successfully changed to #18 measat 3a(vh) and signal is now maximum at 255! Also as bro stimix said, i notice the PQ for SD channels better too. thanks for the tips, guys!

Remember, if at a later date you decide to add the USB PVR option you will get failed recordings. Also, if Astro ever uses the Horizontal polarization you will get even more problems and potentially blow up the decoder! It would be like connecting the two positive and negative connections together on a 13v and 18v battery! BANG!!!!!

Having a single shared feed to two DiSEqC boxes is a real no no!

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

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Added on January 6, 2010, 9:39 pmThe installer is telling the truth (and not trying to sell you a dodgy amplifier!).

Concealed wiring is always dubious! You never know the quality of the cable, you never know if there are any dodgy joins and it most probably has a split in there somewhere.

I once worked on a recabling job and found a satellite cable that was joined by twisting the wires together!

Astro seems to be really addressing the rain drop out issue with this new b.yond installation not to mention increasing the number of satellites they can use. Finally Malaysia is getting a dish installation the same as the rest of the world!

The new installation is totally inline with international standards, single feeds direct to the box, no splitter and no "3rd party" cable.

If you have made the installer use your old and very long concealed cable (with the worst signal strength I have seen on this forum) then you can only blame yourself next time it rains!

Sorry for the bad news!

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Added on January 6, 2010, 9:41 pmThis looks like your dish is not aligned properly. If the new cable is only 10m and direct from dish to the back of the box then you should be getting 250!

This post has been edited by AstInst: Jan 6 2010, 09:41 PM

You need to report the installer to Astro, he is not doing his job right.

With the slightest rain you will loose signal.

45 is terrilble you should get 200+

Some of the less honest installers do a bad install then charge you to come out to fix it! For them it is a nice little business!

Report as soon as you can!

(I am assuming that you did not force him to use concealed cable, if you did then you cannot complain to Astro as the wire is your responsibility)

What you have to remember for any satellite broadcaster like Astro the cost of the decoder is one of their biggest expenses, adding even the most simple connector can cost them millions of bucks!

Typically, the RF and analogue circuitry in any decoder is as cheap as the broadcaster can get away with. I have my decoder connected to an old component convertor, it has S-Video and RF output. Because I was willing to spend a bit more on my convertor it is far better than anything that they would have put in the decoder itself.

One of the reasons broadcasters like Astro like HDMI and digital audio is the circuity costs them nothing and it is digital quality with the least cost!

When I was working overseas I always used my convertor not the built in one as it always gave a better picture.

(I needed S-Video as my AV Amp has a built in S-Video switch)

If you are attempting to put the composite output through an RF modulator then you will get a bad picture. Composite is the worst quality, Sh*t in means Sh*t out as far as your RF convertor is concerned!

I'm also not so sure about this. But from what I understand, smartcard activation and account activation is different part.

ooo i keep u all posted...hmmm come to think of it...actually..i wont

One more problem is astro broadcast both SD and HD channel on same transponder.

Astro currently put 2 HD + 10 SD channel on one transponder and I absofcukinglutely they broadcast very low quality HD.

This post has been edited by minimize: Jan 6 2010, 10:16 PM

AsInst,
What would u suggest for those who wan to connect to a 2nd TV??

You love the DD5.1? What amp/avr ur using? Are you sure ur getting 'real' DD5.1 without 'echo' / leaking?
i'm suprised!

I have pointed my PC based analyser at Astros HD broadcast they are on an entirely different satellite to the SD. All the SD broadcasts are on Measat 3 and the HD broadcasts are on Measat 3a.

If Astro were indeed broadcasting HD on the same transponder as SD then they would not have any problem with shared feed systems, this would be the easy option for them, but they have not taken it (surprisingly).

Astros HD picture quality is far better than many HD broadcasts I have seen around the world (especially the USA), it looks like they are using new HD encoders and not just cheap upgrades of their existing system.

The BBC in the UK are broadcasting their HD at the same bitrate as Astro having recently moved to new HD encoders. For results of their independent tests see http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/digitaltv/news...re-quality.html.

Do you really think that Astro is low quality HD, have you actually seen it? Your statement would make it seem as if you have not!

my SD channel also improved a lot since subscribe to Beyond...

I get the info from lyngsat.com. If their info is not correct than it my mistake.
Because from what I know, astro have to stick 5 HD channel per transponder for optimum HD quality.
From the image below HBO HD, NAT GEO HD and rest 10 SD channel broadcast on same transponder.

The info came from Lyngsat.com. Measat 3 on Lyngsat.

More than two members have indicated that using the old dish still gave them the HD channels. That indicated that something is working unexpectedly.


fuad

Yeahh.. u right. It using Measat 3, just like normal SD Channel..and the polarization also still the same, not Horizontal, but Vertical. Just like normal SD Channel...
That way we can still use old dish with byond decoder.

