25 replies to this topic

[clipper]

I assume it is possible for grey nomads who are Austar customers to take their Austar box, purchase own dish, stand and cheap sat finder device and move around the country. --but is it 'legal'?

[DrP]

Doing that breaches your Austar contract.

[BobD]

If there is any problem then it should be in the Terms & Conditions of the Austar service. So far in my dealings, Austar only seem to be interested in you keeping up the payments. They do use Calling Number Display to validate callers to their call centre.

Hmmm, I just looked at the Ts & Cs and they dont permit it. Here is a quote from the  Austar TV Terms & Conditions :
3.3 Unauthorised use of the AUSTAR TV Service
You must not copy the AUSTAR TV Service or any part of it or split, redirect, redistribute or otherwise offer or make available any AUSTAR TV Service to be viewed in any other place outside your Premises or move the Equipment from one outlet to another within your Premises, without our prior written authorisation.

The way I read that, you can't even use an extender to get the service into the bedroom but who is going to be concerned about that? I have seen a few GNs with their Austar dishes set up beside their caravans. There is a place at Edithvale in Melbourne that sells all the necessary equipment to do Austar mobile.

Austar seem to have a Term & Condition for every event. Here is all of Austar Terms & Conditions.

[clipper]

Well, when I used to install Austar equipment, we had to RFout through the VCR so the customer could record... 12 years ago. Anyway, the point is that a paying customer will keep paying while on the move with a service but will dicontinue the service if not allowed to use it, ie, no point having a service at 'homebase' if you're not there to watch it.
My question is will my box from Tassy  work everywhere in Oz as one travels around?

[OzyDave]

 BobD, on Apr 21 2011, 10:33 AM, said:

The way I read that, you can't even use an extender to get the service into the bedroom but who is going to be concerned about that?

We use an extender and we haven't moved any equipment. I hardly think that could be prevented.
Go for it anyway. I think even a Tassy box would work   , anywhere that it can see the satellite actually.

Edited by OzyDave, 21 April 2011 - 04:59 PM.

[BobD]

 clipper, on Apr 21 2011, 04:53 PM, said:

My question is will my box from Tassy  work everywhere in Oz as one travels around?

When I was considering doing Austar from my caravan I went and talked to SatPlus Victoria and they were very helpful. In the end I didn't do it because I sold the caravan.

[mtv]

 clipper, on Apr 21 2011, 04:53 PM, said:

My question is will my box from Tassy work everywhere in Oz as one travels around?

The box will work anywhere you can get signal from C1/D3 sats.

The only issue is dish size.

A 65cm dish is fine for most mainland areas, but larger dishes are required for reliable reception in FNQ, etc.

[BobD]

 mtv, on Apr 21 2011, 10:58 PM, said:

A 65cm dish is fine for most mainland areas, but larger dishes are required for reliable reception in FNQ, etc.

Col, why is this? I don't know the answer but my (very simple) logic would have thought it to be the converse of what you say.

My Logic:
Satellite is geo sync sitting above the equator at approx 35000 km up.
FNQ is getting to be a more vertical angle than TAS so less atmosphere to penetrate and slightly less distance for signal to travel.
More atmosphere and more distance = more attenuation of signal.
cheers
Bob

[mtv]

 BobD, on Apr 22 2011, 06:35 AM, said:

Col, why is this? I don't know the answer but my (very simple) logic would have thought it to be the converse of what you say.

My Logic:
Satellite is geo sync sitting above the equator at approx 35000 km up.
FNQ is getting to be a more vertical angle than TAS so less atmosphere to penetrate and slightly less distance for signal to travel.
More atmosphere and more distance = more attenuation of signal.
cheers
Bob

Bob,

Your logic makes sense, however, the reason is more to do with how the beams (footprints) are focussed, not the geographic location in relation to the satellites position.

