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Everybody’s favorite satellite TV network - or rather, ONLY satellite TV network - Astro, has launched their new HD service on Friday called Astro B.yond. What this name has to do with the launch of their new HD channels is anyone’s guess, but then again this is a tech post, not a critique on their advertising campaign.

So yeah, you read right - Astro is now available in HD - but unfortunately, this service doesn’t encompass all their channels. In fact, the HD broadcast currently is only applicable to four channels in particular which are Astro Supersport HD, HBO HD, National Geographic Channel HD and HISTORY HD. The fifth HD channel, ESPN HD will go live in January 2010, rounding up the grand total of HD channels to five.

Not exactly the ground breaking upgrade that we were expecting, but then again to be fair to Astro, there aren’t that many HD shows available now either.

Having said that though, I have to give props to Astro because during a recent studio tour, they walked us through the ongoing upgrades to both their broadcasting rooms and their studios (which produce local content) and showed us that they were indeed planning on rolling out HD content of their own in the near future. Good news indeed!
The change to HD programming does come at a price though, and it is reasonably priced at an additional RM20 on top of your existing bill. However, there are some caveats to this deal - RM20 will not give you access to the HD channels if you do not already subscribe to the SD equivalents. In a nutshell, you won’t get Astro Supersport HD or ESPN HD unless you subscribe to the sports package, nor will you get National Geographic HD and History HD if you do not already subscribe to them.

In terms of hardware, the change to HD also means an overall change in decoder and receiver dish. You won’t be charged for the swap as long as you surrender your existing decoder. Speaking of which, the snazzy new decoder comes with a couple of surprises, namely a LAN port, a pair of USB ports. Astro has stated on their website that the DVR capabilities of this new box aren’t implemented yet, but when they are, programmes will be recorded onto an external HDD. These of course will be DRM protected, so you can junk the idea of pirating the recordings right here and now.

For more in depth details on how Astro B.yond works, hit up the official website at http://www.astro.com.my/byond/