I've finally kicked a terrible habit

Omaroo (Chris Malikoff) · #1 03-01-2011, 11:19 PM

.... Foxtel!

My Foxtel IQ, associated dish and cabling is sitting by my front door, ready for Mr Foxtel to pick it up. Jeez it feels good...

Being suddenly single again a couple of years back, I became a habitual Foxtel watcher - whether there was anything decent on or not. I've seen the error of my ways and will now save about $130 a month by turfing the damn thing. While there were a couple of really decent series on, easily 95% of what is offered on Foxtel is utter garbage or repeats of that garbage. I came to loathe the Discovery-esque "in your face" urgent style of delivery - where not catching their program was a matter of life or death. Just awful. I also can't stomach the fact that the more "interesting" channels are cleverly grouped with channels you wouldn't care less about - meaning that you had to take the entire package set to get those that you did want. If you could order and pay or just what you wanted it might have been worthwhile.

I bought a great 500Gb Samsung 3D/Bluray PVR the other day, and will go back to free to air. A once-off charge and I'm finally free from ongoing costs. Programming my set today resulted in 16 or so channels to choose from including a couple of radio channels. With more digital channels coming on every year, I think that FTA will challenge Foxtel services soon. In addition to the FTA services, I also run an AppleTV - so my movies come in at $5.99 and I only pay for those I choose. The "movie of the week" is only 99c, which is brilliant.

Ah... what a great feeling. Foxtel - beaten. Be off with you, swine!

Octane (Humayun) · #2 04-01-2011, 12:08 AM

Nice one, mate. : )

I've been TV free since 2001. : D

H

mozzie (Peter) · #3 04-01-2011, 05:22 AM

hi chris
we've austar same as foxtel.we rang them up to disconnect and they couldn't do enough to keep us connected.and so they should free tv is getting more channels all the time.austar has some good kids channels which is one reason to stay with them for the time being (not that my kids watch a lot of tv)..but i think there going to have to pick there act up or customers are going to walk in droves..

koputai (Jason) · #4 04-01-2011, 06:55 AM

Chris, whilst I totally agree with your views on Foxtel and their programming, going FTA is not the answer!

My wife said to me just last night (whilst we were watching the BBC Blu-Ray 'Life'), "We should get rid of Foxtel and just buy more DVD's".

I think maybe the answer lies in pay per view downloads, when the content finally becomes available.

Cheers,
Jason.

jjjnettie (Jeanette) · #5 04-01-2011, 07:03 AM

TV free here too.
The few times I do get to see some FTA, all it does is remind me why I don't want it.

tlgerdes (Trevor) · #6 04-01-2011, 07:07 AM

I gave it up 5 years ago. Bought a mediacentre PC, and havent looked back. I only watch stuff that I record and want to watch, dont have to contend with adds, and can record 3 different channels simultaneously. Stores home movies, photos and music...... and some contraband.

Kids dont know what a TV ad is as they are so used to hitting the FF button.

FTA now has a much greater selection now, especially some of the older stuff from the 70s, 80s and 90s.

Channel 10 introduces their new extra channel in 2 weeks. As you say 16 channels of good stuff is better than 120 of rubbish.

Barrykgerdes · #7 04-01-2011, 07:24 AM

I get Foxtel pests around every week plus junk mail. I used to tell them give me a cable (for internet) and I will think about it or why should I pay for something I can get better free.

I have a large collection of DVD movies (generally oldies) and TV series that I liked from the 60, 70, 80 and 90's, mostly picked up on the bargain counters.

The new TV channels have a great selection of the old favourites as well.

Barry

Omaroo (Chris Malikoff) · #8 04-01-2011, 07:50 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jjjnettie

TV free here too.
The few times I do get to see some FTA, all it does is remind me why I don't want it.

I couldn't do that. I need to see the news, not just hear it on radio. Maybe one day when I move to Cooma.

iceman (Mike) · #9 04-01-2011, 08:37 AM

We got rid of Foxtel about 5 years ago (maybe more!) too. Like you, we just ended up watching too much television and the kids watched it for nickelodeon and that's about it.

There's heaps of choice on FTA digital TV now, plenty of channels.

I watch maybe 1-2 hours of TV a day - not enough to justify paying foxtel.

kustard (Simon) · #10 04-01-2011, 08:58 AM

I like foxtel but still being semi-unemployed we might have to can it any way as it's such a big expense.

taminga16 (Greg) · #11 04-01-2011, 09:30 AM

Groucho Marx once said.

