Review: WorldCall Video on Demand

[imadsani]

With the advent of the High Definition TV in Pakistan, one would question the decision to buy one. As the TV would be only as good as the source provided to it. Looking at the display quality in the store makes your mouth water, and when you bring it home it’s a totally different story. Well that’s because they have Blu Rays or HD DVD's running, which just screams quality.

So what's the answer then? Do we stick to our old bulky or flat TV's and not buy these uber cool and leet TV's? If you have the moolaa then you could connect a Blu Ray player or a console and use it with that, but not everyone can afford buying original discs on a regular basis. Plus none of the cable providers provide High Definition content. So is that it? Should we all just stick to analogue channels? Well, not exactly, read on.

WorldCall came out with VOD a little over a year ago. VOD stands for Video on Demand, which literally means to demand and get. This system does just that. Well, not exactly, for you to demand a video, it should already be on the server. Although I heard that if you call them and request for a particular movie they put it up pretty quickly.

Along with VOD you get Digital Cable Channels, and this is where things start to get interesting. To be honest no one has that time to sit down and watch a movie completely, So the VOD would be great for a couple of movies of the weekend. For the rest of the week, Digital TV.

The channels aren’t Hi Def, but its way better than the analogue channels. You can notice the difference right from the word GO. Channels are limited, 51 or so currently, but they add channels at a steady pace.

Company Profile

We all know about WorldCall. We've used their CATV or IOC service at one point or the other.
The company started out in 1996 with cable TV, then around 2000 they started IOC (Internet over Cable). Salman Taseer has been the head of the company for the most part, and recently I hear its been sold to a multinational.

The Setup

• Sony Bravia 40" KLV-40V300A/B

• Pioneer Home Theatre HTZ262DVD

• Motorola SB5101 Cable modem

• Coship Digital cable receiver

The receiver is connected to the TV via the video component cables and the audio is routed through the home theatre.

The Remote

Nothing special, found it to be a tad disappointing. Rubber buttons, difficult to press accurately the first time but it gets the job done

Digital cable receiver:

Ok, this is what I got off the website, apparently it's not some cheap cable receiver as I thought earlier. The company has a wide variety of products.

Model: CDVBC5600

General Device Information:

CDVBC5600, facing the world, can receive the FTA and conditional programs, also support VIACCESS CA. It supports the long-distance upgrade, which provides the program information for the users. The managing and setting up function can easily provides services on demands. Sounds and pictures can help you direct the menu vividly. The S/P DIF high fidelity digital audio output can bring a wonderful seeing and hearing enjoyment to you. The browsing function can make users to enjoy the internet


Now for some geeky stuff

Features

• Fully DVB-C/ compliant
• Multi QAM demodulation selection: 16QAM、32QAM、64QAM、128QAM、256QAM
• Supports VIACCESS CA
• The Embedding LOADER supports the long-distance upgrade, and the procedure can get the latest version
• Support many kinds of searching way( whole web, single frequency and so on)
• PAL automatically
• Support Multi-language menu
• Support friendly interface
• Support Subtitle and Teletext
• Compound video signals
• Support Electronic Program
• Support S/P DIF output of the digital audio frequency
• Support games
• Support composing
• Support program update automatically
• Zoom font and video dynamically


Specifications:




Ports:

• 1 x Ethernet Port
• 2 x Component ports
• 1 x RS 232 port (for monitor connectivity)
• 1 x S/P DIF port
• 1 x Copper Wire port
• 1 x Analogue TV connector port
• 1 x Smart Card slot

Found the audio over the component cables good enough, so didn't connect the reciever via a S/P DIF cable

The box also has a smart card slot at the front, as can be seen in the picture. I can assume that this may come of use in the future if WorldCall comes out with prepaid subscription cards or cards for specific packages. Seems like a far better way to track packages to subscribers then doing it via the cable modem MAC ID.

