You are referring to the service called Videocon d2h. It is the one and only India pay TV service, where the satellite signal able to reach in Malaysia especially Peninsular Malaysia.

For Malaysian Indians who crave for more and better Indian content channels, Videocon is definitely the best choice for them as you can get about 300-500 channels including HD for less than RM50 a month, depending on which package you've subscribed to.
For non Indians viewers, well.... You can watch their English entertainment channels as their English content from US and UK are also being offered too, including those "Same day as the US" shows. From movies, documentary, TV shows, and more, available in HD and SD. One of the best part that I like is, English subtitles are available even if the programme is in English, imagine watching Hollywood movie in English subtitles on TV. Some people will enjoy that, as it is something that it is not common on Astro.

Only thing is, they will air lots of their local commercials, like products that you don't see in Malaysia. Some of their commercials is in Hindi language, some is English. But it won't be very long la.

Oh? Where did you get that info?

Astro made the 29th SEA Games, Kuala Lumpur 2017 to be available to every Malaysian possible. It is all free to all Astro, NJOI, Astro Go and Njoi Now users. Just to make sure you can watch it without you paying for it.

It is true that all Astro PVR boxes has built-in 500GB hard disk inside.

Take it out and use it as external HDD.... I never thought of doing that though...

But I do wonder, didn't you have to return your PVR box back to Astro upon termination? Or previously your 24 months contract has over?

You see, Astro let you keep Astro box is so that next time in the future, if you want to reactivate back your Astro account, you can use the Astro box that you already have. Or, if one day Astro suddenly call you and give you "offers" that nobody hear before, it is so mysterious that you can't search up Google about that offer because the offer is specially offered only for you. They offer things such as free preview all channels for XX days/months, free preview of channels from Super Pack Plus package for XX days, bla bla bla.... either by paying a cheap amount of money a month or completely free, as long you activate back your Astro account. In this way, Astro can convince you to activate back the service, hence eventually you might end up paying money to Astro again (it just depends whether is it a lot or little amount of money, depending on the "offer" they give you).

I'm not saying it is a bad thing, because when Astro do this, they can save cost for themselves too. Imagine if they collect back your Astro box, then in the future you want to reactivate back, Astro need to assign installer to provide you new Astro box, or even satellite dish, and other equipments to your premises and install/set-up for you. Well, why not just let you keep it, so that you can use it back when you reactivate back? Hahahaha... Astro smart leh.... You should know it when Astro let you keep your Astro box with you, and not collecting it back. :haha:

But if you ask me, what if you dismantle your Astro PVR box, and then you take HDD out and use it as your external HDD storage, seriously I have no idea. Technically it may be possible, but dismantling Astro box for sure will void warranty cuz there's a "protection plastic seal" on it.

Well...

Note: This pic is not taken by me, and not mine... I took this image from somewhere else.

All those [test card] channels are appeared as "TEST"... Astro themselves did not include those channels as part of the channel list on Astro boxes, so you won't see these TEST channels on Astro box.
Those TEST channels aren't new to Astro. It is always there, and is for Astro to perform any kind of test transmissions they wish among themselves, and even "reserving" a channel spot (spare channel) so that they can use that slot for new TV channels.

However, if you have universal satellite receiver (technically not legal for us to use in Malaysia, but legal elsewhere), and as you perform Auto Scan (just like Auto Search for terrestrial digital TV channels (MYTV), you shall see all TV channels that present in the satellites, depending on your satellite dish position. Most of the time, their TEST channels are locked, so that viewers like us with universal satellite receivers will not able to watch it (Scrambled, encrypted channels), but can detect the channels are exist.

The [test card] channels (appear as "TEST" on satellite receivers) you see are not permanent. Astro keep on changing all sort of settings in terms of technicality for the same transponder, such as changing between DVB-S, DVB-S2, MPEG-2 or MPEG-4 video codec, MP2 or AAC and AC3 codec, some TEST channels are FTA (free-to-air, can be watched), some are locked. Even if you can watch it, you are more likely to see colour bar, nothing special. Now you see is MPEG-4 SD, but they might change it to MPEG-4 HD without you noticing it. So yeah, obviously they are doing test transmission among themselves, not for us viewers to watch it. Don't need to be so excited about it.

