On your PVR there, home>Preferences>Recordings
Change the Hard Disk management mode to "Manual", not "Auto" or "Warning".
So that it won't auto delete any of your programmes to make way for new programmes.
Once you set to Manual, you will not able to record or download new programmes once your hard disk is full, unless you delete the programmes by your own.

4K UHD broadcasts is definitely H.265 HEVC onwards, and a new STB is required for that.

If Astro uses H.265 HEVC entirely for its SD and HD channels, along with 4K UHD channels, then all Astro B.yond customers will have to replace their STBs again that supports H.265 HEVC. There's no word that the Astro B.yond boxes that we are using now, supports HEVC.

If they still uses MPEG4 and able to provide even more channels in each transponder without reducing video/audio bitrate, that's very likely that they changed the FEC setting from their side, to squeeze in more channels in each transponder while sacrificing reception robustness which in result, slightly easier to lose signal when heavy rains.

With the use of lower FEC rate, Astro can squeeze in more SD/HD channels per transponder, means easily more channels for customers, so that they need not to spend more money in having so many transponders for more channels to customers for the sake of not easier to lose signal when heavy rains.

Last time, the FEC rate on Measat 3a is 3/5, max 6 HD channels per transponder. Now they reduced to 3/4, so that each transponder can accommodate 8 HD channels on Measat 3a. Later, they changed all FEC rate on all Measat 3b transponders from 3/4 to 5/6, that's why you see the number of HD channels has increased from 8 to 10 HD channels without affecting video/audio quality, but when it is slightly easier to lose signal when heavy rain since FEC rate is lower for the STB to correct data errors/loss during heavy rain has reduced. But since Measat 3b signal is stronger than 3 and 3a, it shouldn't be a really big big issue as long your satellite dish is properly aligned and the cabling is not too much signal loss due to attenuation like long distance cabling or the use of splitter.

And also, upgrade from DVB-S to DVB-S2 also plays a role, as S2 can provide more bandwidth capacity = more channels for customers. And a full DVB-S2 use can only happen once Astro officially discontinue the use of legacy STBs, and all existing legacy STB users must upgrade to B.yond box in order to continue watching Astro/Njoi.

In simple words, somewhat yes.

Do note that FEC rates for DVB-S and DVB-S2 are different, as the technology is different and you can't compare directly.

As far as I remember, nope.
Thanks for the link anyway.

Astro Tutor TV PT3 is taking a break for now. Hmm, due to syllabus change?

Translation:
We are in the process of updating Tutor TV PT3 contents.
Stay tuned for latest changes on June.

For any enquiries, send an email to wecare@astro.com.my

Nah... Astro is very stingy when it comes to HD.
They wanna make sure the channel has high viewership first, or some other reasons why they should provide the channel in HD, or else they won't even bother.

Whether got plan or not, I would say, restoring an education channel (similar like Astro Tutor TV channels) on RTM is not their utmost priority la.
Their utmost priority now is how to make RTM great again...

And even if they have education channel(s) like I mentioned, how many students would watch it? Is it effective in the long run?
They would rather provide more sports content and entertainment shows rather than providing those.

The ones you see now, is still the old PT3 syllabus, that's why.
Perhaps they are producing the new ones along with the new syllabus.

Yes.

The rest of the time, Tutor TV PT3 will only show this:
https://forum.lowyat.net/index.php?showtopi...post&p=92485006

It appears that not only Astro are affected by this.
Even Singapore's pay TV, Singtel TV, are also affected.
https://www.facebook.com/singtel/posts/10156864367861677
it is believed that there's some technical issue on the Measat 3a satellite (C band), which seem to causes the issue, as all the channel source mentioned in that post, are from the same Measat 3a satellite source. But it was ratify hours later.

Good news to all Astro centralised dish customers where HD was "not fully supported".

If previously you are unable to watch some HD channels due to your building's centralised dish system that is "not fully support HD", well now you are able to tune to all HD channels without satellite signal conflicts anymore. Meaning, you won't be seeing the "Services currently not available" message, as Astro has recently migrated all HD channels from Measat 3a to Measat 3.

If you still get the "Services currently not available" message even if there is no rain on some HD channels, do leave your Astro box to standby mode to allow it to perform background latest channel list update.

However, 2 Astro UHD channels (CH844 and 845) is still on Measat 3a satellite as usual.

Technical info (Ignore if you don't understand):

How did you register yourself for the new beta UI? Send us the link

Not day to day use.
At least 10Mbps is required for watching On Demand content to buffer and work properly.

For now, the new UI only stream On Demand content, adaptive bit rate streaming, meaning if your Internet is fast, you'll watch it in HD. If slow, then poorer quality, similar to Astro Go.
It does not download and save the On Demand to the hard disk like the previous UI.
So if you have a slow Internet connection (<10Mbps), this may affect your user experience of accessing On Demand content.

I have signed up for the beta programme as well, and my PVR box has been updated to the new beta UI v1.1.
I find that the new beta UI v1.1 does look similar like Android TV. Well, Astro previously did mention that the new UI shall be Android-Linux based.
Even the font has changed from Trebuchet MS to Roboto. Roboto font is commonly used on Android system.
It does look very clean and modern, button designs are bigger, similar like the modern smart TV and boxes would like.
The VOD content suggestions (press home button, and then Catch Up, Movies,...), is so much better compared to the previous UI.
For that, good job, Astro.

As for the adaptive bit rate streaming of the VOD content, the picture quality is very similar to Astro Go. I think Astro use the same video file from Astro Go platform onto Astro STB's On Demand platform. Which in my opinion, it looks bad on TV. The picture quality for On Demand content on previous UI (that requires download and store to hard disk) is much better.

Also, I'm not sure why. When I first use it, the user interaction response time is really bad. Even changing a channel takes 2-3 seconds for the screen to go black and then tune to that channel, way worse than the B.yond HD zapper box (the one that has no clock/channel number display on front panel). And some of my previous older recordings appeared to be missing on My Library. Looks like a software bug, so after I tried restart my Astro PVR box, and reconnect to my WiFi, the user interaction response time has significantly improved and all my previous recordings are back.

But still, the user interaction respond time of the previous UI is more instant and quite realtime. So yeah, do expect the new beta UI is slightly slower to load things.

For parental control, you must enter PIN only if the content is rated 21, especially Game of Thrones from VOD.
By default, rated 18 content and below don't need to enter PIN. You can change the settings.
I don't need to enter any PIN to watch any VOD content. Change your parental control settings to rated 21.
It seems that only rated 21 content is mandatory to enter PIN, and there's no way to disable it.

Of course you can use LAN.

https://www.facebook.com/Astro/photos/a.101...?type=3&theater
Hmmm...

This post has been edited by joshhd: May 21 2019, 02:19 AM

Yes, except Star Chinese Channel, TVB Jade Pack channels, WWE Network, Box Office Sport and Astro First/Best.