TopTV Bugs and Peeves

[madlala]

This is important to note. TopTv have said that their core business is strictly Satellite TV. Strictly Content Distributors. It is a similar situation in the UK. You have the the huge BskyB content producers and distributors and Virgin Media who have positioned themselves now as just content distributors. They have sold all their "in house" channels like Bravo! to Sky. Virgin have also just won a court case against Sky on the grounds of "Unfair Adavantage" and now Sky have to sell their
in-house sports channels to Virgin Media at cost. The same thing will happen here. Top TV is not going to start producing sports like Super Sport. This means trucks, announcers, technicians, studios, etc. are too costly and not their core business. When their subscriber base hits 500 000 they will have enough muscle to approach the courts and tackle DSTV on the grounds of "unfair advantage" and then they will get a ruling where DSTV has to sell Super Sport to TopTV at Cost to be hosted on TopTV's platform. The uptake of TopTV is huge. They will have the numbers very shortly. Louise Kelly from TopTV has said they will not be picking fights with DSTV at this moment. They have also said that they are not competing with DSTV. DSTV producers and distributes, TOPTV only distributes. The fact that we have competition in the pay tv arena in SA for the first time and that both players can make a living only bids well for all South Africans. The future is bright.

Just to say thanks for this info, now at least I have knowledge of why TTV operates the way it does, and indeed the future looks so great, hoping they reach their targets very soon, so that we will have decent programming on all channels, not certain ones

 

[AstroTurf]

All the advertising and other offers from monochoice tell me they are ***king there panties.

 

[greg_SA]

All the advertising and other offers from monochoice tell me they are ***king there panties.

Haha... so they are not allowed to compete? They are just making themselves competitive with the TopTV offerings... in fact not much has changed... just cheaper single view installation and the R99 bouquet.

 

[DarkStreet]

Haha... so they are not allowed to compete? They are just making themselves competitive with the TopTV offerings... in fact not much has changed... just cheaper single view installation and the R99 bouquet.

They are releasing these deals because TopTV has arrived otherwise I doubt they would have bothered no matter how they insist it wasn't. But I agree, nothing has changed. Premium subscribers are still being shafted R 500+ per month with no decent channels being added.

 

[Nuro]

Don't want to open a new thread just for a comment. Got my decoder yesterday, phoned this morning to register (no waiting) , installing tomorrow. Not bad at all so far.

 

[AstroTurf]

Haha... so they are not allowed to compete? They are just making themselves competitive with the TopTV offerings... in fact not much has changed... just cheaper single view installation and the R99 bouquet.

Of course they are allowed to compete, so far they are just trying to secure a user base by selling there decoders at a slightly more competitive price and by drowning out the airwaves with adverts making fun of the president.

Anyway, I like that they have competition, it will help keep prices down and they may even be forced to bring there prices down (not just on the user padlocks/decoders).

 

[McCrazieGoalz]

Biggest Peeve...

I guess the biggest peeve is that there is no real sport on TopTV.

It is understandable that there is no sport but it is also understandable that people would not be happy with a whole bouquet offering with no real (i.e. A grade - SA standards by the way) sport.

Please TopTV tell us what you have in store for us - don't tell us that we have to wait three years for you to bid for sport, which you are not guaranteed of winning.

What are you doing about real sport now, TopTV?

Does anyone know?

 

[AstroTurf]

Monochoice said they will not sell rights to TopTV.
Go ask them.

 

[McCrazieGoalz]

Monochoice said they will not sell rights to TopTV.
Go ask them.

Thanks AstroTurf,

I take your word for it.

This is appalling.

Definitely anti-competitive behavior.

I am gob smacked.

Does TopTV have a plan B for the near/immediate future?

 

[Hemps]

What quality are the channels like on toptv?
Are they planning to bring out HD?

I want to cancel my internet which I'm paying R580p/m for and go over to the dark side dstv hd, mostly due to the quality and sport - downloaded shows suck on my 32 lcd, hd stuff looks awesome.
Problem is the sd hurts my eyes.........

