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HD MyStar by end of year

Austar plans to have a HD version of its PVR by the end of the year plus new channels and a greater online presence.

mystarAustar CEO John Porter told Merrill Lynch’s Emerging Companies conference yesterday that regional Pay TV network plans to launch HD MyStar, new channels and a greater online presence, beginning later this year.

“We see a great deal of opportunity in coming months. HD MyStar will be available by the end of this year, offering customers their full range of digital free-to-air channels in time for the rollout of digital switchover in regional Australia,” he said.

Porter (the same exec who received a 43% pay increase in 2008), said the National Broadband Network proposal allows Austar to offer new services to customers.

“We’re also looking at launching new channels for our customers, and over the next 18 months or so you’ll see us announcing a range of new and exciting options for accessing content as we explore the potential offered by increased broadband speeds.”

MyStar households currently total over 100,000, while subscribers are expected to reach 750,000 by the end of the calendar year.

Source: smh.com.au

22 Responses

  1. I have a mystar box not the HD box. Only weeks after it was delivered foxtel started broadcasting adds for a HD box. So i instantly rang austar to ask when I’m going to be able to watch these channels on my existing mystar box, I was told this would not happen for up to 2 years and the first mystar box launched is apable of displaying high definition channels! Now look what has happened to a corporate commodity with no competing broadcasters in this country. Australia is the only country in the world that a telecommunication company owns a broadcasting company . This results in every single Aussie paying ridiculous prices for inferior products and extremely poor services! To Foxtel/Austar your a brother sister company pull your finger out!

  2. I won’t be upgrading to Austar HD until they give me the option to upgrade without their s****y $14.95 MyStar HD which I don’t even need. I already have a DVR and I doo not want to pay $14.95 extra for something I don’t need or want!!!

  3. I truly hate Austar and their crappy box, It is the buggiest piece of consumer hardware I have ever seen. I’ve had all the above problems and many more. Anyone try to watch the Obama inauguration speech? If you have Mystar you will have missed most of it as the ‘blue screen’ popped up. Its like Microsofts blue screen but with godawful music added!

    I cant get FTA rception so I had no choice when it was released, but my god what a different mob Austar/Poxtel would be if they had any competition! Every time they claim they will give you something, it means they will actually take something.

    We got it because they had two AFL channels. It was great. I could work all night and watch Footy instead of infomercials. Then there was only one AFL channel. please or thank you, in fact one employee even denied they ever had two AFL channels!!!! Then there were none! Never been so disappointed, but at least they replayed the games half a dozen times. Not even that now. 1 replay on a Tuesday…thats it. Usually in the middle of the night.

    Clearly Rupert has invested in soccer, yeah that’s right mate, we callt soccer here! every 2nd show on their 12 sport channels is bloody soccer, either that or the East Bulgarian Women’s knitting finals!

    “I hate my Foxtel!……..”

  4. A HD MyStar seems pointless for me because our setup is fully SD. Having said that, if that means we get BBC HD and it is viewable on an SD TV (in SD quality of course) then I might consider it.

    So when are we getting BBC Knowledge? I emailed Austar in February after the announcement of 111 coming and their reply was that they were not interested in pursuing it at the time. I wouldn’t mind so much but they advertise it like mad on UKTV and I’ve seen a lot of things I’d like to watch being advertisied

  5. Hi all i had my star installed today it has been too a black screen i unplug it and plug it back in then i got a picture and now it cuts out and start rescanning for the channels my is this happen if it does keep happing i will just buy a sattelite set top box

  6. We have two mystars, double the trouble!

    One hardly ever fails, except it wont display prime newcastle off mt sugarloaf, just gives a black screen. Plug in a STB or digital TV into the same outlet and prime is fine, signal is strong so its the POS mystars problem.

    The other however, is a POS! Consistent recording failed messages, black screen recordings, slow response to the remote, when fast forwarding it can take up to a minute to respond to the remote, delete a recording in the planner and it just changes to “viewed”, delete the second time and it goes but often so does the recording in the list below it! And it to refuses to show Prime Newcastle, but only after 6pm! in the daytime it does show Prime, and same as the other plug in a STB to the same outlet and Prime is fine.

