Astro B.yond IPTV

Now more gamers join into the battle of broadband in Malaysia.This time,TIME,the fibre optics Internet service provider,cooperates with Astro,the satellite-based broadcasting service provider to launch Astro B.yond IPTV in some selected area.This is the service bundled with Astro+HD+PVR+VOD+Broadband.

They have several packages to choose:

I think it’s really attractive as Astro has rich contents of TV programmes and the price is actually almost the same with TM HSBB.However,the availability of this service is still very limited.

You can also check the availability in this page.

Not like TM or Maxis that bring all information out loudly,Astro is doing it quite secretly now.Maybe they are not well prepared?Or they are still doing it like trial?Who knows! :)

Skype with HD

HD(High definition) is everywhere now and Skype is turning into HD group too.The latest Skype Beta allows the users to make HD-quality calls to each other.That means the video conversation will be much clearer than ever before,just like talking in front of a table.However,some requirements need to meet in order to make the HD-quality call work:

Skype

  • a high-speed broadband connection (we recommend sustained 1 Mbps symmetrical bandwidth or higher)
  • a new HD webcam
  • a PC with a 1.8 GHz dual-core processor
  • Skype 4.2 Beta for Windows

Well,I’m now testing this new version.It’s working fine with Windows 7 and performing better than the previous versions which I used,especially on utilisation of bandwidth and quality of voice and video calls.I’m willing to try a HD-quality video call too,but I don’t fit the first two requirements.Skype will launch a series of HD webcams later in this year which has video encoding and processing onboard that optimizes the HD video.So the only issue is on the connection as in Malaysia,the largest ISP-TM only provides ADSL service to residential consumers that only has maximum 512Kbps for upload.I hope I could have a faster connection soon.

You could get more details for Skype here.