Haha... Btw Thanks to you too.

thanks to asstro!

You are welcome. I saw that there were a few of you (including nujikabane on March 3rd) struggling to get precise answers from members here that prompted me to chip in with my "ah-hem" loooong winded answer.

Allow me to relate just two incidents out of many that I have personally helped to solve many of my friends problems with their Astro Byond. These are not related to your situation.

My friend in Jerantut, Pahang phoned to me with an SOS for help last year. At that time the 2 Astro installers came and finished installing his new Byond. He subscribed to Superpack 3 with HD. After setting up the 2 malay guys said its done but my friend complained that the HD channels looked like very bad quality with edge fringing discolourations on his 46 inch HD TV. The 2 guys said they have connected using HDMI and its working, and commented that the quality is like that on a big screen LCD TV. My friend even requested them to help connect to his Pioneer Amp but they refused because they are not trained for amp setup! Fair enough but still LOL ! Ok, they left without solving my friend's problem. A day later, my friend came by car to my house (about 50 KM away) and fetch me to his place to find out. You know what ? The Byond settings were set to [Standard Definition] and [720p] ! Oh my goodness gracious !! It should be [High Definition] and [1080i]. I just wondered how Astro trained these installers and buta-buta paid them installation commission for it eventhough Superpack 3 customers don't pay them. My friend sighed with relief and treated me to a sumptious dinner, hehe.

NEW EDIT
Correction... wrongly stated [Standard Definition] and [720p]... it should be [Standard Definition] and [576p] because Byond setting cannot change to [Standard Definition] and [720p] using HDMI connection. Quoted wrongly when I speed type, hehe. Sorry!

Later, I phoned to Astro Customer Support informing them of my friend's incident so here's a little of what I can remember of the conversation in malay...

[Me] Sepatutnya pemasang-pemasang dari Astro ialah pakar dalam semua aspek berkaitan dengan penyediaan alat Byond ditempat pelanggan !! Penyediaan "Setup" yang tak tepat bukan perkhidmatan berkualiti yang diharapkan oleh pelanggan Astro.

[Astro CS] Mungkin ini ialah sesuatu kecuaian pemasang atau salah faham. Boleh encik beri nama-nama installer supaya kami boleh melanjutkan komplain encik kepada bahagian berkenaan ?

[Me] Saya hanya dapat berikan nama dan nombor akaun sebab perkara ini berlaku terhadap pemasangan dirumah kawan saya. (As I intended to make complaint on my friend's behalf, I did jot down my friend's IC and account number but forgot to get the installers name)

[Astro CS] Terima kasih. Komplain encik akan dilanjutkan kepada pihak yang berkaitan.

That's it. Actually I don't expected anything to happen and quality of service will still not improve but I still made complaint just to let them know.

Ok... this comes to the second incident which happened only 2 days ago.

Another friend of mine asked me to help and I went to his house to check. He complained that their 60 inch LED TV continuously flicker once in about 10 minutes for all HD channels and picture quality is dull colour. He tried changing 5 different HDMI cables and still flickers. He tuned the TV colour settings to 100% and still the colour is not strong. When I went there, I was really dumbfounded and scratched my head when I couldn't find out what was causing it ! I was also confused when nothing happened after I pressed the "Record" button on the remote ! After about an hour fiddling with different suspected causes, I suddenly noticed this in Byond settings... "b.yond v1.2". What the hell ! Why is the Byond box still using very outdated software version ? It should be version 3.0s ! I asked my friend how long ago was his set installed and he told me it was only about 2 weeks ago. How did the installer gave my friend a Byond unit with outdated software ? Version 3.0s already released many many months ago and should already be pre-installed in newer units ! Even if the installer was supplied with older stocks, he should have updated the software after installation because its his responsibility to check this.

2 weeks earlier, its also terrible when my friend called the installer complaining about it and he came a few times and still cannot find the reason so he blamed it to some Byond compatibility problems with his TV and Onkyo amp and there's nothing he can do about it. He even recommended my friend to make a report with Astro Customer Support !! Double LOL ! I am not a trained installer but they are, so they should check the software version whenever any compatibility problem is suspected loh.

