Telstra T-Box. BigPond finds another use
Filed under: broadband, consumer, customers, entertainment, gadgets and gizmos, innovation, lifestyle, networks, T-Box, technology
I was invited to test drive the new Telstra T-Box. Having seen one in passing at the local Telstra Shop, my initial reaction was: ‘not for me thanks – already have FOXTEL at home’.
Then I thought: ‘why not give it a go – after all not everyone has FOXTEL, and the reports I have read are quite positive’.
So, here is my review – I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.
The promise
“Here’s Telstra T-Box. Now one exciting device is all you need to integrate internet and free to air entertainment and information, so you can watch what you want, when you want, on your TV”(from the T-Box sales brochure).
Now I am intrigued. What is this T-Box and how is it going to integrate my BigPond, free-to-air TV and other things on my TV screen? And more importantly, what is it going to do to my monthly internet usage allowance?
Before you set up your T-Box
Setting up the T-Box is simple. Before you start, make sure you have the following:
- An eligible BigPond broadband connection
- Wi-Fi (if your TV and BigPond modem are not close by) or Ethernet connection to your BigPond broadband service
- An external TV Antenna (digital)
- TV (preferably HD Ready or full HD TV)
- Credit/Debit card details (for BigPond Movies sign up)
- About 10 – 15 minutes
Menu
Seeing the setup menu in action really evokes the “wow” factor. When the T-Box searches for the free-to-air stations, I admit I had a grin on my face. It was a good show – dropping the stations in one by one. If you are already connected to the internet, BigPond TV stations will also be included in the TV Programme Guide.
All reviews I have read on the T-Box echo my thoughts that this menu system is second to none.
Navigation through the menu is performed via the remote control (yes that’s right, another one…..)
Security
The T-Box offers two levels of security – one covers your movie rentals and most of the other content is covered by parental control. Both of these are important, and you must remember to keep these PINs in a safe place.
Register your T-Box.
Registration allows you to get the full benefit from your T-Box. Make sure your computer is connected to the internet, and follow the prompts at telstra.com/boxsetup. During this process you will be able to join up with BigPond Movies.
So what does your T-Box give you?
Through your BigPond Broadband connection, you will receive the following UNMETERED stations:
- BigPond News
- BigPond Racing (TVN)
- BigPond Sports News
- BigPond Footy (AFL)
- BigPond League (NRL)
- BigPond V8
- BigPond Music Channel
All of these stations, over your BigPond connection, and NO impact on your monthly usage!
You can also get BigPond Videos – BigPond’s video-on-demand service. Access thousands of videos whenever the mood hits you. Forget about waiting for session times. You chose the video, the starting time, and how you watch it (quarter screen vs full screen).
Video categories include Sport, News and Entertainment. On-screen prompts allow you to set the features – e.g. full screen, quarter screen (while you browse other videos to watch) etc. The number of videos in the catalogue is growing, so there is always something to watch.
And to top it off, BigPond Videos and BigPond Movies are also UNMETERED. This means you do not pay for the data used to download these movies or TV shows — just the rental fee associated with them. (This is where your credit / debit card is required).
Once again the menu system is great
An advantage of being connected to the internet is that you can access YouTube on your TV. A word of warning – this content is METERED, meaning it will contribute to your monthly BigPond data usage allowance. This is probably a good place to use the Parent Control feature! Given the wide variety of content on YouTube, you can block any inappropriate content using YouTube filtering or block the whole application using the parental control feature.
Personal Video Recorder (PVR)
The T-Box allows you to record, pause and rewind free-to-air TV, and store over 100 hours of standard definition TV. Basically, you control what you watch, and when. The Programme Guide allows you to plan up to seven days in advance. And, you can set the T-Box to “Series Record” to automatically record each episode of a series.
If you manage to fill the internal 200GB storage, you can attach an external hard drive or flash memory via the USB port on the T-Box, allowing you to offload free to air programmes, one at a time, to this external storage. I look forward to the day this port also allows the T-Box to become a media player, so that I can play my home movies through it.
The Verdict:
I like it. Why? It’s simple and it works well.
If you find your Wi-Fi signal strength is not as strong as it could be and you can’t use an Ethernet connection, there are several options to boost your signal without having to move your router or TV.
Telstra carry one that I saw, and there are others on the market that works through your power points. There’s also an excellent long-range wireless solution from Rukus called the MediaFlex 7000. The Rukus system provides long-range transmission of IP-based video and attaches to a Telstra home gateway and T-Hub via Ethernet adaptors.
