEG-4 encoding technology. MPEG-4 offers lower bitrates and better quality, which means that any digital broadcaster can broadcast even more channels than before within the same limited space.
Lets have a look at what MPEG-4 can change for current and future customers of Dialog TV.
Solving the Transponder Issue
Dialog has only three transponders at the moment, with one more on its way. Each of the current transponders can fit in around 18 channels (except the third transponder, which has 19) with acceptable quality using MPEG-2 encoding. This results in a total of 55 channels, which is the channel count on Dialog. Once Dialog gets a transponder, addition of channels can be done fast. But the problem is that transponders are expensive, and satellites are fast running out of them.
So the best solution is to fit as many channels as possible to the existing transponders. This can be done even now with MPEG-4. But ultimately each channel will have less bandwidth to call its own, and the overall quality will suffer.
This is where the new MPEG-4 comes in. Using MPEG-4, the current channel number of 18 per transponder can be doubled to 36 channels. Yet there will not be a loss of quality because of the magic of MPEG-4. The quality may even be better than before.
This means that Dialog can avoid having to purchase more transponders, but still introduce more new channels.
Being a MPEG-4 decoder does not mean that the decoder is immediately MPEG-2 compatible. This depends completely on the hardware and software. But since MPEG-4 decoder processors are quite powerful, it is likely that MPEG-2 can also be decoded quite easily after a system software upgrade.
The Current Plans
Please note that these are subject to change. Visit the Dialog TV Forum for the latest information.
Dialog now plans to introduce a fourth transponder with 35 channels, using MPEG-4 encoding. This will surely be a great treat for the customers.
But using MPEG-4 will need customers to purchase new decoders, and so far Dialog does not sound like they will give them out free. According to the current information, those who want access to the new channels can purchase the new decoder. The new MPEG-4 decoder will cost around LKR 6000+++.
The new decoder will be backward compatible with MPEG-2, as channels on the existing three transponders will not be upgraded to MPEG-4 immediately.
Certain sources suggest that Dialog TV will use the same decoder as the Indian DTH service Sun Direct. Sun Direct too broadcasts using MPEG-4, and uses the same Irdeto encryption technology, so this is quite possible.
There is also a possibility that MPEG-4 decoding will be enabled through some sort of software upgrade for existing decoders, but it depends completely on whether the hardware will be powerful enough to decode the power hungry MPEG-4.
Customers will have to watch and wait till Dialog launches their new transponder with new technology. Unfortunately, the new channels being in MPEG-4 means that existing customers cannot watch the test transmissions. Lets be patient, shall we...
Today is Chrsitmas, and I celebrated it with my friends. I also got the opportunity to use the new Decoder built by Technosat (UAE) for Dialog Satellite Television. The New Decoder is a major improvement over the Coship CDVB5110D Decoder originally chosen by CBNsat.
The New Decoder, as I assume, is specifically designed for Dialog TV by the U.A.E.-base company Technosat. I assume so because the Technosat Website does not show or mention the Dialog TV Decoder.
The New Decoder follows in the footsteps of major DTH services such as Sky (UK), Dish TV (India) and DirecTV (USA). The interface is mostly made up of blue colour, and is more simpler than before (debatable).
Physical Aspects
The Decoder is physically shaped like a regular slim DVD player, only less wider. It is silver/gray in colour. It also has the Dialog Satellite TV label pasted on it.
Connections
The connections in the Old Decoder and the New Decoder are the same, except for the Digital Coaxial Output. I've listed out the connections I can remember:
1 x Satellite In
1 x Loop Out
1 x RF In
1 x RF Out
1 x Composite Out
1 x S-Video Out
2 x Audio L+R Out
1 x S/PDIF Optical Out (TOSLINK or Digital Optical Audio Cable)
1 x S/PDIF Coaxial Out (Digital Coaxial Audio Cable)
1 x RS-232 (COM)
The Blue Information Dashboard
The blue dashboard that appears when you change the channel or press the "i" (Info) button displays the usual information. But only the current programme is listed, not the next programme. And also the current time is included in the dashboard, not in a seperate window on top of the screen.
By pressing the "i" button a second time, it is possible to get information on the current Satellite, Signal Quality, etc.
Electronic Programme Guide
The Electronic Programming Guide now has its own full screen window. The current channel is displayed in a small window on the top-left side of the screen. The current time and date are displayed below that. On the right side is the list of channels and the current programme. By selecting a channel with the "OK" button, and then pressing the Red button, it is possible to see its weekly EPG.
