HD Channels : The current HD gold bouquet has 6 full time HD channels (Star Plus HD, Star Movies HD, Star World HD, Star Gold HD,Nat GEO HD and Discovery HD) apart from that there is Set Max HD which only comes on during IPL matches.

HD quality is superb, at 1080i the images are crisp most of the time, to preserve HD quality, Start is not advertising on its HD channels and fills in remaining time with fillers. So a show which starts at 8:00pm finishes at 8:22pm on Star Plus HD and 8:30pm on Star Plus SD.

Hardware Capabilities : The set top box from Tata Sky is a fairly competitive piece of equipment offering 500GB of storage space. Apart from the space, features like live pause, rewind (live) and slow motion are really awesome. The set top box also has a cool rotating play display which tells you the state of playing from the hard disk.

The box has 2 inputs and HDMI and RCA outputs. It also promises 5.1 channel audio (which I haven’t verified). It has a super light indicator as shown in below video :

You can record 2 channels at one time, if you are recording two channels at one time, it wont let you switch channels and you will have to stop recording. This again is very counter intuitive.

Its takes a while to figure out why its giving the warning and how to stop recording one of the channels. If you had paused a similar warning is given on changing channels, this time with no reason as to why its asking you to confirm a channel change.

The recording can be done in many ways, ad hoc recording, just go to a channel and press record to record the current program. You can also choose a program in the future to record, apart from this there is also an option to record all instances of a TV series.

TV series is a little confusing though, it took me a while to figure out how to edit series settings. The manual is totally useless, offers absolutely no information on operation. Tata Sky really shortchanges customers on manual quality.

The usability of the box is severely reduced due to earlier point. I literally had to tutor my parents on usage.

Apart from the special characteristics, the set top box has the ability to set 50 favorite channels. I also observed that sometimes on changing the channel it wont come on. That’s a major issue that needs addressing.

So that’s it for this part of the review, for the earlier part of the review , head on over to Wisetechie Blog

Overall Positives :

1. Great price of Rs. 3999

2. Tata Sky Service Quality , best in DTH providers

3. Star’s bouquet of HD has no ads till now, 500 GB space is awesome

Overall Negatives :

1. Extremely complex to use for normal folks

2. No proper manual given, no guidance provided by setup staff

3. HD gold pack costs 50 rupees per month extra. So another pack you have to add to your bouquet.

The stock has an EPS of 15.55 and a P/E ratio of only 11.34 compared to industry average of 20.91. Apart from that the company has shown solid performance year after year and has mostly increased profits all YoY.

The company is in the IT business and the hospitality business inside and outside India.

The company recently announced a 5:1 bonus in early May and has fixed 21 June as the record date. The current price does not justify the fundamentals of the company and I believe there is a good upside to the stock.

I have acquired the stock and you may want to acquire it to and keep for 2-3 years for a good profit on the same.

Market Cap 228.57

  EPS (TTM) 15.55

  P/E 11.34

  P/C 10.59

  Book Value 73.25

  Price/Book 2.41 Div(%) 50.00%

  Div Yield(%) 1.42 Market Lot 1.00 Face Value 5.00 Industry P/E 20.91

In other news Wipro Ltd. went ex bonus today with a good start to its ex bonus journey. the stock is currently trading at 408 levels which indicated cum bonus levels of Rs. 680 which is a cool 50 rupees profit from where I had started. Since I have a large horizon I am holding it, you might want to exit if you are a short term investor and re- enter on dips.

Disclaimer :

Please follow any advice at your own risk, we will not be responsible for actions taken on reading the items here. Please use your own research before making investments. Market investments are subject to very high risks.

I and/or my family may have certain holdings in shares listed here as of date of publication of this article.

]]> http://indiantechblog.com/2010/06/stock-watch-panoramic-universal-to-give-a-whooping-51-bonus/feed/ 0 http://indiantechblog.com/2010/02/paypal-stops-and-reverses-all-personal-payments-tofrom-indian-customers/ http://indiantechblog.com/2010/02/paypal-stops-and-reverses-all-personal-payments-tofrom-indian-customers/#comments Fri, 05 Feb 2010 08:10:08 +0000 Gadget Techie http://indiantechblog.com/2010/02/paypal-stops-and-reverses-all-personal-payments-tofrom-indian-customers/ In a move that has shocked the whole Indian webmaster community, Paypal Inc. has decided to block and ban all Indian payments, whether its incoming or outgoing. The only ones spared are those selling goods. If you are affected by this sudden decision , Paypal would have sent you an email that read something like :

Hello Mr. XYZ,

Your payment of  [amount] has been sent back to the sender of the payment. 

We reversed this payment because we have stopped allowing personal payments to be sent to or from India.

If this was a payment for a purchase of goods or services, and not a personal payment, then you may contact the buyer and have him or her resend the payment as follows:  (a) click the Send Money tab, (b) select "Goods," and (c) provide a shipping address.

If this payment was a personal payment such as a gift, then we have requested that the sender find another payment method until we restore personal payments to and from India.