The T-Box has some great features – including, but not limited to, an easy to use menu that is second to none, a compelling range of programmes that are unmetered, no contract, and it’s a personal video recorder that can hold many hours of content.
This is just the beginning of what this product will be capable of.
Just a query: does Telstra capture any data usage about t-box users use or viewing habits?
Hi David. We can look at data to see how many viewers are watching a particular show or channel at one time, similar to ratings.
Brendan – what other information do you capture or use from T-box users? And why aren’t buyers told about this at the time of purchase? I can understand why you might want to capture data about users viewing habits, but why not be up-front about this.
I understand that people who subscribe to viewer ratings do so knowingly – so why doesn’t Telstra?
Good. Maybe we will be able to say goodbye to the shopping channels.
Any news on when Foxtel on T-Box for ADSL2+ customers will be available? Eager to sign up to this.
Hello! I was wondering if Telstra has any plans to release a new T-box any time soon? I know we would all love to know.
The information page for each channel has a background (white) which makes it very difficult to read the fine print – could something be done to either change the print to bold or the background to a softer colour. Also lately trying to read the second page has become difficult as it flashed back to the first page immediately. Perhaps someone could fix this problem too.
Have the latest issue of firmware, intermitant lockups, remote drops out all the time, have to resynce remote, this is 2nd unit, Telstra please send me a replacement unit, it’s getting beyond a joke, when is Telstra going to release a better T-Box hardware spec?
Michael,
I read your review and completely disagree. I have had the T-Box for a week and have’t had one good night of TV viewing yet. the faults are:
Too slow to load channels
Can’t aggange channels
movies are too expensive
Frequently freezez and has to be reset
Menue inflexible (eg. can not adjust the timing of the program flag that appears when you change the channel.
Of all the internet that’s available T-Box only allows Youtube.
I don’t know howlong you had the T-Box but I am sure you views would have changed if you had it more than a day.
regards
Moji
Moji, Sorry to hear you’ve been having some issues with your new T-Box. Please do contact Technical Support on 1300 136 841 for assistance and try the new Telstra CrowdSupport forum. There is some helpfulnew info on T-Box fixes.
I have had minimal problems with my T-Box; not to say there aren’t things I would like to change. I moved over from a standalone DVR as I found it hard to program and clunky. I use the T-Box mainly for the EPG and recording free to air particularly now with all the digital channels available. The only concern I have is with a certain TV channel which delays the finish & start of most programs but the T-Box does allow programming of a time buffer pre- & post-program so I have that set at 10 minutes for recording.
I am looking forward to upgrades as well.
Another thing I love is the grouping and visuals of the recorded programs; much easier to sort out what was recorded and when
Just unpacked and connected my TBox. I was a little surprised to feel its weightlessness and “plastic-ness”, but never mind that.
Firstly, couldn’t make the remote control turn the TBox on. I worked out that I had to apply pressure to the base of the remote to make it function, so eventually got past that one.
Then during the 3rd set up window, the signal to TV disappeared. After verifying it was not the HDMI cable or the TV input (by swapping both), I had to reset the TBox and the signal reappeared.
Then after resetting it I got further through the set up and after trying a few times the TBox could not detect an ethernet connection. Swapped cables, etc. but no joy. TBox has a problem.
Then tried to continue through the set up process but the signal to TV disappeared yet again. Its disappointing when the thing won’t even work long enough to set it up!
Then I checked online for troubleshooting info, and found no shortage of negative comments about the TBox.
I will be calling Telstra in the morning. I hope they act, and this is the end of the problems.
Hi Chris. I can only imagine how frustrating it must have been setting your new T-Box. Please do contact Technical Support on 1300 136 841 for assistance and try the new Telstra CrowdSupport forum. There is some helpfulnew info on T-Box fixes.
All the best Chris. I know all my problems were resolved once I sent the stupid thing back and got a full refund. But that’s my experience.
Thanks Brendan for providing the Crowd Support link. My problems are however freezing, audio dropping out when trying to watch streaming channels. Thank goodness I have Foxtel 1Q2 as well, T-Box sits idle. Regards, Kevin
We have tried to attach an external hard drive to transfer the recordings over onto however it hasn’t worked. When I spoke with Telstra they said it wasn’t capable of this only a USB could be used, is this right? Before buying a large capacity USB I thought I would double check.
