General Gyan on Products/Services etc

Immediate trigger was to select and install a DTH connection - have been happily piggy backing on the local cable connection so far but the govt has forced my hand.

I explored SUN Direct and Tata Sky - the problem is a package tha actually reflects my interest.

Tata Sky's Malayalam package for instance has just Asianet, Surya, Kiran and Surya News. That's pathetic. I would want atleast Asianet Plus for the 80s movies they telecast regularly.

Similarly, their tamil package doesnt have SUN LIFE and Murasu, both of which I want.

basically, ella packagelayum adequate indhi coverage irukku. But South Packnu pEru vechuttu orE the tamil and telugu mayam.

Other than that, invite your gyan on qolty of connection, customer service, ease of availability of signal, robustness etc on various providers

How did you survive this long on cable Tsky is for hindi speaking urban elite, their market share is meagre downsouth so wouldn't expect them to add any more south channels even with their newly acquired bandwidth.
unless and until you want their HD service which is the best in the country I would stay far far away from them.

If you are seeking a cable tv alternative viz a viz more south channels+less price with a compromise on PQ I would suggest Videocon D2h/Airtel. check out saveondish.com/forum for nirai kurai on all dth services.

Wiz - that makes sense. I survived on grainy cable so far. enakku mainA vENdiyadhu

* Tamil SUN etc for Serials for Mom
* Jaya, Vijay for occasional Raja programmes that they muster up
* Malayalam - if I pay this much for cable, I would like to use the opportunity to catch up maximau malayalam classics. As I understand, for this, I need Asianet Plus. Sun Direct have a whole bunch of Mallu channels but not Asianet Plus. TataSky is pathetic. Let me check Videocon, Airtel etc
* Sports - maximau coverage is desired - but only Cricket and World Cup football in my must watch list. STAR.ESPN gropu with Ten and Neo should cover all bases I think
* Telugu - 3-4 channels should be fine. Unlike Malayalam, the quality of fare is similar in all channels here. So any combo is fine
* News Channels - ore kuttai. Any mattai chalega
* Travel, History, NGeo should be enough among others
* Sun Life and Murasu - I want both. Both of them screen good old movies regularly
* Cartoon Network and Pogo for the kid

ipdi oru combo evanumE vikka mAttengaRan.

Videocon seems to have a decent combination. Any gyan on their qolty and service Wiz? I am seeing the other forum you linked but if you have any info on the top of your mind, do let know.

They have more than what I need in Malayalam and everything except Sun Life in Tamil and exlend coverage of sports channels I need.

Videocon is a new entrant in this space so they are stuffing as many channels as they could to get their numbers going.
irrespective of any dth you choose, installation will be done by a franchisee. only thing you ought to check is the signal strength after the installation and the stern test will be this rainy season/outage that comes with it. If your connection can survive this you should be good to go.

Took Videocon d2h. Combos are good and offers are sensible. Let's see how it goes....I counted the dishes in my apartment terraces
28 Tata Sky, 19 Airtel, 5 DIsh TV, 4 SUN Direct, 2 Videocon d2h(Including mine).
Tata Sky market share
Kalanidhi Marar epdi DIshTVkkum keezhE? (Admittedly unscientific study but Tata Sky market share is staggering and equally, airtel way above SUN is a surprise)

I do hear SUN DIRECT Service is worshtttu....but how does mArar not manipulate his way to the top?

Hey Wizzy,

Suggest a handheld gadget with decent screen size that behaves like a laptop for 15-17k for reading books, watching films, accessing internet, and other work related applications (MS OFFICE, SAP GUI, Citrix)

Plum, suffice to say you are in posh locality. Sundirect burnt their finger by getting into HD.

K-G, what form factor are you looking at? only android possible in that price range, idiots @ Asus are selling Nexus 7 for 20k

anyone here used/use reliance internet, they are offering 4mbps @ 1000rs w/o FUP that translates to 1 bluray remux per day.
too tempting

Asus Transformer prime looks good. Something like that. That you could just as easily detached/connected to keyboard/mouse/external hdd, etc.. Also a HD camera ..

if you can source it from US get Acer Iconia W510 or Asus VivoTab Smart..both run Win 8/clovertrail and retails ~450-500$
should run anything you throw

Actually no, want to buy off Indian retail shop. Have a coupon. Suggest me something good available in Indian market/shops.