Have a look at the D3 footprint on the map in the link and it should make more sense to you.

http://www.lyngsat-m...ptusd3_aus.html

[BobD]

Col
Thank you for the enlightenment. They must have multiple antennae up there to achieve such precision in the signal power. They are obviously concentrating the signal on the higher population densities. Interesting to see the beam spot that gives Christmas and Cocos Islands a low power reception. I presume the antennae are initially steerable in  service to achieve such precision?
cheers
Bob

[clipper]

 BobD, on Apr 21 2011, 08:15 PM, said:

When I was considering doing Austar from my caravan I went and talked to SatPlus Victoria and they were very helpful. In the end I didn't do it because I sold the caravan.

Interestingly, SatPlus advocate using ones existing Austar dish and cable to access VAST by changing the LNB (if needed) and using a multiswitch near the TV ..... seems to go against the grain of Austar's terms and conditions.

[killer1500]

Surely the only reason Austar and Foxtel put this in there terms and conditions is because of the strict agreement they have sharing there territories. Foxtel would be pretty angry if they found people in caravans in Foxtel areas with Austar for example, and Im sure the same thing applies to obtaining Foxtel in Austar areas.

[Jason_dinAlt]

wgives a toss if they get angry, the two have such a ridiculous gentlemens agreement that would be illegal in any other industry, can you imagine Coles and Woolies dividing oz up and saying only country people can haveColes and only city people can have Woolies?

And taking the box with you is NOT illegal. It is a breach of contract but is it is not breaking a law set by the government

[mtv]

 Jason_dinAlt, on Apr 26 2011, 11:58 AM, said:

wgives a toss if they get angry, the two have such a ridiculous gentlemens agreement that would be illegal in any other industry, can you imagine Coles and Woolies dividing oz up and saying only country people can haveColes and only city people can have Woolies?

And taking the box with you is NOT illegal. It is a breach of contract but is it is not breaking a law set by the government

Exactly... and neither provider is losing money, as subscribers are still paying for their subscriptions, regardless if they are watching in their home or in a caravan, etc.

[killer1500]

 Jason_dinAlt, on Apr 26 2011, 12:58 PM, said:

wgives a toss if they get angry, the two have such a ridiculous gentlemens agreement that would be illegal in any other industry, can you imagine Coles and Woolies dividing oz up and saying only country people can haveColes and only city people can have Woolies?

And taking the box with you is NOT illegal. It is a breach of contract but is it is not breaking a law set by the government

Heaps of other companies have the same sort of agreement, they wont cross into each others, its just companies keep it a secret usually. For example many fast food companies have exclusive territories, the same applies to many franchise based businesses. (Eg Dog washing for example)

[mtv]

 killer1500, on Apr 26 2011, 08:39 PM, said:

Heaps of other companies have the same sort of agreement, they wont cross into each others, its just companies keep it a secret usually. For example many fast food companies have exclusive territories, the same applies to many franchise based businesses. (Eg Dog washing for example)

Not exactly a similar arrangement... that would be T & C's would be that a person could not purchase a burger and take it into another area to eat it.  

[wilrc1]

 mtv, on Apr 26 2011, 10:09 PM, said:

Not exactly a similar arrangement... that would be T & C's would be that a person could not purchase a burger and take it into another area to eat it.  

I dont understand why foxtel and austar are against people using their subs in caravans or cars, directv doesnt have a problem with it, my parents take their foxtel with them to qld every winter so they can watch their melbourne news service as well as fox channels, they pay their bill so who cares, they would disconnect if they had to leave their fully paid service in melbourne for 4 months every year!!