Hello Laura. The T-Box has two USB ports. One on the front, and one on the back. You can currently attach a hard drive solely for copying recordings to it. The external drive must be formatted to FAT32. NTF and HFS (Mac) are not supported.
Can I copy recordings that I have taken off the T-Box back on to the T-Box?
No. Once a FTA recording is exported to the usb device, you can not return it to your T-Box, however you can plug that usb device to the same T-Box to playback the FTA recorded file.
Laura,
Good question. As Brendan stated, the drive must be formatted to FAT32. When you buy the drive, it will most likely be formatted to NTFS by default. Be aware, that if you do this, that you will not be able to put files on this hard drive that are greater the 4GB in size. This is a limitation on FAT32.
This is one of the most disappointing facts on the T-Box. The lack of filesystem support is a major drawback. Also, Brendan noted:
‘You can currently attach a hard drive solely for copying recordings to it.’
This means that you are unable to playback other formats (such as MPEG or AVI, etc). Another real disappointment for the T-Box. Finally, be aware, that the files that are copied onto the hard drive seem to only playback on a T-Box. I am yet to find a player that can play that format back on a PC or different device. It locks you into playing that exported file only on the T-Box.
If you want to archive it and put it on DVD and what it later – then you are wasting your time.
Telstra have a lot to answer for in terms of the lack of this simple functionality that a decent PVR should be capable of. Anyway, happy exporting.
This is one of the many reasons the T-Box frustrates us. Because we’ve gone thorough 5 T-Boxes already we lose all our recordings and have to start all over again as the purchasing of a complettly separate harddrive that is only to be used for the T-Box is clearly a waste of money!
Remotes is always playing up and needs to be resynched, no subtitles for hearing impaired for bigpond movies, not able to record 2 shows despite the twin tuners, The FTA tuner is also totally and utterly crap. Even with brand new cabling the tuners end up failing in the end… lose wires lose soldering???… who knows but we are so sick of the T-Box not to mention the T-Hub that chronically freezs and has only ever had one software date all year.
Yes Telstra have a lot to answer for, but quite frankly who can be bothered sitting on hold and passed on to one person to another, box after box returned and still no real value in the promised product. *sigh* I would never reccomend a T-Box to anyone whilst it is so unstable and crappy.
Once recordings have been transferred to USB or external hard drive, can they then be put onto dvd or are they protected?
Laura,
No. In my view this is a fundamental flaw. The file format is a ‘ts’ file format, which, while it is a standard, it is my understanding that Telstra encrypt it somehow. This makes it unplayable on any other player that would normally play ‘ts’ file formats. Telstra simply do not want to listen to their customers about improvements to the T-Box. One of the many reasons that I sent mine back.
Laura and others,
I love my T-Box. It has changed my TV viewing habits completely. I have successfully recommended it to multiple members of my family.
I do agree that the archive support for generic video files such as MKV, AVI, etc. would be a handy feature. I also would like to see the product take advantage of the local high speed network connectivity and provide a local streaming server and/or client. That’d be great!
In response to the question of external USB HDD support just be aware that some hard drives draw more current than most standard USB2 ports can provide (yes I know that’s not what the USB2 spec says but that’s the reality). If you are using a an external USB HDD consider getting one which is separately powered. I can almost guarantee (only of course if you use FAT32) that it will solve the problem. Of course using a Solid State drive instead of a platter version will draw less power. It will of course be more expensive but it will also be very quick.
As for the FAT32 4GB partition size limitation, it has been several years since the introduction of exFAT32 (MS Vista SP1) which is supported on most newer operating systems. I can not say whether the T-Box supports exFAT32 but I would expect so. Question for Telstra and/or the forum??
correction did I say 4GB partition size limit for FAT32? I meant 32GB partition size limit and 4GB file size limit.
All this file system support is something I have discussed many times. Glad to hear that you like your T-Box. At least someone does. My experience is totally different – but that’s another story. One which you could probably find through this forum.
Support for generic video files is not only handy, but all other leading PVRs offer it. The fact that T-Box doesn’t shows its inferior nature to the market as well as it’s design flaws. Not to mention, you will find that the standard netgem box actually has that functionality, Telstra has disabled it when the stuffed up the firmware. Telstra also broke the standard netgem functionality that allows streaming from a local media server. In case you are not aware, the T-Box is a netgem box rebadged (and screwed up firmware).
