Its not the matter of when, its more of the matter "how".

Astro will need to make so many deals with their current channels, just to get HBO HD will cost them millions.
There many others like MTV, Discover Channel, National Geography, ESPN, Starports, etc. etc.

Then they will need to upgrade their own channels as well.

Then lastly, they will have to charge people sky high monthly payments just to recover their losses. How much will they charge, I don't know. But I am ready to say its more than RM500 atleast, a month. Majority won't pay for that.

Not all programs though, majority of them are.

But mostly the dynasty channels, they're downconverted from 480p...

Belief this, the animes on Animax are upscaled from 320x240......
They have a hell of a good scaler to even make the animes watchable.