Gizmodo Australia » austar

Unconfirmed: Austar’s MyStar HD Launching Mid-November, 15 HD Channels

Nick Broughall — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 00:31:47 +0000

A source close to Austar has seen fit to send us some (as yet unconfirmed) details of the upcoming HD MyStar service in Australia. It sounds pretty decent…

Set to launch in mid November this year, MyStar HD will offer about 15 HD channels to subscribers, with content mirroring Foxtel’s own expanded HD offering. With the launch, more SD channels will also be available – again, much like Foxtel.

The box itself will go by the model number T600 (Judgement Day must be getting closer), and is likely to include a 320GB HDD like the iQ2. Inside the box, the number of tuners will remain the same, but be upgraded to HD.

There’s no word on pricing at this stage, but all things considered, it seems like a pretty top-notch piece of kit. Obviously we’ll keep you updated when any of this gets confirmed…

HD On Austar? Don’t Hold Your Breath

Nick Broughall — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 03:44:07 +0000

All you city-dwellers out there – spare a thought for your poor, unfortunate rural brethren. For while you dine on the feast of High Definition delights afforded to you from Foxtel HD and the free-to-air TV channels, they have to rely on Austar, which has decided to take the “slow and steady and maybe not at all” approach to HD.

According to Australian IT today, Austar CEO John Porter has stated that launching HD channels on Austar probably won’t happen any time soon, as they are struggling to find a financial model that will actually make them money from new subscribers.

Although – just to confuse us all – he then stated that they will probably still release a HD-capable PVR in the 3rd quarter of 2009, although they may not accompany the hardware with any HD programming.

He also played down the announcement made back in May that the new HD PVR would be “content agnostic” with the ability to play video from the web:

“Slowly we’ll introduce HD and web-based services and those kind of
things. But technology for technology’s sake just because
it’s available – we can’t afford to do that sort of thing.”

It’s a sad day for Austar subscribers everywhere.

[Australian IT]

Austar To Offer IP Video In New HD PVR

Nick Broughall — Fri, 30 May 2008 05:51:46 +0000

According to Australian IT, Austar’s next DVR box will not only feature an ethernet port, but it will let you use it for downloading IP video onto the unit. The box, which is due out later this year, will also feature a USB port and HD tuners.

Foxtel’s new iQ2 box also features an ethernet port, although they refuse to actually say anything about how it will be used when the box is released in June.

CEO of Austar, John Porter, was quoted as saying:

“We’re agnostic when it comes to content. Our vision is to be the
consumer interface for digital content, no matter which pipe it comes
through, be it digital terrestrial TV, satellite or the web. It’s about
our box morphing into being a media centre for the TV set.”

While we can’t say that Foxtel won’t follow the same approach, it is refreshing to hear somebody talking about making their box little more than a medium for content to collect, rather than trying to control every facet of a consumer’s viewing experience.

Of course, by not controlling the content flow, the Austar box could quickly become the new home for internet porn in your home. Whether that’s a bad thing is completely up to you.

[Australian IT]

MyStar Lets Austar Subscribers Join In On The PVR Fun

Nick Broughall — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 00:34:10 +0000

You may think that weve gone a little Foxtel crazy over the past few days, and you’d probably be right, but that doesn’t mean that we’ve forgotten the regional peeps who use Austar instead. Okay, we did forget, until we were kindly pointed in the direction of Austar’s MyStar service by reader David. Then we remembered all about you regional folk.

Available now to ~~all good~~ most Austar subscribers, MyStar is a 160GB PVR box like the original iQ. Except with one huge boon – it has a free-to-air tuner built in which lets you record, watch and even browse the EPG for channel 7. In fact it has two FTA tuners and two satellite tuners, letting you do the whole record two things while watching something else thing.

You get support for Dolby Digital surround sound, closed captioning and component connections on the back, although sadly no HDMI. But it is only an SD box, so quit your complaining.

It costs $49.95 to install (and it needs to be professionally installed), with an ongoing monthly subscription fee of $14.95. And in case you can’t tell from the above picture, its one chunky looking box. But true beauty is on the inside, right? Right?

[Austar MyStar - Thanks David!]