Well guys, latest update from what happened today. I eventually got the installer to come and check the system out and he said the problem was from hiTV and nothing to do with my setup. As a confirmation though, he said he will take the card to try in another recieved and see if it works. Though, I heard from another source that hiTV are having a general problem with their activation setup, in the sense that if your sub expires, you need to take your card to their office to have it reactivated directly on the network as they have not sorted out the over-the-air activation. How pathetic

Im sorry if I sound like Im running these guys down, but this is personal experience. If its good, then I will definitely admit its good, even if expensive as is the case with DSTV, but my personal opinion is "Dis guys never start"

So why are they shyin away from the truth, i eventually got thru to their helpline and d guy acted as if it was my subscription dat expired, Told him when i paid of which he admited that the system to check was down dat i should call him 2mrw to confirm, He eventually gave me a personal num to reach him after i told him dat the helpline was difficult to get thru, want to see d excuse they would give next,

@ Medube,
If their over-d-air activation is not working then they shld be airing free until they put their house in order, My fear is that there would surely be an upward review of their subscptn soon. WATCH OUT!!

Well guys, a funny one, which I probably should post on the tech foum The guy who installed mine, took my card to his house and it worked and I tested the Strong decoder on DSTV and that worked confusing isnt it So I called the guy and compared my software, hardware and bootloader version on both decoders and they were different, assuming he has the same decoder as mine So, for now I cant test anything because my card is with him, but I have upgraded the software version on my decoder (4653x) from Strong website (http://www.strong-technologies.com/frmRegionSoftwares.aspx?PID=156&RID=1) and will do the test tomorrow.

I only wonder if what the tech guy told me the installer will do on my decoder was a software upgrade which he didnt know?

Just a bit relieved that am not the only one experience this madness and rip-off called HiTV.

Paid Subcription early this morning and up till this moment (10.30pm) still having that annoying message 'NO ACCESS."

@Duduspace, pls stop pampering these guys, and let's called them by what they are 'Rippers".

The annoying part is that my wife warned me not to pay yet till they sort out their problems but  i still went ahead to pay, thus making me look a fool (she said i should not complain around her, that i should have "dash" her the money).

The simple conclusion is that these guys are not even 60% ready for this business, (pay-tv goes beyond premiership) therefore people should exercise caution in doing business with them.

@ilugunboy

Perhaps, I'm not as annoyed as you are because I had the access problem only for a day as I explained above but I'll just stop short of calling them 'rip-offs' though I am not really enjoying my subscription as their bouquet is not complete on the satellite platform. I however harrased my installer so much on saturday night cos I wanted to watch the Euro qualifiers.

The truth be said, I think they are just plain unprepared for the demand they are experiencing now and that might make them lose the momentum to really become a viable competitor to DSTV.

As ayusman said, maybe their services should be free for now, they also need to communicate well with their customers and not just pretend as if there are no problems.

@medube
pretty obvious to me you are kind of techy like myself, I am working towards updating my Decoder firmware too (don't mind voiding the warranty) but since I'm a bit far from Lagos I'm having some difficulty getting cables and all that stuff. I've downloaded the firmware file but I'd like to confirm what cable types you used to connect to your PC.

I'm considering using a straight serial cable with a null-modem converter to connect to my serial port. Pls get back to me if this is similar to what you used or perhaps you got a crossed serial cable. Also, what software exactly did you use to do the firmware update?

Funny thing is, I use a Strong 4652 while yours seems to be a 4653, so HiTV has not really stabilized on a single platform or even a customized system like DSTV does this might explain why customers seem not to be experiencing a consistent experience.

I agree with Ilugunboy that people should exercise caution dealing with them cos it is obvious they need to have the following issues sorted out.