You have many choices, the more expensive the better the quality.

If you have several HD Ready TV's then the best solution is to simply get a second box, but this involves an ongoing subscription.

To feed a second HD Ready TV from the same decoder a HDMI splitter is your best choice, costs about 350RM (5 months subs)
http://www.kvmstuff.com/video-routing/vide...o-splitter.html. You will then need to buy the cable which can be expensive.

If the second HD Ready TV is a distance away most professional installers use a HDMI to CAT5 convertor (this is not IP based, it just uses computer network cable) http://www.svideo.com/ext-hdtv-cat5.html. These are v. expensive and mostly used at large public venues when it is important to have the same picture synchronized on all TV's (multiple boxes would have timing issues creating an echo sound effect)


If the second TV is a large screen SD/Analogue TV then component is the best, once again for longer distances you may need to put a Component to CAT5 convertor. ( http://www.svideo.com/componetcat5.html )

However, the Astro b.yond decoder can only decode one audio stream this means that if you have a 5.1 home cinema system connected to your B.yond decoder then the stereo connectors may be silent only have a signal on them when the transmission is stereo only. If you are using 5.1 sound then you will not be able to run audio to the second TV. If you are using only stereo output on your main TV (even if it is HD) then this is not a problem (there is a message on the audio setup screen explaining this).

The worst way to connect a second SD/Analogue TV is by a RF modulator, but for longer runs over old coaxial cable then this may be your only choice. For smaller screen TV's the difference will be less noticeable.

The other alternative is to use an IP based digitising box and an IP decoder, see http://www.slingmedia.com. If you have a good IP (computer) network then this can work really well but unfortunately they do not distribute their product here in Malaysia.

This post has been edited by AstInst: Jan 6 2010, 10:52 PM

anyone can help me out?

i just called Astro CS to apply for Byond
I also said that i wish to add 2nd decoder..
But the guy at CS say they will not give me a Byond dish with 2 entry points from the dish to two decoders.
He say they give will me a Byond dish with one entry point..
Only when i get my 2nd decoder activated they will come to change my dish with two entry points..

Is this true? I thought a Byond dish will come with several entry points? If what the CS guy told me is true, then i might have to get the 2nd decoder activated 1st before the Byond installer comes..if not then my house will have two freakin dish!!!

This post has been edited by dxjb: Jan 6 2010, 10:56 PM

any new stat update...please update bro...

I'm in the same boat also.

The installer definitely installed a new white dish instead of the dark grey one. I asked him politely about it and he said there is no dark dish. If you want you could wait some more or call astro to cancel this order (in a bossy tone). wah lau... unbelievable!

The smartcard also not activated yet until now. The installer say it wont be long to be activated, he waited for some time and then leave. Call Astro CS 8 hrs later, they said the installer suppose to activate the smartcard after installation directly. Great.... Now I cant watch any channel and they said : Sorry.. you need to wait for 24 hrs to resolve the problem.

Is there by any chance your installer called Mr Lim?

The Lynsat.com site is wrong, I think that they may have picked up some stray DVB descriptors for the HD channels, but there is certainly no video there, if there was it would be of such low quality VCD would be better!

The Measat 3a HD transmissions are as follows:-

Encoding: MPEG4 1080i
Modulation: DVB-S2
Video Bitrate: 8Mbits/s (fixed)
5.1 Audio Bitrate: 0.5Mbits/s
Stereo Audio Bitrate: 0.2Mbits/s

Yes, the old dish will work as it is capable of responding to the 22khz tone insertion to switch the LNB to the high frequency range, at the moment there is no polarity switching as both Measat 3 (SD) and Measat 3a (HD) are vertical only.

The reason for the dish upgrade is for three reasons

1. To ensure the best install with no shared feed (splitters), any second decoder will get signal loss when the B.yond decoder tunes to Measat 3a.
2. To put a better dish/LNB combination as DVB-S2 requires a better signal due to the number of "quadrants" used in the DVB-S2 modulation.
3. Tighter alignment is required to exactly the right orbital position to guarantee seeing both satellites.

So yes the old dish will work but any second boxes will intermittently fail, you may get more rain drop out and some channels may be weaker.

From the measurements I have taken on my old dish and new dish the c/n level improved from 15db to almost 19db, this would indicate that the new dish and installation is giving over double the signal strength. A friend of mine had an old dish feeding 3 decoders using splitters which gave him a c/n ratio of 11db!

If you want to insist that you keep the old dish then the installer is laughing as he gets to keep the better one to sell to someone else!

how about this - hdmi splitter



its worth to buy ? state hdmi 1.3b,can byond use this hdmi splitter ?