Tata Sky HD Box receives software update; new features introduced with minor UI changes

India’s largest Direct To Home (DTH) operator by subscriber base, Tata Sky after revamping its website and self-care portal has now pushed a software update to its HD HEVC cardless set-top boxes (also known as Panna Box) which has updated the user interface and brought new features for Tata Sky users, initially spotted by our community forums member DJ Roy.

The first thing that you would notice after updating the STB is the revamped ‘Guide’ menu. ‘Guide’ now covers entire screen and will show trending channels on Tata Sky along with platform services so that viewers can easily switch to these channels in one click without the hassle of putting in channel numbers. 

The new Guide screen is personalised and it will also show “Your Top Channels” based on which channel is being watched for a longer duration of time by the subscriber. Similarly, the box will identify user’s interest and display top channels in various genres like Knowledge and Hindi Entertainment.

It’s always difficult to scroll through hundreds of channels or memorize their channel numbers. The new ‘Search’ feature is added to address this problem and simplify TV viewing. The ‘Search’ menu not only allows searching for channels but also for programs. 

For example, if you want to watch the movie ‘Joker’ or show ‘Shin Chan’ then simply search here and you will find the channel on which this program is airing or scheduled to be aired in the next 7 days. The ‘Search’ window can also be opened instantly without going to the guide by pressing the ‘0’ button on the remote 4 times. 

Next up is a fix for a very old audio language issue which was heavily requested by the customers. Tata Sky prefers language with Dolby Audio over the user selection due to which audio of HD channels such as Discovery HD, History TV18 HD, Nat Geo HD etc always change to English automatically despite the user preference of different language.  

With this update, Tata Sky has finally allowed viewers to stop this irritating behaviour. Users who don’t want channel audio to be changed automatically can now go to User Settings >  Language Settings and select ‘Yes’ in ‘Favourite Audio Language Preferred over Dolby’ option.

Haven’t got this update? Here is a quick guide on how to manually install it:

1. Turn off the set-top box from the power source. 
2. Switch On the STB from the power source
3. When you see ‘Please Wait Initialising’ screen press Back, Back followed by 2, 4, 6, 5 or 2, 4, 8, 5, buttons on remote in the same sequence.
4. Press the ‘select’ button on the remote without changing any values. 
5. Now, the new software will be downloaded and the set-top box will reboot with the latest software.