Once again, Telstra simply do not want to listen to what their customers want. Not to mention Telstra promised to incorporate streaming in the product, but simply failed to deliver. These are some of the reasons that my T-Box has been sent back.
You can actually partition large drives to FAT32. I myself successfully formatted a 500GB drive to FAT32. It is possible. One limitation that you won’t get around is the individual file size limit. No single file can be larger than 4GB (as Rob pointed out in his correction).
Interesting point regarding the drives with different power sources, have not run into that myself, but will keep that in the memory banks.
Hi there, I have been downloading recordings from my T-Box to a USB stick to free up space. It did the first 10 or so no problems but now has decide it does not want to export anymore. Comes up as starting to export but then just drops out. Can anyone help me with this problem as there is plenty of memory on the USB stick (260GB). Thanks
Hello Simon. Sorry to hear you’ve been having some issues saving movies to your USB stick. Please call Technical Support on 1300 136 841 for assistance and try the new Telstra CrowdSupport forum. There is some helpful new info on T-Box fixes.
My T-Box keeps locking up at random intervals requiring it to be reset manually and sometime it just resets itself. Is there something wrong with the box or my setup?
Hello Chris. Please do contact Technical Support on 1300 136 841 for assistance and try the new Telstra CrowdSupport forum. There is some helpfulnew info on T-Box fixes.
I have to switch on every channel before the menu gets updated.
Bollox, I say, and I will ditch it. Even SkyTV was better,
which says a lot.
I recently got a t box and enjoy most of it
but i find when watching any internet channel after 10-15 mins the sound starts to stagger/goes off or the picture freezes.
it is annoying to constantly turn the machine off and back on again.
Has anyone else had an issue like this, and what had they done about it.
Thanks
Hi Michael, Sorry to hear you’ve been having some issues with your new T-Box. Please do contact Technical Support on 1300 136 841 for assistance.
Michael, I have had the same issue with my 4 boxes, original + 3 replacements, over a period of about 12 months now and had to do what you are doing, ie rebooting it. I have given up the IPTV and because I have better receivers, my T-Box just sits behind my TV out of sight and out of mind. I am going to investigate Fetch, that will mean going to iiNet though. Good luck with yours. Kevin
Is the licensing too expensive to support NTFS drives?! This is sooooo cheap! The tbox is just another half baked single purpose toy. I really wonder why so many manufacturers seem unable to produce something really useful. -.-
Jan,
I agree, it’s a major stuff up. Let’s also not forget that it’s Telstra that stuffed it up. Out of the box, the original netgem box is actually quite functional. It wasn’t until Telstra got their hands on it that totally ruined it. Nor sure if the original product had NTFS support or not, but Telstra killed all of the good features with their firmware.
Gotta hand it to Telstra, they really know how to stuff something up completely.
Its quite common for devices in this class to only support FAT32. If you don’t like that in this product go buy one that does support NTFS.
In terms of NTFS support, my real issue is the target market fir the device. It advertises that you can export FTA recordings. The average person buys a large drive off the shelf only to find that it doesn’t work. In this day and age, it’s poor form. While many devices only offer FAT32, given it’s age, limitations, and functionality, it’s pretty average for Telstra not to provide that support.
While I have returned my box and am using a different PVR, it is important for people to be aware of this lack of file system support. I respect those who think it’s not an issue, but at the same time I am voicing my dissappointmemt.
The whole point of this forum I thought was for people to do exactly that. I am simply voicing my experience and opinion. People can choose to listen or ignore at their leisure.
In my opinion Telstra made a heap of mistakes with this product. I hope they learn from it, but I suspect that they are too big to even care. My hope is to see better products for consumers in the future.
@andrew, if you can find evidence that the NetGem box that the T-Box is rebadged from (the Netgem N8200) supports NTFS, then you can blame Telstra for not supporting it.
You can blame Telstra for turning off features such as mkv and avi support (which is down to the software configuration), but the firmware support in the box is down to the original manufacturer.
Kevin,
Yeah it is quite frustrating as i got the machine to watch TVN and NRL mostly but it continues to hang after a period of time.
A reset every time fixes the issues but still thats not a solution.
I wanted to try foxtel on the tbox but worry that everything will freeze up on that too and will not be worth the $$$.
I have had a look at Fetch looks very interesting, some nice IPTV channels they offer too
Can I put movie files from my computer to my usb and watch them on the TV through the T box?
