good job,we need many more msians like you, cut off asstro for at least for 6 months to cripple asstro

They're too big to fall. Instead of forcing them to listen to the customers (which they never do), my decision to terminate my subscription is due to personal factors: the packages are overpriced, too many repeats, unresolved rain fade issue, too many advertisements, overly censored and delayed contents yet I'm paying more than RM100/ month. Some people can't live without BPL, LA LIGA, EURO etc so ASTRO will still survive.

You need to know, Astro's rain fade issue can never be resolved due to technical reasons. If you want to know more, go Google about Ku band satellite TV. The only way to go is upgrade to Astro IPTV, which it uses fibre network to receive Astro channels instead of satellite. On top of that you'll be able to enjoy broadband service either from Maxis Fibre or TIME Fibre (subject to service availability at your area).

Haiz... Why Malaysians still expecting Astro to solve the rain fade issue, where actually the issue cannot be resolved at all if using satellite TV?

Fantastic! A good step in the right direction. I give you 1 million Likes.

I have already changed from Superpack 3... to Wah Pack + Movies Pack + Sports Pack.

After the Euro Cup 2016 and the Olympics, reduce further by cutting Sports Pack.

I don't have the courage as you in TOTALLY terminating. I was told to accept it BUT a time will come in the near future that I cannot accept it anymore... then totally BYE BYE!

Good... One down and more will follow, I hope.

I have to say, Malaysians are not very familiar about how satellite pay TV service works. Yet when rain fade occurs, customers put the blame on the pay TV provider...

Yes, its true. This rain fade issue do EXIST worldwide for Satellite TV in countries that uses the same or similar sized "3 feet" dish as us, such as in India, China, Hong Kong. I think one reason its popular because its much cheaper for the 3 feet dish compared to the big one... we have to accept it when heavy rain disrupts reception. But people there have the option to use the BIG dish if they can afford to pay for the dish.

Unless you use the BIG dish (maybe 10 feet/3metres or above in diameter), then rain will not be a problem, maybe only lightning danger if not installed properly with adequate lightning arrestor... BUT our govt don't allow us to use it without their stupid license which they don't give to the common rakyat. Thailand and Brunei don't restrict such big dish. I believe Singapore also the same as us (correct me if I am wrong).

This post has been edited by jamesleetech: May 28 2016, 11:54 PM

Yes, I also feel the same way... many don't understand it.

On other modern toys available to us, I asked many of my friends in my small hometown in Pahang on what is bluray DTS-HD Master Audio... and guess what? Out of ten, only 2 know what it is. Ask them what 4K is, they say they know what it is, 4K is sharper than normal Astro HD but they know nothing about its specifications such as 3840 X 2160 used by most 4K UHD TV or the actual native 4096 x 2160 pixels or the HDCP 2.2 required for the 4K TV. They only know come to know 4K from shops in shopping malls.

Even my brother-in-law told me to "record" a news story from Ass-throw which he wanted to keep but its not so simple... I do not have an HDMI Stripper such as HDFury that can remove the Ass-throw HDCP and I also do not have a "decoder/encoder box" or a computer PCIE Card that can record the video into MP4 or whatever format. Hehehe... he even asked me to record it in PVR and then take out the PVR internal harddisk, put it into the computer and just copy it... NO.... he didn't know that the files inside the harddisk are protection encrypted AND not in any common video type such as MKV, MP4, AVI, etc. Pening!