After sweating for about 30 minutes, I was wondering how come my friend's Byond set was not updated automatically since its always left in "standby mode" since the first day it was installed. Mmm... how to update manually ? There is no "Update" or "Full Manual Reboot" setting in Byond. Aah... I got it. Switch off power completely to the Byond unit (not standby). Waited a minute and switched on power.. ah ha.. the message ... "Update in progress..." appeared so I waited, not touching any remote buttons.

Guess what ? After update to version 3.0s, all my friend's problems solved ! Colour is lots more vibrant and no more fickering every 10+ minutes !!

End of my long stories. These are only 2 of the many more incidents which I helped to rectify because of the fault of the Astro installers. It makes me wonder just how good are the efficiency of these installers. If I based on the number of incidents that I have handled, it should be around 10% efficient. That's bad in a big way ! I should make a commission claim with Astro and get paid for my services but I know Assteruk will not pay me, hehe.

Thanks for reading and bearing my extremely long kopitiam talk. Mmm.. don't know if its out-of-topic here, if it is, then so sorry for it.

Best wishes.

This post has been edited by jamesleetech: Mar 5 2012, 04:36 PM

Hi guys,
anybody know where channel 133 (Hindi) gone?
Thanks.

Bravo to you bro. All these installers in your story is just 'cari makan' installer. Astro should seriously look into this.....

This channel 133 belongs to Mustika package so you can only watch this channel if you subscribed to this package. Previously its B4U. Now its replaced with Bella.

You mean this channel 133 (Bella) is missing from your normal Astro DMT (or Astro Byond) channel selections ? I did not subscribe to Mustika package because I am chinese but I can still "see" this channel with a message "..not included in your subscription". I use Astro Byond HD, not the normal Astro DMT.

Maybe your astro box did not update when B4U was changed to Bella on 1st March 2012. Please correct me if I stated the wrong date.

Don't know if it will help, but try this... completely switch off main power to your Astro box. Wait about a minute. Switch on power, don't touch anything and wait.

If your astro box was not updated, then it should start updating so don't touch anything until the clock on the box shows the correct time. The display on the box should show "Update in progress...".

If after switching on, nothing happens and the clock shows the correct time, then maybe other problem. Call Astro Customer Support to send update/reset signal to update/reset your box again through satellite signal. They can do that.

If everything failed, report back to customer support to send installer to your place.

I hope I have been helpful with my suggestions.

This post has been edited by jamesleetech: Mar 5 2012, 05:09 PM

I believe for channel update, it does not need to reboot the box or update the software. For non byond box, it just need to put on standby (clock appear on front display) for about 5 minutes. For byond, the channel update should effect on the fly i.e. while you're watching or on standby.

Yes, I do know that software update (and channel updates) is automatic during "standby mode" without the neccesity to switch off and on to initiate update. BUT... sometimes in some cases which I did encounter that such channel update did not happen in "standby mode". I don't know what was the reason when such auto update did not happen. I do suspect that sometimes that when an update was being done halfway and then disconnected without finishing because of heavy rain, it "may" somehow fail to continue to finish update. Anyway, only guessing the reason.

I suggested to stasio to switch off and on the power to make sure the software update is done IF it failed to auto update in standby mode. Of course I don't actually know for sure whether failure to auto software update caused the missing channel 133 for stasio. But no harm trying to refresh by switching power off and then on to make sure because it will NOT damage his astro unit. When software update did not complete, it may cause the new channel not to be updated too.

It has been known that auto update (during "standby mode") ACTUALLY failed to happen as I DID see this happened in at least 2 of my friends Astro box ! So I won't be surprised that channel update did not occur in standby mode too. Read my previous comment about one of my friend whose Astro Byond box was installed with Version 1.2 EVEN when he left his box in standby mode at night EVERYDAY since the first day of installation about 2 weeks ago. I also commented that there was no "Update" setting in the Astro Byond box. I switched off power to his unit and switched on ... then software update started. I don't know the actual specific reason why software update did not kick off during standby mode but it does happen.