    I for one cant/wont believe that the HD Mystar will be any better, its taken them years to bring out the first mystar and its been one bug after another!

  7. After experiencing the SD MyStar for the last 18 months, no thanks! The current one is so full of bugs, it’s staggering. Series Linked bookings disappear overnight, ignores remote, first 2 minutes of recordings cut off, previous show added in full or part to front of recordings..

  8. Shane, I’ve never had that problem but occassionally if I have been watching one channel for over an hour and then pause it, when i try to resume it it goes back an hour and instead of resuming at “-2 mins” it resumes at “-62 mins”. There are quite a few bugs with the mystar.

  9. At home we have had Mystar for about 2 years. We are already on the second box as the 1st one blew up after about 3 months.

    We constantly record programs only to find a black screen when we go back to view them. Anyone else have this problem?

  10. Tom, I asked Austar about that once and they told me they couldnt broadcast the FTA networks due to TV licensing issues. Foxtel can broadcast them because they only cover the same areas as the metropolitan FTA networks whereas Austar covers everywhere else which has many different regional FTA networks. The FTA networks are not allowed to broadcast outside their licensed area.

    Although, they could get around it by using the same concept they use for the ABC. ABC1 is on 196 in QLD, 197, 198, etc. for other states. However with atleast 2 or 3 networks in each license area and many license areas, channel numbering could get confusing.

  11. I understand they don’t currently deliver those channels but i hope Austar eventually does. Yes i’m not holding my breath! It would be a godsend for people who live where i live.

  12. No Tom, it doesn’t carry the FTA channels, only ABC1, ABC2, SBS1 and SBS2. Austar does provide the EPG for the FTA channels but doesn’t broadcast the channels. If you currently don’t get a decent reception with a digital tuner then the Mystar will not change that.

  13. So will it actually carry 10,9 & 7?

    Because i don’t get a decent reception via free to air methods, digital or analogue, we are in a country blackspot. The Govt. has spent $200,000 trying to deliver them and they still don’t work well. I would kill to get them via Austar.

  14. If it brings a watchable reception of 10,9 & 7 to country blackspots then I will get it, cause right now i can’t watch 10 or 7 becasue the reception is no good. Fingers crossed.

  15. Thanks for the time but I’m sticking with my ‘standard’ digital tuner and LG HDD/DVD to record shows/movies until they work the bugs out.

    When HD does come will Austar have a non MyStar box so I can upgrade to HD without paying $15pm for MyStar? Also would MyStar HD cost more than the current MyStar? or for that fact with Austar HD cost more than what I have now?

  16. lol good old Austar – always 1 to 2 years behind everyone else and they still stuff it up.

    MyStar should be complimentary to all subscribers as compensation for the over priced poor service Austar delivers.

  17. bill, I get that problem too. Scrolling through the channels sometimes brings up number 4 and sometimes it brings up the Active menu. It is very buggy, it still wont show the TEN EPG properly but it does show ONE. (confusing).

    craig, u can fix that problem with a tv tuner card that can handle Yellow-Red-White input. U can record the show to mystar, then record it to ur pc, compress it and burn it.

    I’m looking forward to HD Mystar, hopefully they will have fixed a heap of bugs. But I won’t be looking forward to the price. SD mystar is still expensive.

  18. well if it is as buggy as the current mystar I will just stay with sd, because I get the feeling mystar HD will be even worse. Hell the mystar I have atm is that bad when you hit planner it changes stations instead, you go scrolling thru what on each channel, it brings up the number 5. It sometimes wont let you access either the tv guide or planner, or even change channels. That is only the tip of the iceberg

  19. I love the idea of My Star but the biggest problem is you can’t save what you record to a DVD, meaning the HDD would fill too quick. I would get this tomorrow if that was an option using an external DVD recorder.

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