Discussion In which year did you got your first DTH/Cable connections?

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I am extremely bad with the timelines, so cannot provide the years. Its going to be a long description, so please bare with me :)

1) Had shutter type Thompson color tv with roof top antenna. Used to get DD National and DD Metro with excellent picture quality. Loved the cartoon block on DD Metro and Disney cartoons, He-man etc were one of the few firsts I have seen

2) After few years, the roof top antenna started catching 4-5 Private TV channels on analogue like Zee TV, Sony etc. Quality depended on the time of the day. Evening hours had the best quality while morning hours had grainy reception

3) 2-3 years after that, got bulky 29 inch LG TV and local analogue cable. It had 40-50 channels with cable operator having full control over channel offerings and positions. It had 2-3 dedicated slots for each category and the cable operator used to switch the channels based on customer demand and feedback. I used to torture that guy for kids and infotainment channels like Cartoon network, pogo, Nat Geo, discovery etc. Some channels had permanent position based on extreme demand, ex_ Ten sports for WWE content

4) Some time later, LCO installed amplifiers and splitters at the pole to give grain free, full spectrum of channels by including S band frequencies. Very few TVs had support for this S band in our area and my LG TV was one of them. People used to come to our house to watch channels which were on S Band, Sometimes LCO used to change channel position from S band to VHF/UHF based on customer demand. Mostly international and English channels found the solace in S band frequency.

5) Later, the LCO moved to MSO (Hathway) and was involved only with maintenance. 2 slots before DD National used to be kept empty by Hathway which was used by LCO to provide local entertainment or news. Sometimes by playing channels which not available on Hathway, from other sources (LCO had C Band dish) .

6) Then came digitization to Hathway. Cable was blacked out for 2 days for the upgrade when LCO played movies on 2 slots and provided Ten sports and Star Plus using other sources. It was very sweet of them to keep us entertained during the blackout. They also provided Hathway Humax set top box for Rs.555/-. It was like magic after digitization since we received many more channels with no grainy feel for the same amount. Since Digital signals take less bandwidth compared to analogue, it left plethora of slots for LCO to provide local channels and his own services. It became an instant hit in the area.

7) Since the number of connection increased over cable over time, the signals deteriorated and I had bad experience with LCO. Also LCO owner died and his sons distributed the area to be controlled among themselves, it was a huge mess and conflict as they resorted to cable cutting. Not able to withstand frequent disconnects, shifted to Dish TV HD, Soon after got 3 years FTA offer with HD only pack with 220 monthly charge. Disconnected it immediately after NTO1. Living on with OTT ever since
 
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been born and bought up in Dubai mine journey with tv channels was amazing before any channels DD was the only channel we use too get it in uae through VHF antenna after few years it stopped... then in 90's big black antenna was launched in that we use too get zee,star,mtv etc (these all channels were on asiasat)then sony launched then took another antenna (it was launched through pass10....then 2003 bought dth which was launched in dubai and in 2005 got dishtv from India and started using it... them close dth of Dubai and joined evision (which is same as jio fiber) i think 2009 now using both elife and dishtv in dubai
 
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amty said:
been born and bought up in Dubai mine journey with tv channels was amazing before any channels DD was the only channel we use too get it in uae through VHF antenna after few years it stopped... then in 90's big black antenna was launched in that we use too get zee,star,mtv etc (these all channels were on asiasat)then sony launched then took another antenna (it was launched through pass10....then 2003 bought dth which was launched in dubai and in 2005 got dishtv from India and started using it... them close dth of Dubai and joined evision (which is same as jio fiber) i think 2009 now using both elife and dishtv in dubai
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I think sony was launched in pas 7 ..
 
Mr.Bhat said:
Absolutely correct..miss u a lot...I still remember those people around us.. ..
Really missing Vishwa...I learnt few things from him and Shubham...
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Yeah, absolutely. Miss all the great sat hunters of the past.
What was the name of the person, which had onida devil as his avatar.... "tuning the dish further ", on S. O. D
 
shawl_who said:
Yeah, absolutely. Miss all the great sat hunters of the past.
What was the name of the person, which had onida devil as his avatar.... "tuning the dish further ", on S. O. D
Click to expand...
ya bro s.o.d days were great.... hunting for channels
 
In the year 1996 bought Videocon color TV with rooftop Antennae and watched DD National, the program line up on DD National itself top-notch those days, fav series were Shaktimaan, cartoons like Vardhman, duck tales, mickey mouse, etc. At that time we were residing in a rural area in the western belt of Tamil Nadu.

