With High Definition channels becoming a rage, it is time you upgrade to a Direct to Home connection, with the HD hardware and channel packs. Particularly so if you are watching TV on a big screen that is bigger than 32-inches. The difference between SD and HD channels is very visible, and the inferior experience of a non-HD channels and broadcast is more than apparent. If you have invested in a getting a flat panel television, it is time you feed it the correct content as well.
The popularity of HD channels can be measured by the fact that the popular Hindi General Entertainment Channels (GEC) are all being offered in a HD version. Same goes for the Hindi Movie channels and the English movie channels. For sports fans, critically, most of the cricket action is available on one HD channel or the other.
With this story, we help you figure out which DTH operator stands where in terms of the HD channel offerings. The idea being, to help you pick the best operator, considering the channels you watch quite often.
Let us take a look at each genre to identify which operator offers what channels.
Hindi GEC: In this case, Dish TV, Tata Sky and Videocon d2h are very much at par with each other, with all the channels available. Airtel Digital TV offers all, except Life OK HD. In case your daily dose of soaps includes all channels in this genre, then Reliance Digital TV and Sun Direct will be considerably behind in the stakes.
| | Hindi GEC channels | |||||
| | Dish TV TruHD | Tata Sky HD | Airtel Digital TV HD | Videocon d2h HD | Reliance Digital TV HD | Sun Direct HD |
| Star Plus HD | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | N |
| Zee TV HD | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | N |
| Sony HD | Y | Y | Y | Y | N | N |
| Colours HD | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | N |
| Life OK HD | Y | N | N | Y | N | N |
Hindi Movies & Music: Not too many channels available in this genre, yet, but Dish TV and Videocon d2h are the best bets, since they offer all three channels. Tata Sky, Reliance Digital TV and Airtel Digital TV miss out on one channel each. Sun Direct, with its focus on the South Indian markets, is expectedly not in the race in this category either.
| | Hindi Movies & Music | |||||
| | Dish TV TruHD | Tata Sky HD | Airtel Digital TV HD | Videocon d2h HD | Reliance Digital TV HD | Sun Direct HD |
| Star Gold HD | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | N |
| Zee Cinema HD | Y | N | Y | Y | N | N |
| Mtunes HD | Y | Y | N | Y | Y | N |
English Movies & Entertainment: In this category, Dish TV is pretty much the undisputed leader in this category. The real advantage came after the two ad-free HBO Premium channels came on board – HBO Hits HD and HBO Defined HD. Airtel Digital TV offers all channels, except that the two HBO premium channels are in their SD versions only. Videocon d2h doesn’t yet have any version of the two HBO channels, but offers the rest. Tata Sky, for various reasons, Reliance Digital TV and Sun Direct are just offering a couple of channels each.
| | English Movies & Entertainment | |||||
| | Dish TV TruHD | Tata Sky HD | Airtel Digital TV HD | Videocon d2h HD | Reliance Digital TV HD | Sun Direct HD |
| Star Movies HD | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y |
| Zee Studio HD | Y | N | Y | Y | N | Y |
| Movies Now HD | Y | N | Y | Y | Y | N |
| HBO Hits HD | Y | N | N | N | N | N |
| HBO Defined HD | Y | N | N | N | N | N |
| Star World HD | Y | Y | Y | Y | N | N |
Sports: This is where the entire thing becomes very serious for the sports fans, particularly the cricket and football lovers. If you like following most of the sporting events happening out there, then Videocon d2h and Airtel Digital TV should be the DTH operators at the top of the consideration list. These two operators have all channels. Reliance Digital TV, which offers ESPN HD, Star Cricket HD and Ten HD is ahead of the likes of Tata Sky, Dish TV and Sun Direct in terms of the numbers on offer.
| | Sports | |||||
| | Dish TV TruHD | Tata Sky HD | Airtel Digital TV HD | Videocon d2h HD | Reliance Digital TV HD | Sun Direct HD |
| ESPN HD | N | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y |
| Star Cricket HD | N | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y |
| Ten HD | Y | N | Y | Y | Y | N |
| Sony Six HD | Y | N | Y | Y | N | N |
Infotainment: This genre is very popular for general viewing, and for quick entertainment. For the kind of programming these channels show up most of the time, High Definition makes a lot of sense. Dish TV has all the channels on board, some of which are Dish TV exclusives. All other operators are showing a handful of channels, with nothing really to choose between them in terms of variety.
| | Infotainment | |||||
| | Dish TV TruHD | Tata Sky HD | Airtel Digital TV HD | Videocon d2h HD | Reliance Digital TV HD | Sun Direct HD |
| Discovery HD World | Y | Y | Y | Y | N | Y |
| NGC HD | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y |
| NGC Wild HD | Y | N | N | N | N | N |
| NGC Adventure HD | Y | N | N | N | N | N |
| History TV18 HD | Y | N | Y | Y | N | N |
| Fox Traveller HD | Y | N | N | N | N | N |
| Travel XP HD | Y | N | N | Y | N | N |