Does Astro's feed of TV Alhijrah went wide-screen too?

Analogue TV squeeze down has recently reappeared on TV3 with a new 30 September 2019 date. (Gunung Pulai transmitter) As usual, this notice is not shown on other analogue channels.

This post has been edited by shaun_kok: Sep 27 2019, 09:29 PM

No shutdown yet on Gunung Pulai.

The switch off is for real now. Analogue TV Closedown slide is now shown on the frequencies that was formerly known as TV3 (first photo) and TV9 (second photo). TV1, TV2, NTV7 and 8TV to be joining this soon. (Both on Gunung Pulai transmitter)

This post has been edited by shaun_kok: Oct 1 2019, 12:47 AM

In Gunung Pulai now TV1 and TV2 went blank for a while before showing Closedown slide, NTV7 is now showing closure message after final close down, 8TV will be the last to go at 2am.

This post has been edited by shaun_kok: Oct 1 2019, 01:07 AM


Attached thumbnail(s)

8TV had finally shown this.
Finally, all analog TV signals from Gunung Pulai (and in general, Central and Southern region of Malaysia) had shut down and replaced by a closedown slide for all channels..

This post has been edited by shaun_kok: Oct 1 2019, 02:03 AM

Actually entire West Coast of Malaysia and Sumatra Island is only separated by Straits of Malacca. There is no mountains to block here, so Malaysian radio signals can easily reach some parts of Sumatra. In fact, based on reports in Indonesia, Malaysian TV and radio stations are popular within areas that can receive Malaysian TV. (There is no Indonesian TV via TV antenna in some areas, and Malaysian TV are often the only way to receive any TV channels in these areas. However they will now have to switch to DTT now in order to get Malaysian TV.) Malaysian Radio often have better content than local Indonesian radio too. There are reports where the Indonesian TVRI signal from Medan (at that time still on VHF Band, now on UHF band) interferes the VHF signal transmitted from Gunung Keldang on Lumut area, until a relay had to be installed by RTM for viewers in these areas to improve signal quality in these areas.

SKMM and it's predecessors has doing so badly in terms of frequency planning by just setting 50km from border area within Singapore, Thailand and also Brunei. Also they do not take the advantage of vertical polarization to maximize coverage and minimise interference.

Well said. In Europe the main TV masts are usually in the 200-300m range. Even the highest TV mast in the UK is around 750m (mast and hill combined). They also exploits vertical polarization (which isn't use here) to maximize coverage and their planning usually also take account of neighbouring countries transmission, although with a 50km international limit. However, due to dense population within Europe, most countries will only have 3-4 universal coverage Analogue channels before the usage of DTT. While almost all the main masts are located in hills in the entire west coast Malaysia, with many of them transmits 6 to 7 analogue channels, causing huge interference in many areas. This is worsen by much poor planning of Indonesian analog TV transmission, with major towns having 10-20 TV channels while in some areas like Dumai, Indonesia, satellite dish is required for local TV reception due to broadcasters aren't interested in these areas. As Dumai is within reach of Malaysian TV mast and no local channels are available, hence the popularity of Malaysian TV channels due to much easier setup via UHF antenna, and also similar culture and language. These do not take account of neighbouring countries transmission and no vertical polarization is used. Agreed with digital transmission, the interference will be greatly reduced due to SFN+lesser channels will be used.

This post has been edited by shaun_kok: Oct 2 2019, 12:30 PM

Their planning have to take account of reception of foreign transmissions, which people will try to get and also transmitter overlap, which the SKMM does not take account of as there was no "local TV" in Malaysia. 50km from border area just served as a guide for them but not that enough considering the mast height.

Since only 2/3 frequencies with SFN mode for some transmitters will be used in each area, plus considering existing antenna installation being all in horizontal polarization and our DTT signal is designed for outdoor antenna reception, there is no need to use vertical polarization anyway, especially after analogue switchover. However, Brunei uses vertical polarization for their DTT service. Singapore uses mixed polarization for good indoor antenna reception on HDB and also to take account of existing outdoor antenna installation in private high rise property/landed property, which uses horizontal polarization.

Higher gain antenna like the 37E with suitable height is recommended due to distance (can be more than 100km) from Malaysian TV masts in Dumai.

This post has been edited by shaun_kok: Oct 2 2019, 11:26 PM

Got point too. Especially when after switchover, frequency from 700mhz upwards are unused anymore for TV after Digital TV networks has moved down to below 698MHz.