Next, we relocated to the western suburbs of Chennai during 1998 and continued with rooftop antennae for a while, and got more DD channels like DD Metro, DD Podhigai and program lineup even more interesting like reality singing shows in podhigai and series like captain house in DD Metro were unforgettable entertainment in the late 90s... Some of the memorable shows in DD Channels were School Days Hindi (I don't know Hindi but it impressed me so much), Junior G, Cartoons like Tintin really entertained me so much...

During 1999 - 2003 we got a wired cable connection with 30+ channels, some of the most favorite shows those times were WWE broadcasted in Star Network almost in all their channels, Power Rangers, Mask in Cartoon Network, and Sun TV mostly for a wide range of Tamil kids show serials, reality program, premiere movies, etc.

The year 2003 - 2009 were so dull years concentrated much on school studies and spent most of the days without any entertainment other than important sports events. In the year 2009, I first got Sun DTH 100+ Channels and the traditional old TV Channels like Sun TV also growing older and channels like Star Vijay TV gaining wider attention with shows like Super Singer, Serials like Kana Kaanum Kalangal and those were golden memories a decade ago.

After HD DTH gaining prominence my first HD Dth was Sun Direct HD in the year 2011 with Sun TV HD, Sun Music HD & KTV HD was the only available Tamil HD Channel for a really a very long time in Sun Direct HD Platform. So after waiting long on Sun Direct got Airtel HD and got more HD Channels like Star Vijay HD and also in other languages and genres, however, airtel delayed the addition of many newly launched HD Channels but Airtel launched Internet TV with a wide range of OTT Content so stuck to it for a couple of years.

And finally, a couple of years back bought the DTH with more HD Channels Tata Sky after Tata Sky Binge+ got launched... I bought Tata sky for more Value Added services and I liked Mumbai International Film Festival Movies were telecasted free of cost but unfortunately due to COVID-19 and Jio became a presenter of Mumbai Film festival right from the time I bought Tata Sky for a couple of years now, I still didn't get the chance to catch the film festival movies... And Tata Sky also needs to give Tamil Premium Movies Service in HD as the Tamil Movie Service Channel is also not of much use to the subscribers without a HD Version.
 
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Late to the party here, but let me share my experience so far.
  • 24 January 2007: My parents and I got our first Tata Sky STB. It was a huge upgrade from the analogue cable TV in Chennai where the channel numbers stopped after 63. Before then it was a rare event to get channels like ESPN, which was provided only during the 2006 FIFA World Cup. At that time we had only a 29" Sony CRT TV.
  • 9 January 2011: Got our first HDTV, a Sony Bravia 32" model (KLV-32EX300). Though we did not have an HD STB yet, the LCD quality was way superior to anything else we had had.
  • 4 November 2013: This was a couple of days before Sachin Tendulkar’s final Test match and the rebrand of the Star Sports Network on 6 November. We got a Tata Sky Technicolor HD STB which we still have. This is what we used for the next so many years.
  • Since 2018: We shifted to a new apartment complex where Tata Sky signals are very poor. As such we have dropped DTH entirely and shifted completely to OTT thanks to an Amazon Fire TV stick. But deep within I still think that I am a Tata Sky subscriber. :lol: That is why, when NTO 1.0 started in February 2019, I had somehow convinced my parents to renew their TS subscription for 1 month with new packs. Though they did not actually watch TV, luckily Star Jalsha rebanded in that month, and I got to record the rebranding and the new graphics package live, thanks to the Tata Sky Live TV website! :rofl2:
  • 2 October 2019 (150th Gandhi Jayanti): We got our current TV, a 43" Sony Bravia 4K LED TV, after the old 32" one gave up after nearly 9 years. Now my family including my naani watches OTT shows in 4K.
 
I got my first tata sky cable on October 2006 it was like a diwali gift for me I saw My father brought Tata sky cable package it was like a luggage type and it was a grey colour set top box with buttons and 10 years later on November 2016 I got my first HD Box and thanked my mom it was like a dream come true moment whenever I go somewhere I see the HD Box back in 2013. what a times
 
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