The DTH arena in India is heating with DTH operators trying any possible way to get more customers. One of the ways is to sell a normal non DVR HD set top box to customers claiming that it is same as their HD DVR offering at half the price. It is not true and we would like to warn our readers about these false claims.
The reason behind this claim being false is pretty simple – HD DVRs have 2 dedicated tuners in them (this is why they have 2 wires running from the dish to the box). This enables the user to record one channel and watch another in parallel. Also, one can record 2 channels simultaneously and watch a recording (or any one of the channels being recorded) in parallel. This feature will never be available in a HD set top boxes with a software update that enables recording, as they only have 1 tuner. Addition of tuner is not possible as it requires a hardware upgrade.
Both Dish TV and Airtel Digital TV have enabled their HD set top boxes to record to external USB based disk drives through a software update and the other operators are expected to launch this facility in the near future too. However, please be informed that any advertisements/sales guys claiming that the software update makes the HD set top boxes same as their HD DVRs is totally false. They are just trying to close a deal. If you want a real DVR, you should buy the premium HD DVR set top box from these operators.