No. The TBox will not playback any files unless they were recorded on the TBox. It does not recognised MPG, AVI or any other standard movie format.
Further to this, it does not have any streaming capabilities. So if you have a media server, you are unable to stream movies to it.
Eventhough we haven’t got foxtel with the Tbox, the channels(all of them) show up in the channel selections and even after you hide them thru the settings, they keep coming back. Already contact help desk and said it will be fixed with next update at the end of the month. Does Telstra test all previous so call upgrades to the tbox. I am so over this product, I like it WHEN it works.
I hope this advice of an upgrade it true….
I’ve had the T Box since it first came out and got to say that its been a fantastic addition to the entertainment in our household. Initially we used it via a wireless connection but this was not perfect and occasionally experienced buffering watching TV programmes, so in the end I hooked the T Box up by ethernet connection and since then it has been fantastic.
The digital tuner in the T Box makes the free-to-air channels appear crystal clear and the audio through the home theater system is brilliant.
Occasionally we might experience a hick-up in the delivery of internet channels but these correct themselves pretty quickly or a quick reset on the T Box and things are back on track.
The IPTV channels Bigpond provides are really good and the quality is improving all the time. Big Pond Music channel is awesome and the Big Pond videos are fantastic. I love watching live music performances and some of the Big Pond videos recorded live (these are all free and unmetered) at various venues (many at the Basement in Sydney) are fantastic with first rate video and audio quality.
We have had no issues with the PVR function on the unit and have been using it daily for about a year now – works beautifully and the quality of recordings is crystal clear again and first-rate. The only thing we have found is that you are better off to record channels using the “Manual Record” option thus setting your own record times as opposed to using the programme guide record function only because the TV channels run most programs overtime and you can easily miss part of the recording.
Just last week we tried the Movie Rentals function on the T Box. On a cold, wintry Melbourne night we didn’t feel like going out to rent a video from the video shop so tried the Big Pond Videos. Fantastic selection to choose from….picked a movie…had a choice of $4 in SD or $5 in HD…chose High Def. and within 2 minutes it was ready to start watching and in brilliant high definition and surround sound. Was really convenient and enjoyable!
And now there are many Foxtel Channels available through the T-Box without having to lock in to a long term contract and the prices are quite reasonable. I think they are on a winner with that.
I realise there are quite a few out there who have had problems but I must be one of the few who have had a good run…I’m not a Telstra employee just a satisfied customer. The T Box is an evolving product that can be adjusted (via software upgrades) to take on new functions and provide new services and I reckon you’ll find that the USB recording/playback function will be improved to cater for mainstream video formats that we have come to expect. Persevere and you may be pleasantly surprised.
I am truley pleased that you are happy. I’m sure there are others out there. I did perservere, I even tried writing feedback to get Telstra to look at improvements, but all that feel on deaf ears. There is no doubt that if you only want basic functionality in a PVR, then it probably will suit your needs. My requirements were quite specific, and I was told it would perform the functions that I required (that good PVRs perform), but it failed to deliver on what I was promised.
Good luck in waiting for USB playback and/or recordings in mainstream formats. It is my experience that Telstra will not budge on that – very disappointing.
In terms of the selection on bigpond movies, I found the selection average at best. The reset on a good product should be an extremely rare occurance, not a regular one. I really don’t think Telstra test their updates very well.
Anyway, two very different experiences. I hope you continue to have a positive experience.
I certainly agree with you, I do hope that they turn it into a true media box, supporting other formats, and with the ability to store recordings on a network drive.
After all, they’ve just brought out a new modem, the “Technicolor” modem, which has media sharing capabilities, and soon to support NTFS.
One would hope that if you were being sensible, there would be a way to integrate the two….
lol Burgy can I buy your T-Box! I’ll swap you for 5 of my duds!
As for your movie range you must have been looking at old movies??? As all the new releases in SD are 5.99 ($6) and the HD are more expensive again at $7.
I find the movies to be too expensive, and since they don’t have subtitles for hearing impaired,some of my family can’t even watch them.
Would be nice if we could all have a box as nice as yours. Jealous much!
Well, after reading Burgy’s comment, I am almost tempted to dust my T-Box off, turn it on and see if it works any better than when I gave it up as a dead loss. It is instructive to read of a very happy customer. I too think it is a great concept, unfortunately for some of us it has come to market in almost a beta timing and had/has a lot of fix-ups to be implemented. Let’s hope that with updates, if they are working on any, will be passed onto we guinea pigs so that we too don’t give up completely. I wonder if Telstra will now lose interest seeing as they have got their shareholder vote through?
