Last night Microsoft rolled out their annual update to the Xbox UI, and on top of including things like download-to-own Zune movies, some readers are reporting that they’ve got access to the new Foxtel on Xbox service. Have you got it?
After receiving tip offs that the Foxtel service was live last night, I logged out of Fable III just long enough to update the console’s firmware and look for the Foxtel service, but it wasn’t available on my system. It’s not uncommon for these services to be rolled out to users at different periods, but if you got access to the VOD service, tell us – how do you rate it? Is it worth the money? Let us know in comments.
Labrat
Tuesday, November 2, 2010 at 1:27 PMNope, but the Xbox doesn’t update firmware over the internet.
andy
Tuesday, November 2, 2010 at 2:35 PMehhhhh…… they do. Unless you get sent a disc or something for this.
Dogfish
Tuesday, November 2, 2010 at 8:47 PMHe’s right, the Xbox doesn’t. The Xbox360 does though!!!
Adam
Tuesday, November 2, 2010 at 6:12 PMlol do you think they are talking about the original Xbox or something?
Spagman
Tuesday, November 2, 2010 at 7:45 PMHow the hell else do you think they do it? Clue – maybe get one?
simon
Tuesday, November 2, 2010 at 1:29 PMhow are they going to differentiate foxtel service areas?
i could only assume theyll use some ip geolocating service i guess… but does anyone actually know?
Andrew R
Tuesday, November 2, 2010 at 1:38 PMI had an interesting yet unsuccessful time with it last night. The Foxtel pane was initially available on the dashboard and I was able to download the 34MB required file. I was able to navigate around the various sections but login was then required.
I am not a foxtel subscriber and have no intention of signing up for a monthly plan but am very interested in the On Demand service. The on screen prompts suggested that Xbox Live users could access Paid Video on Demand services by registering on the foxtel website. I did create an online registration but still could not log in via the Xbox (getting an error 305 or 350). So that ended my quest for more content than Zune can provide.
Interestingly there is no mention of the On Demand only service on the foxtel site (http://www.foxtel.com.au/xbox) only subscription based services, that have been reported earlier.
Within an hour the foxtel pane disappeared.
Oh for a US account with Netflix and Hulu.
Alan Burchill
Tuesday, November 2, 2010 at 1:39 PMGot the update on my two Xbox’s and neither had the Foxtel app…
Timmy C
Tuesday, November 2, 2010 at 1:47 PMSo I got the update last night and searched it for Foxtel but couldn’t find it anywhere. Shame I was semi interested in testing it out.
Dean Mandareen
Tuesday, November 2, 2010 at 1:50 PMI had a quick flick through and didnt see it :`(
Akwai
Tuesday, November 2, 2010 at 1:59 PMI got access to the Foxtel App this morning, it also works brilliantly. No stutter and buffering time is short. According to @XboxAustralia only Dash and Kinect beta testers get access this morning.
Dr Nic
Tuesday, November 2, 2010 at 2:06 PMThe bastard update actually logged me out of Fable III without me having to do anything! I had to wait for it to install before I could continue. Annoying. And it’s very white.
andy
Tuesday, November 2, 2010 at 2:23 PMI had it yesterday afternoon, then the update wiped it from my dashboard but I can still get at it through the download history under account management. Happy days!
andy
Tuesday, November 2, 2010 at 2:41 PMHere’s the site to sign up.
http://www.foxtel.com.au/xboxt/default.htm
andy
Tuesday, November 2, 2010 at 3:23 PMone additional thing i noticed while looking at my daily usage on bigpond is that it seems to come up as unmetered
OzHuski
Tuesday, November 2, 2010 at 8:12 PMId keep a close eye on that, as they have confirmed that no ISP is doing unmetered Foxtel content on 360.
James
Wednesday, November 3, 2010 at 8:55 AMSorry mate, Telstra IS doing unmetered content for Foxtel on XBOX 360, T-Box, Home PC’s and Foxtel Box’s
steve
Tuesday, November 2, 2010 at 3:42 PMso when is it getting released?
Ryan
Friday, November 12, 2010 at 12:26 AMCan anyone confirm that this service is 100% unmetered via telstra bigpond internet? I have used the service for 3 hours now and it is coming up as unmetered! Please help, so confused.
Mark Giles
Tuesday, November 2, 2010 at 4:03 PMAnnoyingly (as myself and a few other WPers have found out) you can sign up and pay for the subscription right now. Too bad there doesn’t seem to be any way to get the profile onto your bawx if it’s not there.
Thanks for telling me, Foxtel. D=
Anthony Jong
Tuesday, November 2, 2010 at 4:38 PMI just signed up, couldn’t find the app after 20 mins of searching. Ended up calling Foxtel and was told it would go live between the 8th and 12th this month and was credited 12 days due to signing up today.
Andrew R
Tuesday, November 2, 2010 at 4:44 PMThankyou to andy for the sign up link.
I can see the Foxtel Pane again and successfully login as well. All of the subscriber sections (I am not a foxtel subscriber) have an Upgrade Now link, and the On Demand sections allow me to purchase using the CC I signed up with on the Foxtel site.
All On Demand content averages around 10MB per minute of video. Costs vary from $1.95 for a 12 min kids cartoon to the expected $5.95 for a New Release movie. Rental times are as harsh as Zune. A week to start watching and 48 hours from the time you do start. Interestingly the 12 min kids animation only gives you an hour to watch it after you start (do they live in the real world with kids).