Channels:
1. BBC World News
2. GEO News
3. Business Plus
4. CNN International (I'm guessing that’s what the 'I' stands for after CNN)
5. Euronews
6. ARY One World
7. ARY Qtv
8. Saudi TV
9. Star Plus
10. ZEE SMILE
11. Star Utsav
12. The Musik
13. ZEE Music
14. B4U Music
15. Music INDIA
16. RITMO TV
17. JOO MUSIC
18. Adventure 1
19. Discovery Scientific
20. Discovery Channel
21. Discovery Travel and Leisure
22. ARY Asia
23. HUM TV
24. D Entertainment
25. TRACE
26. MTV ARABIA
27. SKY News
28. Star World
29. MGM
30. Set Max
31. Cinema City
32. MM2
33. Serie
34. MNETE
35. MM1
36. TCM
37. America Plus
38. AXN Pakistan
39. MTV India
40. Super Comedy +2
41. Sony
42. Super Sports
43. ESPN
44. Wikkid Plus
45. Fun Channel
46. Disney Channel
47. Toon Disney
48. Disney Playhouse
49. Fashion-TV
50. Fashion TV
51. Gameplay

I was initially against my family's decision of getting WorldCall VOD plus I was also against my mom's decision for buying the BRAVIA. We already had a Sony Projection TV and thought that buying a HD TV for our lounge would be overkill. We seldom rent or buy a movie, it's usually regular TV programming. But after seeing the number of channels, I was glad we did.
Coming to the channels, it has a variety of almost everything. From news to religious to comedy to Indian drama to American programming to documentaries to desi entertainment to Hollywood programming to action to children programming to fashion and in the end a channel for the gamer in all of us.

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Unlike my family I hate Indian soaps, and to be quite honest I came close to getting my cable subscription disconnected because of this reason. The lack of good English or otherwise programs had led me to do this, but I didn’t because well there was nothing else to turn to. In a time where you spend a good proportion of your time in front of the TV, I had to keep it.
But I was surprised to see the amount of quality channels on the digital service. I found a couple of my favorite channels in the list, Super Comedy, mm1, mm2, Serie, MnetE, America Plus to name a few.

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There are a couple of Indian channels, what can I say "You can't win em all". I can settle with this.

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There are channels for almost every type of taste and mood as I mentioned above, you have plenty to watch and you cannot get bored, but if you do just flick the VOD button on the remote control and you are swiftly taken to the VOD menu.

The Quality

The program quality is crisp and clear, better than what you get on your regular analogue subscription. When I said that I thought buying a BRAVIA (HDTV) would've been overkill, I meant spending so much on a TV only to connect it to a below par source wouldn't have been justice to it. I was surprised as to how good the channels were coming out on the digital service.
Some pictures to give you a rough idea of what I'm talking about. Pictures don't do justice to the quality, but it's something.

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If you take a look at the last snap, it has program information listed, I was rather surprised to see that working here.

Video on Demand (VOD):

The name says it all, demand and get. Not quite accurate, for you to demand something, the video in question should be available on the WorldCall servers.

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There's nothing much to say here. The menu's are neatly organized with ample viewing content and streaming is quick.

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Videos put up here are downloaded from the internet (duhh!). Quality is what you would expect from a DVDRIP download.

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The only problem with the setup is that forwarding a video is extremely slow. A faster forwarding speed would really come in handy when the electricity goes out and your left in the middle of your movie and want to resume it once the electricity's back.

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The system allows you to pause, stop, rewind and forward the videos you are watching.

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One glitch i ran into while testing the setup was that, while streaming a video there was a momentary hiccup in the connection and the streaming died. I then had to play the video from the beginning.

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One thing i would really like to see would be a receiver integrated with a harddrive to temporarily save videos on it to prevent the above mentioned problems, which could also come handy in recording shows on the digital service.

Now this baby:

You see the price down there? My bet is there thinking of implementing online movie rentals sometime in the near future. Similar to Apples AppleTV. I'm not sure if this would pick up in Pakistan, but that's just my opinion

As I said, it's not the best implementation but for starters it will do.

Pricing

Connection charges are PKR. 6000, which includes the receiver and the cable modem plus any cabling needed. Monthly charges are PKR. 1500.

Conclusion

It may have some downsides but overall the service is not to be taken lightly. Apart from the movies the channels provide enough quality programs to keep everyone entertained. WorldCall just gave everyone another reason to buy HDTV's in Pakistan.

You may find my tone in the review a bit judgemental and giving the service the benefit of the doubt, or in other words telling you thats it's not a good service but hey! this is Pakistan. That's not true. It is a good service, if they improve the little things I pointed out, the service should turn out alot better.

I would recommend this for people looking for quality television programming rather than having to buy expensive DVD's or BlueRays.

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