Is Cable Connection Better for Family Entertainment?

Posted by Sandeep Kumar on March 19th, 2020

There was a time when people used to have cable connection to watch a variety of channels. DTH connection is quickly replacing traditional cable TV networks throughout the country. When India got the license for DTH, Indian television has seen a revolution in the surge of DTH service providers across rural and urban areas equally. If you are wondering whether to go for a DTH connection or cable, check out this comparative study:

Technological difference- There are two types of the cable network- Analog and digital cable. Digital Cable broadcasts its channels via Digital Fibre Optic and Coaxial Cables. Every consumer needs to have a Set Top Box installed to receive digital channels. DTH technology broadcasts via geostationary satellites directly to the house of the customers.

Set-top box- The set-top box of digital cable providers uses MPEG-2 broadcasting technology. It comes with 1-year warranty. In this case, the quality of the set-top box is average. The set-top box of DTH uses MPEG-4 broadcasting technology. It comes with a 1-year warranty. The in-built hardware is of great quality.

Audio/ Visual quality- Digital cable broadcasts superior quality of picture and sound compared to the analogue cable network. Digital cable has a large bandwidth, which enables broadcast of more channels with lesser compression. In DTH network, the picture and sound quality are excellent. It broadcasts both standard definition and high definition picture quality. The quality depends on the type of compression technology used by the DTH provider.

Price- The set top box of a cable TV costs around Rs.1000/-, which includes installation charges. The mode of payment for most cable TV networks is post-paid. The set-top boxes of all leading DTH companies cost around Rs 1600/- which includes installation charges. The HD set-top boxes are priced at a higher range. The mode of payment for DTH networks is prepaid. Cable operators charge Rs 100/- for their economic and basic packages and Rs 200/- to 250/- for all the channels, depending on the area of connection. The basic packages of most of the DTH providers start from Rs 150/- onwards.

Number of channels- Cable TV operators provide more channels compared to DTH providers. However, the focus of cable TV networks is on regional channels. DTH providers have started promoting south Indian and other regional language channels in Tamil, Telegu, and Malayalam to its customers. If you like watching news in regional languages, check for Kannada news channel list on your DTH network. Dish TV offers the maximum number of SD and HD channels.

After-sales service- Cable TV operators do not offer 24/7 customer care and portability services. In this case, the time required for grievance redressal is much more. The service and response to customer grievances of most of the DTH companies are quick. They offer 24/7 customer care to address most of the problem within a short period of time. The quality of after-sales service varies from one DTH company to another.

Recording live TV- Cable TV operators do not give any recording service of live TV. DTH providers offer to record of the live TV at no extra cost. It requires you to buy a set-top box with inbuilt storage capacity. You can also check the channel schedule on a channel, in advance.

This comparison will help you to choose the best connection suitable for your family entertainment needs.