Hello all

used to have Time Fibre and Astro IPTV for the past years and now moving into an area where there is no TIME coverage unfortunately. So have to change broadband provider (either TM or Maxis). Astro wants to enslave me with another 24 months subscription (!!) even though I have been a loyal customer so long - so I am thinking to finally cut the cord on them, but I need alternatives. Only reasons for Astro for me was Live Sports (Bundesliga on Fox, Premier League, Olympics and this year Football WorldCup is coming up!). Movies / TV series I do not need Astro for I am willing to change to a paid subscription for streaming (Netflix, Amazon).

My questions:

1. Does anyone have Astro IPTV together with TM Unifi? Or is this not possible (as Unifi comes with HyppTV) and I have to use Maxis? I was lookign to get at least 50MBit/s download.
2. What is a recommended solution for streaming live sport events in high quality in terms of hardware (Android TV box, or the likes of Roku, Chromecast etc.) and software (Streaming service app) at a good cost? Also if I want to watch 4K content for movies / TV series?
3. I prefer a plug & play solution that works stable & sustainable and does not require much knowledge about networks, programming or special knowledge about VPN setups.

I tested over the past days a streaming solution from a friend
- Hardware: Himedia Q3 (I know very old but for testing ok)
- Software: CloudTV was pre-loaded, seems a China App but with subscription has about 400 channels.

The movie / TV series look very good & fluent in HD. But the Sports Channels picture is not as brilliant, clear and fluent as the Astro HD picture. Especially football match and F1 seems to have less frames / s and makes the viewing not so nice. Not sure if this is my low bandwith or the old hardware, but as I said movies look very good in HD.

Any suggestions what I can do?

Thanks

This post has been edited by pbilly: Mar 25 2018, 08:32 PM

Hello AV Fan

thanks for the comprehensive reply. May I put some comments / questions:

1. Yes Maxis is available in that area. I was thinking Unifi as they have promotion and their 50 MBit is currently cheaper (189RM per month) than Maxis 50 MBit (219RM). Unfortunately do not have TIME available in that area, their 500Mbit is even cheaper!
2. So I was thinking going TM Unifi and use an Android Box instead. Some users recommended Minix U9H, you recommend Mibox and use Astro Go on them instead of an Astro Decoder. The question is: is the quality of the HD picture uninterrupted and "fluent" like watching Astro IPT with an Astro Decoder. I assume not, I am no expert and somehow in Astro Decoder they alway allocate a certain bandwidth to ensure sutainable TV. I found this other thread here replied by you https://forum.lowyat.net/topic/4405774/all where it also does not seem to be the same quality
3. I still found an existing sattelite dish on the roof of the house I bought. Not sure though how this old school technology works with HD and how much it costs
4. Will definetely get a new Android Box and replace the Q3 (was just to get to know the stremaing topic). The question for me is just: do I use it in parallel to the Astro Decoder or do I do all-in-one with Astro Go.

For the All-in-one solution I see following pros & cons:

+ only one device for all
+ cheaper

- might be lower quality than Astro Decoder and less reliable

Yup you are right - you can't have it all. And do not get me wrong, I am willing to pay for good service. However the way how @stro is just treating me currently as a long term customer makes me really angry:

- I want 50MBit or 100MBit connection, but they force me "If you want Astro we package with Maxis and give you only 30 MBit" --> so they not only have the monopoly on the TV but also dictate what Broadband I have to take!! I currently have 100MBit with TIME and they want to give me for the same price 10MBit with Maxis, this is ridiculous
- the tone in their emails i very rude, they write to me "If you refuse to follow our advise, we will downgrade ... bla bla bla" not how you treat a loyal customer

So most likely I will do this:
- TM Unifi with Hypp TV has FOX --> I can watch Formula 1 and German Bundesliga , quality should be ok (as you replied to me in your other thread)
- for the upcoming world cup I will try a streaming option, and my fall back option is go to the Mamak and make some new friends


P.S.: Or do this https://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2018...-world-cup-too/

This post has been edited by pbilly: Mar 26 2018, 11:01 PM