Yeah I did try it out that feature. Your PVR box needs to connect to the same WiFi network same as your smartphone (e.g. your home WiFi) in order for it to work.
It's pretty cool, but I don't think I'm gonna use it on daily basis.

Kah Lai Toi channel is operated by another company, not by Astro. It is the company that wants the channel to be pulled off from Astro, not the other way round.
After all, Kah Lai Toi is considered as a free channel, since this channel is part of NJOI channel lineup.

The best is definitely install own dish... No need to headache all those technical stuff.
If connect to your building's centralise dish, better is if your wall socket there got 2 satellite ports to be connected to your PVR box. Otherwise, it will be quite complicated to find a suitable solution, if your wall socket only has 1 satellite port.

Maxis is liddat one... If other telco push to move forward, then only Maxis will follow suit.
If others keep quiet, Maxis also keep quiet while earning profit.

In terms of network performance, webe and Maxis network is far way different oh...
Maxis is well known for its "most expensive plans in Malaysia", but the overall network performance, can say it is very good.

You pay for what you get lor...
For business and heavy usage users that really wants an overall reliable network, still Maxis is a better choice. Same goes to Maxis Fibre.

But if you want "value of money" plans, Maxis is not your choice.

That feature is currently not available for content downloaded from On Demand platform.
That "Series Link" is only available for recorded programmes, but not downloaded programmes from On Demand.

What makes you think that Astro is somewhat, rushing all customers to upgrade to B.yond boxes?
There are many customers out there where their legacy STBs still works fine. For them, there's no solid reason to upgrade, except the fact that the STB is newer design, UI is nicer, it supports HD and other services, which not every customers are interested in. Plus, adding a 12 months contract is not something that every customer likes.


Astro will always find ways to earn more and more money. Who doesn't want to earn more money? Even if you monopolised a market and you are already a billionaire, they are still being greedy and still want to earn more money. Astro won't likely to do something for free to customer unless it is beneficial to them. They can earn more money by imposing installation fee of course. Astro would be like "You think B.yond box are free? We'll charge you for that. At least let customers who still using legacy boxes to continue using it, until it spoils for whatever reason we don't care, then we'll replace them with B.yond box. Otherwise, many customers will bising, think that "using B.yond box" equivalent to add more more money in the subscription fee because of the HD service.

There's no reason to wonder "why this why that" for Astro, cuz the answer is all about money. You do business for what? Of course earn money lor.

Well, Astro PVR box does have 500GB hard disk built-in, where you can record 100 hours HD content or 290 hours SD content.
Video bitrate for MPEG 4 video codec are usually variable, meaning it keeps on fluctuating, and it is not constantly same bitrate all the time. Average is 5Mbps, but depending on the scene, it can go around 6-7Mbps or even spike over 10Mbps especially in fast moving scenes, or even as low as 1-2Mbps if the scene does not move much. This is pretty much the nature of variable bitrate video.

Besides video bitrate, don't forget the audio as well. Astro uses HE-AAC 64kbps for Stereo track while AC3 (Dolby) 384kbps for Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound track for HD channel, while MP2 192kbps for MPEG2 SD channel. And yet, some channels even have multiple audio tracks, which add up even more bandwidth used.

Maybe around the year of 2021, where Measat 3 satellite to be retired after 15 years of operation since 2006.
They might somewhat "refresh" the channels as Astro migrate its SD channels to Measat 3b (very likely). Not sure, just saying.

I mean, we as customers sure will experience a little bit of disruption while watching Astro during migration process from Measat 3 to 3b, especially dealing with transponder frequencies. Will see how...

But it depends on the fuel level of the satellite also. If the fuel still sufficient to extend, then it can be extended more than its expected operation lifetime period, like for example extend around 4 years also possible (just like Indonesian satellite Telkom 1 while waiting for new satellite to replace it).

That one I know.. That news quite shocked to me also (although not related to me). They claimed that it can be operated for extra few years by using some efficient ways to save fuel. But later found out that satellite imagery shows that the satellite has destroyed, as if it got hit by something and debris are everywhere. They quickly move to graveyard orbit to prevent potential interference with other satellites.

Not sure how, but I 99% sure that it is not via satellite.
Either they use fibre network to deliver the channels/content/services, or they point-to-point relay.

What 21:9 or "Only Scan" mode view are you talking about? Could you tell us where did you get such info??? 21:9 is an aspect ratio for anamorphic format TV or monitors, which is designed to give users a full screen experience when viewing anamorphic format content, or more viewing content in a single screen.



The small, blurry black pixels on the left/right side of the screen is known as nominal analogue blanking, and it is not mainly related to aspect ratio stuff.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nominal_analogue_blanking
That one involves in very deep technical stuff involving old analogue video technologies that somewhat shaped the digital video today. As of now, I still don't fully understand the entire story behind that "blanking" in the sides of the screen that we all see in some Astro channels today.

One of the example that Astro still has that "nominal analogue blanking" is MTV channel. Take a closer look at the sides of this screenshot. As you can see, there's a "blank pixels" at both left and right sides of this 4:3 video.