1. They seem not to have enough content available for subscribers though they are presently showing some promise
2. Their satellite platform is a work in progress as it does not have all their available channels
3. They need to get their customer service sorted out

Despite all these, I'm still enjoyin it though and willing to go through these teething period with them but I definitely do not expect everyone to have the same view.

duduspace:

@medube
pretty obvious to me you are kind of techy like myself, I am working towards updating my Decoder firmware too (don't mind voiding the warranty) but since I'm a bit far from Lagos I'm having some difficulty getting cables and all that stuff. I've downloaded the firmware file but I'd like to confirm what cable types you used to connect to your PC.

I'm considering using a straight serial cable with a null-modem converter to connect to my serial port. Please get back to me if this is similar to what you used or perhaps you got a crossed serial cable. Also, what software exactly did you use to do the firmware update?

I used a crossed serial cable (to be precise, the one that comes with your ordinary Mercury UPS). I got the new firmware from the Strong website (the link I gave earlier) and the software uploader as well from the same place. Once cable is connected, you power on the reciever and then click on connect in the uploader program. This automatically detects the Strong receiver and uploads the new software and reboots the reciever. If you need anymore help, do not hesitate to ask. Perhaps, we will be the ones that may eventually solve hiTV problems for them

@Medube,

It seems u guys av resolved ur own issue, me am not dat techy to understand d stuff u guys are talking about, got thru to their helpline after like a thousand trial and funny d guy didnt any fault of theirs, saying i should be my receipt of payment to their office, i cant imagine mess they've put me thru.

ayusman16:

@Medube,

It seems u guys av resolved your own issue, me am not that techy to understand d stuff u guys are talking about, got through to their helpline after like a thousand trial and funny d guy didnt any fault of theirs, saying i should be my receipt of payment to their office, i can't imagine mess they've put me through.

Don't think we have solved our problem I don't know if you live in Lagos, but I live out of Lagos and have been asked to have my card and decoder sent to their office there for a replacement, this now is a whole new process. I wish they left rights to the Premier League to people who know what they are doing and not just some jokers

@Medube

I stay in lagos, d funny thing was dat when i put it one dis evening it showed for like 2mins and lol no access again, why are they not admitin there's a general prob n must one come to their office for it to be rectified? Na wao, i see dem runing out of biz soon.

ayusman16:

Na wao, i see them runing out of biz soon.

My guys, don't blame these guys at all, let's blame those who forced away the rights of the Premier League from DSTV to these jokers without testing their capabilities. If not for the football, i won't even throw 10 Kobo on them

Was in there office today, calling the situation there today a bedlam would be an understatement.

The place is just damn too small for the crowd that came for one complain or the other. I had to endured standing for almost three hours ( i mean it!).

No dedicated staff (customer service) to attend to you, it's like everyone to himself or herself, people were shouting and cursing.

Right now if you are having the 'NO ACCESS" problem, the only way to solve it is to go to their office and struggle before you can be attended to.

Fortunately for me, after all the struggle, i got my problem sorted out.

My observations are:

1. Their CSU is non existent.

2. Staff attending to customers are not trained and therefore disorganised and abusive.

3. No cordination between the front office staff and back office staff( technicians).

4. They should decentralise their operation, so that everybody don't have to go to Ebute metta for every complaint.

Let't hope they will keep improving, for now let manage with whatever we are getting from them.

ilugunboy:

Let't hope they will keep improving, for now let manage with whatever we are getting from them.

I wonder what it is I'm getting to manage?  

Thanks for the update, but it just made those of us out of Lagos to lose hope, sort of 

@Medube,

You have to know that taking your decoder to their office is no guarantee you will pick up another one immediately.

What they will do first is that a guy will collect, check and test it to confirm the fault, if it's a firmware problem, he will try to resolve it (which i believe it's the problem with your decoder), but if it a hardware problem, they will collect, tag and dump it inside a cartoon and ask you to come somtimes later to pick up a replacement, when exactly, nobody can tell, the standard excuse being that they've run out of decoder, meanwhile they are busy selling same decoders to new subscribers.

Tip: If you are ready to play ball with one of the staff, you may be lucky to get the "last one" as they will likely call it.
(witnessed a situation like that yesterday).

