Bharti Airtel is one of the rare companies which is delving in many verticals including prepaid, postpaid, broadband and DTH as well. When it comes to DTH, Bharti Airtel has some interesting things to offer under the Airtel Digital TV banner. The DTH service provider is shipping many attractive offers and discounts to the customers to lure more subscribers. There are various bundled offerings from Airtel Digital TV, the Airtel Home discount for a combined bill, the long term plans as well. However, that is not all. Airtel Digital TV also boasts of having the most number of choices when it comes to Set-Top Boxes. Compared to any other DTH operators, Bharti Airtel’s Set-Top Box range goes right on from SD options to Hybrid Set-Top Box. This means that when consumers opt for an Airtel Digital TV connection, they will have ample options to choose from depending on their viewing options and how much they want to spend. Here are the Set-Top Boxes that Airtel Digital TV offers.
Airtel Digital TV SD Set-Top Box
The first entry in this list is obviously the basic Standard Definition Set-Top Box. Although we agree that it would be hard to find someone who opts for a Standard Definition Set-Top Box, it is likely that if you want to go for the most economical options and a few shows is what you want catch on your TV without spending a lot on a new connection, then an SD Set-Top Box from Airtel Digital TV could be the right choice. The Airtel Digital TV SD Set-Top Box retails for Rs 569, and the features that it offers includes external recording. Apart from this, there are not really noteworthy features that the SD Set-Top Box from Airtel Digital TV comes with.
Next up, we have the Airtel Digital TV High Definition Set-Top Box. Like you would expect, as compared to the HD Set-Top Box from Airtel Digital TV, this one comes with more features and it is also gets a slightly higher price tag. The Airtel Digital TV HD Set-Top Box can be availed for Rs 769, and in this price tag, the users will get features like Dolby Digital Sound and record and play with the obvious benefits of more channels and the HD quality. Given the Rs 200 difference in the Set-Top Boxes of SD and HD variant, and considering that it is a one time cost, the HD variant of the Airtel Digital TV STB makes more sense.
Airtel Internet TV
Amongst all the talk of Xstream Box and the HD and SD variants of Set-Top Boxes, the Airtel Internet TV gets lost. However, the Airtel Internet TV is a Set-Top Box which sets apart Airtel Digital TV from the rest of the DTH operators. With Airtel Internet TV, the subscribers enjoy features like 4K quality, pause, record live TV channels store recorded channels in Pendrive or other external storage, Google Play Store support, Wi-Fi connectivity, and Bluetooth connectivity for connecting with game controllers, keyboards and more. Users can also stream content from Netflix, Airtel Xstream App and Amazon Prime and YouTube as well.
When it comes to pricing, the Airtel Internet TV Set-Top Box will set back the subscribers by Rs 3,499 which will include a month of Mega HD pack by Airtel Digital TV, a month of Netflix subscription, free TV games from Airtel and Airtel Xstream app subscription. It is also crucial to note that the Airtel Internet TV and the Airtel Xstream Box are available in different cities.
Airtel Xstream Box
Airtel Xstream Box is as slight step-up from the Airtel Internet TV, and it is the Hybrid Set-Top Box from Airtel Digital TV. The Box combines the DTH connections and OTT services in a single place and allows the users to stream OTT content as well as watch their satellite TV channels. The Airtel Xstream Box is available for Rs 3,108 with the Rs 3,108 amount being the Set-Top box charges and it comes with built-in chrome cast, Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and other apps, voice search support, and allows you to use your mobile as remote.
It is worth noting that while Airtel Digital TV is leading the pack while it comes to the range of Set-Top Boxes, Dish TV has also announced that it would soon be launching a new hybrid Set-Top Box and when it does, then the options of Dish TV and Airtel Digital TV would almost be the same.
