Astro B yond HDTV

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Boxing day morning brought a call from Astro.

"Can install Astro B yond today?" -  wow only 7 days after applying online.

Installation and set up was fast and easy. 

Full HD progs especially the Sport is amazing.

Only 4 channels so far with ESPN coming later this month.  A much better EPG too.  PVR to follow in about 3 months time (Malaysian months that is)


Thoroughly recommended albeit still light years behind SKY

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For those of us not yet in Malaysia, what is EPG and PVR?  ESPN I know.

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EPG = Electronic Program Guide - Just like SKY in the UK

PVR = Personal Video Recorder - Like SKY+  its basically a video recorder but uses a hard disc not tape

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hi,

EPG & PVR added to glossary. 

I've googled ESPN but all I got was ESPN. What does it stand for? (European Sports Programming Network?)

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It's Entertainment and Sports Programming Network, Inc.

Added to Glossary.

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Boxing day morning brought a call from Astro.

"Can install Astro B yond today?" -  wow only 7 days after applying online.

Installation and set up was fast and easy. 

So... how come you can get Astro B yond in 7 days, and I cannot get bog-standard Astro in 4 weeks?

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For Shirley    Well, we chased up 3 times now and the only answer we got was that "...it has to be registered in KL and there are delays due to the festive season..."  regards, papaya

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I applied through the electrical shop where I bought all my electrical stuffs.. it was fast.Astro beyond is like have to pay 20RM per month extra. Is it as good as advertised?

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I have Astro Beyond. The few HD channels are a dupication of other channels that you recieve. The resolution is amazing. The downside is that when it is windy, stormy or raining the channels don't come in. This is a common occurence. It is nothing like you may have been used to back home.

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Astro in previous condo was from that electrical shop in Fettis Park ("Sec" in Prima Tanjung strip mall), very fast service, in 2 days!
When we moved, we got them (Sec) to transfer to new place using the same Dish, and cost less. Done the next day!

We signed up when Astro B-yond had big promotion in Gurney Plaza foyer about 4 months ago. Participated in a guessing game and received a T-shirt and couple of rubber balls Technician came to install new Dish and Box 3 wks later saying they were very busy with the upgrades.
As tv is HDTV, images are excellent. Just got so used to all the shorter faces on the screen these few years, with HD the faces are back to normal and they look weird for a while.
There's an optional recording service attached to B-yond, cost a bit extra and requires another gadget that I considerd fairly costly when I don't record any thing. But for people who do not want to miss out on sports it might be worth it.

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Hi
I went to the Astro site trying to get an idea of the cost of the various plans but all silent on that front.
Based on a one year contract what is the cost of Sports (must have tennis but can live without Premier League), plus news and very little else. SD is okay but if HD is not much more I would consider.

I was thinking of going to the movies today but the revenge of the Phiranas was not quite my style. 

Cheers

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Hi Donohue,

We went to the Astro shop direct in P Tikus (starting to wish we hadn't now) and we wanted just Sports and News channels, which is "1 Mini Package + Sports" which is RM 66.95 per month.  We chose the "News mini package" which is CNN, BBC World, Al Jazeera English, CNBC Asia, Bloomerg TV and Australia Network AND the "Sports package' which is Astro Supersport, ESPN, Star Sports, Eurosport, Golf Channel, Astro Supersport 2 and ESPNews.  But of course... we aint got it yet 

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ASTRO HD Sports is a Gazillion times better than Astro SD (which is nowhere near as good as, say, SKY SD in the UK)

If you can go to a large TV /Electrical outlet and watch a Football/Baseball or Gridiron game on a FULL HD (not HD ready).  You will be amazed at the quality.

The Astro PVR is also a neat bit of kit.  Like a Sky+ box but maybe not quite as good and the software/EPG is again not as good as SKY.  But its not bad at all.

They charge an extra 20RM for HD and 10RM for PVR each month.    Sky also used to charge 10 quid extra for Sky+ (now free) and still charge I believe 10 quid for HD, so Astro is pretty good value.

Plus with a normal Astro HD box you can plug in a stand alone Hard Disc to then use it as a PVR.  But a quality Hard Disc is approx 300-350 RM.  The Astro PVR was I believe 350RM all in (inc installation).  To me it was  a no brainer.


All we now need is for the number of HD channels to increase

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 Thanks Sag and  Papaya for that vauable info.
Kindest regards   

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Hi all,

Applied the AstroBeyond on Thursday at a Astro stall /Giant C&C. About an hour ago, came the Astro technician and installed.Great service!
Clear ,sharp and great sound!


Cheers,
Shirley