We are trying to resolve this issue as quickly as possible and we’re sorry for
any inconvenience.

Thank you,
PayPal

No one really knows what Paypal is upto, there are rumours that its a regulatory issue, there are rumours that its a technical issue and further rumours that its an issue due to large number of scams being done in the market.

3G services were finally launched in India (New Delhi to begin with !) by state owned operator MTNL or Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited. MTNL is the first operator to be given a license to operate 3G services in India. Other operators will have to bid for the spectrum in special auctions. With the new rules saying 2G rights will also be given to 3G operators things are getting heated up in the 3G spectrum domain. Currently MTNL has launched its 3G services only for corporate clients on a test basis.

3G or 3rd Generation services offer an enhanced rate of data transfer which enables special services like high speed broadband, video calling and digital-interactive content over the air. My dad’s new phone the Nokia E71 has a video calling feature and other 3G services built in , so when its launched for general public , i will try them out.

It remains to be seen what will be the quality of the 3G services offered by MTNL. MTNL is one of the worst mobile phone operators in Delhi , some of the inside jokes on MTNL’s service go like MTNL helps prevent cancer by not connecting your calls and that MTNL has an inbuilt minute minder, as most calls get disconnected within 1 minute of you starting to talk.

BSNL has also been given 3G spectrum to launch their own 3G services. The dawn of 3G services in India will bring good times for sure to the consumer. And with private companies in the fray and competition, the consumer will be king and will be the one who gains most.

It seems like a normal phone until you read the “Special Feature”.

Special Features:
Video Projector: can project cell phone screen as well as external video source (composite input adapter included)

Yes, the thing is an actual projector in a phone, how cool is that ? , Its no ordinary Iphone clone. It costs $345 which really isnt much for some of the rich folks out there, but the projector feature is definitely worth killing for.

The photos of use seem to suggest good clear pictures, the only caveat being the 975 grams weight.

It even got engadget coverage.

You can buy it from dealextreme.

Most Chinese mobile phone makers use fake IMEI numbers or use the same number for a large number of mobile phones. In the event of a terrorist act or any other criminal activity the Govt. is unable to trace the accused people.

Hence it has been recommended to the Govt. that Chinese mobile phones be banned in India. Not just sale of these, but usage of these on all Indian networks also be banned. Most network operators will be banning Chinese mobile phones as soon as they get directives from the government which shouldnt be very late seeing the current security situation in the capital.

All those game crazy Nintendo freaks who were still trying to get their Wiis from relatives abroad or from shady Palika Bazaar shops can now rejoice. Nintendo will be releasing their highly successful Wii console in India on September 30 2008.

The console wasn’t expected to be such a success but it beat the hell out of PS3 and even Xbox 360 , everyone loves a Wii. Wii also has certain fitness games and features a great wireless multiplayer controller. The controllers have motion sensors and are really one of a kind as far as game controllers go. Some Trivia : The Nintendo Wii was supposed to be named the Nintendo Revolutions.

The Wii console will be launched by Samurai games in India who had originally introduces us to the Nintendo games (8 bit) in 1987. The MRP for the Wii is Rs 19,990 and the DS Lite is priced at Rs 7,990 inclusive of all taxes which is a little on the higher side. The Wii console in India will come bundled with the popular Wii sports.

The price is a little high when compared to USA, the Wii there costs around 12000 Indian Rupees and the Nintendo DS sells for 6000 Indian Rupees. The higher cost could be due to taxes, margin predictions or a simple desire to earn more profit.

Well if you are searching for Futurebazaar.com coupons to get a discount, you will hit a dead end. But if you need to be up to date on fantastic schemes, this is the right place :

Futurebazaar.com is selling the Fujezone 7″ LCD digital photo frame for Rs.4000 only. The digital photo frame features a 16MB internal memory, has support for JPG, MP3,MP4 and AVI files. Comes with a remote control. so not only can it display your favourite Holiday Photos but you can watch your favourite videos and listen to your favourite music.

The photo frame can take media from SD,MMC,MS and USB Sticks.

The photo frame comes with a FREE Microdia MicroSD card of 1GB capacity. Overall its a great deal.

Click here to see the Digital Photo frame at a great price in India.

As an introductory offer , HP is giving a 15% off Snapfish coupon,  the photobook is available in following sizes :

Sizes available:

2″ X 3″ Mini Book

5″ X 7″ Everyday Photo Book

8″ X 8″ and 8″ X 11″ Custom Jacket Photo Books

8″ X 11″ Classic Photo Book – available in linen and leather covers

12″ X 12″ Signature Photo Book – available in linen and leather covers

Enter Snapfish coupon code PBBLUEOFF15 before checkout for your 15% discount. We got this offer in our email and wanted to share it.

Offer till 31st July !

Image Copyright : HP

The apple and AT&T honeymoon isnt going so well, with both AT&T and Apple reporting that Itunes activation is failing at a lot of places. Some people ‘have’ been sold Iphones without activation which is a boon for those not looking at a AT&T plan, lets see, more updates on this as we move along !

Opening the Apple site, we again get a site not found error on trying to download Itunes.