It's not 3 feet (90cm).... For common pay TV around the world, nowadays they use 65cm dish.
Satellite services used commonly on most satellite pay TV nowadays is because they use the frequency band called Ku band (pronounce as "K" "u" band). Because the frequency spectrum range are above 10GHz, that is why rain fade exist. In Physics, if the signal wave is above 10GHz, water (rain or heavy clouds) can affect or "destroy" the wave signal. For countries that has snow, heavy snow weather will cause snow fade too. Actually satellite services also use on another frequency band called C band (range 3.4-4.2GHz). Because of the frequency is below 10GHz, rain fade won't occur. And each C band satellite coverage beam can cover up to 1/3 of the Earth surface. But problem is there are many other wireless services are using the frequency below 5GHz due to technical advantages such as mobile, terrestrial TV, WiFi, other wireless services, etc, without proper frequency allocation, setting and arrangements, it can cause interference to other wireless services. So this makes C band frequency range very scarce, and the satellite bandwidth, and the amount of channels can provide are limited. Because the coverage beam can be very big, the signal strength became weaker, so customers needs bigger dish to receive it. Not every customers wants to install 6 feet dish because it's big, expensive, and some people might find it ugly and it takes up lots of space. So that's why C band is commonly used for TV broadcasters, mainly to transport TV content from region to region (example you can watch live broadcast football match from other country to Malaysia, and also TV channels from other countries). Consumers also can use C band but not so "consumer friendly". So pay TVs around the world (including Astro) chooses Ku band because there's almost no interference will occur on 10-12GHz, so it has more bandwidth and has the potential to provide lots of channels. For broadcasters, they can scale and choose to cover the satellite coverage beam into specific region only, unlike 1/3 of the Earth like C band. Because of this, consumers able to receive signal on a small dish so definitely the satellite dish will cost cheaper to consumers. Disadvantage? Rain fade issue will exist because of frequency used. For consumers, this is frustrating. For broadcasters, they'll be like "how often it heavy rains till it disrupt your viewing?" That's why customers live in countries that rarely rain such as UK, US, Korea, etc. don't complain much about this cuz this is not a big issue to them.

Now after reading this, what do you think about Astro in terms of rain fade issue?

the question is why satelite for malaysia? Why not cable?Why limit to 65cm dish? Dirty business politics,to lease transponders for big money at the expense of customers. So many satelites launched by astro and its not that they are giving us 500 channels but Rojak channels less then 200 with more then half made in their kitchen!A decent pack costs at least rm200 inclusive rain fade! Excuse on rain fade is not acceptable!

Why satellite for Malaysia? Good question. Because with just launch a satellite, straight away you can get the service coverage to whole Malaysia, so no matter where you are in Malaysia, even you are in deep forest, or very remote areas, as long the satellite dish is pointed to the correct direction (point to the west) to the sky, you can get the service already. Simple, and no need to worry about weather the service is available or not.

Why 65cm dish? Why not bigger? Most pay TV providers around the world, their main goal is to make sure customers are able to get the service at an adequate satellite signal. They won't provide bigger size dish, unless if customer buy a bigger dish on their own (In Malaysia law, it is illegal to install satellite dishes other than Astro dish for consumers (including big dish), but depends on individual whether you care about the law or not).

Not to say Astro launches satellites. The Malaysian satellite company is called Measat, so Astro rent satellite transponders from them. Measat also did well in satellite leasing business to other countries as well.

Why Astro did not provide so much channels yet so expensive? The answer is very easy. Because Astro is playing monopoly, that's why they can take their sweet time to provide the channels they like, and charge the customers as high as they like to earn profit. You know, it brings no good to the customers if the company play hard in monopoly. But what you said is true, government is "something gotta do" about this too.

Actually satellite pay TV won't actually care much, or even think about giving rebates to customers whenever they complain about rain fade because Ku band satellite TV use for consumers cannot solve rain fade issue. It can be only improve, but not eliminate.

Alternatively, customers can upgrade to Astro IPTV to enjoy Astro channels without rain fade issue, because it mainly uses fibre network to receive Astro channels instead of satellite. Disadvantage? If your area can't subscribe to fibre Internet (Maxis/TIME fibre), then you can't enjoy Astro IPTV service. But satellite TV, anywhere in Malaysia also can get service.

Why Singapore don't need satellite TV because Singapore is very small. They can provide cable or fibre networks to all Singaporean homes without issues. But Malaysia is big, not every kampung can enjoy fibre Internet due to geographical of Malaysia (lots of mountains/high ground), makes it difficult to expand fibre services.

