dn't know which dupe is that
just registered and post a message like that
better ignore

The communal system problem is not just an upgrade of the dish! If it was do you not think Astro would fix it!

To get technical... The Measat 3a satellite transmits its Ku band signal on the high frequency range, Measat 3 (the older satellite which has the SD service) is on the low frequency band!

For your B.yond media box to receive the high frequency range it has to switch the LNB frequency, it does this by sending a 22khz tone to the LNB back along the cable. The LNB can only receive high OR low frequency. This is also the same for switching polarity between Vertical OR Horizontal, to do this the decoder uses a 13v or 18v signal to switch the LNB.

This switching is called DiSEqC 1.0, for full details go to http://www.eutelsat.com/satellites/pdf/Dis...cs/bus_spec.pdf

a DiSEqC 1.0 LNB and decoder has 4 modes these are:-

13v = Vertical and Low Frequency Range
18v = Horizontal and Low Frequency Range
13v + 22khz tone = Vertical and High Frequency Range
18v + 22khz tone = Horizontal and High Frequency Range

The upside of this is that if wired correctly the Astro B.yond media box can receive signals from even more satellites, in the same position, than just Measat 3 or Measat 3a.

If you are on a communal system then you can only receive the low frequency, Measat 3, signal as there is only a single feed from the dish this is permanently set to 13v only, Vertical Low Frequency Range.

For an Astro B.yond Media Box to receive both Measat 3 and Measat 3a it must be free to switch the LNB to any mode it wants, for this it needs its own dedicated feed or at least think it has it's own dedicated feed.

Up until now Astro has always been restricted to the Vertical polarity of Measat 3 because all communal systems and homes with more than one box connected to one dish cannot switch between DiSEqC 1.0 modes.

My brother in Italy had this problem 8 years ago with his satellite service and they had to install a Quattro LNB and multiswitches in his apartment. A Quattro LNB has 4 feeds coming out of it, one permanently set to each DiSEqC 1.0 mode. The Quattro LNB is then connected to a multiswitch using 4 wires, this multiswitch can have up to 16 decoders attached. Each decoder connected to the multiswitch then "thinks" it had its own LNB, free to switch between any mode.

The problem with Quattro LNB's and Multiswitches is that they need 240v electrical power, loose a lot of signal strength and the single wire from the LNB down the building has to be replaced by 4 wires, this makes it a major rewiring and testing job! My brother had 4 weeks of them working in his apartment to rewire it and ended up with a worse signal but more channels!

If you look in the Astro B.yond manual it says that you cannot use splitters to give signals to more than one decoder. If you did, any decoder receiving a HD channel will signal the LNB with 22khz and switch it to the high frequency range (Measat 3a), at that point any decoder receiving SD on the low frequency range (Measat 3) will loose signal totally!

Easy! For Astro to fix the communal system problem they have a lot of rewiring to do in each block and install some complex equipment I only hope they fix the signal strength problem as more channels with less strength is no good here in Malaysia.

Search in google for "LNB Multiswitches" and "quattro LNB".

This LNB DiSEqC mode switching was a global problem for all satellite broadcasters, I just think Astro is the last to fix it!

If your building have a good quality cable RG6 Belden and planetcomm IF splitter then it's no problem... The dish is better if it's bigger... dunno why they don't let you just install the decoder.....something fishy........ yeah the further you are from the dish... the more signal you will lose..... but thinking of Malaysian Contractor maybe they use cap ayam splitter and cable hahahahahaha....... better ask building management to install your own antenna if your house unit is facing the satellite....I also already register online and waiting for them to install in 10 day hopefully....

maybe his nick stands for AstroInstaller?


but yeah - most everyone with problems has problem with cabling, not the dish

Please see my previous post on DiSEqC 1.0 switching, ANY IF splitter causes a problem! Its nothing fishy, just the way it works and its the only way to increase satellite capacity beyond Measat 3.

so Measat 3 and Measat 3a is different sattelite? lulzzz.... I thought different transponder hahahahaha..... so they broadcasting the B-yond carrier in the same transponder or different transponder that need different Lo center frequency? I'll wait your answer first then I will ask another question for you to answer.....

This post has been edited by zonan4: Dec 20 2009, 01:15 AM

i have watching Astro B.yond for several hours,
i do not see any code appear on the screen,
but the 'info bar' appeared on 1am just now,
i wonder is it a technician problem,
or Astro set to appear hourly?

Two totally different satellites. If you look at the Measat website it tells you all about them.

http://www.measat.com/satellite_91e_measat3_ku.html
http://www.measat.com/satellite_91e_measat3a_ku.html

Measat 3 has 24 Ku band transponders but I don't know how many Measat 3a has, Measat 3 transponders all broadcast in the low frequency range and Measat 3a transponders are all in the high frequency range.

Astro has 12 transponders on Measat 3 and only 1 in use on Measat 3a, I assume that they will put the next HD channels they promised on Measat 3a.

For the full listing of Measat 3 see http://satcodx3.tele-satellite.com/0915/eng/. Measat 3a is so new that it is not yet listed.

