207 replies to this topic

[duke]

I get the works with two HD mystars plus a couple of other normal Austar decoders. Foxtel for the same works out cheaper and you get more HD channels.

[BamBBBam]

Skid_MacMarx, on May 26 2011, 10:28 AM, said:

As I said before, for those not into sport, I can't see the current model as value for money.

Depends where you live. Most of WA doesn't yet have any local digital commercial tv - only analogue GWN & WIN.

For those people, Foxtel is a godsend. Why do you think Foxtel always kept WA and handed the other scraps to Austar? They knew where the subscriber numbers were almost the whole town.

[digitalj]

and when it happens will Austar be re-branded as Foxtel? or will Foxtel keep the Austar branding in regional areas?

[viewer]

unclewhimsy, on May 27 2011, 09:53 AM, said:

I for one am eager to see what this acquisition brings to my household. I have been lobbying to get Foxtel where I am for years, but have JUST recently been told I am in an Austar area. My father in law got Foxtel about 8 years ago and he lives next door. We are both on a farm just outside Canberra, which to both pay tv moguls was until recently a 'grey' area. None of them wanted to 'step-up' and claim our business!!??

I am interested in the Foxtel equipment (IQHD etc) so I don't want to subscribe to Austar.

I am hoping that this deal has a positive effect on me getting Foxtel coverage/equipment now?? What do you think my chances are??

David.

I think I would be a naughty boy if I were you, and get dad to order a 2nd set top box, if he is on satellite, and not cable.

Then I'd arrange a dish be erected at your house ( antenna installer can do it if you can't), then move the extra decoder from his house to your house, connect to the dish, and go halves in the bill.

Problem solved...some good samaritans will come back here and tell you this is breaking terms and conditions...you figure what is really the best for you, but you would not be alone in doing that.

[Hosko]

digitalj, on May 27 2011, 04:38 PM, said:

and when it happens will Austar be re-branded as Foxtel? or will Foxtel keep the Austar branding in regional areas?

Makes more sense to dump the Austar brand, I'm sure MyStar's would be another on the chopping block.

[davmel]

Basil, on May 27 2011, 08:42 AM, said:

I haven't been following this closely but if it gets approved i think we will see Optus also allowed into the "bush".

Yes, Optus recently signed an agreement to not only provide Foxtel on the Optus HFC network but also via sat in Foxtel areas. If Foxtel has access to the entire country then Optus will be able to re-sell to anyone regardless of where they are.

[davmel]

digitalj, on May 27 2011, 04:38 PM, said:

and when it happens will Austar be re-branded as Foxtel? or will Foxtel keep the Austar branding in regional areas?

Foxtel aren't going to keep the Austar brand for some sentimental reason. It will be erased completely and all the crappy Austar STB's will be replaced by Pace IQ boxes from Foxtel gradually over time. Foxtel doesn't want to manage and pay license fees for two different encryption systems let alone maintain software for the bug ridden pile of crap middleware software in Austar boxes from Thomson.

[viewer]

Lovely comments davmel     ...like

[DrP]

Perhaps Austar's Thomson boxes will be rebirthed with 'NDS' and Foxtel's clearly superior front end.  There's nothing wrong with the hardware per se (apart from some IR issues on the original mystar).  Its always possible that they could be sold off or even scrapped, but given the numbers of sets that Austar has reportedly purchased and that Foxtel does not have a PVR with terrestrial tuners ....

Time will tell.

[davmel]

DrP, on May 29 2011, 12:20 PM, said:

Perhaps Austar's Thomson boxes will be rebirthed with 'NDS' and Foxtel's clearly superior front end.