Of course the latest Astro box with the newest and latest generation of internal board are different, with lots of newer innovation and improvements. In retrospect, I do remember way back sometime in 1998 (I think) when we used the old Astro Philips DMT box, where there were many Astro DMT that did not update in standby mode. My boss computer shop premises was at that time rented by Astro Technical department for a week to help to manually update the astro box. At that time, it was announced in newspaper advertisements and in Astro channels to inform those subscribers who cannot receive channels (due to software update failure) to bring their unit to temporary service centres nationwide. Our computer shop was just one of such temporary centres. When Astro switched to the new software after the 1 month period, many complained their astro box did NOT update during the 1 month period eventhough they did put the unit in standby mode. The Astro technician also rented one desktop computer from our shop and installed a special software, then connect the PC using COM port to the Astro box and did a manual update. About 250 astro subscribers came to the shop to have the software update done manually since its FOC. I asked many of them and many told me that they did put their box in standby mode but update did not start. Maybe some are lying and did not put the box in standby and switched off power. But failure to update in standby mode really DO happen.

This post has been edited by jamesleetech: Mar 5 2012, 08:57 PM

you are right, byond box can do new channels update simultaneously even when the box is switch on, you can experience such update when channel switching exhibit a strange behaviour

Thanks for info.
Yes,now is Bella on my 2 Byond's (my wife notice this yesterday).

This post has been edited by stasio: Mar 5 2012, 09:18 PM

so actually nothing wrong with the box and the channel update work as usual (as your wife notice this new Bella channel replacing B4U channel yesterday) ?

You are welcome but I did not actually help with my suggestions. Anyway, its great to know that your "problem" is solved. You posted your request for answers on why Bella was "missing" yesterday (04:34 pm) and you now mentioned that your wife noticed the change... also yesterday.

Hehe... I guess you were a bit impatient and did not wait without giving a bit of time for the auto channel update to finish and refresh, check with your wife and then post your request for answers here. You just need to have more patience and not rush for answers... only wait a bit longer and then your problem will be gone.

My suggested method is to be used ONLY when the channel is still missing after, maybe, 2 days eventhough the astro box have been left to auto update in standby mode.



NEW ADDITION
In future, try to be more patient and double check before posting for help or request for answers here. Lack of proper info and impatience can cause confusion for people who wishes to help you here. No problem for me to spend a little bit of time trying to find the solution.

This post has been edited by jamesleetech: Mar 5 2012, 10:15 PM

Agree 100%

Hehe... what more can I say ? In my computer tech support work, I often come across people who phoned to me and wanted to know why his/her computer suddenly restarts sometimes on some days when he/she knows very little on computers. For goodness gracious, I won't be able to give the exact answer so I told him/her to bring it to me to check. No way to give an answer through the phone. This is why I have learnt to be patient to find out all the possibilities. Its like when someone phoned to a car mechanic and asked why his/her car engine suddenly gone dead and wanted to know the answer immediately !

Most people (not all) already knew about leaving (and DO leave) the Astro box in standby mode to allow for auto updates because Astro have constantly been informing subscribers about this in the astro channels many times in many years whenever a major update occurs. When I read stasio's post, I guessed that the auto update failed causing the channel 133 to be "missing" so I suggested to him to switch the astro box off and then on to make sure and to push the update to finish. Its not because I don't know updates are automatic in standby mode.

Still, no problem for me. Peace.

Thanks for sharing the experiences

lul i guess its hard 2 tolerate with noobs isnt it well i think we better cut stasio some slack...i know this fellow who frequently posts a lot of latest software updates that 99% of the time i seldom use it

http://forum.lowyat.net/LatestUpdates

that is how he got the impatience nature with other things with 'i m holier than thou n i need the damm answers in less than 1 second" attitude i bliv he needs the time 2 adjust between software update 2 remove the software problems n practical life problems solving...both cannot apply similar ways 2 each other bcuz they r not related at all i m not defending the software update king here...i just here 2 share my 2 sen...haha peace

You are really a helpful person...

I hav a question, my new hse condo, the management say beyond HD astro cannot use, how come?

byond decoder uses both high and low LO(local oscillating) frequencies, currently all SD channels are allocated to low LO, and HD channels to High LO frequency

my guess is that the flat's shared dish usually provide low LO only, and High LO is disabled

so technically if byond is connected to flat's dish, you can still view SD channels

if shared dish does not have device to disable High LO, your byond tuning to HD channel will interfere with other astro viewer watching SD channels, may be that is why your management said byond is not suitable for shared dish

This post has been edited by neb: Mar 6 2012, 10:10 PM

ohh..ya..thx
they using the shared dish...
say if got 30 ppl use beyond only they upgrade.