sum.na

Battaramulla, LK (AP) Local area resident and celebutante blogger Indi Samarajiva has the Sri Lankan blogosphere up in arms over the latest controversy to grip democratic Sri Lanka: A man’s constitutional right to wear the national dress.

In an alarming expose of prejudice and discrimination encountered at popular local clubs and restaurants, Mr. Samarajiva recounts how he was repeatedly ‘asked to leave’, various establishments, due to his attire.

Mr. Samarajiva has included a photograph of himself wearing the dress in question, together with a red shawl (Warning: NSFW)

On asked as to why he feels strongly on this issue as opposed to other issues such as poverty, AIDS, global warming, FGM and the crisis in Dafur, Mr. Samarajiva pointed out that whereas such issues tend to affect the rest of the world, this particular issue was more closer to home.

On a more practical note, Mr. Samarajiva also pointed out that the national dress has many merits - “large pockets to store phones, PDA’s and other paraphernalia of the modern urban youth”. Indicating a little pocket he said “And you can put your weed in there” Mr. Samarajiva also noted that many staunch upright members of society, such as politicians don said garmet, and “If they can, so can I - besides, this garmet is suited for our region: the large white pillowcase-like structure allows more air-flow, especially in the testicular region, and last but not least, this dress is very figure-flattering.”

A few quick tips and tricks for anyone with DTV:

Install the dish in an easily accessible location (pre installation)
Remember, you don’t have to install it high up, so ask the installation team to instal it in a low location for easy access. Remember that you should have a good view of the Western sky (at least 45 degrees or better, and no trees blocking your view).

Upgrading the dish
If the signal is weak or you experience rain fade, you can upgrade the dish: note: using a dish not supplied by DTV may void your warranty, or they may refuse to help if you have problems..

Ensure you get a good signal before the installers leave
When the system is installed, ensure they fine tune it to get maximum signal strength. Often the installation team is in a hurry to get out and if they get even a slight signal, they will be satisfied. Ask them to tweak the dish till they get the best signal strength.

Ideally, pick a day with clear sky and no clouds/rain as this tends to distort/reduce signals

Change channel order: The existing channel order (with CNN as first channel) is a pain. You can thankfully reorder the channels according to your preference as follows:

1. Click Menu -> Installation
2. Enter password 1234
3. Press no 4 for channel edit
4. Select the channel you want to move, click the green button (labled Audio on your remote) to move
5. Use up/down arrows to move the channel where you want it to be
6. Press green button once more to confirm move
7. Repeat this process to move other channels

Rescan for new channels
Dialog is currently adding new channels. You can view these channels as they are being tested. For example, HBO Family and HBO Hitz are now in testing phase: HITZ is mostly operational whereas HBO Family is intermittently on/off.

To receive these channels, you may have to perform a manual scan as follows:

1. Click Menu -> Installation -> Enter Password
2. Press 1 - channel search
3. Press the blue button for “Manual Scan”
4. A new window will open with Transponder 1 (TP1) selected: Press down arrow to highlight “Start scan”, then click OK (Warning: this will erase the channel order if you have customized it, and reset it to default)
5. After channels are detected, you can press exit. You will be asked to press OK to save channels, do so

Reset Decoder:
The decoder used is a cheap chinese decoder, which occasionally gets stuck: for example, in a rain storm, if the signal is lost, the decoder sometimes gets stuck with an error instead of resuming operation once the signal is back. To fix this, just turn off the decoder, and turn it back on.

So, do you have any tips? List them here as a comment

Quick Summary: Dialog TV compared to Comet Cable

Comet cable:

Requirement: Direct line of sight to transmitting tower (so requires a tall pole in your garden, with an antenna pointed horizontally (direction and height of tower varies depending on where you are located).

Purchasing experience: Went to the head office, met a customer service person, filled a form, and paid (current cost: around Rs 20,000) Promised installation in 20 days. Installation took more than 20 days.

Technology used: Comet cable uses MMDS which is sort of a terrestrial line of sight system. Comet appears to operate in wireless space reserved for wimax, and due to the narrow amount of bandwidth, expansion is limited (Comet have regularly mentioned upgrading to a ‘digital’ system, which would mean that customers would probably have to purchase new equipment).

Decoder type: Comcrypt 4000 decoder (Analog?)
Picture quality: Varies: Channels at the start (e.g. HBO) are good but channels get progressively weaker towards the end of the spectrum.
Rain fade: Does not experience rain fade. Is however affected by nearby lightning and microwave ovens! (despite being earthed, antenna may also pose a lightning hazard)
Subtitles/Teletext/Multiple Audio: Not available
EPG: Not available.
Stereo: Not tested (possible in theory?)

