MUMBAI: With the need for high-definition (HD) content increasing rapidly, the fight amongst DTH players to provide more channels in the HD format is also intensifying.

Just after three months of market leader Dish TV‘s announcement of offerring 30 channels in HD format, Reliance Digital TV said Wednesday it will provide its entire bouquet of 250 channels in "HD like quality" to the HD subscribers.

Reliance Digital TV said Wednesday it has incorporated a new technology that enables upscaling an existing video resolution into HD quality by enlarging and digitally processing the same 10 times over.
 
"This new technology will give customers an enhanced contrast and saturation with a sharper, brighter and a more vivid picture. Additionally, Reliance Digital TV subscribers will now watch their programmes with a 16:9 wide aspect ratio and digital sound clarity," the company said.

Reliance Digital TV CEO Sanjay Behl told indiantelevision.com that the technology allows real time conversion of the picture quality into 1080p. 
“We are not charging anything extra for the HD service, the HD set-top-box (STB) price remains Rs 2590 and the packages will also be the same. We are providing the digitally enhanced ten times sharper image with digital sound to our subscribers," Behl said.

Incidentally, when Dish TV had announced the launch of 30 individual channels in HD in February this year, it had bought additional transponder capacity on AsiaSat 5 to enable the increase in its offerings.

However, Reliance Digital TV has not disclosed the technology or the capacity it has for the conversion from SD (standard definition) to HD.

When queried, Behl said he is not in a position to share those details.