W3hobbyist

Its almost 6 months that I have been using a Set Top Box (STB) from InDigital. My top-line cable operator is Incablenet (Hinduja TMT). CAS as such has not been implemented in my area(Thane East)–so I get almost 200 channels for Rs. 280 monthly. It used the MPEG-2 technology.

Installation-

The installation was easy and was done my my cable operator. There is no ‘dish antenna’ to be installed on the terrace or near the window. The STB can be placed just besides your TV. The input connection is the same co-axial that was earlier used to be plugged directly into the back of your TV. With STB, this cable input is fed into the STB. The output is drawn through 3 cables – 2 audio(L and R) and one for video–all of which are fed into the ‘AV input’  of your TV. The TV should be set to ‘AV’ mode. The STB required a ‘CAS card’ — its size is of a credit-card and functions like the mobile phone SIM card. Total time for installation is under 5 minutes.

Remote control-

The remote control is lean and decent in looks, unlike those fat and ugly remote controls I have seen with Reliance Big TV. Few buttons on the remote control are redundant. The keys could be confusing at times.

Switching on the STB-

After switching on, it takes around 10-15 seconds to ‘actually’ switch on. During this gestation duration, it just flashes the Incablenet logo. Then, it switches to the first channel no–101[Channels start from 101 as opposed to 1]. In some models, it switches to the last channel or the most viewed channel. Its seems that the STB keeps on learning your preferences(some models only).

Picture and sound quality-

The picture quality is remarkably better. The sound is crisp-clear. The co-axial cable needs to be well maintained-esp the pin that feeds the signal from co-axial into the STB. If this pin this rusted or loose-connected, the picture and sound may be scrambled[like a CD when it is scratched]. This caused a lot of annoyance initially until I replaced the pin.

Changing the channels-

Changing the channels is not so smooth. Every time you change to a new channel, it shows a black screen for some time(1 – 2 secs) and then the actual picture and audio can be seen. It is thus a pain and not user-friendly. There is a blue bar shown at the bottom of every channel which shows current time, the now running serial/movie name and that of next serial/movie. In some models, . These details in the blue bar do not get updated automatically. You need to escape that bar(ESC or OK button) and bring it up again to update again. This is another drawback.

Changing the volume-

This functions against your intuitions. The volume is relative to the main volume control of your TV set. The volume is set on per-channel basis. This means that though you may adjust the volume of one channel, you may need to re-adjust it when you change to another channel. Though once set for a particular channel, it remains at that level until you switch off the STB.

Channel listing and surfing-

Channels can be listed alphabetically or serially. When listed serially, the channels are grouped by their genre–i.e.–All music channels together, all finance channels together, etc. This genre grouping makes it easy to find closely related channels.

Radio-

Though many radio-stations are available, there are mainly regional and Govt.-run stations. Radio-stations from all over India are available. There is no FM/SW1/SW2/MW/AM/etc. switch. Stations from these frequencies are available under one-roof — serially one after the other.

Other utilities-

The only other utility I see is games. But I think these require a subscription in addition to my monthly cable Tv charges. There was no way I could use them so no review about it.

Miscellaneous:

The error codes are descriptive and understandable by the lay man. There is facility to lock channels, bookmark/favourite them. “Service messages” can be sent by the service providers(I have received 0 in the past 6 months) and there is an option for firmware upgrade.

[.::Screenshots coming soon::.]

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In the last three-five years, I have seen corporate houses jumping into the local guy’s business-esp internet services and cable TV services. While some of the players were present longer since 5 yrs, some have recently jumped. In this post, I am just comparing my experiences of dealing with these corporates and local guys.

Most of the people reading this post come from a decent and humble(read middle-class) social and educational background, including me. Since me and you have been availing these services from our local cable operator, we know how frustrating it can be. Also, these local guys are very naive most of the times. Taking advantage of this, multi-crore corporate organizations wooed us with their promises of professional services and standards, better features, utility and technology. Right now, I am using some of these ‘professional’ services as well as ‘local’ services. Overall, I find that the local guy wins in the long-term.

With professional services, they give you a ‘Customer care’ no. Whenever you run into a problem, dial that no., spend 30 seconds dialing 1 for English, 2 for support-related calls, 3 for pre-paid customers, etc. Then they force upon some grade-less instrumental music created by an anonymous local artist as ‘hold-on’ music. During this ‘hold-on’ music, a computerized voice message keeps on telling you that you are very important customer for their business and they appreciate your patience for holding the call. If you are lucky, within the next 2 minutes you may get some so-called ‘customer-care executive’ to receive your call. He will VERY nicely ask for your details and complains, do some basic troubleshooting and finally end the call saying ‘I am forwarding your complaint to the concerned department, please rest assured’. He will hang up with a greeting line such as ‘Have a nice day’ or something else. You wait for two days to see if any ‘concerned department’ calls up and talks with you. So you again call their ‘customer care’ and repeat the whole process of ‘forwarding your complaint’. Even if you be rude on the call and abuse the ‘executive’, it hardly matters because to that executive, every call for him is like a story. Once  the call ends, the story is permanently over for him. After much trying, you get lucky one day and a over-worked ‘field engineer’ calls you and finally the problem is solved after much trying.