There is a reason why Foxtel choose Pace STB's and NDS because the parent compannies are all related. The products are customised to work together and I don't know of any pay tv operator using NDS and OpenTV with Thomson boxes. Thomson is mostly used with pay tv operators that favour Irdeto and Nagra. There may well be technical issues that prevent loading the OpenTV middleware that Foxtel uses on the Thomson boxes.
Does the regular MyStar even support H.264 and DVB-S2? Because Foxtel would want to move all sat customers over to H.264 and DVB-S2 capable STB's (like current IQ and IQHD models) to allow all SD channels to be changed over to H.264 and DVB-S2 to provide much more capacity. This will be made much easier after an acquisition since as we all know Austar was always the one dragging their feet. Foxtel will no longer have to wait until Austar bothers to swap out their prehistoric ADB etc decoders so we could see a roadmap for a change to universal H.264 SD and HD broadcasts within a few years (possibly even before analogue terrestrial FTA broadcasting is finished!). It would be amusing indeed if Foxtel managed to completely move to H.264 before terrestrial FTA even fully migrated to MPEG-2 digital.

[DrP]

davmel, on May 29 2011, 02:26 PM, said:

There is a reason why Foxtel choose Pace STB's and NDS because the parent compannies are all related. The products are customised to work together and I don't know of any pay tv operator using NDS and OpenTV with Thomson boxes. Thomson is mostly used with pay tv operators that favour Irdeto and Nagra. There may well be technical issues that prevent loading the OpenTV middleware that Foxtel uses on the Thomson boxes.
Does the regular MyStar even support H.264 and DVB-S2? Because Foxtel would want to move all sat customers over to H.264 and DVB-S2 capable STB's (like current IQ and IQHD models) to allow all SD channels to be changed over to H.264 and DVB-S2 to provide much more capacity. This will be made much easier after an acquisition since as we all know Austar was always the one dragging their feet. Foxtel will no longer have to wait until Austar bothers to swap out their prehistoric ADB etc decoders so we could see a roadmap for a change to universal H.264 SD and HD broadcasts within a few years (possibly even before analogue terrestrial FTA broadcasting is finished!). It would be amusing indeed if Foxtel managed to completely move to H.264 before terrestrial FTA even fully migrated to MPEG-2 digital.

That it isn't done doesn't mean it can't or won't be done.  Austar uses OpenTV, Foxtel uses OpenTV - the underlying middleware is the same.  I can't think of a decent explanation for Foxtel's layer to not be able to run on Austar's Thomson boxes.  Thomson boxes support NDS, it all depends on what is loaded onto the box.

Mystar does not support DVB-S2 nor MPEG-4 AVC, but neither does Foxtel's original IQ and Foxtel has a shed load of its own non-PVR and original IQ boxes that it has to relieve itself of before it can convert the viewerbase to DVB-S2 and MPEG-4 AVC enmasse.  Then there is the MyStar HD which can handle DVB-S2, MPEG-4 AVC and of course FTA terrestrial.

I have no doubt that Foxtel will move to a fully MPEG-4 AVC system before FTA does.  It shouldn't be that surprising really.  Pay TV, unlike FTA, doesn't have to keep MPEG-2 hanging around for 15 years because the little old lady down the road still has the receiver she bought in 1997.

[unclewhimsy]

viewer, on May 29 2011, 11:47 AM, said:

Lovely comments davmel     ...like

+1!

[thunderball]

i like recording fta on mystar its best feature, so if foxtel take over i cant do this anymore can i?

[DrP]

That remains to be seen.

[DR.ZOIDBERG]

If Foxtel take over Austar I hope the prices dont rocket up. They should drop them a bit to get my clients. Their batter is with FTA

[davmel]

Magnum72, on Jun 1 2011, 09:34 AM, said:

Sure can. Cable has all FTA channels, satellite is missing a couple.

WTH are you on about???? Austar isn't serviced by cable, only by sat so mentioning cable is pointless, and as for satellite missing a couple FTA channels, that is incorrect. There are no commercial regional FTA channels relayed via sat (outside of the VAST system). Regional Austar customers converted to Foxtel aren't allowed to view metro FTA commercial channels relayed by Foxtel.

[Smacca]

davmel, on Jun 1 2011, 09:22 AM, said:

WTH are you on about???? Austar isn't serviced by cable, only by sat so mentioning cable is pointless, and as for satellite missing a couple FTA channels, that is incorrect. There are no commercial regional FTA channels relayed via sat (outside of the VAST system). Regional Austar customers converted to Foxtel aren't allowed to view metro FTA commercial channels relayed by Foxtel.