Maybe my requirements in what I want out of the unit are more basic than most. I just found switching to an ethernet connection improved performance significantly.
BTW…is there anyone on the exchange that has a working t-box that they don’t want and would like to off-load it by making me an offer I can’t refuse? I’m after another t-box for a 2nd TV.
We have had a t-box for some time now.
We call it the ‘crap box’.
Unit continuously fails 5 minutes after turning on. T
Calls it a ‘hard disk’ check, but then does it every 20 minutes or so every night.
When we contacted Telstra, we were told to reset the box. Worked for about a day.
Can’t record anything, because it always fails either before or during the recording.
What a waste of money.
Final straw. When we asked for it to be checked and returned, they said they would do this but reserved the right to charge us for the check if they didn’t find a fault?
Based on the poor quality of the unit, can I trust them to actually find the fault?
We will probably just end up with the same crap box, but a service charge.
Shame Telstra.
It is very much ‘shame on Telstra’ with my experience as well. If I were you, I would complain until you get a complaints manager. Once you get that far, then I would request a FULL refund. If a product does not do what it is designed to do, or resonably expected to do. Then according to consumer law, you are entitled to a full refund.
In your situation, I would not rest until I got a FULL refund of goods. It clearly does not do what it was designed to do. For me, it did not do what I was TOLD it could do either.
If they don’t listen, simply go to the TIO, they will be forced to listen then.
Hi Brendan – still on my first t-box – still a few issues – but thanks for fixing the flipping on the channel information page.
A new problem has arisen since the last update – the channel banners are changing as we try to select the next program to watch. SBS will change to a WIN or an ABC will change to a 7mate etc. so you never quite know which channel you are changing to. Please look into this problem…very confusing. There are other issues but will put up with them but not this banner problem. Thanks – Beverley
Read Record Error – Hi all. I keep getting an error message when attempting to playback recorded content. Any idea as to what causes this particular fault? Other than that, really pleased with the T-Box so far – sure it’ll be a winner once this is fixed.
Hi James. You can call the dedicated T-Box support team on 1300 136 841. They can answer your questions or offer assistance. Brendan.
Great – so you are happy with a box that is not working properly. Fantastsic.
Thanks for the number Brendan.
And P PAL, thanks for the laugh – plus great work on the spelling too. I am happy with the box, and will be even happier when this probably minor issue is solved.
Thanks James for having a chuckle – what’s wroung with my spalling?
For Foxtel on T-Box, if I have a second T-box, does the one subscription cover both T-Boxes (one in lounge upstairs, one in family room downstairs)?
You can only receive the Foxtel channels on one T Box at a time when subscribing to Foxtel via T Box. You do have the ability to switch which T Box you view Foxtel channels on and this is done through your T Box account at the website – http://www.telstra.com/tboxsetup. I currently have two T Boxes and switch the Foxtel channels to either TV when it suits. It’s not an instant switch and can take an hour to switch between T Boxes. It is one of the weaknesses of the Foxtel/T Box system along with being unable to record Big Pond/Foxtel channels. I think the subscription pricing might need to be reviewed because of this.
T-box has died… 6pm Friday afternoon… so no news, no HD recording, no anything over the weekend.
About 25 minutes on the phone to be told the thing needs to be replaced. Oh – this could take up to 10 working days to arrive.
Why can’t I get a new one straight away from the local T-Shop?
Seriously – these things are T(rouble).
Had some problem Questions like “Did you buy it from a Shop owned by telstra or a Franchise” – How would I know. Wen’t back to the shop – they refused to change it. Rang telstra and they sent one after ages. Now freezing.
Was just wondering if anyone else was finding that foxtel on their tbox is constenly freezing??? Am get quite annoyed as we pay for it only to find it doesnt work grrrrr
Hi Haylee, I don’t remember seeing any posts here with a similar issue. Please call the people at T-Box Technical Support on 1300 136 841 for assistance.