There is another catch here,why 65 cm? Asstro/MMC can easily catch culprits,whoever using abv 65 is asking for trouble,they can easily be located and investigated. There were many selling abv 65cm dishes now u may google none is selling cos it seems all abv 65 not allowed to be sold.MMC works for asstro. Asstro has reached a dead end.There will never be channel addition,feature upgrades,basically nothing.Their box is outdated with no good superb features. 5.1 to stereo where is the Auto option? Where is the sound decorder option? They survive just on monopoly

Astro has not reached a dead end . Because the Government of Malaysia has censorship with Astro.

MEDIA PRIMA used to get broadcast right for EURO. I guess they did not bid this year and spend the money on LIGA SUPER MALAYSIA. As for Olympics, HYPPTV is an official IPTV broadcaster, ASTRO is the official satellite TV broadcaster while RTM is the official FTA broadcaster.

This post has been edited by izwanikhsan: May 29 2016, 03:33 PM

Slept very late watching a bluray movie and woke up very late... took my sweet time before checking here. Sunday mah.

Wow... interesting and lively discussion since early morning today. Good, very good and there's one thing that most have shown here... are the machine gun bullets fired at the Monopoly, at Ass-throw, at the government and so forth but evidently most are BAD. I have been told to accept it since we are in Bolehland. Yes, can I accept it and still bark (complain) at a mountain that will always be there. Can all of you accept it and still continue to bark? I don't have to answer, as is shown by the comments by many folks here!

KU BAND AND RAIN FADE : LARGER DISH, A VIABLE BUT NOT PERFECT SOLUTION

Yes, you are definitely right to point out that Ass-throw dish uses size 65 cm to be exact. I did not check the facts properly and appreciated it.

I applaud your detailed explanation of the KU band, C band and other technical mumbo jumbo. The one thing that you have shown to me is that you could be an expert in Satellite Telecommunications or at least very knowledgeable in this field. I acknowledge that. As for me, I know too little on this field and so, I wouldn't dare say that I know more than the average person. What I can say is that my knowledge has the help of everyone's good friend... the World Wide Web of "Google Search".

By the way, when you said that common Pay TV nowadays uses 65cm dish, where did you find this out? I am confused because various dish sizes are used. You could be right. I am not sure here.


As I read over your reply analyzing what you are trying to point out, it seems to me (I think) that you could be moving away from the actual direction that my previous reply intended to... and that is RAIN FADE and a quick and viable solution.

Yes, you have correctly mentioned some detailed explanation of why KU band is chosen over C band for commercial TV transmission, of how higher frequency can better penetrate the weather conditions to reach our dish, of why KU band is chosen as it provides less interference because of the higher frequency. Great and informative reading. Thanks.

However, you should look at it in the perspective of the common factor of the existing infrastructure used by Ass-throw on the issue of "RAIN FADE" which was noted as one of the reason why the person fully terminated subscription. And that common factor is the KU Band and the 65cm Dish used by Ass-throw.

If you read carefully on my previous comments on using a larger dish, it is my intention to state an alternative solution to the Rain Fade issue eventhough it is not possible because of the "law" that do not permit home use of the large dish.

Of course, there are other alternatives (as commented by folks here) to solve the Rain Fade issue, but many of those involve a much more arduous and hugely difficult to achieve remedies. Cable TV needs a good and solid nationwide internet cable infrastructure in place that can provide a fast and adequate speed to handle TV transmission especially HD BUT are we actually there yet? Even if cabling is ready or possible nationwide, there is also the issue of the huge capital investment to setup the Cable TV network itself. Then there is the alternative Terrestrial TV transmission using existing infrastructure that needs to be upgraded to broadcast HD and Dolby 5.1 audio but, again... are we able to do it now? I have heard for so many years of changing the Terrestrial TV broadcast from analog to digital which will release the analog spectrum for other uses. Am I right to say that TV3 will be changing over to Digital HD transmission next year? After all the years of dragged on delays, you cannot blame people for not believing it. Then again, such terrestrial transmission just cannot rival the nationwide coverage that Satellite TV enjoys.

As most (I think ALL) of you know, a very good alternative is to abolish Satellite TV monopoly enjoyed by Ass-throw. You may think why more Satellite TV broadcasters which uses the same KU band can help solve the rain fade issue... hehe... not actually solve it. When we have much more better channels with good contents at a reasonably low subscription rates then I would think many more people will be able to tolerate the "rain fade" better and many like me will be contented, keep our mouth shut when we can watch "free" Satellite channels similar to NJOI.

