Sky or Similar!!!!!!

[Guest dave&jancook]

:jiggy:

 

hi All

 

Just wondering we are moving to gold coast or sunshine coast and just wanted to know if foxtel or similar is the same as our sky tv? Want to know what sort of packages you can get? Can you get sport package only we are big Man City fans and want to watch the footy matches! Our boys are sporty and love footy, golf and boxing! So can you also get boxing and UK Footy on sports pack?

 

Also do they have a similar thing to our sky+ boxes do they have hard drive box so we can record programmes (Footy Matches) because of time difference?

 

Any info would be great

 

Thankx

Jan & Dave

[Guest inaroundroom]

Foxtel seems the most similar best to check out there site:

 

Products:

http://www.foxtel.com.au/discover/products-features/default.htm

 

Packages:

FOXTEL - Buy Now - FOXTEL Movies - Shop

[Lynandsean]

Foxtel is via cable and Austar is via dish like Sky. They are pretty much the same company I think - we have Austar.

Austar's equiv of Sky+ box is called 'My Star' works similarly - pause, rewind, record 2 etc etc but is no where near as efficient as Sky+ in fact sometimes it's useless - works like an out of date hard drive - very slow in responding!

Have noticed that they don't have PDC (programme delivery control) here either which means that (I think its this anyway lol) it only records from the time it is allegedly meant to start and finish not when it actually does! you can adjust how long before and after the start of the programme to record though to compensate for it.

Check out - http://www.foxtel.com.au and AUSTAR Television - for more info.

 

Lyn

[Guest inaroundroom]

I only thought Foxtel had an HD offering? Also isn't foxtel owned by Murdoch aka Sky and thus uses the same hardware platform as sky being the box that sits in your living room?

[Lynandsean]

I only thought Foxtel had an HD offering? Also isn't foxtel owned by Murdoch aka Sky and thus uses the same hardware platform as sky being the box that sits in your living room?

 

That's too technical for me lol! All I know is it doesn't work quite the same - definitely a poor relation or version?? I did check with Austar technical support in case it was our box that was the problem but they said 'no, that's how it works' :swoon:

 

Don't know about the HD option as we don't have HD tv's (which we bought over form UK)

 

Also, you don't receive channels 5, 7, 9 and 10 through your box. It appears they come down the normal arial as if you didn't have the box. Please don't ask me to explain further because I have confused myself typing this :laugh:

 

Lyn

[RachelS]

Hi - we can only get Austar as we live in a regional area but we get the full package with sports & movies (on MyStar). My OH says you actually get more footy matches over here as you get a lot of the Sky Season Ticket games broadcast too.

 

As previous poster said though the system doesn't seem to work as well as Sky - and if you are recording any of the local channels - 7,9,10 (I think) then you have to watch out for some serious overruns - we've seen programs overrun by 25 mins! If you series link programs you have to keep an eye on them too as they randomly disappear off the planner. Oh, & I've mentioned this in another thread but they have virtually no music video channels here - we get 5 when we had about 25 in the UK - and digital radio isn't on the programme list yet either.

 

Apart from that it's all good! :laugh:

[Lynandsean]

I was told that if you have programmes 'series linked' then you must leave 1 episode in the recorded section - viewed or not, which wasn't something you needed to do with good old Sky! Have to say they do 'drop off' the planner on occasions still but then magically reappear - all very odd lol!

Also, which caught us out for a while, it seems you have to leave the Sky+ box on all the time if you have stuff on the planner - can't put it in standby :-(

Lyn