^if you are cool with Android I would suggest Samsung tab 2 but these are majorly overpriced for its specs in India.

I wouldn't spend more than 10k on a tablet if you consider how hurriedly manufactures are dumping
their new devices there by stagnating the support/development.

imo these chinese tabs make up for great consumption devices wrt ebooks/movies/youtube/portable mkv player/light gaming via hdmi with a battery of 6-8 hrs.. have used/gifted 7" Aurora II/Elf II , no complaints thus far. great pricing wrt h/w..they have a shop in ebay India(ainolindia) so all your coupons should work. Ainol even opened up their source code and the sloths @ Slatedroid have already ported Ubuntu to Elf II so you don't have much to worry wrt support.with M$ planning a office app relase for androids by jan-2013 this is a no-brainer.

Ainol's new 10" version Hero http://www.ainolindia.com/Ainol-Hero-10-ips-jelly-bean.html

Reliance plans are awesome seriously . wizzy do let me know if u hear any good things about it

Sid, they offer wired connection in either DSL/metro ethernet modes //metro is with static ip and 1:1 up/down(yeah I know it is too good to be true )
gotta confirmation on feasibility in my area awaiting technician to show up. will keep you posted on speed/reliability.

Thanks Wizzy, you're a whizzy...

Don't the cable TV fellows provide internet in TN / Chennai?

They typically give much higher speeds for the same cost (here in U.S.)

Sakal/Wizz and others, Should I pull the trigger on an ASUS TFT300T 10" for $269 + Tax. This will be for my personal use.
Specs: http://www.asus.com/Tablet/Transformer_Pad/ASUS_Transformer_Pad_TF300T/#specifications

Last year I bought a TF101 for $299 which went to my brother. He really likes it.

Thoughts please.

Nerd, Specs, athuvum ASUS, nallaa then irukku! But ungalukku android experience pudichirukkaa! Tablet experience OK nnaa go ahead thaan! Price um nallaa thaan irukku!

But this is last year product, so intha ThanksGiving la innum kammiyaana offer ~ $250 varum nu nenachen. Anyway i don't know market realities this year! Already Note 2 la settle aagittathaala slickdeals, bfads.net pakkame pOgalai!

So, price comparitive aa kammi nnaa yosikkaama vaanglaaam thaan!

Makkals, what about this laptop offer?!

http://cgi.ebay.in/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=150945801738&ssPageName=ADME:B:PPOPN:IN:1123

Macbook Pro 13" 2.4GHz i5, 4GB RAM, 500GB HDD OS X Mountain Lion

66K Price which is kind of US Pricing. This generally retails in Indian online and stores around 78 - 82K

sakala,
If you ask me, I would say yes. I am big apple fan, right from iMac, macbook pro to ipad, ipods and iphones. Mac book pro with mountain lion, I am also eyeing for that, might buy that very soon. I already own an iMac (since last 3 years) and very happy.

Thanks V_S!

Lets see what our other sagaas have to say abt the deal!

Sakala, thanks. I am no mactard. The only product I like is iPhone. iPad is *CRAZY* expensive for what it brings to the table with zero ways to customize it. And I buy iPhones only because they come cheaper with a contract.

Macbooks paakka nallaa irukkum, use panna arumaiyaa irukkum, but again extremely expensive for the specs etc., I am not a keen follower either so don't even take my word for it.

Unless someone is seriously into video / audio editing, buying an apple computer is equivalent to throwing money into river, IMVSO!

I agree with Nerd on iPhone (and the music player iPod) - fantastic gadgets!

But notebooks / workstations are outrageously priced for what they can do in the computer world - with the exception of AV editing as mentioned above!

Everybody has got their own expectations and perceptions. Here is mine:
I agree they are expensive, but for me satisfaction is first money next. I hate windows to extremes, especially for bloating softwares and big threat to security. We need to install that stupid anti-virus every year (as it gets expired). I was at no peace and the computer getting heated up soon and fans running with windmill sounds. So I can never go back to windows in my life again.

Second, the original ideas. As a maestro fan that helps, I don't like to buy a copied product/ideas. If the same ipad or imac or iphone would have first originated from other companies, I would have definitely gone for it, but it will never happen. After apple manufactures a product, everyone tries to imitate them, but they cannot even come closer to what apple does, except for pricing. Basically being a unix guy, I like every idea apple has got right into their systems, that also make me lean towards their products.