Austar is serviced by cable in some areas, namely Darwin. But if Austar subscribers think they'll suddenly be able to get 7, 9 and 10 channels from the east, then they're crazy. I have Foxtel in regional WA, and the only FTA's I can get are ABC1/2/3 and SBS1/2, just like in Adelaide, Perth and the GC. The same goes for ex-Austar satellite subs.

[davmel]

Smacca, on Jun 1 2011, 02:53 PM, said:

Austar is serviced by cable in some areas, namely Darwin.

Austar dropped their Darwin cable service a few years back after converting all sub sites to direct sat. The transmodulation from sat transponders to cable multiplexes was only necessary when the old B3 sat signals were too weak for direct home reception with small dishes. After C1 was launched there was no need for the Darwin cable network (although signal levels are useless in wet season storms).
But getting back to the point, Austar subs will NOT get commercial FTA channels via sat unless they are in the license areas of the metro broadcasters that are already on the sat. So some lucky Austar subscribers on the outer fringes of the capital cities will get sat access after Foxtel takes over, but for all others you'll have to use another device or a VAST receiver if eligible.

[Smacca]

davmel, on Jun 1 2011, 01:10 PM, said:

Austar dropped their Darwin cable service a few years back after converting all sub sites to direct sat.

Interesting. Even their website says it still exists. Oh well, they are hopeless at a lot of things...

[thunderball]

i live in lithgow nsw and you can get 7, 9, 10 in many parts of town so i dont know how that works because we also get the regional channels. if i couldnt record fta channels than i might just get the basic foxtel box

[viewer]

thunderball, on Jun 1 2011, 06:15 PM, said:

i live in lithgow nsw and you can get 7, 9, 10 in many parts of town so i dont know how that works because we also get the regional channels. if i couldnt record fta channels than i might just get the basic foxtel box

Hey AlanH...here's another example of the inequality of VAST and TERRESTRIAL. Why should this chap be able to receive both signals? Surely this must have severe impacts on those regional broadcasters in those areas?

Terrestrial broadcasts must be encrypted now, to ensure these signals are not falling into rouge antennas willy nilly around the area.

ps thunderball...sorry, this all has nothing to do with you, but is a point that has been debated before about the absurd differences in encryption on satellite, and not terrestrial. Nothing being shot at you from me..

[thunderball]

yeah no problem. i dont see it as a major thing picking up city and regional tv i fast forward all the ads anyway lol. these days they all show the same thing and look the same anyway.

[vallatv]

while we may get better equipment with foxtel the sub prices are higher based on what i have seen on thier site. I would pay $90 a mth for what a i now pay $81 for. And would get about 5-6 channels i don't want and would not watch.
I can bet if you don't want IQ you will be stuck with the current Austar box until you decide to upgrade.

[davmel]

Magnum72, on Jun 5 2011, 12:05 PM, said:

Satellite Foxtel is only missing a few FTA channels-I install in outer southern/south western sydney areas which are in the crossover between Fox and Austar and they get FTA so I am commenting on what I have installed so your response is possibly partially correct.

Maybe you should get out of western Sydney once in a while.....
Austar isn't limited to that part of the world.

Quote

I made no mention of regional FTA channels-maybe you imagined I did.

Huh? You stated to an Austar customer that "Cable has all FTA channels, satellite is missing a couple." which is not correct. The vast majority of Austar customers aren't in a metro broadcast zone fringe area so they won't get ANY commercial FTA stations if swapped to an IQ or IQHD. Even in metro areas sat customers miss out on more than "a couple" channels. They miss out on 4 channels (not including the community channels).

Quote

Who knows what will be provided to other regional customers if foxtel do get hold of Austar-just have to wait till deals are done and  announcements made-till then your comment is neither right nor wrong.

No, I pointed out an obvious incorrect and misleading statement that you made.

[BamBBBam]

viewer, on Jun 1 2011, 04:48 PM, said:

to ensure these signals are not falling into rouge antennas willy nilly around the area.

Ha Ha