Australia

Not NBN Ready Yet

Peter G Australia, digital TV, Foxtel, laptop, NBN , , , , , , ,

foxteliqhdThe Australian NBN is coming to my neighbourhood. The NBN is short for the National Broadband Network which is an Australian Government Business Enterprise. I have looked the at the NBN website & the rollout in my neighbourhood is in May to June 2017. It could be in time or it might be delayed. This NBN is about the having the latest technology related to the landline telephone, broadband internet & pay TV. There are a number of technologies involved depending where you live in Australia. I currently have a landline telephone, broadband internet & pay TV. I use the older cable technology in the meantime. I am happy using it. I live in the inner western suburbs of Sydney in Australia.

I have got good news with Optus TV featuring Foxtel. The sports pack stayed at $25. It did not go up in price at all. Good on you Optus. This deal however will only last to the NBN switchover. If I really want Foxtel in the future. Have to contact Foxtel. With their cable service, the base entertainment, sports & high definition version of these channels. I am proven right of hitting well over the 60 Australian dollar mark for a month. Not including a set top box tax & installation fee. Only a $50 discount. Dreadfully overpriced I afraid. Not worth the trouble & not worth the money. Getting Foxtel Play is a better bet if really want Foxtel in the future with live & catch up TV application for online viewing. The prices are more reasonable as well. Can view this application via a number of devices. Can put the application on the laptop & connect a cable to the TV set.

I am an Optus customer. With the NBN ready offer, they don’t offer Foxtel. They have joined forces with budget pay TV outfit Fetch like number of other Australian telecommunication businesses. Their brand name is “Yes TV by Fetch”. Their NBN ready offer is a new modem for NBN broadband, a phone with choice of pay for phone use or a phone pack & of course, their Fetch TV pack. No point buying a Fetch box at JB Hi-Fi when Optus will give it away for me if I really want it. For the time with TV, enjoying watching Foxtel provided by Optus with this old relic of set top box which will be an antique piece very soon. This photo above will be handy for any memories down the track of the way I used to watch TV.

Pay TV without the Sports pack

Peter G Australia, free to air, pay tv, Petesmusic's Blog, Sport , , , ,

Welcome back everyone. I have not being able to do a post for personal reasons & health reasons. I do thank everyone for their interest in the past blog posts.

I have being a subscriber of Optus TV featuring Foxtel in Australia for quite a while now. I used to be a Foxtel subscriber in Australia as well. I still have pay TV but with a reduced plan these days. I used to have the Sports pack but had to drop the plan for financial reasons. Till this month, the Sports pack was $25 but has being increased to $29. Foxtel have being claiming they had to increase the price of the Sports pack due to the price of production costs. My current plan is the lowest plan which is called the Entertainment plan which is the $25 plan plus the high definition viewing tax of $10. It is handy there for free to air reception & watching the news channels that are available on this pack. I feel it is best available option for me at the present time since I have very horrible free to air television reception via the indoor antenna that I have. All prices in this article are all in Australian dollars. Bye for now & have a good day.

Not a fan of the Windows 10 upgrade

Peter G Australia, internet browser, Microsoft Esge, Microsoft Windows, PC, Sydney, Windows 10, Windows 8, Windows App Store , , , ,

windows10
This image is courtesy of the Microsoft Australia website

The latest operating system that you can upgrade to is the Windows 10 operating system if you bought a personal computer (PC) with Windows 7 or Windows 8. I bought a PC with Windows 7 a few years back. I did upgrade my PC to Windows 8. My main issue that it made the PC more complicated. The speed of the PC surprising didn’t slow down. Windows 8 saw the introduction of the App Store for the PC which didn’t exist in Windows 7. Had to navigate to go to websites to retrieve the applications. The intention of Windows 10 was to simplify from Windows 8 and the navigate with less time. One unique feature is the introduction of Microsoft Edge, a new browser only available for Windows 10 users which is intended to replaced Internet Explorer which served Microsoft well for a couple of decades.

I have tried the Windows 10 upgrade to feel the simplicity but feel too many teething problems. One problem was the performance of the PC was too slow. Finding Microsoft Edge could not handle using reading the newspaper replica of The Sydney Morning Herald because The Sydney Morning Herald was using the older Adobe Flash software. I was finding so many performance issues with Microsoft Edge that I returned to Windows 8 where speed was lesser a problem. With my current PC, I want to stay with Windows 8 still support from Microsoft remains. I will only use Windows 10 if I get a new computer one day pre-installed with Windows 10.

P.S.: The Sydney Morning Herald is a daily newspaper from Sydney, Australia.

The Ashes is on Nine (Zero)

Peter G 2015, Australia, cricket, digital TV, free to air, Gem, Nine(Zero), State of Origin, The Ashes , , ,

Yes it is nearly The Ashes again time in the sport of cricket. Australia plays England in another five test cricket matches. If you know the sport of cricket, this is one most important test series in the game itself. A cricket test match lasts for five days. Both teams have two innings with the team having the most runs as winners of the test match. Any incomplete tests within the five days then be declared a draw. For viewers in the Australian city of Sydney, everyday of the Australia v England international cricket is on Nine Network’s digital high definition channel called Gem except for one day of test cricket from Lords on Nine. Gem is on Channel 90 on the free to air digital TV sets or digital high definition set top boxes. Remember, 90 can be know as Nine (Zero) as well. The first test will held in the Welsh city of Swansea. This is Swansea’s first time of having The Ashes. The first ball will be bowled at 8pm Australian Eastern Time on Wednesday, July 8. Yes, The State of Origin decider from Lang Park in Brisbane which is a huge rugby league encounter will be on Channel 9/NBN/WIN all over Australia. The starting time is identical to The Ashes First test on Wednesday, July 8. Keep in mind The Nine Network has the Australian exclusive television rights for the 2015 and 2019 series. Bad luck for pay tv viewers who were watching Fox Sports The Ashes in 2011. The best thing to do is to switch to Channel Nine (Zero).