 

[greg_SA]

I guess the biggest peeve is that there is no real sport on TopTV.

It is understandable that there is no sport but it is also understandable that people would not be happy with a whole bouquet offering with no real (i.e. A grade - SA standards by the way) sport.

Please TopTV tell us what you have in store for us - don't tell us that we have to wait three years for you to bid for sport, which you are not guaranteed of winning.

What are you doing about real sport now, TopTV?

Does anyone know?

I'll be surprised if TopTV actually get any decent sport content any time soon. With their lower subscription prices, I don't its possible.

 

[zamrg]

I've had a p good experience with TopTV.

I picked up a unit, got it installed within 3 days and it was activated immediately. I've had no problems with signal loss or poor picture quality but like others, find the different volume levels annoying. The EPG seems a bit blurry to me and it's a bit cluttered to navigate, but I'm sure they'll get around to improving it. I've also noticed that it periodically goes wonky has no info for certain channels, but this normally comes right after a few minutes.

The content is obviously miles ahead of public broadcasting but it's still extremely lacking; not just the number of channels but particularly the movies and series, even documentaries. Fox Entertainment seems to only show Scrubs, Family Guy, Arrested Development, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, The X Files and The Simpsons. It would be nice to get some premium series and content but I guess it's not too bad for what you're paying.

 

[acidb]

Happened to me for the first time yesterday as well, about 19:20. Had to unplug my decoder twice to get the signal back.

It would be interesting to note other peoples signal strength as well, I checked my setup and I'm sitting on about 65% signal strength with 100% signal quality, is this good enough?

 

[dbnnet]

65% signal strength with 100% signal quality

Besides your dish, will probably also depend where you are in SA.
In Durban I am on 70% signal strength and 100% quality.

 

[acidb]

Besides your dish, will probably also depend where you are in SA.
In Durban I am on 70% signal strength and 100% quality.

I'm in the Southern Suburbs of Cape Town.

 

[rph72]

It would be interesting to note other peoples signal strength as well, I checked my setup and I'm sitting on about 65% signal strength with 100% signal quality, is this good enough?

I get the same.

 

[rimmington]

We get the same. The installer said it is perfect. The picture quality is what is important. Apparently they will change satellites next year? Installer said it will be the Sirius 5 satellite? It will have more transponders etc. Capable of delivering HD for the future. The way he installed the dish was to take adavantage of this possible change.

 

[Pearson6]

well finally after doing everything myself I got some answers spoke to a few people until speaking to a very helpfull guy working there Mbongeni he was very clued up on what needed to happen and also the lady that transferred me to him (Brenda) they explained to me that it was a problem with da dish alignment and I needed to call the installer again........so now I just need to look for his number then we will be all set up again Mbongeni also mentioned that after having everything rectified then we can look at a credit meaning I wont have to pay the full month as I never watched TOP TV for the month of June and I already paid..........so far so good but I also dont wanna get too excited hey u never know what might happen............

 

[madlala]

The only sad thing with Toptv at the moment is the SABC Channel, the Picture looks horribly, and the breaks in picture is bad which makes me switch my analogue to watch SABC 1 for WC Coverage, cause Setanta Is busy with Gaelic football :wtf: who even invented that type of Sports, could switch over to SS3. but since it DStv i cant, cause im all for Toptv, and hate Mono_choice

Can you believe how much heart i have for TTV, to the point that I deny myself watching Dstv so that i could accomodate more of TTV, and less critics afterwards, its like marriage, stick to one and only, even though they are better offering ""outside"" (some miht say the grass is always greener on the other side) ( but i say thats not always the case), but because i have chosen TTV im stucked, Patient is Virtue, This too shall pass

 

[acidb]

The only thing that really peeves me off is the time on the decoder, more often than not when programming an auto-tune reminder for a certain programme, the decoder tunes in when its already begun and I miss the first 2 minutes invariably of the programme, is there any way they can change the time? It like a minute and odd out.