Videocon, the latest entrant into India’s DTH market, today claimed that it is now offering the highest number of true HD channels in India.
The company made the claim as it added six more HD channels to its bouquet, taking the total Asli HD channels on its platform to 19, according to the company.
True or Asli HD channels are different from ‘upscaled’ or processed HD channels. True HD channels are originally recorded on cameras that scan at 1080 times from top to bottom to capture a single frame.
In other words, Asli HD raw footage will have a vertical resolution of at least 1080 lines. Depending on whether they are normally scanned (progressive) or ‘skipped’ scanned (interlaced), they are called 1080p or 1080i.
Most HD content also come with 6 audio tracks, compared to 1 or 2 (stereo) channels found on normal or standard definition (SD) content.
Indian DTH operators offer two types of HD content, those that were shot in HD (native) and those that have been converted into HD from lower resolutions using computer software.
The latter, while better than standard resolution or SD videos, are not comparable in quality to the true or Asli HD content.
Reliance Big TV has upscaled all its 250 channels to HD, while Zee TV has also upscaled a large part of its content for use on its DTH network, Dish TV.
Among the True HD channels are Star Movies, Movies Now, History Channel HD etc..
Videocon d2h, which claims to have already had 13 Asli HD on its network, said it is adding six more — History TV HD, M Tunes HD, CNBC Prime HD, UTV Stars HD, Active 3D and Sony HD.
So far, Airtel Digital could claim the distinction of being the network with the highest number of true HD channels, with around three Hindi general entertainment channels, two English movie channels, two Hindi movie channels, three knowledge channels, one English entertainment channel and several HD sports channels.
Videocon d2h did not specify the names of its 19 Asli HD channels.
It claims about 6 million subscribers (out of a total of about 50 million) and has 368 channels & services, “the highest in the country.”
It also claims to have the highest number of sports channels and the highest number of regional language channels and offers 12 Picture-in-Picture (PIP) and has 21 Audio and Video music channels.
It was the last to enter the crowded DTH space, but has tried to exploit its strong presence in the TV market by bundling its DTH service with its flat-panel TVs.