"Actually, do Astro appreciate us as their customer?"
My answer is NO.

They monopolised the pay TV market since the beginning, so viewers has no choice but to go for Astro to watch good TV content.
In the long term, because they have the power, all they care is money. As long they keep gaining profit, then they will find more ways to gain even more profits. Make sure the figures and numbers are keep on growing.
Loyalty to customers? Nah... They don't care about that.

I see... Thanks for sharing this info.
I wonder is this is the reason why Astro include this channel, because it is related to Fox Networks Group.

Wow... Good to see that eGG Network is now on Singtel TV.
How about Starhub TV? Does Starhub TV offers eGG Network?

According to the news, they plan to use satellite, and yea, need to use satellite dish. They didn't disclose whether they will use either Ku band or C band, but very likely is Ku band la...

You say outdated like Astro outdoor dish? Then what is the most up-to-date satellite technology for you then?

The reason why Ansa use satellite instead of others, are pretty obvious. They want instant nationwide coverage, and anyone can get to enjoy the service right away. This is something you can't beat over fibre optics. So what makes you think outdoor satellite dish is an outdated tech for you?

This won't happen in Malaysia for sure. MCMC will not allow and will ban any kind of pornography content in Malaysia as porn itself is illegal by Malaysian law.

I understand it is good to think positive. But seriously, when it comes to Wikipedia pages about TV channels, many of them has been vandalised by false information, especially upcoming channel on Astro la, Hypp TV la, all those nonsense. You see, Wikipedia pages can be edited/modified by anyone, so that why information from Wikipedia are not 100% accurate. So you need to think twice before you trust any information you get from Wikipedia cuz it could be true, or could be false.

Whether you notice it or not, it seems that his previous posts about him saying that we should be dreaming about Ansa Broadcast, has been removed, even before you posted this. Does anyone else notice the same thing?

For me, it is a wise decision for Ansa to go for satellite. Astro started off with satellite, with one big reason, which is instant nationwide coverage as they turn on the satellite signal. Preparing infrastructure, install cabling, distribution boxes to customers premises, this takes a very long time to reach all customers. Why not just a small satellite dish, point to the sky, and then can get the service immediately?

Because now, many Malaysians already using Astro (satellite), any new competitors that seriously want to compete against Astro, is better go ahead with satellite lor... Anything that can quickly rollout the service nationwide. Or, digital terrestrial TV also can. Just if you don't know, MYTV is planning to have a terrestrial pay TV to be launch in the future and it uses MYTV Advance decoder to insert smart card to watch it.

If they go for IPTV or cable TV, surely have coverage problems at certain point. TM Hypp TV no need to worry about this, because we already paying a lot of money for Unifi already, confirm enough money for them to sustain.

For a commercial satellite company (not referring to satellite pay TV provider) to have a dedicated satellite beam for a particular country, basically it will cost higher.
There are several other commercial satellite companies out there, provide satellite bandwidth/service where the coverage "sekali gus" covers a particular region, not by specific country or countries like Measat do. This helps to save costs to both satellite company and the client who wants to lease satellite capacity from them.

So that means, if Ansa Broadcast pick a satellite where coverage footprint covers mainly only Malaysia (just like Astro), it will cost higher for them to use that satellite lo. BUT, does that makes this one of an expensive option for Ansa, even if it is a Malaysian company? I don't know. If they find that their "budget" not so much and not want to spend so much on leasing satellite capacity yet, here are the potential choices for Ansa Broadcast to choose which satellite to provide the service:

Satellite dish position: WEST (any satellites that is before 100 °E, satellite dish position will face towards west in Peninsular Malaysia)

A) ABS 2/2A at 75 °E


ABS 2 SEA & South Korea beam


ABS 2A SEA Beam

Source: ABS Satellite

B) Measat 3/3a/3b at 91.5° E

Measat 3b Malaysia beam

This one you know la, same satellite as Astro. No need to explain further.