If your HDTV is displaying 100% image and let say you tune to MTV channel on Astro, this is what you will see: (look at left and right side of this picture)



But honestly, I'm not sure why Astro wasn't aware about that, or they aware about it but they don't care? I don't know. But, this nominal analogue blanking only occurs to some SD 4:3 channels only, not all like that. But I believe this can be eliminated if Astro's broadcast technical team to properly set the video settings.

I'm not so interested about that nominal analogue blanking because for me, it is something commonly seen in old tech stuffs. For example you might see that blanking in some old VCDs movies that you still keep (some DVDs also got). Cuz older TVs like CRT TVs and older LCD TVs tends to overscan the image a little bit, so very unlikely you won't be see that blanking, but if you play it on today's modern TVs where it is now commonly display 100% image, then you might see that blanking pixels on the sides.

That "blanking" may not be visible if your TV overscan the overall image. Overscan is where your TV tends to zoom/crop in entire picture by 5-10%, so that means you are seeing less picture detail/information (I mean "detail" is, you tend to see lesser things compared to other people's TV that do not overscan and display 100%, not the sharpness detail ya). When it overscans, you are be actually seeing only 90-95% of the entire picture, not 100%. Newer or latest TVs usually don't overscan and displays 100%, but however some TVs do provide option to display 100% image without overscan and different TVs may indicate the setting name differently, such as turning "Overscan" as On or Off, or "Image size" as 100%, or change your TV display mode to Game mode.

You may search Google to know more about overscan.
Please note that this overscan/underscan is about your TV set, and it is not related to aspect ratio or even Astro.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overscan

This post has been edited by joshhd: Oct 12 2017, 02:14 AM

This kind of overscan/underscan thing is not something that many normal consumers will be aware or know about it, and not even every gamers knows that, until this kind of thing has brought to light on eGG Network, where many people complain why the entire picture has been "cropped off".

Currently, eGG Network (ch808) will "underscan" (opposite meaning of overscan) the entire image from their side by around 5% whenever they air any game matches (as shown on picture below), regardless of live broadcasts or repeats.


As you can see, there's about 5% black bars on the sides, cuz when you underscan, it actually zooms out the actual 100% image.
So if your TV overscans it, it will zoom back in around 5%, so eventually you can see the entire image without cropping. This is what eGG Network is doing.

This is after they received tons of complaints from viewers saying that their TVs set unable to see the sides of the picture (e.g. game scores, map) during the live game match.

At first, many viewers bombard Astro Facebook page, and the customer service representatives also blur blur, don't know what happen. They thought is aspect ratio problem faced by viewers cuz what they heard from customers is "cannot see entire image" or "the sides were cropped off". So they advise viewers to make sure the viewing mode is set to "Fit to screen" by pressing the "aspect ratio/display mode" button (a rectangle shape with square shape inside the rectangle) on Astro remote control. Of course, that advise is not helping at all, LOL. But now you know, it was the overscan problem that occurs on many viewer's TV set, and yet many viewers complained and blamed Astro for that, and then say those not nice words like "I pay you so much money yet you give me this kind of service?".
Of course Astro is being patient with that, since they are already suck a lot of money from customers already.

So, for your info, eGG Network broadcasts in 16:9 aspect ratio only.

This post has been edited by joshhd: Oct 12 2017, 02:22 AM

"Asli HD" is what Videocon d2h's market their HD channel offerings in Full HD 1080i quality...
Nothing much, just a marketing.

Ohh... I guess you must be using Philips's Cinema 21:9 TV, am I right?
Philips already discontinued that, and no more releasing new models due to lack of demand.

Really? I did watch Asia's Got Talent earlier, but I didn't notice any pixelated picture also...

When u see SCNA, that means your Astro box is unable to get any satellite signal from your satellite dish for the channel you're watching.

Check the cable connection your Astro box, and your satellite dish.

Ohhh... What are the English pay TV channels that is still exclusive under Starhub? I know HBO channels is one of it.

Why Starhub ensures that the channels are not indicated as "Exclusive"? I mean, what's wrong with indicating that? They don't want to cross-carriage to Singtel TV?

Because the costs of laying fibre cables and infrastructure are very high, so it is why TM prioritise on laying fibre cables to those urban areas first.

Sometimes laying fibre cables may be difficult in terms of costs and difficulties. For example, if they got to lay cables from the nearest "main fibre distribution point" to a small village areas where population isn't high, considering the long distance, the irregular terrains (a lot of hills), etc., eventually it makes the costs of laying fibre cables to be inefficient and expensive. This is also why it seems to take forever for Unifi to be made available in those areas.

In some rural places where the main fibre distribution point is too far away, TM will use high speed wireless backhaul for its ADSL service, Streamyx, rather than fibre-backhaul-to-copper. This is also why some areas where Streamyx only support 1Mbps, or 4Mbps max.

If you say bcuz they dont wan easy access to internet to the people there, then I don't agree... Cuz many kampung areas got 3G or even 4G networks already. So, the people there can access to internet already, so they can easily get information liao... But mostly are youngsters using the internet there la...