But at $2-$3 for an episode of Colbert Report that I can watch on iView for free… I don’t think I’ll be purchasing too much Foxtel content this way.
Currently about 100 movies in on Demand (New and Old), and a couple of dozen tv shows.
I want to use a service like this but there just isn’t enough value yet.
NickT
Tuesday, November 2, 2010 at 4:46 PMI’ve got foxtel app on my xbox, it works fine. However, I can’t subscribe because my postcode isn’t in a foxtel area?? HELLO?? It’s IPTV for heavens sake… Why does my postcode matter.
So foxtel, you’re not getting my money. I don’t know what’s worse, not being able to watch us/uk tv in Australia via Internet, or foxtel not letting you subscribe because of your postcode in your own goddamn country!!
TheKZA
Tuesday, November 2, 2010 at 7:32 PMYou can’t sign up for Foxtel for the same reason US and UK media providers don’t let you stream outside their countries; Foxtel don’t own the rights to broadcast all across Australia. Austar own the broadcast rights in a lot of regional areas. The method of broadcast, be it cable or IPTV, is irrelevent.
Nick T
Wednesday, November 3, 2010 at 8:56 AMYes, I’m aware Foxtel’s coverage is limited (majority!). It’s just a ridiculous situation. I don’t know the history, but I can only assume Austar popped up to bring the foxtel channels to regional & rural Australia? Which is kind of pointless with IPTV now anyway.
Austar’s site states “AUSTAR’s coverage spans regional and rural Australia, as well as Darwin and Hobart.”
So once again, regional Australian users get told to bend over and take it like a good Aussie should :^)
Paul
Wednesday, November 3, 2010 at 12:04 PMFor me, i wont be doing any paid content. I think Foxtel is about spending $34.50 a month for example and watching 25 or so channels. In terms of on demand, personally theres a crap load more of a selection on Zune and prices are better with choces of HD and SD. So my movie watching will continue on Zune, and Live TV will be foxtel and thats that. Theres also lots of on demand and catch up tv you can watch free for channels you’ve subscribed to etc.
Jason
Saturday, February 5, 2011 at 4:39 PMThis needs to be shared with all Australians. Bring this issue to dontcopit.com ! This is exactly why we exist. To expose B/S like this !
spedstyle
Tuesday, November 2, 2010 at 6:20 PMyou can actually watch the sky news channel for free if you have it on the dash or if u downloaded it already and its gone it will appear in quick launch
just go to cancel when it asks you to sign in, you can view 10min previews of different channels nothing that great
but having sky news channel without having to sign up is cool, tried inviting a few friends into the giant room you can view it in
its basically just like the uk sky player
Anthony
Tuesday, November 2, 2010 at 6:38 PMany news about epsn?
Michael Harris
Tuesday, November 2, 2010 at 9:17 PMI have it, and have successfully signed up and am watching it this evening (also a long standing beta tester).
Quality is perfect on the test channel, no choppy or blocky picture in high quality playback, and sign-up process was a breeze being able to use it within seconds of completing the online registration.
It (Foxtel) requires a 12.84MB download, and it downloads and installs very quickly.
Normandy
Tuesday, November 2, 2010 at 10:28 PMI got it and it works, but as a CURRENT Foxtel subscriber they want to charge me AGAIN, even though if you have a Foxtel IQ2 or Download via the web site its free? Hows this fair and equitable ?
Its a total rip off! I can understand if you are not a current subscriber to charge on demand, but to charge its own customer base again for the privilege of downloading? FAIL!
And they wonder why BT keeps going!? make it fair people!
xCHARGE SPEEDx
Wednesday, November 3, 2010 at 1:00 AMhi i was on dash beta abnd found this early 3 days ago and have succesfully signed up for account and am watching all channels and such
but some channels now comming up with parental control and i havnt set them
i set a pin in my account settings with my laptop and it works
wtf not happy losses ease of movment having to enter pin
Gareth Redshaw
Wednesday, November 3, 2010 at 12:17 AMI’m not a beta tester and I’m annoyed that I’m signed up but unable to access. Oh well, patience is a virtue….
KRiSX
Wednesday, November 3, 2010 at 9:46 AMi was on the beta dash and haven’t had an update this month… it still says beta for me… and yes i’ve got the foxtel option and yes i’m subscribed to it…
i went for the base + entertainment package for $34.50… no contract = awesome IMO… have to say i’m a little let down by the service… far too many shows are “unavailable” in australia due to our retarded licensing… there is a list on the foxtel FAQ of shows that can’t be streamed over the internet but it isn’t a complete list i can assure you :(
i’ll stick with it for now… i have 2 consoles and updated the second one from NXE to the Kinect dash this morning and it isn’t showing Foxtel… so bit strange but i don’t think i can use it on multiple consoles anyway (annoyingly!)
overall though… the quality and speed is acceptable… its obviously SD and not HD (hence only needing a 1.5mbit connection) and the channel range is very small compared to real foxtel… but its cheap… no contract and it works well :)
cheers
Paul
Wednesday, November 3, 2010 at 11:59 AMGuys, I installed Foxtel, subscribed and for the last 2 nights have watched Foxtel. I am with Telstra of course and I checked my usage. About 2.4 GB used over 2 days, However, its showing up as 100% UNMETERED!!!!!
Not sure whats going on, but I ain’t saying anything!
Ryan
Friday, November 12, 2010 at 12:27 AMCan anyone confirm that this service is 100% unmetered via telstra bigpond internet? I have used the service for 3 hours now and it is coming up as unmetered! Please help, so confused.