Digital Technology for Digital Living.
February 21, 2005
Foxtel iQ Due In March.
Foxtel has finally announced its Personal Video Recorder (PVR) option for their digital service, Foxtel iQ. For a once off install fee ($AU100), a once off access fee ($AU395) and a monthly service fee ($5.95), unless you’re a Platinum customer, you’ll get the new swanky set top box that’ll allow you to record two shows at once. The price’ll vary if your yet to subscribe to Foxtel Digital.
As with all PVRs they allow pausing of live shows buy recording the channel you’re currently watching, and because it’s a Foxtel product it accesses the electronic program guide (EPG) so you can set recording times and view schedules. You can also check online for a place to get a sneak peak.
Gadgetman | | PVR, Digital TV
February 22nd, 2005 at 12:19 pm
This is definitely the “killer app” for Foxtel. I have built my own free-to-air personal video recorder (running mythtv) and couldn’t even attempt to build my system for such a price. I could perhaps get it down to around AUD$1500.
The killer feature is that it has dual tuners (eg. you can record 2 two programs and watch a recorded program simulatenously).
This will revolutionise the way PayTV is watched by viewers in Australia.
Note Foxtel Digital pay TV is Standard Definition digital TV (native resolution 720×576) with AC5.1 where provided by the program schedule.
Cheers,
Richard.
February 23rd, 2005 at 1:34 pm
I was excited about this until I saw the price that you would have to pay to get the box installed. I think that $495 is quite expensive given you don’t get the features that you would take for granted in other PVR solutions - such as ad skipping, storing shows on an external hard drive etc.
The other thing to note is that Foxtel digital still does not have electronic programming guides for some of the free to air channels - 7 and 10.
February 24th, 2005 at 9:40 am
I think the price is very reasonable… given the foxtel adverts are predictable a fast forward shouldn’t be too onerous. I’m sure you’ll start finding others replacing the internal hard disks with bigger and better ones in the months to come.
There are no other PVR solutions do not work for Foxtel Digital satellite (some have got DVB-S cards working with Mythtv but this isn’t yet possible on Foxtel Digital due to the new Irdeto CAM apparently).
Cheers,
Richard.
February 27th, 2005 at 10:00 pm
Remember, Foxtel owns the box, you have to pay 5.95 bucks per month to “rent” it plus the 400 something dollar for the upfront fee.
March 1st, 2005 at 11:25 am
Yeah $500 dollars and you don’t OWN the box, they still do!! Whats the $400 dollars for? Who knows… $100 to install it and $400 to buy nothing!
March 7th, 2005 at 6:09 am
I though they’d nailed a pretty good feature set (although freakin expensive) until i read about the dispute between the 7/10 and Foxtel. A lot of people are going to be very disapointed if they buy the box thinking that the features it boasts actually work across the board. I think it’s a little deceitful to release it when the deals are clearly half done.
And the ‘record all shows in a series button’ doesn’t work on at least 7 and 10…
When i’m a billionaire (hopefully May… maybe June)… i’m gonna buy Tivo and bring it out to Australia!
April 6th, 2005 at 2:02 pm
why be a millionaire to bring tivo to australia - you can do that already
have a look at OzTiVo - http://minnie.tuhs.org/twiki/bin/view/Main/WebHome
i am looking at some US tivo boxes now on ebay - only USD$240
bugger you telstra
May 12th, 2005 at 8:25 am
If you are going to buy US Tivo boxes buy the cheapest Series 1 you can (series 2 don’t work), as it is cheaper to fit your own large disk into a Tivo than to buy one with a big disk fitted. Don’t forget to buy an Ethernet/wireless networking card for it too from http://www.9thtee.com , serial ports and cables for setting up the Tivo without Ethernet are getting as rare as caring politicians.
Anyone know anything about the rumours that the Foxtel box will implement features such as:
- No ad-skip
- Limits on how many times you view a recorded show
- Limits on what you record
- Limits on how long you can keep a recorded show
If any of those are true they can take their PVR and… (well you get the idea)