Just had my Astro B.yond High Definition (HD) service installed last Thursday after a delay of 2 days due to a problem with the set top box (more on that later).
My initial opinion after viewing the 4 available channels? HD is good... if not Excellent!!
How it works is that Astro will swap the satelite dish, set top box, smart card and remote control with the old set. Additional charge of RM20 will be included in the monthly bill from April 2010 onwards. That's pretty much the gist of it. Also the hardware as I know now belongs to Astro and is under a lifetime warranty.
One thing that you need to also take note of is that the smart card is paired with the set top box and cannot be used on any other decoder/set top box including the old ones. That's one way of restricting you taking your smart card anywhere and slotting it into any available set top box. Smart move by Astro but not good for the rest of us.
For the subscribtion, I called in to Astro on 30 December 2009 and was told that the installer will be calling me for an appointment within 10 - 15days. I got a call on 4 January 2010 and the installation took place on the 5th. Quite good response if I do say so.
However my joy turned to dissapointment during installation when the installer discovered that the assigned set top box was faulty as it could not get the necessary signal strength. So he had to take it back to get it checked. There goes QC out of the door. The service was finally up and running yesterday.
On viewing the HD channels you can't help but compare the clarity and quality with the normal standard definition (SD) channels. Even the audio quality is a few steps above (it's in Dolby Digital). All of these tells me that HD is definately the way to go. Even with my current LCD TV (which is only 'HD ready') plugged into a mini hifi system (without Dolby Digital), the quality still shows.
One thing still baffles me though is that my better half still cannot see the difference in quality. Can this only be a guy thing?
Cheers!