Let your installer do the runs for you if you cannot, i saw many installers there and you can imagine the kind of pressure they are been put through by their clients to put things right for them

Na wao, going thru all these stress, i think might need to dump it for now, wish they even fold up

@medube, @ilugunboy and @ayusman

So funny I finally landed myself in the same situation as you're all in due to my being inquisitive, you would recall that I said the problem had been resolved at my end since saturday but it resurfaced yesterday (after I upgraded my firmware to the latest version on strong's website as medube did earlier).

My conclusion is that the application running on the smartcard which is the credential to access the hitv transmission streams was written to target the strong firmware customized for MyTV. I used to see a start-up banner when I put on my decoder with the MyTV elephant symbol on it but after I upgraded my firmware what I now see is a Strong start-up banner.

Seems that some firmware level interfaces have changed between the MyTV customized firmware (dated september 2006 if I recall correctly) and the updated firmware on Strong's website which have made it incompatible with the access program on the HiTV smartcard.

What I aim to do later in the day is to get a functional MyTV decoder Strong 4652x and transfer the firmware to mine (thereby reverting back to my old firmware version) since there are two ways you can change your Decoder firmware (PC to Decoder and Decoder to Decoder).

I will get back to you all if this works out.

NB: Pls don't pity me yet at least until I find out I have to get a new decoder

@medube
Your situation might be a bit different since you seem to have a 4653 series decoder and I'm not sure if they can use the same firmware files with the 4652 series which seems to be the most popular STB used with MyTV's service. If you can however get a 4653 series decoder with MyTV's firmware, it may be worth a try. Just check the system settings in the decoder menu (I access mine by keying in code 0000 which is the default code).

Well guys, this is exactly 1 week I got my system. Good enough, the agent I bought mine from, is fantastic. I got a surprise call today from him telling me, he had changed the receiver and still using my smart card and it is working, considering I dropped it with him yesterday. I just came back from my house where I went to set it back up and for now, thank God, all is working. As for HiTV, I still rate their tech support and operations as crap, but as for the agent I bought mine from (in Warri, Delta State), I give him 100% kudos and I think he is someone who is seriously ready to do business and maintain his good name.

@duduspace, please do keep us updated on any development you may encounter, we are all still here to help each other out

u guys seems to be making progress, mine is still same, i never get time decide wetin i wan do sef, maybe to dash or sell it out

Well i just got my hitv (Satellite Package) on Monday and for now there seems to be no big complaints (except that the Live France vs Scotland match 'hanged' and they just switched to the Albania vs Netherland game which they were already showing on another channel, i don't know the point in showing the same match on 2 different stations and the fact that they're 11 stations showing out of the over 15 stations they promised.

Another reason i may not have noticed much lapses is because i only get to watch TV for 1-2 hrs during the week since i get home late, but hopefully this weekend, i will be able to fully access their services.

Another way out is to bombard CPC (consumer Protection Council) with mails as per any dissatisfaction and i guess it works because the last time my boss mailed them as per dissatisfation with the internet services provided by one of those PTOs, the PTO actually called him to apologize and gave him 2 weeks FREE internet service, i was suprised myself too!

You can submit a complaint online at : http://www.cpcnigeria.org/complaintform.aspx

or better still send an e-mail complaints@cpcnigeria.org (you can also copy cpcnigeria@yahoo.co.uk)

Guyz,

My hypothesis worked like a dream I'm back to the old firmware and my HiTV channels are back up.
The access problems most people are experiencing is definitely firmware related. The firmware version that works on my SRT 4652 model is version 1.52p (August 14 2006) U can check it out under system information on your decoder menu.
If you don't have this version, just look for a functional MyTV decoder and do a data transfer from that decoder to yours (Main Menu - System setting - Data transfer - firmware) but make sure it is the same model.

All you will need is either a straight serial cable with a null modem converter ( the type I used) or a crossed serial cable like the type that comes with Mercury UPS ( the type medube used) to link both decoders through their serial ports.