I wish to categorically state that I can be wrong here. After I have weighed over all the options to see which is the best and has the least time to at least address the Rain Fade issue. Its changing the 65cm Dish to a larger sized one which is of course not affordable for many people. For people who can afford it, at least a ready solution to reduce the rain fade is already available right now. Just look at the many large dish mushrooming in Bangkok, Thailand and Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei.

Before you or anyone here immediately jump in eagerly pointing out any of my mistakes here, again I declare that I am NOT an expert here... So here are a few questions that I wish to ask you or anyone here...

1) Are there any other dish sizes besides the 65 cm used by Ass-throw such as the 75cm or 90cm type or as large as 3metres? Yes, all of us including me, know the answer to this BUT this points to my second question.

2) I don't care why KU Band is used and not C Band. I don't care about the reasons why one is preferred over the other. The question here is... can we use a much larger dish for KU Band reception?



3) Is it true that KU Band reception requires just a compatible LNB (Low-Block-Noise) and Receiver/Decoder Box ?

4) Just by changing to a compatible LNB and Receiver, are we limited to only 65cm dish size for KU BAND RECEPTION?

5) Are we supposed to or can we use at least 2 LNB's on a LARGE Dish, one for KU Band and the other for C Band?

6) I think using a bigger sized Dish may NOT improve the clarity and sharpness of the KU Band reception BUT will a much larger sized Dish help in any way to address the Rain Fade Issue by improving the signal gain due to a larger parabolic dish surface-to-signal contact area?

You are absolutely right in your detailed technical explanations about KU Band and C Band and all the other explanations including the affordability of large dish.

The point is NOT one of, which and why, this or that, is preferred or used and NOT whether there are other long term alternatives to address the "Rain Fade" issue.

I already do know about the KU Band and C Band and the various types of LNB and receivers used including the motorized Dish units... And I even know about the "ah-hem" (Dream***) Satellite Receivers which used the same Ass-throw Satellite Dish AND an internet connection to "break" (descramble) the encrypted Ass-throw signal in order to view the channels illegally (SD only). Don't know whether it works now. I do know about other things related to Satellite technology because "Google Is My Best Friend" and... yes, I repeat that I am NOT an expert.

I do acknowledge that you may know more than me and may even be an expert in the field of Satellite Techonology. However, it is totally unnecessary for you to explain it out to me those technical mumbo jumbo because my actual point is... In order to address the Rain Fade issue, there is no faster or better alternative option available other than just changing to a larger sized dish. The obstacles to using a large dish is the costly price, difficult to set and use, and the govt strict restriction of the large dish for home use. If you compare such obstacles to the other options to address the Rain Fade issue, using a large dish is at least better than the HUGE obstacles that the other option have to overcome which will undoubtedly take a long time. All it needs is our govt to stop the large dish restriction by carefully allowing selected KU Band systems (LNB, Receiver And Much Larger Dish Sizes) which gives the least amount of interference to existing commercial telecommunications. Initially, large dish can be expensive which is beyond the reach of many but competition can bring the cost down. There are poor people in Thailand too but that doesn't stop the many large satellite dish from appearing there.

Why didn't Ass-throw use a slightly larger than 65cm dish? I don't need to answer that. Many here will answer for me. I "believe" that even a slightly larger dish size of 90cm can further help to reduce the rain fade issue. I know all the @%$@# reasons why this is not allowed. I believe/think using a slightly larger 90cm dish size or similar should be the best option to reduce rain fade because all it needs is just the govt approval and a dish cost that more people can still afford.

I could be wrong, I sensed a trickle amount of you trying to be cheesy with me when you put this question to me... quote... "Now after reading this, what do you think about Astro in terms of rain fade issue"

I loved it and do enjoy it when someone does that to me. I don't need to answer your question because I don't need to think about Ass-throw on the rain fade issue. Since many other similar Satellite Broadcasters also used the same DTH system which have the same rain fade issue, all I need to think about is, can we use a larger dish for KU band reception and what are the issues, advantages and disadvantages of using such large dish?