When availing services from corporates, I was always felt cheated. They promise ‘Excellent customer support‘ but their meaning of ‘excellent’ is not what you think. They dress so neat and sharp, they speak good English(We good so many ‘English Speaking classes), call themselves as ‘executive’—and are in the occupation of looting people, especially educated and straight-forward people like us who think that these ‘marketing guys’ are really working for our good and that they will honor their words in time of problems. Actually, in the time of problems, most of them will not be working with that same company(in cities, people change jobs so fast) or will forward you the customer care no.

The local guy, on the other hands, tells me exactly what to expect from him. I can call his mobile almost any time- even late evening and he will usually solve the problems under one hour. His phone line is never busy and he never lies to me that I am some very important customer. He exactly knows the most common problems people face in that local area and its solutions. If something is not working as promised, or I am being ripped-off–I can loudly say ‘Customer ko chootya banata hai. Paise leta hai aur kaam nahi karta‘ and be sure that it will have an impact. If things don’t improve, I know where his ‘wires’ are. I can cut them any time and return the agony caused by him due to his failing services. Infact somebody actually did this with Pacenet Broadband and Sify Broadband in my area and the service improved thereafter.

From today, I have pledged not be brand-carzy and find ‘local’ alternatives of these ‘brands’. My local TV guy gives me over 300 channels for Rs. 280/- per mo whereas CAS would cost me Rs. 1500 + taxes. Also, DTH providers don’t allow me to create customized channel packages. They want to buy those packages which ‘they’ think are good for me. Actually the strategy behind these inflexible packages is to sell a package that has 50% good channels and 50% crap. This is how the DTH providers actually sell the crap channels by forcibly bundling them with good channels. Also, they make you sign a ‘Terms and conditions’ while subscribing which effectively allows them to add or remove any channel without considering you. It may happen that one fine day they may remove all good channels from your package and replace them with crap.

So make your decision only after being weel-informed. Don’t belive the marketing guyz if they say that shit does not smell.

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Mosquitoes are an integral part of your day-to-day life. Its never a day that you don’t find them. Mosquitoes can spread diseases like malaria, dengue, etc. Though not all mosquitoes spread these diseases, every mosquito bite is disturbing. It itches so badly .Since I watch a lot of TV, I know that some anti-mosquito products do exist. The municipality guy also comes with a big machine-gun like, horrible sound producing equipment that emits clouds of thick white smoke–but only twice a year.

I consciously tested(rave) the following 5 popular mosquito-repellants:

1. All-out liquid vapouriser
2. Tortoise mosquito yes
3. Mortien mosquito coil
4. Odomos cream
5. The UV light electrical killer

The bottom line is that the combination of Tortoise mosquito coil and Odomos cream works best.

All-out vapourizer:

This small electrical thing looks ‘cute’. It has been shown as a voracious mosquito-eater in the TV advertisement. But the one I bought seemed to have lost all hunger for mosquitoes. When it was ‘new’ in the market–it did live up to its hype. It was really a worthy product. But as competition increased, prices started falling, its effectiveness also started declining. If you compare the costs of the refills now with that cost when they were newly launched, you may realize that the refills are now ‘cheap’.

Anyways, it takes time to heat up. So don’t use unless  you are patient. In times of power-cut, it absolutely hopeless. Also, if you place it in near a window, there is considerable risk that the vapours may diffuse out through the windows without providing any real benefit to you. Mosquitoes will be rejoicing at your foolishness if you place that thing near a open window.

On a fateful day, I was shocked to see a mosquito sitting right over the chimney-hole of the all-out. I mean–what kind of a mosquito-repellent is it allows mosquitoes to comfortably sit over it? That was the retiring time for my cute all-out. Though we occasionally use it because my mother still thinks that it does work.

Tortoise mosquito coil:

You might be wondering why a educated, affording (and sexy) person like me is using the old-fashioned tortoise coil. Well, since all-out was thrown out, I desperately needed an alternative—an EFFECTIVE one. On a fateful day, I walked up to my regular chemist for some medicines and suddenly recollected that I needed Tortoise too. So I bought one. 10 coils cost me Rs. 18/- in co-operative discount stores instead of retail price Rs. 20/- (10 % discount or 1 coil free)

I opened the pack and found that the Tortoise coils are now reddish-brown color instead of older green one. The tortoise on its carton(packaging box) has also become more cute, childish and is still green in colour. Now comes the time of actually using the coil. You may recollect, that the 10 coils are arranged in 5 pairs. The way the coils in a single pair are mingled–there is good chance that rough handing may break the coils! So please be gentle while resolving the coils (I will soon post a YouTube video about this). The coil has to mounted on a simple metal stand(provided with the box) and ignited just like an incense stick(aggarbatti). Blow out the flame so that the coil can fumigate without wasting the actual chemical(Allethrin, or its compound). You will soon see ’smoke’ filling the whole room and mosquitoes leaving.