Now to go get rid of the spuds tomorrow, Arsenal reigns supreme.

they said i should come and pay my subscription which ordinarily should expire on the 17th, anyway would give dat a trial and if it doesnt work, head would surely roll

@Medube and Duduspace,

Una just fashi me as una resolve una probs abi? Anyway, got mine also sorted out after paying my subscription and following d steps u highlighted. Talk true Mr. Duduspace, u dey work for hitv cos i bin see somebody wey resemble u there. , anyway, u guys are simply magical and maybe u should consult for them,

Abeg, make we keep in touch and help dem develop on this forum, (am singing a new song abi but dat one no mean say i go spare dem wen dem mess up), After visiting their office 2day, realised dat dem get serious probs cos i saw nothing less than 800 pple with different issues and guess what the staff are as confused as ever, them get plenty teething probs and hope pple no go burn their office one day,

lets maintain dis thread,

I was told that those on Terrrestial Cable package have more stations than those on the satellite package (which is 11 and even the 5th channel; hisport is showing "scrambled channel" on my own, so that makes it 10 )

How long will it take for them to upload more channels to those on the Satellite package?
(or will the hitv engineers have to travel to the satellite in space (thru NASA) to upload the channels? )

BTW, just want to know how was their coverage of the premiership yesterday on the satellite package? (since they have 2 sports channel on the satellite pacakge presently and one of them is "scrambled", cos i was not at home thru'out yesterday, for "owambe' reasons

Was only able to catch d last 10mins of chelsea - blackburn's game, it was okay by heard d pic quality of arsenal's game yesterday was not too good initially,

Waiting for hitv to upload more channels is like waiting for Jesus to come, why not get a free-on-air to complement it,

Hi guys,

My own No Access issue started 1 week before my subscription expired. I posted it in another topic on this site. I thought I was the only one and a friend suggested that maybe my subscription had expired.
I called the office customer lines(They work.Its just that there are usually hundreds of people calling the lines everytime).
Now the girl did me a disservice by telling me to switch of my decoder,remove the card and put it back after some minutes thereby making me feel that it was a problem from my end.

However, I did that so many times and nothing changed. I just decided to let it be since it was the FIFA break at that time and no leagues were on.
On Friday 14th, I took my card, took 4k subscription(I knew before hand that they were going to increase it from 3k 2 4k), and went to their office.
The crowd that I saw there scared the daylights out of me. I learnt people had been coming to resolve the issue since the last week and the crowd had always been like that each day.

I was determined to get that sorted cause the next day Arsenal was going to play and I didnt want to miss that.

Anyways, to get to the point, The issue was actually more with those of us using the Terrestrial whatever and not those on sattelite. They said that some people were getting their signals/channels(Mytv, I guess) and had to reconfigure their software so they required us to bring the cards to manually reconfigure.

My problem with this is that the management of HITV and the top technicians should communicate more with their sales and Customer service departments so that the right information will be disseminated at all times.

They actually wrote 1 month plus 1 week on my card after they reactivated it meaning that they are adding the one week I lost to the I month subscription I made that friday.

Right now, its working well but *scrambled channel* message still comes up once in a while afer hours of working but if I switch of and on, it comes back.

Another thing HITV should do is to load the offering with the free to air channels that they talked about when they were starting because at 4k per month now, it means am paying 4k for only football and news which comparably, is no more cheap.

Finally, I rescanned and now have E! entertainment back and a new channel , CNBC Africa which am sure a lot of people on nairaland will like. Its about business news worldwide but focuss on african business and stock markets . Nigerian stock markets and business is featured a lot too

Well, so we keep this thread alive, i shall continue on my experiences so far. Thank God, since the change of decoder from the agent who sold me mine, hiTv has been working ok. I do admit that most channels are not 24hrs and for now like someone pointed it out, I changed the TV to hitv channel only on saturday and sunday I don't see what I'm going to watch on it that will keep me from DSTV (I hope in that aspect they improve as time goes by). On saturday, i was unable to watch 2 simultaenous matches because one of the sports channel has been of. The sport presenter on saturday apologised and said it was from the satellite providers having problems relaying the second sports channel to those outside lagos (considering, i know what they are talking about as it is my field, I wonder why the problem is from satellite when they are only using one frequency If DSTV said that, i would say ok they have about 5 frequencies). But I got to watch my Chelsea play, and some other matches, thank God. As they say half bread is better than none and I as a consumer I'm ready to support them as long as they will improve.