[viewer]

When they (never) buckle you for taking it with you, tell them you were securing it in your van so that it was not stolen from your premise whilst on holidays...lol

[davmel]

 Jason_dinAlt, on Apr 26 2011, 11:58 AM, said:

And taking the box with you is NOT illegal. It is a breach of contract but is it is not breaking a law set by the government

Do NOT make such an incorrect claim. Familiarise yourself with the Copyright Amendment Act (2006). Unless you're fully complying with the conditions of the content provider then you are in breach of the Act and violating a criminal law. If the content provider stipulates that you can only watch the service at the registered address the decryption device was installed then you can't move it anywhere else without breaching the Act. Prior to the Copyright Amendment Act being in force it was only a private contract law breach but now it is a criminal offence.
See:
http://www.austlii.e...06213/sch9.html

Specifically sections:
135AOC

Penalties listed in 135ASF and 135ASJ for distribution and 135ASI for unauthorised access.
Distribution (including moving the box away from the registered premises without authorisation) carries a fine of up to 550 penalty units ($28,000) or up to 5 years jail. Just viewing the broadcast without authorisation carries an offence of 60 penalty units (~$3000).

Again, every person has an obligation to fully understand the law. Listening to incorrect advice by an internet poster as above is not a valid defence to breaking the law.
Unless Foxtel/Austar explicitly authorise you to re-locate your decoder then you're breaking a criminal law and risking prosecution with the potential of the above offences.

[nbound]

Good luck getting caught. Good luck them bothering to take it that far. At worst I imagine they would pernamently disconnect you from their service. Just wondering has anyone ever been prosecuted for breaking this law (without anything else going on).

Hell while I feel it would be much worse morally, I doubt they'd go so far as to goto court even if they found you've given your second box to another address for cheap austar for a friend/relative. Of course large scale leasing of the boxes they'd probably do everything in their power to make an example of you.

Edited by nbound, 25 February 2012 - 04:01 PM.

[killer1500]

The only reason Austar have this rule is because of the Austar and Foxtel agreement. Once Austar is taken over there should be no problem with caravans with no fixed address. You have to remember Austar only have Foxtel content because of there gentlemens agreement, without there would be no Fox 8, showtime, fox footy and without that content Austar would be bust like Select tv. They get foxtel content as-long as they don't break the rules and go into Foxtel territory.

[mtv]

Not quite.

Because Foxtel carry FTA commercial network channels via satellite (and cable) viewing those channels outside their broadcast licence area is a breach of their licence conditions.

Austar is different in that respect as they do not carry commercial FTA channels via satellite.

[killer1500]

I thought FTA was only available to Cable users via Foxtel, I could be totally wrong because I live in Adelaide. Foxtel here doesnt have any FTA, if you didnt supply an address for example, Foxtel could easily arrange to have its customers to receive satalite Foxtel channels only like all Adelaide Foxtel satalite customers if there was no Austar zones.

Either way theres nothing stopping users in the country recieving Foxtel only channels in the country (on the road) if Foxtel was to take over Austar so there should be no excuses for it if the takeover happens.

[Hosko]

 killer1500, on 25 February 2012 - 09:54 PM, said:

I thought FTA was only available to Cable users via Foxtel, I could be totally wrong because I live in Adelaide. Foxtel here doesnt have any FTA, if you didnt supply an address for example, Foxtel could easily arrange to have its customers to receive satalite Foxtel channels only like all Adelaide Foxtel satalite customers if there was no Austar zones.

The market in sydney is too small. In Sydney every SD FTA channel is carried on Foxtel sat and ABC news 24 in HD. No ONE, 7 mate or GEM

[mtv]

 Hosko, on 25 February 2012 - 11:59 PM, said:

The market in sydney is too small. In Sydney every SD FTA channel is carried on Foxtel sat and ABC news 24 in HD. No ONE, 7 mate or GEM

This is the same for Melbourne and Brisbane.

Sorry, I should have clarifed that it's only Foxtel in the east coast cap cities that carry the FTA channels that Hosko mentioned.

They signals are all still there, available nationally, it's just your smartcard that is activated by Foxtel, which determines which FTA channels you see, based on your registered address.

Up until late last year, if you used your Foxtel card in a third party decoder, like a Dreambox, etc.... it allowed you to access the FTA channels from all those cities.

Foxtel made encryption changes preventing the use of their cards in any third party decoder.