Regards Haylee “Freezing on foxtel” Your freezing I assume happens at night when you watch foxtel and during the day foxtel seems fine? There are two possible reasons why you get freezing (1) There is too many people on the internet in your household while watching foxtel, therefore not enough bandwidth or (2) in my case your internet speed slows down “at night” , because what telstra won’t admit that their exchanges get “overloaded,congestion” at night and then your speed reduces and foxtel can’t stream properly at night. I’ve had the same issues ie. internet bigpond channels freezing, sorry Brendan, and I had a case manager and new tboxes sent to me, and it is still not fixed. Hence I haven’t activated foxtel on my Tbox and telstra is loosing $35 a month from me. Let us know how you go. regards chris p. Ps i forgot a third reason, the Tbox itself has died and you have to return it to “The Telstra Warehouse Of Returned Tboxes” which is rumoured to be the biggest warehouse in the southern hemisphere.
Yes, it is a feature of the box. No other box on the market does that.
Why does the T-Box Movie Library not have:
The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas (2008)
PG_13 94 min – Drama | History | War – 23 April 2009 (Australia)
Set during World War II, a story seen through the innocent eyes of Bruno, the eight-year-old son of the commandant at a concentration camp, whose forbidden friendship with a Jewish boy on the other side of the camp fence has startling and unexpected consequences.
Director:
Mark Herman
Writers:
John Boyne (novel), Mark Herman (screenplay)
Stars:
Asa Butterfield, David Thewlis and Rupert Friend
That’s because the library is not complete by any means. There are many movies not on there. Not to mention, none have subtitles for the hearing impaired.
It’s a pretty poor effort really.
Called last Friday about T-box not working (won’t start up). Told I would be sent a replacement – no offer to just collect one immediately from a local Telstra Store. Instead, must just go without any service while I wait for the replacement to arrive via mail.
Today (Thursday – 1 week later), I receive a parcel from Telstra. Is it the replacement T-box. No. It’s a letter with instructions to immediately return the broken T-box using the provided satchel.
Funny how Telstra can prioritise its activities to get my T-box from my…. but can’t prioritise it activities to get me a replacement T-box.
Meanwhile, I have to return a product I have fully paid for and continue to go without any service while I wait for the privilege of receiving a replacement T-box.
Telstra – focusing on what’s important – but not the customer experience.
Hope someone actually thinks about this for a second to see how poor this process really is.
I had a T-Hub to return, and the New T-Hub turned up a week before the return stachel came. My guess it’s a luck of the draw. Hold onto the return satchel until you get your replacement is my suggestion.
I think Telstra should have a letter that comes with ther return satchel that starts with “If you have not yet recieved your replacement, call .
As I understand it, there is no mechanism to get a replacement from a T-Store (because some of them are franchises).
It would be useful if, for instance, you could ring Telstra, get an “authority number” for an replacement device – even a remote if a remote dies – and you just go to the nominated store with that number, and get the replacement.
Okay… sent off the T(rouble)-box on Monday (28/11), being the first opportunity to do so after receiving the return courier bag.
Contrary what others have said, the original letter from Telstra says that I won’t be sent a replacement until they have received and assessed the one I returned. Well, after spending nearly half an hour on the phone with a consultant who apparently diagnosed the device through my repetitive checks and on-line checks (via their system), I am not sure why I still now have to wait for another physical check. The thing didn’t start-up and didn’t work – no picture – nothing. Pretty easy assessment – it doesn’t work! I was advised that it therefore needed to be replaced and I would receive a replacement box.
But the letter says something a little different – I won’t get a replacement now until a further assessment is made. Funny how this now reverses the onus back onto the consumer. Why would I waste my time reporting a fault and sending in my T(rouble)-box if it didn’t work? Indeed, Telstra has the capability to check the device remotely not only to diagnose it, but also to see what my family has been viewing to easily determine that the device was useless.
But no – this isn’t good enough – and my family now have to go without any service while we wait for Telstra to go through their time consuming (and consumer time wasting) process.
In the meantime, my family and I continue to wait (now two weeks) to be able to obtain any service from the T(rouble)-box that we no longer have.
One can only hope that this might be before Xmas 2011.
Telstra – “it’s how we keep you disconnected”.
Hi David. Thank you for the feedback, and sorry you have had such a negative experience with the T-Box and our service. I just want you to know I have passed your comment on to the team lead for this product and asked that they investigate. Brendan.
Hi David, I have confirmation that you’ll be getting a call any time now from the T-Box team here in Australia. Brendan
We are up to our third T-box as they keep freezing and we have to reset it all the time. We have decided to give up and return the T-box and get a refund. If anyone has a solution to the freezing problem please let me know.
