Astro B.yond IPTV

Remember my Astro B.yond TVC Commercial shot last year?

After the launch of Astro B.yond and the launch of B.yond PVR (Personal Recording), Astro has launched the new Astro B.yond IPTV. Astro B.yond IPTV is a service that integrates regular/linear Astro channels with HD (High Definition), PVR (Personal Voice Recording) and Video On Demand, which also includes high-speed broadband and voice capabilities delivered via a fibre line powered by TIME. It comes with a top box with 500gigabytes capacity to store TV programmes.

Astro B.yond IPTV is brought by the partnership of Astro and TIME. Astro B.yond IPTV bring you the one and only line you’ll ever need with the best of 3 worlds in 1 service; Astro TV (HD, PVR, VOD), High Speed Fibre Broadband and Voice.

I was invited to their sneak preview at the newly opened Doubletree Hotel by Hilton.

In the sneak preview, we were shown features of the Astro B.yond IPTV. The PVR is one interesting feature. It allows you to record, pause live TV, rewind and forward a recorded programme. Series link is part of the PVR feature. It allows one to automatically record all episodes of a TV programme. Imagine being able to record all of Simpsons and Family Guy!

PVR menu

Unlike the IPTV of another telco, the PVR menu doesn’t lag. Surfing channel to channel is a breeze unlike the other IPTV. The other IPTV strangely takes some time to change channels.

The main highlight for me is their flexible broadband package. Lowest rate is RM128 for 3Mbps per month. Astro B.yond IPTV customers will be able to enjoy free high speed fibre broadband and VOD services until 30th June 2011. During the sneak preview, all pages were loaded at lightning speed!

Each Astro B.yond IPTV home will have a dedicated bandwidth of 100 Mbps, which is large enough to support 2 concurrent Astro B.yond boxes, each of them simultaneously recording up to 2 HD channels while watching either one of the HD channel or the recorded HD content and downloading the third VOD programme in HD, while leaving 30 Mbps, which is 30 times faster than the standard 1 Mbps, to support all connected devices such as laptops, tablet devices, mobile phones and games consoles on Wi-Fi within a single household.
Video on Demand (VOD) content is available on this IPTV platform. There will be a VOD library containing dramas, wellness and children series. The library will be expanded over time. It is now provided on complimentary basis until the second quarter of 2011. With VOD content, you may play any VOD content at any time and manage the playback of the show by pausing, forwarding and rewinding it at your convenience.

In view that the IPTV is provided by fibre, Astro service will not be affected by the rain. If you’re wondering why the old Astro services are affected by rain, this is because the transmission of content is by way of satellite. Once it starts raining, the signal between the satellite and your Astro dish will be affected by the rain.

VOD will also not affect your broadband speed as these services are provided via dedicated bandwidths for VOD.

Broadband packages

I was given an opportunity to try one of the test units of Astro B.yond IPTV at the venue. It is just like our normal Astro but with additional features. It now has more HD channels.

While playing with the test unit, I found this function.

Wow, you can logon to Twitter using Astro B.yond IPTV? This is interesting! TV and Twitter into one screen! However, this feature is still under testing and is not available yet. 🙁

Astro B.yond IPTV is now being rolled out in various parts of Malaysia. It is now in certain parts KL Golden Triangle, Bangsar and Sri Hartamas. You can check out Astro’s availability page.

For more information visit:

Website: http://www.astro.com.my/iptv/
Facebook: www.facebook.com/Astro
Twitter: www.twitter.com/astroonline