Swap STB with a friend

[sridiculous]

Here is my scenario. I have a Tata Sky+ HD PVR box and a TV imported from the US that only supports 50Hz input. Until now, I had a PAL to NTSC Converter which worked great for 8+ years and that's how I watched my TV. That converter seems to be in it's last phases of life and now I am stuck where I can't watch TV. I do realize that the HD only box does support 60Hz input. I have a friend that has a HD only box and we were discussing and we thought that we could just swap our boxes and it would be a win-win situation where he gets recording and I get a STB that works with my TV.

I would like to know from the experts here if such a swapping is really possible, where I use my connection / account / package on his STB and he uses his on my STB? What would the process be for such a thing to materialize?

The other easier alternative that I did think about was where he continues to use my account and manage it on his own and I take his and manage it, but not a very elegant way to do it and would like it to be done properly. Any suggestions on how to approach this and how to get things moving would be of great help.

 

[Abhinav]

Yes you can do that.
To transfer ownership of any Tata Sky box Send a self-attested copy of NOC from the current account holder to [email protected] and you will receive call back within 24 hours.
Rs. 150 will be charged for transfer of ownership and if relocation is required then you have to pay Rs. 300 extra for that.
You can download Download NOC form here

 

[Siva]

Are you not able to use your TV with HDMI cable and with the resolution of 720p/1080i? NTSC/PAL issue should only be for the AV input, not for HDMI right?

 

[dino29]

Yes, u can opt for Transfer of Ownership service or simply swap stb and use each other's account. In the latter u would have to either take stb back to original location if any issue arises and complaint has to be addressed or try to get just address changed if tata sky allows it.

There is one other route but i am not sure about it. I guess new HD DVR Model does support NTSC 60 Hz feature (@Bapun Raz bhai can confirm same). If so then just request tata sky to replace box for free , they will most likely do so if u explain the concern properly to them

 

[sridiculous]

No, that is not correct, even with HDMI, the refresh rate that the TV supports does matter. 60Hz is the NTSC standard and 50Hz is the PAL standard. NTSC displays 30 Frames every second whereas PAL displays 25 Frames every second. So, they still aren't compatible

 

[sridiculous]

Yes, u can opt for Transfer of Ownership service or simply swap stb and use each other's account. In the latter u would have to either take stb back to original location if any issue arises and complaint has to be addressed or try to get just address changed if tata sky allows it.

There is one other route but i am not sure about it. I guess new HD DVR Model does support NTSC 60 Hz feature (@Bapun Raz bhai can confirm same). If so then just request tata sky to replace box for free , they will most likely do so if u explain the concern properly to them

Can we really? I did check out the new HD DVR with a installation agent last week at a friend's site and that didn't have the 60Hz option, the only addition it had was the 1080P option, which doesn't help. Is there a specific DVR box that supports 60Hz, if so, knowing that would help where I can request for the specific box as replacement.

 

[Siva]

No, that is not correct, even with HDMI, the refresh rate that the TV supports does matter. 60Hz is the NTSC standard and 50Hz is the PAL standard. NTSC displays 30 Frames every second whereas PAL displays 25 Frames every second. So, they still aren't compatible

Ok. I have personally used a Sony Bravia, which I bought in US with Airtel HD box for 5 years. I did have this issue. Only thing I had to do was to setup the resolution properly, because by default the resolution was set to 576i on the STB which isn't supported on the US made TV. What I have done for this is to connect the STB to TV through AV cable and the picture comes in black and white due to the refresh rate issue, however I could set the desired resolution (1080i) from STB settings and I was good to go.

 

[sridiculous]

Ok. I have personally used a Sony Bravia, which I bought in US with Airtel HD box for 5 years. I did have this issue. Only thing I had to do was to setup the resolution properly, because by default the resolution was set to 576i on the STB which isn't supported on the US made TV. What I have done for this is to connect the STB to TV through AV cable and the picture comes in black and white due to the refresh rate issue, however I could set the desired resolution (1080i) from STB settings and I was good to go.

I guess the Sony Bravia series sold in the US did support both 50 and 60 Hz inputs and that's what would explain it working, unfortunately, my TV, Panasonic TC-P50G25 (Yes, it is a Plasma, which I really love still), only supports 60Hz input. I did contact Panasonic support as well to see if they could provide any firmware update that would help me watch 50Hz content and they said NO. So, am kind of stuck.

 

[sridiculous]

Yes, u can opt for Transfer of Ownership service or simply swap stb and use each other's account. In the latter u would have to either take stb back to original location if any issue arises and complaint has to be addressed or try to get just address changed if tata sky allows it.

There is one other route but i am not sure about it. I guess new HD DVR Model does support NTSC 60 Hz feature (@Bapun Raz bhai can confirm same). If so then just request tata sky to replace box for free , they will most likely do so if u explain the concern properly to them

@Bapun Raz , can you please confirm if there a particular DVR box that does support 60Hz output?

 

[Siva]

I guess the Sony Bravia series sold in the US did support both 50 and 60 Hz inputs and that's what would explain it working, unfortunately, my TV, Panasonic TC-P50G25 (Yes, it is a Plasma, which I really love still), only supports 60Hz input. I did contact Panasonic support as well to see if they could provide any firmware update that would help me watch 50Hz content and they said NO. So, am kind of stuck.

No, it was a 60Hz TV. You can check the specs below.

Sony KDL-32S5100 - 32" LCD TV Series Specs