This kind of problem I will accept and most will, but the first problem of invalid smart card, scrambled channel and no access, those are something else that I am not willing to tolerate when I know I'm up to date with sub 

On saturday, i was unable to watch 2 simultaenous matches because one of the [b]sports channel has been off. The sport presenter on saturday apologised and said it was from the satellite providers having problems relaying the second sports channel to those outside lagos

I have been experiencing the same problem with respect to the 2nd sports channel (on the satellite package) for some days now (keeps showing "scrambled channel" ) and i don't think it has to do with those outside lagos cos' i reside in lagos.

I'm a patient person, but slowly and gradually these guys are testing my patience o!!!

@ayusman 16

On the contrary, I'm not a staff of HiTV I'm just a bit nerdy (I decided to increase my knowledge of satellite technology when I bought my 'own' HiTV equipment as my earlier attempt with my folk's DSTV when I was younger were hotly rebuffed due to similar incidents to what happend to me earlier).

I'm however very happy I was able to be of some help and hope some of the points medube and myself made will help some other people out there (Let us not forget to thank Seun who made the forum possible too).

It seems you're not so annoyed with the HiTV guys anymore, I really hope they get some form of feedback from this forum.

By the way, did you see how we ate the spuds raw on saturday? Our next stop is to go and give the Mancs a red eye in their "Old Toilet"

Gooner 4 life.

@Salvage

The free channels might not be available now due to the fact that there are not many Free to Air (FTA) channels on the EutelsatW4 satellite used by both DSTV and HiTV unlike the PAS7/10 (now IS9 and IS10) satellites used by the MyTV service which has a lot of them. I have acually scanned and only came up with a FTA radio channel (Radio Okapi) which seems to be broadcasting from Congo DRC as they play a lot of Soukous/Makossa music there.

By the way, do you use the satellite or the cable platform? as CNBC Africa is not yet available on my decoder (I use the satellite service)

@duduspace,

I admiire ur sound knowledge technically and also hope too dat they (hitv) and pple visit dis forum to help resolve issues just like me. Thanks gee.

Yeah! the Gunners are back to business devouring all the enemies dat come our way, no team is an exception!! I smell another unbeaten run!

duduspace:

@ayusman 16

On the contrary, I'm not a staff of HiTV I'm just a bit nerdy (I decided to increase my knowledge of satellite technology when I bought my 'own' HiTV equipment as my earlier attempt with my folk's DSTV when I was younger were hotly rebuffed due to similar incidents to what happend to me earlier).

I'm however very happy I was able to be of some help and hope some of the points medube and myself made will help some other people out there (Let us not forget to thank Seun who made the forum possible too).

It seems you're not so annoyed with the HiTV guys anymore, I really hope they get some form of feedback from this forum.

By the way, did you see how we ate the spuds raw on saturday? Our next stop is to go and give the Mancs a red eye in their "Old Toilet"

Gooner 4 life.

@Salvage

The free channels might not be available now due to the fact that there are not many Free to Air (FTA) channels on the EutelsatW4 satellite used by both DSTV and HiTV unlike the PAS7/10 (now IS9 and IS10) satellites used by the MyTV service which has a lot of them. I have acually scanned and only came up with a FTA radio channel (Radio Okapi) which seems to be broadcasting from Congo DRC as they play a lot of Soukous/Makossa music there.

By the way, do you use the satellite or the cable platform? as CNBC Africa is not yet available on my decoder (I use the satellite service)

@duduspace am on the cable platform.