Tortoise mosquito coils actually work. They are still very effective at driving out mosquitoes–almost instantly. The only thing I dislike about it–the fumes may produce irritation in eyes, nose, etc. You some may have watery eyes. My mother does complain about this if the coils is placed too near to her. One coil lasts for about 5 -6 hrs approximately-but is completely effective–and some residual effect also lasts. It produces ash, which is easy to clean in case it is littered.

Mortien mosquito coil

Well, this product is a complete rif-off. In one sentence: ‘Mortien mosquito coil does not work at all ‘.

After I finished up my first pack of Tortoise coils-I decided to this one. I was so excited that I asked that chemist shop guy to bring me a pack of Tortoise as well as Mosquito coils. I placed the two boxes side by side. I found that the chemical contents of Mortein are higher than that of Tortoise(I don’t remember exact figures). Also, mortein coils are hexagonal in shape, and have a considerably greater diameter. This means that 1 coil of Mortein is much longer than 1 coil of Tortoise–and will burn for longer time. Over the pack, it reads that the product has ‘pleasant smell’. Thats absolutely false until are comparing with non-deodorized sweaty armpits(yuck!).

Now comes the time to use it. I was disappointed not only on the first day, but every day until that pack lasted. There are several issues I faced. The burning end passes out after some time and I have to reignite that coil. This happened with 8 out of 10 coils–and with every coil–I had to re-ignite atleast 2 times, sometimes even 4 times. The mosquitoes don’t seem to affected at all. I even tried a small experiment with it. Since I eat a lot of Aamrakhand(mango-flavoured shrikhand)– I have many empty boxes lying around every corner of my 6-room house. I picked up one of them–and then chased a mosquito. After much chasing(10 mins), I ‘trapped’ the mosquito in a box. I created few small holes to allow ventilation. After that, I carefully introduced a piece of burning Mosquito coil into that box and allowed it to be there for the next 30 min. I regularly checked to see that the mosquito has not injured itself by accidentally coming is contact with the burning end of the coil. After 30 mins, I expected the mosquito to either die, or atleast not be able to fly. But I was shocked–As soon as I lifted the lid it started flying enthusiastically and cheerfully as if nothing drastic happened in the past 30 mins. I appreciate that ordinary mosquito’s will-power, patience, etc. etc. but wait—that was not what I was actually looking for. I immediately realized that mortein was a wrong decision. But then, being a m-i-s-e-r at spending money, I decided that I will punish myself by not buying Tortoise until I use all the 10 Mortein coils. Those 10 days were torturous to a man like me–who had earlier enjoyed the luxury of Tortoise coils.

Just today, I bought my 3rd pack of Tortoise coils.

Odomos cream

Well-this product is SUPERB–I repeat—ODOMOS is AWESOME at protecting you from mosquitoes. Just in case you are wondering how to use it–just apply to you uncovered parts of skin as you would apply some medical ointment. There is no ’sticky’ feeling after applying the cream-unless you apply in excess or due not rub the cream properly. The cream smells pleasant–really pleasant. The packaging of the tube is also neat and attractive–infact it resembles the toothpaste ‘Pepsodent’ so much that on a hasty morning, I brushed my teeth with Odomos mistaking it as Pepsodent. Well, all my teeth are intact till now.

Anyways, coming back to odomos, its disadvantage is that it is single-user based—–As in, every person must individually apply the cream to benefit from its protection, unlike Tortoise coils which can provide protection to all the people in the house or room. Since this will exponentially infalte the expenditure on cream, I guess this is the reason people have chosen mass-repellents like vaporizers and mosquito coils. But if you have been disappointed by all those things, then Odomos will be savou! It works awesome!

The UV light electrical killer

One fine day, my father came home with an supposed “UV electrical killer”–It electrocutes mosquitoes. You can even see and hear brutal sparks when a mosquito is being electrocuted! You can see the mortal remains of the mosquito as well! Anyways, I do dislike mosquitoes, but I don’t want to kill them in such an inhumane manner. If you cannot recollect this product–these are violet light emitting grids place at some hotels. It is supposed to attract the mosquitoes by its UV light. As the mosquito tries to go near that light, it must pass through a metal grid which is electrically charged and thus ‘assassinates’ the mosquito.

The danger with this thing is that if your house wiring does not have proper electrical earthing, one may get an shock if they accidentally touch the grids. This is common with curious small children who has an habit of touching EVERYTHING and *then* asking what it is! Also, the light emitted by it is so luminous that one cannot sleep. How can one sleep in a room bright with light?

Final verdict: Use the legendary Tortise Coils and if needed Odomos cream.

Mortein is scam, rif-off, loot, etc.

All-out has lost its wicket!

Note: This is not a sponsored review. I have purchased these products with my honestly earned money. I did also bear the ‘grunt’ like mosquito-bites and itching when the product(read Mortein) did not work. Moreover, my blog does not getting eneough traffic that somebody would pay me to review their product.

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