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.

Some people have their PS3 at home, they only use it for games and Bluray movie. But have you think of you are capable of playing HD video via the PS3? I have plenty of MKV format video in my computer (don’t ask me how do I obtain them), but then I only watch it on my PC. Now I realised that PS3 is a actually a media player too but unfortunately, it doesn’t support MKV file format. That’s the suckest thing to me.

Though, things don’t come to an end so fast. I have actually found guide on the net on how to watch MKV video on PS3. It’s pretty simple, convert it to a PS3 compatible format then transfer it to the PS3 then you are ready to go.

Some people are worried of video quality would be downgraded during the conversion but if you use the right software, it won’t. So the software is called mkv2vob, it’s a freeware, download it, convert it, transfer it.

Browse for your MKV file and select your destination directory which is also the output folder.

If your PS3 doesn’t connect to a amplifier via S/PDIF digital cable, you may not hear DTS surround sound, so you have to CHECK “Always Transcode DTS”.

On the other hand, if you want to transfer your file via a flash drive or portable HDD, you need to split your file. Sucks right? It’s because that PS3 only recognizes FAT32 format and the problem is you can’t transfer any file larger than 4GB into a FAT32 formatted HDD.

Unless that you have your PS3 connected into your network, you need not split it, you can just stream directly or just copy from your network.

As for me, my PS3 is not connected into my home network, my house runs wireless and it’s not capable for HD streaming. My method of watching MKV video without splitting is by burning the converted video into a dual layer 8.5GB DVD+/-R.

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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How do I connect a White Macbook to the Samsung 32″ HDTV without DVI cable but HDMI cable?

It’s all done with 3 things. The Display Port to DVI adapter, then the DVI to HDMI cable and in the end the Belkin HDMI cable which connect straight to the TV’s HDMI input.

It’s running like a charm without any setting. There’s no need any setting with the Macbook. One of the good of the Mac is it detect external display automatically and no need to change the display setting. I now watches high def MKV movie with VLC Player on via the Mac on my TV, running at 1368×768 resolution. Pretty!

The video about the new Samsung OmniaHD phone is cool. The Samsung Omnia HD featured a few great featured like the huge 3.7″ AMOLED screen, HD video recording and 8 megapixels camera.

I think…

If the OS and software is fast, then it’s a good phone. I just can’t stand with slow phone like my Nokia N95 has software lags. Another thing is the price, I assume it would be expensive when it releases in the market and you are recommended to have a unlimited data plan for your mobile because mobile Internet is getting more and more popular nowadays.

By the way, watch the video is HQ.

It’s the fact that Astro is still far away from the current television technology. DirectTV in United States which uses satellite signal has already provide high def content but not Astro in Malaysia.

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.