Tuesday, December 12, 2006

Interruption due to maintenance

We have received information that CBNsat will be interrupting their test transmission for system maintenance today (12th Dec 06) from 10AM to 6PM.

We are not sure what is the type of maintenance that they are carrying out. They be trying to sort out some of the transmission problems that they are having at the moment or they may activating the second transponder. They may also be planning to up link some of the other channels that they had prior to the shutdown.

If any of you have further information regarding this maintenance we welcome you to update this blog with the information.

58 comments:

cableguy said...

Lisura

I tried the audio button on the CBNSat remote while watching a Nickalodian program that was dubbed in hindi. Nothing happened. Have you actually been able to switch between English and HIndi before CBNSat closed using the audio button?

Anonymous said...

crab,
When dialog launched in 1995, it was a joint venture between Maharaja and Telekom Malaysia. But since the two companies didnt share the same vision about Dialog's future, Telekom Malaysia bought the rest of shares from Maharaja and made it their wholly owned subsidiary.I dont think there is any connection between them now.

cableguy,
Some programms on Nick India are only dubbed in Hindi. You cannot change the feed. Although Dishtv indicated that it contained multiple feeds, for one cartoon on nick (Ninja something) i could hear hindi in the English feed. It's not a problem with cbnsat.

cableguy said...

Thanks guys. Will check out the user manual for the functions. I am one off those lazy buggers who never read manuals. Instead I try to fiddle with it and figure things out. I guess it helps to read the manual once in a while.

bank_dude said...

Hope they activate transponder 2 and other channels too

cableguy said...

And ETV and ARTV too.
It is something nice and something to be proud of having our good local channels too on the lineup along with other world class channels.

yakuza said...

guys is cbn working now.
will they resume full transmission after this maintainance

riky said...

No-They are doing a software upgrade and all the issues you had with sound,picture etc will be sorted out and channels will be added automaticaly when activated at their end.

The software upgrade will last untill late evening today.

Anonymous said...

Thanks kaluperuma for ur information

what do u mean by "all the issues you had with sound" ? will they give muli audio channels?

riky said...

Not that Jesika ,You had things like where the balance was out and where there was no sound kind of issues,and things relating to the clarity of the picture etc,Basicaly with this upgrade it will be almost back to the quality transmission we had prior to the closure.

Multi Audio will be added in the future and CBNsat will defeneitly concentrate only on the English language feed,The past occurance during the football match was a one off case during the test transmission and that will not happen when the transmission is back to normel.

cableguy said...

See how spoilt we are!!!
By hook or by crook we got thru 6 months of no service.
When they stop transmission for 8-10 hours for service, we get impatient and jittery.

Its true. Cable TV is like cannibalism. Once you taste it, there is no turning back.

riky said...

cableguy- Oka thama ALF ta wune,U kudu gahala raha denila,U kudu business karanna patan gaththa,

U ta nam multi audio thiyanawa,Dish karayane.

riky said...

Guys say,If there is a problem in addind new channels due to space constraints in the transponders,What are the realy unessary channels in the exsisting lineup,I think we should drop,

Raj TV
Zoom
Set
Goal TV 1 & 2

Give this a serious thought?Because the Entire zee package may have to be accomadated

bank_dude said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
bank_dude said...

Kalu, dropping Zoom, Set, Goal 1 & 2 is ok. But you will not be able to concentrate on tamil subscibers if you drop Raj from your lineup. I'm sure it will affect your tamil speaking suscriber base. Machan is there a possibility of dropping current MTV & VH1 indian feeds and move on to MTV & VH1 asia feeds. I'm sure most of us wanted that bacuase most of us are not hindi fans.

riky said...

bank_dude,I think a majority of Tamil subscribers are interested in Sun TV,You are correct in saying that it will effect a certain market segmant.But if it comes to a situation such as dropping something,What realy should we drop

cableguy said...

Kaluperuma

I fully agree with your suggested list, except as bank-dude says, Raj TV may have to be kept for marketing to a different clientale. Maybe we can get rid of one of the Raj channels as a compromise.

Also what about Animax? I am not sure how many people actually watch that channel. Is it a free offer with AXN? Can they drop it to accommodate better channels?

