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TV viewers from Mumbai are complaining about severe disturbances in cable TV relayed by Hathway as well as disappearance of channels since the past few months.
Several television (TV) viewers from across Mumbai are complaining about dwindling quality of Hathway cable TV services. Several customers of Hathway Cable are witnessing regular disruption, pixelation and disappearance of channels on the cable networks from Colaba to Andheri and other suburbs.
“I have been noticing pixelation and disturbances in Hathway connections in my house and also in Colaba area in houses of my friends and relatives. This is happening very often nowadays,” said one agitated customer of Hathway, who unsuccessfully tried to raise the issue may times, with the service provider.
Pixelation or the fuzzy picture with all sorts of vertical and horizontal (wire mesh) disturbances running across the screen is a most common phenomenon with analog TV services. With the upcoming digitisation, it is expected to be a thing of past and people can watch TV with clean and clear image similar to direct-to-home (DTH) service. On the digital platform, pixelation may occur due to momentary delay in signal and the display unit (like TV) may not be able to decode the frames fast enough to render or show them properly.
Viewers from four metros—Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata and Chennai—will have to install a set top box (STB) to continue to view TV through the cable network from next month onwards. The ministry of information and broadcasting has set a deadline of 31st October for complete switch over of cable TV to the digital platform in the four metros in the first phase.
Apart from offering more channels in digital quality, the advantages of digital cable services include weather-proof services that are not interrupted by rain. Besides, this service is provided through the local cable operator.
Coming back to Hathway Cable TV services, several customers have been complaining about the disappearance of their regular channels. One such customer from Bengaluru said, since September 2012, he is not been able to watch ETV Kannada (Channel No 642), while other ETV channels are being relayed by Hathway. He said this has happened for the second time.
According to sources, the disappearance of a particular channel or set of channels is related with non-payment of user fees to the broadcaster from the cable TV operator. However, many times, cable operators manage to access the blocked channel/s and relay it on some different set. For example, Hathway may use its “Local Cable 1”, “Local Cable 2” or “Local Cable 3” to relay the otherwise blocked channel. While some customers know about this practice, the same cannot be confirmed by the cable operators.
Hathway, on its part has made it clear that quality of its signal varies across locations. Here are the general parameters used by Hathway for cable TV relay service across its network...
Hathway says these parameters are achieved on its trunk and distribution network. “Performance of these parameters can vary from each STB location so much so that it can be different at two locations within the same household due to the nature of the internal cabling within the household. In such instances a Hathway technician or its local cable operator (LCO) will demonstrate the same at the tap off/splitter level that feeds the particular household that the parameters are met and the subscriber will then have to replace the internal cabling at his/her cost,” Hathway said on its site.
Interestingly Hathway used the same excuse and asked one of its customers to change internal cables. But the end result is the same. “This (the issues with Hathway cable TV) has been going on for very long. They first pointed out incorrect cable (in my home). I got it changed to the recommended cable on all my TVs, but of late this pixelation problem keeps on coming up from time to time,” the customer said.
The question is why Hathway cannot look in customer complaints and resolve it at the earliest. The answer is simple. Hathway have lesser seats or customer care executives compared with DTH service providers as most of the time it is their LCO who interacts or resolves customer complaints. The LCO may or may not be able to resolve technical issues without help and in the process, the customers suffer.
Officials of Hathway were not immediately available for comment.
Source: Hathway cable TV viewers from Mumbai facing disturbances, pixelation issues - Moneylife
Several television (TV) viewers from across Mumbai are complaining about dwindling quality of Hathway cable TV services. Several customers of Hathway Cable are witnessing regular disruption, pixelation and disappearance of channels on the cable networks from Colaba to Andheri and other suburbs.
“I have been noticing pixelation and disturbances in Hathway connections in my house and also in Colaba area in houses of my friends and relatives. This is happening very often nowadays,” said one agitated customer of Hathway, who unsuccessfully tried to raise the issue may times, with the service provider.
Pixelation or the fuzzy picture with all sorts of vertical and horizontal (wire mesh) disturbances running across the screen is a most common phenomenon with analog TV services. With the upcoming digitisation, it is expected to be a thing of past and people can watch TV with clean and clear image similar to direct-to-home (DTH) service. On the digital platform, pixelation may occur due to momentary delay in signal and the display unit (like TV) may not be able to decode the frames fast enough to render or show them properly.
Viewers from four metros—Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata and Chennai—will have to install a set top box (STB) to continue to view TV through the cable network from next month onwards. The ministry of information and broadcasting has set a deadline of 31st October for complete switch over of cable TV to the digital platform in the four metros in the first phase.
Apart from offering more channels in digital quality, the advantages of digital cable services include weather-proof services that are not interrupted by rain. Besides, this service is provided through the local cable operator.
Coming back to Hathway Cable TV services, several customers have been complaining about the disappearance of their regular channels. One such customer from Bengaluru said, since September 2012, he is not been able to watch ETV Kannada (Channel No 642), while other ETV channels are being relayed by Hathway. He said this has happened for the second time.
According to sources, the disappearance of a particular channel or set of channels is related with non-payment of user fees to the broadcaster from the cable TV operator. However, many times, cable operators manage to access the blocked channel/s and relay it on some different set. For example, Hathway may use its “Local Cable 1”, “Local Cable 2” or “Local Cable 3” to relay the otherwise blocked channel. While some customers know about this practice, the same cannot be confirmed by the cable operators.
Hathway, on its part has made it clear that quality of its signal varies across locations. Here are the general parameters used by Hathway for cable TV relay service across its network...
Hathway says these parameters are achieved on its trunk and distribution network. “Performance of these parameters can vary from each STB location so much so that it can be different at two locations within the same household due to the nature of the internal cabling within the household. In such instances a Hathway technician or its local cable operator (LCO) will demonstrate the same at the tap off/splitter level that feeds the particular household that the parameters are met and the subscriber will then have to replace the internal cabling at his/her cost,” Hathway said on its site.
Interestingly Hathway used the same excuse and asked one of its customers to change internal cables. But the end result is the same. “This (the issues with Hathway cable TV) has been going on for very long. They first pointed out incorrect cable (in my home). I got it changed to the recommended cable on all my TVs, but of late this pixelation problem keeps on coming up from time to time,” the customer said.
The question is why Hathway cannot look in customer complaints and resolve it at the earliest. The answer is simple. Hathway have lesser seats or customer care executives compared with DTH service providers as most of the time it is their LCO who interacts or resolves customer complaints. The LCO may or may not be able to resolve technical issues without help and in the process, the customers suffer.
Officials of Hathway were not immediately available for comment.
Source: Hathway cable TV viewers from Mumbai facing disturbances, pixelation issues - Moneylife
