Had Astro Max since they first offered and one of the first people to go for B.yond PVR.

Couple of bad experiences.

1. Some of the time recorded show will hang (freeze). Solution is reboot and fast forward past the time mark where it hangs and its fine. Yes you can reboot the setup box.
2. Picture quality on HD is only good on some shows not every HD show. This is a fact using a number of original DVDs played on the same TV as comparison (HDMI connection). Don't get me started by comparing with BR movies cos that is even worse in comparison.
3. Sound quality on most shows is not 5.1. My amplifier system will show the audio feed type (and the Astro feed goes into the amp via HDMI first and then out to the TV via HDMI). On some HD shows the sub-woofer needs to be re-tuned due to some low level sounds issues. Don't have any of these issues when playing DVD or BR. Could be Astro intentionally boost this to give standard sound via TV some punch to compensate for lack of actual woofer.

Conclusion - picture quality overall leaves much to be desired. As a comparison IPTV from Unifi even non-HD channels look almost as good (Bloomberg on IPTV is better than Bloomberg on Astro) and the HD ones are simply excellent every time. Astro needs to buck up on image quality and am pretty sure they are aware of these. Maybe technical constraints they are not saying.

Is that part of the Superpack3 or something new?

Agreed. Shows are quite cheesy and nothing interesting despite paying a lot for having most of the packs subscribed. Time will tell but I am half contemplating canceling Astro as the contract period is over.

Couple of comments:-

1. Not all HD shows are running DD 5.1 audio

2. Can you elaborate how you upscale SD video feeds? If you connect via HDMI to your receiver amp would that be just pass through as the feed is already 1080i?

Unless you are running a separate connection for SD feed (component cable for video and optical for audio?) and selecting that manually when viewing SD channels and letting your amp's ABT chip doing the upscaling? There is a slight improvement with Astro Max but not with B.yond from my quick tests last year which is the reason I only run a single HDMI connection. Interesting to hear about your experiences.

I can confirm that the video quality for some shows are far better than other shows (SD channels). It is the quality or rather inconsistency from Astro that is causing comments with respect to Unifi. For example compare Bloomberg on Astro and Bloomberg on Unifi.

3. Granted that Unifi is not available everywhere but your point about "did not mention clearly"? The posts are only valid if you have the option of either. If you have no choice then its just fyi

Yes

Because the metal part of the connector can give you a slight electrical shock

Depends on your TV whether it can audio out and what formats supported. Also the audio (co-ax or optical - cannot remember which) may be the other option.

Somebody may be able to help you more.

You may be better off buying a AV Receiver (AVR) depending on your budget.

My setup Astro (HDMI) > Yahama AV (HDMI) > TV
Blue-Ray (HDMI) > Yahama AV
etc

One single connection to the TV from AVR. Non-hd content is upscaled at the AVR end. TV are not too great with upscaling usually.

Check your astro setup box. If you can output audio via coaxial or optical that is probably going to be cheaper. Not that Astro audio are that awesome. Most of the time its just stereo and DD 5.1 for some (not all) HD Content.

Same here. And I am routing Astro via my AVR before the TV. Need to adjust volume when switching SD / HD

Is your Panny capable of 5.1 DD? Thats what I suspect is part of the change in volume.