TEAM FILEnetworks said...

kaluperuma,
by 'entire zee package' do you mean cbnsat will be adding all 32 channels zee network owns? Zee has crap channels such as Zee kannada, zee malayalam, zee gujarati, etc. I get these on dishtv and gotta say these are worthless.

The only worthwhile channels of zee package are zee cafe, zee sports, zee studio, zee cinema (if u like hindi that is) , zee music and maybe zee trendz.

Zoom, set and goaltv are better than creap channels on zee package. So i hope only the worthwhile channels will make it to cbnsat (rightly so) as they have channel capacity problems?

riky said...

LST - Its about 15 channels which they have got Zee Sports,studio,cafe,trendz are defeneitly their but i am unware whether they have chopped any from the 15 after the take over.

I think most of the tamil subscribers want Sun TV,Because i am aware that some of my Tamil friends didnt buy connections because Sun TV was not available.

LST - is correct as a majority of the channels available with ZEE are indian crap.

I think they can contract with something better by dropping GOAL as it is expensive and doesnt cover any quality football,Since its expensive,I hear that even in
Dish TV you have to pay extra to have it in your package.

Anonymous said...

What are the realy unessary channels in the exsisting lineup

http://poll.pollcode.com/GKW

Please fill POLL

TEAM FILEnetworks said...

Yes Kaluperuma Goaltv 1 and 2 are not available in the Dish Maxi package. You have to pay seperately to get those. Like you said it means cbnsat can add another package (at least a smaller one such as Nimbus's Neo Sports) if they get rid of goal 1 and 2 without having to increase rental.

riky said...

LST - I think NEO sports is the most popular sports channel in India,Does Dish TV have NEO or only TATASKY has it?

cableguy said...

Can Goal TV be replaced with other sports channels that have mostly rugby?
I dont even know if such channels exist. But Goal TV is a piece of crap, even for soccer lovers.

Lisura said...

Dear Friends,

Please send the channels you do not like to cbnsat@gmail.com

I would like to note that Sun TV and Sun NEWS is available FREE on NSS 6. And if you are a real hindi music fan Zee Music and MH1 is also free on NSS 6 satellite.
There are good channels like DW-TV and Headlines Today channels also on NSS 6 Free-to-air !

I think CBNSat should concentrate on adding more premium content than just increasing the no of channels. Indian market is vast and their taste has a huge difference in between the provinces too. That's why I think Dish TV India has over 160 channels. Basically to cater to a wider audience.

In Sri Lankan scenario we generally have a common taste except for very few people. So CBNSat shold stick to cater to that taste rather than just increasing the no. of channels.

For that if they need they can do a survey and even drop some channels. We have already passed on the details we have collected from the subscribers. So if you feel that certain channels need to be dropped please email us at cbnsat@gmail.com

TEAM FILEnetworks said...

kalu,
Neo sports (from WAG Nimbus) is not available on Dishtv. It's only available in Tatasky. WIth ESPN and STAR grabbing rights for ICC events from 2007 to 2015, there is a good chance Neo showing events other than cricket. Maybe rugby too.

Anonymous said...

Website update needed

It's good if CBNSat can update the website regarding important notices such as system shutdown for maintainence etc. Also, website must update us with more news such as when normal service will resume. Else, we have to call CBN often.

CBN users can connect the decoder audio output to a Hi-Fi or home theatre system: friends, you can expereicne fantastic sound effects. Sometimes, the audio quality is more fun than the movie or documentary itself.

Small speakers (bookshelf speakers) may be kept at ear level or below at equal distance from where you are seated. They should not be too far from your seat as we dont want to disturb others.

Happy viewing.

Anonymous said...

Website update needed

It's good if CBNSat can update the website regarding important notices such as system shutdown for maintainence etc. Also, website must update us with more news such as when normal service will resume. Else, we have to call CBN often.

CBN users can connect the decoder audio output to a Hi-Fi or home theatre system: friends, you can expereicne fantastic sound effects. Sometimes, the audio quality is more fun than the movie or documentary itself.

Small speakers (bookshelf speakers) may be kept at ear level or below at equal distance from where you are seated. They should not be too far from your seat as we dont want to disturb others.

Happy viewing.

bank_dude said...

Guys just want to clarify, before closure I've got signal level 75-77 and quality 62-65. But now I'm getting signal level 73-74 and quality 57-58. But I haven't done any manual scan yet and decoder settings are prior closure settings. Guys who scanned the channels recently please tell me that your signal level and quality are similar to ealier.

