Drect to home, via the phone

Remember the days when we used to gaze at the long antennae hoisted on our rooftops trying to figure out the angle at which they would ensure the best transmission for the much-revered television set in the drawing room? Well, those were the days when the only choice was between DD1 and 2, and variety entertainment meant a three-day-long election coverage with movies thrown in between.

Antennae and boosters became redundant in much of India over a decade ago with the arrival of cable television, which itself is slowly fight a losing battle against direct-to-home (DTH) service. But technology has gone even further, and the latest entrant in the segment is Internet protocol television or IPTV, which uses the telephone line to bring TV channels straight into your homes.

Last month, most parts of Delhi, Mumbai, Jaipur and Jodhpur finally got a taste of IPTV with iControl, launched jointly by Aksh Optifibre and MTNL, which serves up a smorgasbord of over 120 channels. IPTV works almost like DTH with a set-top box (STB) for controlling the content. However, the signals are routed from the phone line through a modem into the STB.

The service has its pros and cons. Surfing is not as smooth as it is on regular television as it takes a few seconds to buffer the channels—almost like watching streaming video—and get the lip sync right. The picture and sound quality is almost DVD quality, though images on some channels get slightly pixillated on bigger screens. The programming info, a much-used feature in DTH, is still not available.

Where iControl scores over DTH is with its instant video-on-demand feature, which offers over 200 movies in Hindi, English and regional languages. Along with DVD-quality pictures, this features also allows you to pause, fast-forward and rewind the movies.

Then there is time-shift TV, which allows viewers to re-view programmes aired over the past three days. However, the service is now available only on the free-to-air channels. Features like music-on-demand, interactive gaming, video classified and video calling are yet to be launched.

Unlike DTH, IPTV is not affected by rain, but the service will be hit if there is a problem with your phone line. Another disadvantage is that the STB as well as the modem have to be plugged in for the service to work, so users have to make sure there are enough power points nearby.

Any household with an MTNL connection can get the service installed for a refundable deposit of Rs 999. The monthly subscription of Rs 199 can be paid with the phone bill.

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