Foxtel HD service press release

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cyril7

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#18937 30-Jan-2008 14:33

Today Foxtel had a major press release of their upcoming HD service, you can read about it here.

Things to note, the STB for this service will be the same SkyNZ is rolling out. Foxtels currrent PVR called the iQ is identical to the MySky, however Foxtel subscribers dont pay such a large upfront oneoff cost as we do, however they do pay $15/month for the iQ over and above normal subs. It is romoured that the standard iQ fee will reduce to $5/month and the iQ2 will be $15.

There will initially be 4 24/7 HD channels, BBC HD, Discovery HD/NatGeoHD, Fox SportsHD, and ESPN HD and a Box Office Movie On Demand service. All are 1080i except ESPN HD which is 720p.

Whats of interest is that the Box office movies will be On Demand rather than a 24/7 channel, so will be PayPerView. However they are indicating it will be current Box office releases, in HD rather than 2-20yr old movies.

Hopefully latter today there will be more detail pics of the STB, will post them when they appear.

Cyril

old3eyes

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#107619 30-Jan-2008 20:10

I bet that Sky NZ will not follow this pricing model for the DVR / STB. They most likely will want to charge $600 + for new installs and $300 for an upgrade..

Regards,

Old3eyes

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cyril7

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#107628 30-Jan-2008 20:49

I suspect you are right, the model that Foxtel and other Pay operators use has never aligned with SkyNZ's structure.

Cyril

allstarnz

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#107636 30-Jan-2008 21:46

yeah, was going to post this on here too.

Like has been said, I guess Sky will not be far behind.

Geez, it will be like rags to riches watching ESPN. Their picture quality at the moment is appalling to put it kindly.

Here is a link to the blog with a bit more info

old3eyes

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#107732 31-Jan-2008 11:02

MSaw in one of the local elbourne papers this morning that the reason that Foxtel is only doing 4 channels is that HD will take up to 4 times the bandwidth of SD and they will have to wait until May 2009 to launch any other cahnnels when the next sat is in place.. . Asuuming that they are 4~6 Mbits on SD that makes about 20Mbits for HD. Hollycow Batman. These ozzys using Mpeg2 for HD on a satalite??. I believe Sky is going to use Mpeg4 but who knows if they are using the same STB..

Regards,

Old3eyes

cyril7

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#107735 31-Jan-2008 11:10

I think you will find that they will be using mpeg4, SkyUK is using mpeg4 and the regular bitrate reports that I have seen indicated averages of 17Mb/s on most HD channels with dips to around 12Mb/s, and peaks to just on 20Mb/s.

The recent Sky media release stated that the box was infact the very same one Foxtel is using.

Cyril

openmedia

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#107762 31-Jan-2008 13:01

I'm over at LCA in Melbourne at the moment, and I've been speaking to some people from the BBC about their HD service.

They are aiming at around 12 MBit for HD services using H.264.

In NZ Sky tends to use under 3Mbit for most of its services, so 3*4=12.

For freeview terrestrial the HD tests have tended to be around 8-9 Mbit for 720p

Generally known online as OpenMedia, now working for Red Hat APAC as a Technology Evangelist and Portfolio Architect. Still playing with MythTV and digital media on the side.

cyril7

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#107770 31-Jan-2008 13:42

Link showing pretty pictures, I presume this is the cable version (most Foxtel subs are via cable) hence only one RF in. As the box seems to sport 4tuners (view 1ch, record 2chs, and last tuner to spool ondemand material) then we can assume the satellite versions we will see here will have two feeds which will require a splitter as per the MySky and an internal multiswitch will distribute to all 4 tuners..

Cyril

eXDee

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#108233 2-Feb-2008 22:46

cyril7:The recent Sky media release stated that the box was infact the very same one Foxtel is using.

Cyril

Oooh, Shiny!

But bigger pics please, anyone found any where you can read the labels of all the rear connections?

From left-right i assume:
Component - Composite - Audio LR - Scart - Scart - Coax Surround - Optical Surround - HDMI - Network Port - Don't Know - Power

The network port i assume means they plan on IPTV at some point, i would be dreaming if it meant you could view your recordings over the network.

More Info on the IQ2

hairy1

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#108258 3-Feb-2008 08:38

There was a snippet on the Foxtel website that the network connectivity would be so you could remote book programmes via a 3g cellphone or the internet.

My views (except when I am looking out their windows) are not those of my employer.

cyril7

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#108262 3-Feb-2008 08:53

There was a snippet on the Foxtel website that the network connectivity would be so you could remote book programmes via a 3g cellphone or the internet.

That feature has been available for sometime on the SD PVR (iQ), from the web you can place bookings which are passed to the box over the satellite/cable, I think the ethernet interface is intended for significantly more involved intereactive webcentric applications than that.

Cyril

hairy1

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#108263 3-Feb-2008 09:03

Ah yes, I see now that this feature is already available on Foxtel IQ! If Sky uses the identical boxes (mysky) do you think we would see that feature here?

I thought it was neat that the mysky remote is a univeral remote, but haven't bothered to set it up (quite a process looking at the foxtel manual!)

My views (except when I am looking out their windows) are not those of my employer.

cyril7

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#108266 3-Feb-2008 09:52

That feature is more a backend function, I guess its more a matter of SkyNZ having the backend to support it rather than the capability of the box, but I guess the firmware to support it is in the MySky as they share a common firmware platform.

The most usefull feature of the universal remote function is to offer "shout through", this means that when you press the channel up/down of number buttons it hits the MySky, but when you press the power, vol+- or mute it hits your TV, very usefull.

Cyril

manaia

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#108617 5-Feb-2008 09:37

hairy1: I thought it was neat that the mysky remote is a univeral remote, but haven't bothered to set it up (quite a process looking at the foxtel manual!)

Although the Foxtel IQ is a universal remote, the MySKY remote is not.

cyril7

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#108618 5-Feb-2008 09:53

But the iQ remote from DSE(AU) or Ebay will work with the MySky?

Cyril

manaia

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#109011 7-Feb-2008 09:19

cyril7: But the iQ remote from DSE(AU) or Ebay will work with the MySky?

Cyril

MySKY will accept signals containing the Foxtel customer id from the IQ remote, so, assuming that these third party remotes use the Foxtel id and not another id, they should also drive MySKY.