"I find television very educational. Everytime somebody turns on the set, I go to another room and read a book".

Cheers.
Greg.

M110 (Andrew) · #12 04-01-2011, 10:50 AM

I would be lost without my doco channels on austar, FTA TV is such rubbish. I don't like tv dramas or reality shows, I only ever watch the news. Nope, I will be keeping mine.

Kevnool (Kev) · #13 04-01-2011, 11:17 AM

I went to my neighbors house a while ago and told him i could cut his austar bill completely in half he went away.

Then he must of pondered on it all arvo till he came over and said how then i told him you install a second box then when its up and running i come over take the second box over to my house and i will set it up.

Anyway he agreed to it and they came and i took the second box and now it shares a connection on Optus B3 with Central 7 and Imparja.

He pays half and i pay the other half he is happy and i,m happy.

Cheers Kev.

pgc hunter · #14 04-01-2011, 11:25 AM

As much as I hate Poxtel, with their 5 minute ad-breaks, frequent service drop outs, and paying outta my behind for those endless ads and crap service, I still couldn't live without my sitcoms, comedy channels and docos. But for the mind-melting prices these highway robbers charge, there should be NO ad breaks whatsoever on ANY channel

UNtil FTA TV becomes not a boring Dr Phil, Oprah, Ricki Lake and infomercial snore fest outside those couple hours primetime in the evening, Poxtel stays.

snowyskiesau · #15 04-01-2011, 12:10 PM

I've managed to do without Foxtel even though I already have the cable installed (Bigpond).

I couldn't however do without by set top box/PVR!
I have an IceTV subscription as a program guide and software installed on my computer to manage the recording of programs of interest.

The only problems I have with it are that the inbuilt 400GB disk is not big enough and that when you have 400GB of TV recorded, it takes a long time to catch up.

If only it could automatically handle skipping ads and extending recording time when programs run over schedule (always!)...

supernova1965 (Warren) · #16 04-01-2011, 12:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by snowyskiesau

I've managed to do without Foxtel even though I already have the cable installed (Bigpond).

I couldn't however do without by set top box/PVR!
I have an IceTV subscription as a program guide and software installed on my computer to manage the recording of programs of interest.

The only problems I have with it are that the inbuilt 400GB disk is not big enough and that when you have 400GB of TV recorded, it takes a long time to catch up.

If only it could automatically handle skipping ads and extending recording time when programs run over schedule (always!)...

You would be better off getting a Dual Hd Digital recorder for your PC I just bought 2 VUE USB Dual HD digital TV sticks one for my PC and one for My wifes pc so we can record 4 programs between us for $90 on sale at WOW that mean I can record two simultanious programs to the pc and then encode to DVD to free up Disk space

snowyskiesau · #17 04-01-2011, 12:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by supernova1965

You would be better off getting a Dual Hd Digital recorder for your PC I just bought 2 VUE USB Dual HD digital TV sticks one for my PC and one for My wifes pc so we can record 4 programs between us for $90 on sale at WOW that mean I can record two simultanious programs to the pc and then encode to DVD to free up Disk space

A few years ago, I ran MythTV on a Linux system and it worked well. This was with an analogue tuner, single channel. Rather than buy a digital tuner for it, I got the set top box (Topfield PVRT5000) as it was well supported and there was a progam API to allow the creation of applications to run on the set top box. I can record 2 channels while watching a third - only in SD. It was bought over 5 years ago and things have changed a lot since then.
When the current box dies, I'll go the MythTV route.

supernova1965 (Warren) · #18 04-01-2011, 01:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by snowyskiesau

A few years ago, I ran MythTV on a Linux system and it worked well. This was with an analogue tuner, single channel. Rather than buy a digital tuner for it, I got the set top box (Topfield PVRT5000) as it was well supported and there was a progam API to allow the creation of applications to run on the set top box. I can record 2 channels while watching a third - only in SD. It was bought over 5 years ago and things have changed a lot since then.
When the current box dies, I'll go the MythTV route.

You have done better than me I have never been able to get the tuners working with MythTV I have trouble getting hardware working with linux as I don't have the command line knowledge you need

jakob · #19 04-01-2011, 01:07 PM

Unfortunateley we don't get FTA reception.
Now I'm trying to register for VAST access. All ABC and SBS channels allready connected, just waiting registration of the other channels.
I'm using exiting dish and bought Videosat box for $300.

RB (Andrew) · #20 04-01-2011, 01:21 PM

Haven't had TV since 1993 and I don't miss it.
I just pick what I want to watch on DVD or video now and then.