Experienced problems:

Comet cable is quite reliable - it just works 99% of the time (except when Comet forget to pay their bills and channels show a message “This cable operator hasn’t paid and is liable for disconnection”). Every year, comet ‘re-negotiates’ the star packages with their supplier which means some of those channels vanish. for a while.

Comet cable also experienced a ‘management change’ last year. This again involved vanishing channels and the office being surrounded by armed guards. Not comforting.

Major outages: Two of the most popular channels (Star World + Star Movies) have gone offline for days/weeks this month, as well as last year (or was it the year before?) other than that, the channels work usually.

CHANNELS OFFERED: Fixed list of 18 channels: no new channels, good channels have been historically been replaced by crap (e.g. NDTV). (see cometcable.com for channels and packages)

Dialog TV

This is a picture of my Irdteo card. Yup, it has a connector like a sim card. This is what resides in the front slot of your dialog decoder.

Requirement: 45 degree view of West. Relatively easy to obtain, and the dish can be located at any level even ground level.

Purchasing experience: Aspiring DTV customers have to take a number and wait in line to see a dialog customer service rep (why dialog treats potential customers this way is something I don’t quite understand). After a wait of around 15 - 20 minutes, I met a CSR, filled some forms, and paid (Current cost for a DTV connection : Rs 12,500). Promised installation in 5 days: DTV actually installed the connection 28 hours after payment was made!! (Note: I purchased from a dialog arcade)

Technology used: Classic DTH system, uses Intelsat 12, requires a 45 degree view of the western sky. So antenna can be at ground level. Dialog is true satellite TV and uses a KU Band dish/LNB and DVB decoder. So, dialog can add future channels easily.

DTV uses DVBs, IRDTEO2 encrypted, (decoded via CAM/SMART CARD), and a customized co-branded chinese STB. The decoder appears to use custom software/cannot be re-programmed/many options locked (e.g. tuning options).

Picture quality: Visual quality is exceptionally good, comparable or exceeding mainstream international satellite providers. Due to the technology used, picture quality is not easily affected by weather/electrical disturbances etc.
Rain fade: Possible (inherent flaw in all KU DVB systems) but have not experienced so far. Good signal strength means it will be unlikely/rare.
EPG (On screen electronic program guide): YES
STEREO: Available (but I haven’t confirmed which/if channels broadcast in Stereo.
Picture ‘reminder’: Ability to bookmark a program and change to it: Possible/not tested.
Subtitles: Possibly Available/not used
Teletext: Possibly available/not used

(Re subtitles and teletext: it would appear the decoder includes such technology but it may have been disabled.)

Reliability: GOOD: Dialog occationally experiences random outages - for example yesterday morning, things were a bit odd: channels failing randomly - not sure what was causing this problem but it appears to be in the uplink (Downlink signal and transponder seem fine) It could be possible these random outages are temporary and relate to the testing process/as DTV are constantly adding new channels.

Major Outages: one month total shutdown last year when they were halted by govt (not their fault)

CHANNELS OFFERED: DTV offers a massive collection of channels (Currently 51 channels including testing channels) and are constantly adding to the list (see dialog.lk).

Comments:

Comet cable’s decoder allows you to watch multiple channels simultaneously via the RF out - i.e. you can watch some channels on different TV’s in your house by parallel wiring: for example if you connect another TV you can watch Animal Planet or Hallmark even while you are watching HBO on the main TV.

It’s likely that Comet will eventually go digital. Aside from the fact that they may have to give up the 2+GHZ space, the decoder they use has a few potential issues (do a google search for it and you will see what I mean), which mean that it is in Comet’s best interest to upgrade to a digital solution.

DTV’s decoder has an RF out but for some reason I was only able to get a black and white picture. It may have been an issue in my wiring but I think its more likely that they prefer people to connect only one TV (i.e. via the RCA out). You can work around this by using a VCR to convert RCA -> RF Out

DTV has the ability to add almost infinite channels. That and the fact that they are using proven accepted scalable technology means that they are probably a better investment.

Update: Animal planet and Discovery are no longer working on Comet (problem started sometime yesterday). As always, no explanation, no warning.

Note: Something was wrong with my comment system. If you can, please try leaving a comment at the bottom of this post, to see if it works