Anonymous said...

What are the realy unessary channels in the exsisting lineup

http://poll.pollcode.com/GKW

Please fill POLL

Anonymous said...

Hush

How much will it cost ? give me roughly

Anonymous said...

thnaks hush

riky said...

I dont know what the quality is,But there is a guy in Pettah from whom we can buy the optical cable at around Rs.350/-

riky said...

Thats right Sat-viewer,You guys dont ever go to Nastas,They are bullshit and keep over 100% margin in what they sell,All these sattelite gadjets are availabale at most of the electronic shops at first cross street.

Sat_viewer is absolutely correct in this point

Anonymous said...

sorry i dont have good knowladge with those amps. this is not regarding CBNsat, But
Plese help me to these

In a normal movie DVD there are 2 sound types 5.1 & DTS

is DTS also support 5.1 speakers or is it virtual 5.1 effect with 2 speakers?

My LG DVD player only have 2 sound output lines ( no amp inbuilt) & optical out.so i think it only support DTS
so what type of a amp i need to get full sound effect of the DVDs

Thanks

Anonymous said...

Thanks Sat Viewer
I appreciate your help very much

I got the answer.
that means

dvd players comes with 5.1 out is Dolby digital.
Optical line gives DTS
white & red out gives only Streeo

am i right ?

Anonymous said...

Kalu
I checked your link too.
Thanks

But it says,
Dolby® Pro Logic® II technology processes any high quality stereo (two-channel) movie and music audio into five playback channels of full-bandwidth surround sound.

that means it uses only stereo input & gives 5 channel output.
that means we dont need optical out, we can get 5 channel output through our DVD players stereo out?

pls explain

Anonymous said...

It means if we have Dolby Prologic II supported amp can we have 5.1 effect by stereo out without using optical out?

for example cbnsat decoder have stereo out and optical out.

Anonymous said...

this amp is at singermega for around 40k
http://www.yamaha.co.jp/english/product/av/products/ht/yht175.html

is it ok for that work?

Anonymous said...

it has
Dolby Pro Logic II decoding
so cant we get 5.1 effect from stereo out?

Looser said...

Wow Blog admin can you add a seperate forum for DTS Sound System?

When will CBNSat start their transmission?

Are they going to change the name?

Lisura said...


Hey you guys !!!!!!!!!

Is what matters to you all is the sound now ????

Post some observations about the CBNSat test transmission. Like Channel quality, Signal strength and quality and whatever observations you have. It will be useful for the CBNSat engineering team to correct them before going live in full swing. Your comments matter a lot.

So rather than wasting time on other matters here I suggest you post matters relating to CBNSat test transmission.

You can send your comments and suggesstions to cbnsat@gmail.com
too.............

Lisura said...

Asset Media was planning to start Neth TV next yesr. And after it was taken over by Dialog they were planning to start Dialog TV in April 2007.

There is a reasonable doubt that CBNSat will change its' name to Dialog TV. Like MTT Changed it's name to Dialog Broadband. Because now CBNSat is a fully owned subsidary of Dialog Telekom. For fourplay (Mobile, Fixed, Broadband, TV) they have to come under one brand name !

We'll have to wait and see !!!!

justavisitor said...

To get suround sound with cbnsat I connected left,right audio connectors of the decoder to LG home theater and selected prologic II matrix option. Then you can hear in all 6 speakers.

Anonymous said...

Dear Sat Viewer, kalu & hush.

Thanks for your kind advice.

It helped me a lot. before that i didn't have much knowledge about that DTS, Dolby , AC3, Dolby Pro Logic II.

Thanks guys. this is an amazing place. sharing knowledge, Ideas ...

Thank you very much

justavisitor said...

sat viewer then I should buy a optical cable.

For me signal level and quality level has increased by about 10% after the maintenace.

justavisitor said...

Also I have connected cbnsat decoder to the TV using a S-Video cable but there's no identifiable quality improvement to the eyes. It's better if they provider decoder box which has component video out.

chami_tv said...

TrackZeroBad

The TV Modes you have mentioned are some broadcasting standards governing regionas of the world. For an Example Sri Lanka use PAL_B TV broadcasting style and the TV sets which we import must be of these standards in order to view TV broadcasts in our region. But today most of the TV sets are multi systems thus can switch in to the broadcasting standards manually or if we put to Auto mode it will do so automatically.