Ok... I end this with my question to you... Knowing that the rain fade issue will always be there, knowing that subscriptions are really overpriced, knowing that contents have an incredible amount of repeats with advertisement/commercials, knowing that there is a possibility that monopoly will continue after 2017... will you sign in or continue to subscribe to Ass-throw when you DO know that you MUST accept it because its Bolehland. Hehe... no offence yah? My apologies to you if I have. I loved a lively (maybe heated) discussions where nobody is perfect and can make mistakes.

Note : Edited to correct spelling and typo errors.

This post has been edited by jamesleetech: May 29 2016, 06:26 PM

90cm dish can solve rain fade,but if 90cm allowed then they cannot track what we are watching ass or something else cos 90cm dish is good enough to get many satelites up there! So with 65cm asstro is comfortable we cant do much! My friend Using 65 for a service,can get HD can watch 500 over channels but if he used 90 NO rain fade and can get UHD ! We are taken for a ride thats all

This post has been edited by smileguy: May 29 2016, 05:35 PM

Yes, I certainly agree and do know why... in short, allow Ass-throw monopoly by not giving people any chances of getting other signals.

As I have stated earlier, the easiest and best option available to us right now that we can immediately use to solve rain fade is using a larger dish!

For Rain Fade issues, NO other options such as Cable TV, IPTV, Terrestrial, etc is as "easy" and "fast enough" to immediately solve it. Period.

I am pointing this out merely to show that there is already an immediate solution which can at least reduce the rain fade occurrence. Except for costing the consumers a bit more for the change in LNB and Dish, it doesn't need to have those "other" options to solve rain fade.

Yes, yes.... its impossible for so many reasons BUT its also the same for ALL the other available options loh.

I sound like a parrot... if only Satellite TV monopoly can be stopped but I know that I am only dreaming, am I? When that happens, its possible that we can immediately use 90cm or larger dish to solve the rain fade issue.

This post has been edited by jamesleetech: May 29 2016, 05:56 PM

We have regularly been told that many other countries with the same Satellite system as Ass-throw have to blindly accept the rain fade issue... wherever you go, you will still face the same problem except for countries that have much less rainfall such as Egypt.

That is not totally correct even if we were told by Ass-throw or anyone else that it cannot be solved.

Yes, probably the 65cm Dish is cheap and commonly used but its crucial for people who wants to easily solve the disruptions caused by rain fade and all it needs is to try to save $$ maybe a year to be able to afford the larger dish which doesn't need any monthly subscription payments.

I do know I can definitely not afford to buy a luxury car such as a Ferrari or even buy a BIG mansion/bungalow costing millions of Ringgit BUT should we BAN them because most people cannot afford it?

I think many people can afford to pay for the larger 90cm Dish and the rain fade issue will... well... just fade away, no more interruptions except for very very bad thunderstorms.

With that being said, that option of using a larger dish should by right be available for people to choose in addressing such rain fade dissatisfaction.

A Larger Dish is the easiest option to solve Rain Fade issues... and yet we will never be able to choose it.

What is the difference between those countries that uses the same DTH system as Ass-throw? They can choose to pay for larger Dish, for people who are so frustrated with the Rain Fade interruptions. For us, we can only accept it by switching off Ass-throw when this happens OR... do like what that person did, terminate Ass-throw completely. There is no THIRD option for us to change the Dish. And all the other options may take many many more years to come or may totally never come!

-deleted- got explanation

This post has been edited by sherz88: May 31 2016, 02:33 PM

How much is the official Astro B.yond remote controller cost ? Mine's the white color model .

So true. There is absolutely no guarantee that competition can be any powerful potion that cures all kinds of diseases. Its my believe that its just a matter of which is the lesser of two evils.

The question you should ask yourself is that whether having just ONE Singtel that controls the exclusive profitable Sports Events market in Singapore is better or not. Eventhough the price may increase for both monopoly and competition, will the price further escalate higher without the competition between Singtel & Starhub to keep this in check?

Honestly, I actually don't know whether having monopoly with just ONE broadcaster will be better or not in the case of Singapore... However, I have the gut feeling that with either Singtel or Starhub monopolizing the market, the price should get much worse, not better. I can be wrong but I think that you have the same gut feeling as me too.