By pressing the "OK" button while watching a channel, you can access the usual list of channels. But in the New Decoder this is a full screen window, with the current channel displayed on the top-left side and the list of channels on the right side, similar to the EPG.
Pressing the "i" button when selecting a certain programme on a channel will allow you to view its description. The description can cover many page (the most I saw were 4 pages). This explains why we sometimes see only the last few words of the description on the Old Decoders. When there is no description the Decoder politely displays "No Extended Information", without showing a plain black box.
It is also possible to set a Reminder for a programme on any channel. I could not experiment with this, though.
Snapshots
There is also an attractive feature which allows a user to view snapshots of 9 channels at a time. The name of each channel is displayed on the lower part of each snapshot.
Zoom
The Zoom feature allows you to magnify the current video up to 4x, just as in most of today's DVD players.
Menus
The menu system of the New Decoder consists of colourful graphics to denote each submenu. Unfortunately I did not have time to look around there.
Satellite Chooser
By pressing the "Sat" button you can select the satellite you want to use. Of course, in Dialog TV there is only one satellite: IntelSat 12.
The Logo
And I nearly forgot: almost every full screen page has the Dialog Satellite TV logo on the top together with the Title of the page.
Bugs
The Decoder can sometimes be a bit buggy. I once surfed through the channels and pressed the "Zoom" button, only to get an odd picture on the screen. The pictures was replaced by the normal television video after changing to another channel.
Purchasing the New Decoder
I do not know about any exchange programme for the New Decoders and Old Decoders. If you do want the New Decoder, it may be possible to purchase one for money (although you will still lose the Old Decoder). If you want to keep both the Old and New Decoders then you will have to pay for two connections.
Dialog will probably not open an exchange programme for these this decoder. If you know anything on this subject, please inform me.
Final Thoughts
Overall, I'm impressed with the New Decoder. Dialog designing and manufacturing their own Decoder together with a popular foreign company is a great thing. And the Decoder itself is almost on par with the ordinary Decoders of other DTH services, although not offering DVR capabilities.
But it is not worth exchanging the Decoder unless it is given free-of-charge or for a very low price.
Eventually I believe that Dialog TV will introduce another new Decoder, especially if they upgrade to MPEG-4 compression. And possibly Digital Video Recording capabilities too will be introduced.
As I do not have the New Decoder at home, I may be wrong at some points. Most of this was written by memory. I you do have the New Decoder, please correct me and provide more information.
Here I will mention a few of the DVB standards and describe them briefly:-All non-racist, non-fighting, peaceful bloggers are welcome to peacefully discuss Dialog TV affairs here, in comments under this post.
This is only temporary, as the Dialog TV Forum is in a huge mess.
I will not allow any racsism and religious affairs to be discussed here. No fighting. Comments will be moderated.
I hope you all find good place to talk until the problems at Dialog TV Forum are solved.
Thank You.
I have just completed the first stage of my new Unofficial Website for Dialog TV. This website provides the information Dialog takes a long time to provide, or never provides at all. Also, it is a much better alternative to the main website if you want to find the correct prices and packages according to the real name of the channel. In the Dialog TV website, TEN Sports is marked as "10 Sports". And... well, just go there and see. I hope they fix it soon.
Returning to the subject of the new website, it is the successor to a failed project named the Dialog TV Wiki. Failed means that there was no one to help maintain the wiki, whereas a wiki should be maintained by community, not one person.
Therefore this website will only be maintained by me. But of course, all are welcome to email me or post a comment in this blog about any mistakes or updates.
So I hope you all consider visitng the site. Note that you should enable ActiveX on Internet Explorer before-hand, or when asked, to access the website properly.
During the months of June and July 2007, Dialog TV has been introducing new channels to their lineup. A total of 13 channels were to be added (excluding STAR), and 11 have been launched so far. These channels are available on the third transponder.
Updates: HBO Family was added on June 15. NDTV and SRTV were added on June 17. GOD Channel was added on June 19.