I read in a newspaper interview granted by the CEO Toyin Subair that CNN will be discontinued from October and that CNBC was actually brought in to replace it.
He said that a south african company(must be DSTV), has been corresponding with CNN on trumped up allegations of right abuses so the CNN guys asked them to discontinue.

What I dont understand is that he initially said that HITV didnt have the right to air CNN on Satellite so am wondering if this CNN/Dstv issue will also affect the Cable.
He said they asked CNN to go to court since they had already signed an agreement with CNN's agents in West Africa but I guess somewhere along the line, he just decides not to have any more court issues.

He claims the CNN rights was purchased from a company(I think Disc communications), whom he claims are CNN agents in west africa.
So am just waiting to get clarifications from some people whether CNN would be off the Cable as well as Satellite.

And again, I just rescanned yesterday(I guess we are supposed to be doing that periodically), and Sky news and Eurosport news are now available on cable.

For medube who was doubting if HITV had more than one frequency, I think they do cause when you scan, it indicates frequencies that are scanning and you may get more than one BBC or MTV base. When you check, you find out that one of them may be working and the other will have no signal.

So I guess they are on different Frequencies( I may be wrong and dont claim to be sure about this).

Its getting better but I still think they should get some real channels with good movies. Whatever happened to channels like MBC2 or MBC4, they show even newer movies than DSTV and have other great entertainment prgrams.

I know cause I used to watch it when I had a Disc Communication /CTL connection.
What would it take them to get a channel like that?
I think its a Dubai based Cable channel.

I heard they placed a full-page advert on Sun Newspaper on Friday to apologize and promise to impove on their service.

Anyway sha, i hope they'll keep to their promise of better services AS SOON AS POSSIBLE.

Well, the addition on Nicklelodeon last week is ok (but they should focus on adding Music and Movie channel too)

I also hope the channels for Satellite & Terrestial Cable will be at par with each other (afterall na the same money we dey pay)

One good thing to note however is that the picture quality of the Live Premiership matches has improved, i was even afraid that with the heavy rain before the Man U - Chelsea match that they were going to have problems with the signals but the signal was very clear. I hope they keep that up.

@tboy81

So nice you noticed their picture quality, that is one of the few improvements they seem to have over DSTV, there is no rain fade issue here unlike with DSTV (though I have an hypothesis that the satellite transponders they use are more powerful than those of DSTV because HiTV signal strength ranges from about 89% - 92% with good weather and experiences some loss when it is raining while some DSTV channels are as low as 62% with good weather.

About the number of channels on the satellite package, I just noticed their website stated 15 channels though they retained the right to remove, add and replace channels.

Nickelodeon was a welcomed addition last week but I'm looking forward to them adding Hi-Mix and MTV base to the bouquet

By the way, I thot I had gotten a Free To Air TV channel over the weekend only to find out it was a DSTV channel from which they were explaining their upcoming Channel Shuffle on the 4th of October (I can't explain why they didnt encrypt it with their Irdeto security anyway. It had a video clip with a pretty chic explaining the whole channel shuffle thing on an endless loop. You can get the channel if you do an automatic scan for Free channels on the Eutelsat W4 satellite on your decoder.

I also noticed that DSTV Shuffle Channel too.

Well, if all they offer us on the satellite package is 15 channels while those on the terrestial cable get 20+ channels, then that will unfair cos' it's the same subscription fee we pay and even the setup cost is the same.

Also some of the information on their website are outdated. Under their FAQs, they still say the service is only available in Lagos presently, CNN is still listed amongst their list of channels.

If they'll be that disparity in the number of channels, then those on the satellite package should be pay a lesser subscription rate.

BTW, this hisports channel that has been showing 'scrambled' for weeks now, does that mean that those on the satellite package were not able to watch matches on that channel over the weekend when they were showing 3 simulataneous matches? (e.g Boro vs Sunderland & Bolton vs Tottenham)

I just hope they'll not put any Man U /Arsenal/Chelsea Match on that channel pending when they sort things out.