BTW: the other 12 Ku band transponders on Measat 3, all the horizontal ones, are pointed at India. see http://satcodx3.tele-satellite.com/0917/eng/

lulzzz different satellite no wonder..... I'm lazy to google around hahahahaha.... thanks for the info...... if it's like that no centralized dish we can used until all the content are in HD and they migrate it all in 1 satellite...hahahahaha...sian... hmmm even if we put up 2 different dish there is no way we can solve this problem..... Astro must work fast to solve this issue before customer are angry because so jealous with Astro B-yond subscriber..... looks like you are so informative can I ask is there anyway centralized dish customer problem can be solved? so they can subscribed B-yond too?

very good link you've provided...its such a shame looking at the low bitrate they are currently broadcasting... mostly all below SVCD bitrate..... and those mpeg-4 feed is even worst.... VCD birate slightly above.... =_=

You are right, one solution would be to put all the HD channels on the same satellite as the SD channels, but that would mean removing 4 SD channels for every 1 HD channel. So with the proposed 15 channels they would have to kill off 60 SD channels!

This is why they had to launch a new satellite!

To "fix" the problem you either need one dish for every decoder or a system made up of multiswitches.

I just did a quick google (just for you!) and came across http://communaltv.sky.com/communalTvOptions.aspx. In the UK they also have this problem and it looks like Sky have set up a separate company to solve the "problem".

I imagine Astro will adopt a similar approach, you need to get your building management to speak to Astro.

A bit more googling also shows the same problem in Australia, Foxtel have published their solution at http://www.citt.com.au/foxtel/info/Documen...Manual_v8.5.pdf and it is also on their blogs http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-repli...cfm/455029.html.

It appears that they call a block / condo a MDU (Multiple Dwelling Unit).

JonC, bro .. have you watched ESPN HD? How was it?

As for me, I registered on Thursday and they called me on Friday and informed me that my ASTRO B-yond will be installed within 10 days.

Got a call from BLOCKED number earlier. Answered but no one on the other line. Might be them. Will have to wait maybe ..

Lulzzzz.... looks like we both are working with astro... I gave question you answer hahahaha..... wow you even know how much bandwidth is use for HD channel.... yeah multiswitches or until some one make new technologies to solve this problem.... but then IPTV are around the corner and I heard Astro also will have their owned IPTV using Maxis..... Owh well I'm tired and can't think about another question. Good Night and thanks for answering my question.....zzzZZZzzzz

You should ignore the bitrate, this is either a worst case or average. Typically satellite broadcasters use statistical multiplexing to share the total available bitrate (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statistical_multiplexing).

This means that a listing of 2Mbits/s could peak at 8Mbits/s and get as low a 2Mbits/s, depending on the action on screen. You often see a deliberate mix of channels on a transponder to share the action, a transponder full of sport would look terrible whilst a mix of sport and documentaries would look better.

MPEG 4 is at least 4 times more better than MPEG 2 so a 1 Mbit/s MPEG 4 is as good as a 4 Mbit/s MPEG 2.

A VCD is on a 1.150 Mbits/s fixed bit rate MPEG 2 whilst a DVD is on a variable bitrate MPEG2 up to 5 Mbits/s. VCD as a result struggle to cope with any action on screen whilst a DVD will only struggle with a sustained action sequence of many minutes.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_CD

ahh i see, but i have a feeling that those bitrate listed are average case... its kinda justified after watching those channels for so long... lol... im not surprised that the bitrate is low, but i was really suppose the bitrate went far beyond this low...

I wonder why satcodx doesnt update now,the last update was 17-11-09

da*m it..!! i've registered on sunday..they called me on monday morning on confirmations..but until today still nowan called regarding T&C or installations.

For those already have the Astro B.yond installed, how big is the adapter for the receiver ?? hope is not as big as Xbox. Can post a picture ??
Thanks....

Yes, Satcodx is a site ran by enthusiasts so it is only as up to date as the team keep it.

Most data is auto scanned by a PC with a satellite card and the data posted online when changes occur. Looking at the data it looks as though the person doing the autoscan is in Indonesia this could indicate two reasons as to why Measat 3a is not listed.

1. The Measat 3a footprint is very closely aligned with Malaysia, they may simply be outside the footprint.
2. The equipment is usually in someones home and the individual scanning Measat 3a could be in a communal feed building. In this case their equipment would never see Measat 3a for the same reasons that Astro B.yond cannot be installed. (See my previous post)

Even with missing data, the site is very useful....

The date of the scan is quite obvious due to presence of BBCE! ;-)

Depending on how and when the autoscan occurs the video bitrate will be different, from memory the SatCoDX site shows the lowest bitrate of the transmission during the autoscan period, hence the bitrates mentioned should be given little regard and will vary month on month.

Meaning can tune to other birds too

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Added on December 20, 2009, 10:30 amOn paper sat fiber optic system sounds good. So what is the story with fiber optic system trial carried out by astro?

This post has been edited by attap: Dec 20 2009, 10:30 AM