set your b.yond box's TV settings to "stretch", and aspect ratio to "16:9"

hbo is that way, being broadcasted with some black bars on all four corners. you dont see it on your right of the screen because astro itself somehow has cropped them. some channels they have the tendency to crop it... i have no idea why. so what ure watching is actually slightly stretched. and if you have picture overscan mode enabled, and still see the border, then you can never solve it, until the station itself adjust the picture by zooming a bit more...

quick fix for those with HDTV, let the tv to do the stretching

We refer to your e-mail with regard to Astro B.yond.

Thank you for highlighting your concern to us. Rest assured that we have conveyed your feedback to the department in charge for their attention and consideration.

We wish to take this opportunity to clarify that Astro B.yond has recently introduced the aspect ratio switch as part of a process change to enhance customers’ viewing experience on high definition television. Today, all flat panel/high definition televisions and HD content is transmitted on 16:9 aspect ratio which offers full screen viewing. On the other hand, SD channels are still broadcasted on 4:3 aspect ratio. This means that the standard definition channels images viewed on a flat panel television/high definition television will be pillar-boxed.  Some customers may stretch the 4:3 aspect ratio images to fill up the screen but this may distort the images.

To ensure that customers have the best possible viewing experience of standard definition channels on High Definition TV and Astro B.yond, all images broadcasted will be in the correct native ratio for SD channels and HD channels respectively. We regret any inconvenience caused.

pls go on....wat are u waitin for...still f**k Astro

HD in pillar box...we kena cheat dengan Astro..adoyai...

In order to make my wife happy i did this also.. so can watch akademi fantasia in peace and also all england properly... I hope this is temporary measure that we need to do until they rectify...

Note: when using HDMI cable i cant control the sound.. but when using components i can caontrol it...

Come ASTRO fix it quickly before we have to pay next month!!!

Everybody! Pls lodge your complaint here.

Bro, not only plasma, cheaper end LCD TV that dun have stretch option when HDMI is available also kena 

Now that Stretch / fit to screen option is resolved, what's left to improve SD channel? Upscaling?

just leave ur decoder in standby mode..new firmware will take effect soon

Or press the decoder button from left to right....the decode will boot and check for update.

Dear LowYat Netors,

    I am a new Astro Byonder, having it installed last Saturday.

    I am using 42" Panasonic HD Plasma TV model TH-P42X10K.

    Currently, this is what I set on the TV with the Byond decoder. 1 HDMI cable and 1 Composite to TV AV1. So, if I want to watch HD channel which are the SuperSports HD and ESPN HD, I will change to HDMI channel using TV AV selection. When I want to watch normal Astro SD channel, I will change to AV1 channel using TV AV selection. Since the problem of the pillarbox and zooming, I will ask my children to watch Cartoon Network using AV1 since they never want to watch HD Sports channel. However, I found out the SD picture in AV1 is not that sharp compare to the old Astro decoder. Is that true? Any further settings?

    Looking forward to all your experts' answer here.

    Thanks.

VW

The new firmware is BYOND v.1.2 s
Software version is: 1.1.2.001 Mar 15 2010

Press Aspect Ratio button on byond remote, if you didn't get zoom, that's mean your already updated.