Astro new model will be called astro plus (lame name by given by an indian. personally i think mine is better but they dun want to give me the tv price). shiny black little box about the size of philip silver box only slightly bigger but not as big as max with 160gb capacity. How many hours? I don't know what but about 3 to 4 days 24 hour recording. So calculate urself. Launched by march next year, hopefully. Still in testing. Lot of functionality. Can't said much coz it is secret. Oh and it didn't hang a lot like max except it start damn slow. About 3 minutes until you can c the video.

Got HD capability but the HD service won't be around perhaps by mid 2009 or end of 2009. So keep ur finger cross that astro higher up will c the light at the end of the tunnel. Oho.

The price? Heh, it will be very very out of normal range. Heard it will be more than 2k. Is it worth it?

Works like max and old box. All the function is there but got extra one such as:

1. Can record 2 channel at once. Uiyoo. Though you can only 1 of the channel only. Eg. U record hbo and cinemax so u can watch either hbo or cinemax if you decided to record 2 at a time since all tuner in use. Other word u cannot change to ria without canceling one of the recording.

2. You are tuned to HBO and watch a movie from beginning without changing channel. Then you want to go aftv. U pressed record button. Voila the decoder save the recording starting from the moment u tuned to HBO. On max it will save starting from the time u press record. Or you watch a cartoon on ceria whatever. then u go out play play without turning off the box. u came back and found out u miss 1 whole episode. Press left on channel info and u can watch/record the missing episode!!.

3. U want to record a series for example AOD episode 1, 2, 3, 4, etc. With just 1 button setting, a green button, u can record the whole series automatically on the fly. Miss 1 eps? Turn off box? It will auto record when the missing series on air. No matter what, the whole series will be in the box unless u cancel or delete.

4. New pay per view which i won't go into detail. Suffice to say the box will recommend a movie and ask if you want to watch it or not.

Mmmm. What else? Component output/hd output. No hdmi though. No dolby optical output but have digital output. Got ethernet input. no rf output anymore.

I like Astro bringing in TiVo's concept here, but it's still a long way to go before converting Malaysians to use the features.

Recording programs is nice as we're not glued in front of the TV 24/7, so sometimes missed it and no replay it'll be kinda disappointing.

AstroMax can record up to 60 hours, right? Good for those who wants to record the drama series. I wonder whether can copy those recorded vids into DVD or computer? I guess that'll be illegal huh.

ya astro cant watch through dreambox for the moment. I hope they find a way to overcome the encryption. Or else it's really a waste!! I jsut bought my dreambox for not up to 2 months yet!!!

on question why no hdmi or digital output from the decoder, i think this got to do with the number of LCD/PLASMA TV in malaysia ... the initial astro decoder is to cater for CRT TV 10 years ago when it was launched. unless the number of LCD/PLASMA become a lot and insignificant of CRT TV used by people, astro will come out with digital decoder box. This is what i think ....

Tips: To reset your astro max without doing power reset when it hang.

Press and hold the power button on the front panel until the lcd display disappeared. The box will restart.

Nope. Ur hdmi will be occupied the next time u buy bluray player.