C) Asiasat 5 at 100.5° E
This satellite beam has been left unused since one of Indonesia satellite TV provider, Viva+ has ceased operations years ago.

Indonesia steerable Ku band beam
You can clearly see that it covers entire Malaysia although it is once meant for Indonesia.

However, Asiasat 5 has 14 Ku band transponders and currently being used for one of India pay TV service (used 4 transponders, according to Lyngsat) as well as satellite broadband services by other countries. I am not sure how many Ku band transponders left in this satellite, but I guess it is not much. If the remaining transponders is not much for this satellite, Ansa may not consider this satellite because they may not have the capacity to offer a lot of channels (especially HD) in the long term.

Source: Asiasat

Satellite dish position: EAST (any satellites that is after 100 °E, satellite dish position will face towards east in Peninsular Malaysia)
D) SES 9 at 108 °E

SEA beam

Although the beam seems to mainly focused on West Indonesia, but it is still receivable with strong/adequate signal in Malaysia.

Source: SES
----------------------

These are the satellites that I am not so sure if it is possible cuz I don't have much info about it, which are Chinasat 11 (98 °E) (Steerable beam) and Apstar 9 (142 °E) (Steerable beam).

Chinasat 11 Steerable beam
Source: Satbeams


Apstar 9 Steerable beam
Source: APSTAR

Steerable beam is where the satellite footprint coverage can be relocated to any different region within boundary limit (yeah they can move anytime they like, of course dependant on demand/request, not suka suka move). The ones that are not steerable beam means the footprint coverage are fixed and cannot be relocated, change, or modified.

As you can see, both steerable beam for Chinasat 11 and Apstar 9 seems to cover countries of northern part of South East Asia like Thailand, Laos, Myanmar all those. The thing is, I am not sure if any of those countries mentioned, or even any other countries outside steerable beam area you see on picture may be using it already? So, for that, I have no idea.
Asiasat 5's Indonesia steerable beam also possible that it has been relocated to other place to offer service to the region, that one I am also not sure. But I think, is no la...

So in conclusion, the high chance for Ansa to choose which satellites other than Measat (91.5 °E) would be either ABS 2/2a (75° E), or SES 9 (108 °E).

If Ansa Broadcast tend to "anti-Measat" because of Astro and those commercial satellites mentioned above doesn't seems to satisfy Ansa's needs to provide the service, then launch new satellite oh, which is even more $$$...

Why you think Measat is the only choice for them? Others that I mentioned also can fully cover Malaysia.

Transvision is one of a big company in Indonesia, they are rich enough to pay Measat for that.

As for channel offerings, it depends on the company's financial capabilities and also how many content/channels that are not yet been exclusive by Astro or Hypp TV. If exclusive already ones, then very hard lo...

ABNxcess ever offer HBO Signature, Family and Hits meh? How come I don't remember? Hmmm

True also. But the elevation of the satellite dish won't be "very low/down" also la... It's just slightly lower. If unlucky get blocked by obstacles like trees or building, then you got to relocate dish to somewhere else free from obstruction. This is common in other countries too, especially different pay TV providers offer services in different satellite.

MTV Live HD, yes. HBO, nope, never on ABNxccess.

If HBO is on ABNxcess, it won't be cheap to subscribe for sure.

Yes. Dish HD is using on North East Asia beam, so it is not receivable in Malaysia. And yeah, they are known for using HEVC codec too.

Ansa can create a milestone in Malaysia by making the first pay TV in Malaysia to implement HEVC on its channels. With better video compression codec, they can put more channels in one transponder compared to MPEG4.

From the look of the dish, aligning the dish from Measat to ABS 2 appears that it only move a little bit, and it doesn't different much.

In most cases, if you can receive Measat, you should be able to receive ABS 2, unless you really unlucky to have obstructions.

Movies pack

LOL, seriously? Okay... Looks that implementing HEVC technology for broadcasters is still a long way to go.