Visit the following for info about letterbox and should find more on above too…

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letterboxhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letterbox

Anonymous said...

It looks like my comments on CBN Sat audio, on Tuesday, has created a lot of interest. That's great!

I have used an audio cable (cable with red and white stereo jacks, which came with my Hi-Fi system) to connect the audio output from the CBN decoder to AUX input in my Hi-Fi system. It will work for a home theatre system too.

Even without using hi-tech pro-logic audio system, this simple system gives a fantastic sound effect. The problem with most sound systems is that, they can’t output quality sound as the sound source from a CD or Radio is inferior. However, CBN sound quality is fantastic, though video quality can be improved much more.

riky said...

So it seems that Goal 1 & 2,Zoom are defeneitly going out,But the other channels will be available before year end,And the relaunch will have to take place somewhere in January.

riky said...

Nothing that serious where they cant sort out,But you can imagine the impact of not using something for six months,Further you have to renew and look at some of the channel partners and once you activate the transponder, that is a huge cost.

So more than technical it is more les putting everything in order.

Dont worry all the other channels will be back before year end.

bank_dude said...

Kalu, when CBN planning to give us Discovery and Animel planet channels? There are two vacant channels in TP1 isn't it.

riky said...

Those two will be defeneitly back buy xmas,The thing is the agreements have to be renegotiated and signed in some instances and they are working round the clock on them.

Its the procedures such as setting up of new agreements and things that are delaying the relaunch and they are also looking at dropping some channels and getting ones far better than that on air prior to going on full swing.

Anonymous said...

Yeah..Transponder 2 is active now. A bunch of Zee channels are there. But not working yet. No POGO & GOAL TV. but ZOOM is there. New DH & D are seeing. I don't know what are they? May be Some Disney channels. Any way they may need to drop few channels to get those new ones. I don't know exactly what are going to miss. SET is there. So world cup 2007 IS GUARANTEED WITH CRYSTAL CLEASR PICTURES.

Guys..scan for channels again to get the new channels.

Anonymous said...

Hi Kalu....would you know if CBN will introduce the HALLMARK channel to its list?

Thanks

Anonymous said...

Wait_till_win,
World Cup 2007 is shown on SETMAX. Is SETMAX visible on CBNSat? Or is it SET (the channel we had before closure)? SET and SETMAX are both from Sony but two different channels.

And I personally don’t think Pogo should be dropped(if they plan to drop it that is). It is a favorite among kids and adults (I watch The Looney Tunes show :D ) as far as I know. Maybe zoom but not Pogo.

Speaking about video quality, Animax was the channel with lowest video quality on CBNsat platform before closure (heavy pixilation). At first I though this was a fault with the channel but on DishTv it appears fine. How is Animax video quality now(it’s a useless channel anyways)?

And what are the Zee channels that are on? Its good to hear cbnsat is adding new channels :)

Lisura said...


By today morning some Zee channels were there like Zee Cinema, Zee Music, Trendz etc. But still Zee Sports is not active. And MTV, VH1 and SET channles are also back.

I have to mention to you'll that the World Cup 2007 matches are on SET MAX. Not on SET.

So still there are more to come in. I noticed a small pixilation on and off on most of the channels. Hopefully CBNSat engineering guys will sort it out. It is a fault at their end.

I get 77% Signal strength and 59% Signal Quality on the 2nd transponder too !

I personally think Goal TV should be dropped. And one Raj channel should be dropped and Sun TV should be introduced in place of that.

And the other channels to drop is Animax and Zoom.

CBNSat should try and bring premium content as nuch as possible. Don't forget that they have got the Discovery package even before Dish TV. Dish TV got it after about 1 year.

So its' QUALITY over Quantity !

Anonymous said...

Still all the channels in 2nd transponder are scrambled for me..

Looser said...

Yes i' geting some Zee channels now but the picture quality is very low in most of the channels including movie channels.

What about Sky & Fox Channels? Can CBNSat get these channels? Only StarTV got these channels at the moment.

riky said...

LST - You are right,SET MAX is still not available with CBN and that is the channel that will broadcast the world cup,The channel available is SET.

No way they are going to drop pogo and Hallmark is not going to be an immediate addition.