Here is the list of the 11 available new channels, according to channel numbers on the decoder:-
CH37 - TEN Sports - WWE, Cricket, Le Tour de France and more
CH38 - Hallmark Channel - Family friendly and other interesting programming
CH39 - SET - Indian Idol and Hindi entertainment
CH40 - HBO HiTS - Seven new HiT movies for each day of the week
CH41 - Australia Network - Entertainment, movies, news and more direct from Australia
CH42 - SET SAB - Hindi entertainment for the younger generations
CH43 - NEO Sports Plus - Sports
CH44 - NEO Sports - Channel dedicated to cricket (mainly Indian cricket)
CH45 - The Buddhist - Sri Lanka's first Buddhist television channel
CH46 - HBO Family - Family friendly movies
CH47 - NDTV 24x7 - Indian English news channel
CH48 - SR TV - Tamil movie channel
CH49 - GOD Channel - Christian religious channel
Here are the channels which are yet to be tested:-
STAR World - American Idol, Oprah and other English entertainment
STAR Movies - English movie channel
STAR Plus - India's No 1 Hindi entertainment channel
STAR Vijay - Popular Tamil entertainment channel
Picture Quality
As in all test transmissions, you can expect low picture quality at the beginning. Normally, correcting this would be one of the main focuses of test transmissions. However, in Dialog's case, with most channels distributed in digital technology, it is not a matter of picture quality. But Dialog has a wide variety of technical problems such as picture freezing. Picture freezing was first seen on the SET channel after DialogTV's launch in February 2007. It then seemed to spread on to other channels. This was possibly the case for the new channels as well. Therefore the main focus of the Dialog TV test transmissions is getting the technical problems solved.
But enough of technical details. Of course, at the beginning the quality of the new channels was plain awful. This made me rather reluctant to boast about Dialog's new channels. This lasted until Monday this week.
The NEO Sports, NEO Sports Plus, SET SAB and CNN channels were removed temporarily on Thursday last week. CNN had picture freezing, but now it seems to have been solved after the reappearance on Monday (July 9). The NEO channels returned on Tuesday (July 10), together with no picture freezing and with much improved picture quality. Then the other channels too were given better compression and thus better picture quality.
Update: SET SAB is back, as of June 12 2007.
During fast movements on TEN Sports and Hallmark Channel, the picture would previously be covered in black and white blocks as a result of very heavy pixelation. It was worse that watching a video on a 56k internet connection. But since Tuesday, the fast movements were very clear and 90% of the pixelation had disappeared. The overall picture qualiy had improved greatly.
Sound Quality
Sound quality has rarely been an issue on Dialog TV (yes, surprising). Even with the new channels there is not much of a problem.
But in some channels only one side of the audio is provided. Stereo sound incudes at least 2 sides (channels). It is not yet clear as to why this is done by Dialog TV.
In case of HBO HiTS, it is a feed coming from Hong Kong. Therefore these is commentary in both English (on one side) and Chinese (on the other side) during advertisements of their programming. Therefore it is suitable to block the Chinese side during advertisements. But this has to be changed during the movie, as otherwise there will be an awful sound quality with only one side of audio.
But yesterday I noticed Chinese and Englich commentary going one after the other. Mybe HBO has stopped the dual language on dual side thing, because then people or services have to block the unwanted commentary. One language at a time is much better.
EPG
The Electronic Programming Guide for seven days was introduced for most channels in Dialog TV throughout this year (2007). The EPG for the new channels are already being introduced.
TEN Sports and Australia Network had EPGs when I checked around 3.30 pm today (July 11). Hallmark Channel surprisingly did not. But probably the EPGs for other channels will appear throughout this week, or month.
Update: EPGs are also available on HBO HiTS and SET, after the evening of June 11. Also the Australia Network, HBO HiTS and many other EPGs of older channels have descriptions of the program.
STAR Channels
Due to technical problems the launch of these channels have been continously delayed. But it is confirmed that they will appear within this month (July) or the next (August). Lets just hope that they do not have heavy pixelation, or the much feared picture freezing when they arrive.
For now, I congratulate Dialog for the introduction of the new channels. I hope they sort out the package structures properly and introduce the right channels to the right packages. At the moment, the package settings are creating a bit of a revolt among Dialog TV customers.
Applications should be sent within the next Seven days to:
Head of Human Resources Management and Development, Dialog Career Centre, Level 29, West Tower, World Trade Centre, Echelon Square, Colombo 01.
Email: careers@dialog.lk
Online applications: www.topjobs.lk
Source: Page 28, Sunday Observer - 11th March 2007
I am currently a subscriber of Dialog TV.
Currently, these are the subjects that Dialog TV should address to make their service a better one:-
Wish Dialog TV best of luck in the Future.
