Airtel DTH HD Recorder Review

Features and Packages

The HD Recorder starts at a price tag of Rs. 5,940 per month with one month subscription of any of the Value Sports HD, Economy Sports HD or Mega HD channels. It also includes 14 free HD channels for the first month. The HD channels currently include - Star Plus HD, Star Gold HD, Star World HD, Star Movies HD, Zee TV HD, Zee Cinema HD, Colors HD, Movies Now HD, NGC HD, Discovery World HD, History TV18 HD, Ten HD, Star Cricket HD, ESPN HD. Their current packages are summarized in the table below. 

Packages

The packs are categorized into Chota Packs, A la Carte Packs, Advance Rental Packages and Monthly packages. Chota packages are an accumulation of similar channels, like English Plus Channels, HD Plus Channels and so on. A la carte packs are effective when you want just one channel out of a pack and do not want to purchase the whole pack. For example, if you want to watch the IPL matches in HD and not the other ones, you can simply download the Set Max HD channel and not the entire pack. Half yearly and annual long duration packs are available as well. Complete details on the current offers can be viewed on Airtel’s official site. 

A slim profile

A slew of features have been included in Airtel’s iTV tab. A couple of games have been ported as well, but they’re pretty useless to play on a remote and work no better than terribly coded 8 bit games and are absolutely avoidable. Airtel’s iEnglish feature gives users a chance to better their English language skills within the comfort of their homes. These English language tutorials are in an audio-visual format, complete with animated characters and quizzes for easy comprehension. Reasonably priced at Rs.30/month (inclusive of  taxes) subscribers can avail the benefits of this offering by pressing the iTV button on their remote control. The STB comes quite packed with features with something in store for everybody. 

Performance

We connected the Airtel DTH HD Recorder to a 55 inch full HDTV to gauge its performance. The HD channels are a big big improvement if you’re used to watching SD content on your HDTV and 1080i more than satisfies your needs. The recording facility was definitely an added benefit and the fact that it allowed users to view other content while recording videos was another plus for the recorder. With the HD Recorder it only makes sense to subscribe to the HD channels to fully utilize the capability of the STB. Video quality was sublime and overall we were quite impressed with what Airtel’s DTH HD Recorder had on offer.

For your HD needs

Verdict

For a new connection, you’ll have to shell out Rs. 5940/- for your first month, following which your payment should start from 300 depending upon the channels you subscribe to. Tata Sky+ HD has a similar cost of Rs. 5,940 for first installation with 1month HD pack and supreme sports kids free. Videocon HD DVR slots in at Rs. 5,990 while Reliance HD + DVR currently costs Rs. 4,890 sans additional channels, bringing the overall price in the same range as its competitors. Individual channels and packs also have extremely competitive rates so it’s hard to tell one from another. As a standalone product however, if you’re in the market for an HD recorder, Airtel’s DTH HD Recorder is a worthy option.