When the rivalry between Singtel and Starhub can cause the price to double, so can you imagine what will happen when there is only ONE with monopoly on the market without any restraints and ZERO obstacles to put even further price hike in check? When a single broadcaster gets the bid at a lower price without a competitor trying to outbid it... is there any guarantee that the single (monopoly) broadcaster who got the bid cheaper do or do not push this "lower price" back to the consumer? Will that single broadcaster as the BIG BOSS take the opportunity of reaping even more profits by increasing the price further eventhough they got a cheaper bid? Yes, there are a lot of "will this" and "will that" between monopoly and competition so its a question of whether which one you think should comparatively be better.

Of course, I just cannot predict market forces and consumer demands. Neither can I positively predict with 100% certainty what a competition war will do to the price.. either reduce or increase it. I will just use my common sense business logic with an example here... If you are the CEO in control of Singtel and manages to KILL Starhub and all other competition for this Sports Event segment of the market and lets say we assume that all other competitors just went bankrupt, will you, as the CEO, take the opportunity of increasing the price to 3 times or more? Depending on current market conditions, you may or may not increase it to 3 times BUT the risk here is much higher that it will happen when you are the big BOSS in the Satellite market.

Well... as I repeat here... which is the lesser of two evils? Is Monopoly the lesser evil or is Competition the lesser one? Contemplate on this and you can decide for yourself. I am sure you already know my views on this but only YOU can decide which is comparatively better... Absolute Monopoly OR Fierce Competition. Remember, the key word here is... "comparatively".

Yes, its a rip off for the World Cup. Ass-throw is packaging both the Euro Cup and the Rio Olympics for RM 103.xx (please correct me if the price is wrong) so each of us can either view this price as a rip-off or whether a great bargain. As far as I am concerned, I personally feel that this Ass-throw Special Sports Event Pack is overpriced and anyone do have the right to disagree with me... I accept that.

ADDITION...

Oh, I almost forgot to add in this. Situations where prices can increase due to Special Events going to the highest bidder are just a small part of the whole picture of competition. Its the regular subscription prices for channels and daily content that makes the big difference when there is competition. Only competition can drive such subscriptions down with more channels and better content. Higher prices only happen for the "not often" Special Live Events caused by bids which many can easily choose not to subscribe because its the regular channels that forms the most important part of our regular TV enjoyment. More often than not, competition between Satellite TV Broadcasters for the regular subscription packs does bring consumers a better deal. Are there any "bidding" of regular TV channels and contents by the TV channels operator? I don't think so. Unlike the one-off Special Events, there is no bidding for regular TV channel content that can create price hikes. Please correct me if I am wrong on this.

Will you be willing to pay, example, S$50 monthly for 100 HD channels when there is competition... or pay S$80 monthly for 80 channels with monopoly? Eventhough a Sports fanatic, is it easier for that person NOT to subscribe the Sports Live Event Pack for 2 weeks or is it easier to just terminate completely his/her regular monthly subscription? I believe you know which way that answer will be. For me, I won't just terminate my regular subscription so I will just choose NOT to watch the Special Event if I feel its a rip off. Its much much more serious if my regular subscription price is a rip-off because I am forced to choose whether I should completely terminate my entire regular subscription.

MONOPOLY IN SINGAPORE
Do consider what will happen to Singapore if, for instance, Singtel is the only ONE single Satellite TV Broadcaster. Remember, ALL these broadcasters are companies looking for ways to increase their profits in whatever way they can. Its a brutal world of business out there. So, to get more profits with less costs, will there be any risk where you end up paying overpriced Packs and yet get channels with rubbish content and increasing number of commercials/advertisements. You don't need to go far for a clear example... just look at what is currently happening with Ass-throw.

Price War for Special Events... peanuts, compared to the entire competition scenario. Yah, peperangan untuk membida acara langsung sukan? Kacang putih lah, kalau dibandingkan dengan keseluruhan senario siaran satelit TV.

This post has been edited by jamesleetech: May 30 2016, 02:14 AM