NJOI – Malaysia’s Free Satellite TV – NJOI, a service brought to you by Astro is Malaysia’s first free satellite TV for everyone. The part that is not free is that you have to buy your own satellite dish and decoder. It will be made available to all by 1st quarter of 2012. As for HD content, there’s no news about it.

NJOI provides 18 free TV channels and 19 Radio channels. Future plans include that user will be able to buy extra content through a prepaid method which will be made available by middle of 2012.

There’s still no image on the decoder and hardware setup yet. However, I think it’s a good initiative on delivering content for free to every Malaysian. HD content should be include in the service too so that everyone can enjoy a crystal clear digital content.

You can check out more about it at www.astro.com.my/njoi.

After watching blurry image of Thomas and Uber Cup on a big 55″ LCD TV, daddy finally can’t tolerate with the blurry image and subscribed to the only HD package in Malaysia and that is the Astro B.yond HD. With additional RM20 on top of current subscribed package of the Astro satellite TV, you get to watch 5 HD channel and 3 more coming soon.

There’s no charges for converting to HD, you only need to pay the monthly while the installation and set top box are free, provided you return your old Astro decorder.

I called Astro like 2 weeks ago and took them 10 days process my application, only then they send their cable man to install the new satellite dishes and the set-top box.

I live in an apartment and was using centralized satellite system, we need not to install a satellite dish for standard definition Astro, but the new HD need a new satellite dish. Since my apartment has not install the new satellite dish for the centralized thingy, the cable man has to install one for us. The new satellite dish is slightly bigger than the old one and is black in colour.

The new Astro B.yond HD has a new UI, the remote and response are pretty fast and output is HDMI. It’s only HDMI that can output to HD while component cable only can output to standard def. The cable man took a short time to set up the system, the new smartcard activated within minutes and I am so ready for HD.

There’s an EPG (Electronic Program Guide). It’s so much better and smoother than the Guide system in previous Astro.

There’s a new remote too. It’s white in colour. Lots of button and there’s button for PVR (Personal Video Recorder), the play, pause, record and rewind button. Unfortunately, for current B.yond subscriber, we have to pay RM5 to activate it and monthly for PVR service, you have to buy your own HDD though. Or on the other hand, change to the new B.yond PVR decorder (need to pay RM400), then RM10 per month for the recording service. Sucks a bit right? PVR is suppose to be free! Just like Tivo! I not very interested in PVR at the moment though. =)

So is there any difference between HD and non HD? Yes, there’s big difference. The 5 channel, ESPN HD, Astro Supersports HD, National Geographic HD, History Channel HD and HBO HD are super sharp.

High definition.

Standard definition.

HD channel output via normal AV cable. It’s letterboxed.

Now I really hope for more HD channel. The next 3 channels updating soon are FX HD, AXN HD and Astro Zhizhun HD, a Chinese channel. Excited. I’m looking forward for Discovery HD, Star Movies HD, CNN in HD and of course, the Hong Kong’s TVB series on Astro On Demand in HD. Come on, faster bring them in!

One more thing, I need to look for coaxial to Toslink for the digital audio output because my amp at home support Toslink input only.

Oh my god! This is too good to be true, but don’t be happy yet until the real thing is out, at least on their website first. I read the news today and it’s about Astro CEO talking about the HD content for Astro, the satelite TV in Malaysia. I felt bullshiting after reading the news, because she should had said all these 2 years back. What’s the time now? It’s almost 2010 and Hong Kong and Singapore are so ahead from us on HD content. Not good to be mad though because we have to accept the fact.

So, Astro will launching their high-definition content next month (it’s from the news) and will releasing a new PVR (Personal Video Recorder) next year, hopefully it’s something on par with the Tivo or better.

According to Astro, the HD set-top box will be available by year-end, and an external HDD for PVR can be added optionally, meaning that they will not be releasing a HD PVR set-top box by year end.

I personally think that HD content is good, I would definitely switch to it, but somehow I don’t really watch HD sports because I am not into sports, documentary in HD maybe cool etc. National Geographic HD, and I wouldn’t want to watch delayed American series because I am following what’s showing in the US, downloaded directly from the net, so guess if the HD is here, I would probably watching Hong Kong’s TVB drama in HD. That’s all.

Interested in HD, or not?

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Anyway, let’s wait and see when will Astro jump in to high definition. So sad that TVB drama shows in Hong Kong is actually high def but when it comes to Malaysia on Astro On Demand channel, it turns into standard definition.

Sometimes, you may notice 2 black bar when watching some show on Astro On Demand channel, (chn 901-950). It’s actually a widescreen show and originally shown as 16:9 in high definition in Hong Kong, but it turns into a letterbox standard definition in Malaysia.

I am a fan of high definition and widescreen pictures. So I don’t really mind changing the setup when I saw there’s a letterbox on the television screen. Just pick up your remote control and press the zoom key or picture size to zoom in to remove the letterbox.

The what you see is in widescreen but a little bit lousy quality because of low resolution.