Re the freezing, just keep getting replacements. Then after total frustration, use the box as an end to stop books falling over on a shelf. One day, they will stop playing the politics with NBN and actually get a box or make a box work and Thodey should stop posturing that they have the best IPTV solution. Bollocks.
Have you tried their T-Box app for a smartphone.?
No, I haven’t tried app for a smartphone? Is it any good?
In regards to replacements, be aware that most replacements are not being sent out with a recovery bag. The recovery bag is sent out to get the T-Box and be returned to a repair center and will be repaired or replaced depending on the issue. Tech support will not send the device out straight away. The actual process can take up to 4 weeks.
Hello Tracey. Well i have it on my i-Phone, I presume there is also an android for other smartphones, and it works. I have heard of a couple of other users of T-Box and they say it works ok. I haven’t really soak tested mine because my T-Box is so unreliable I’ve almost forgotten I have one.
All,
we have had T-Box for a while and had our fair share of problems and replacements etc. But for a while, it is working very well. remotes were replaced by telstra (thanks) and we use it everyday. we get occasional issue but resetting the machine fixes things, just like any other device.
we have not taken up foxtel as it is not value for money but waiting for their unlimited movie streaming service that may start early next year.
we don’t use too much of bigpond movies pay per view system due to its high cost and 48 hour limit on viewing. sometimes, it takes us a week to complete watching a movie due to family priorities.
I hope they fix the pricing on bigpond movies and remove the artifical barrier of 48 hour viewing restriction. also, as soon as the unlimited movie streaming come in, we will be the first one to be on board. currently we have quickflix streaming, mainly due to true unlimited watching, both time limit and number of movies.
other thing with T-box is that it lacks DLNA feature (disabled by Telstra) as well as media player capability. so we had to buy sony blu-ray player to fill in the gap. as a result of that we were able to use quickflix streaming. so telstra trying to take away essential features from T-box has also cost them our business in bigpond movies (especially since quickflix).
so my advice to telstra is, enable all features in t-box so your customers have just one box attached to their TV and then you can control all the content that is delivered to the customers. if not, we have to find another device for media player and for dlna and more likely, they come with some content too like iView etc. so there goes your control on customer experience. have you heard of Apple?
recently a happy T-Box customer,
Litapajar
My daughter has the T Box application on her i-pod and it seems to work fine…just like having an extra TV remote.
Hello,
I seem to have a similar problem to Simon’s entry on 25.9.2011, 1.12pm in that while the majority of recorded programs will transfer to my USB plugged external hard drive (formatted to Fat32), some are not able to be transferred. In such cases, I would select the “Export to USB” option, but the subsequent “Export running” screen would hang for a few seconds then drop out (without transferring any data). Would there be a fix for this?
Got an email today that said “You asked us about FOXTEL on T-Box, and now it’s available for many Telstra customers in your area.” But when I put in the postcode it says “FOXTEL services are not available in this area.” So why send the email?
Yeah got the same useless message and sent an email to them to find out what it is all about, but of course no reply is forthcoming. Once again Telstra failing to live up to its end of the bargin. Maybe I should not pay my account so they can find out how annoying it is when people say they will do something and then dont do it.
I got the same email, but there ARE some circumstances where Foxtel will be available in various postcodes. It’s not (as I understand it) JUST based on postcodes, there are indeed other things that come into play.
It’s the fault of legislation, idiotic legislation as I see it, but blame successive idiots in the telecommunications portfolios who didn’t listen to certain submissions and concerns at the time, or placed far more emphasis on the vested interests of Galaxy, Foxtel and Austar, amongst others.
I’ve already complained to the ACCC about what I feel is anti competitive, but so far no joy.
Add your complaint to the ACCC and maybe the legislation will get a ruling against it if enough complain. Or call your local MP, although some of them want to stick it to Telstra, so they will be of little use, and your complaint will go nowhere.
It’s disappointing as it seems like ages since they announced that Foxtel was coming on Tbox yet we still can’t access it.
Brendan – received a call today. Now just need to wait until a replacement hopefully arrives soon.
Hi David, Glad to hear that. I’m here if you need me in the future.
It may already have been answered. But how exactly do you play recordings that have been exported to an external hard-drive back on the tbox?
Hi Mark, Your USB device must be formatted with FAT32 and the T-Box will support up to 8TBs. Currently you can only export one program at a time.
Recordings saved on a USB device can only be played back via a T-Box and not any other device. Please ensure that you unmount your USB device properly before removing it from the T-Box. Check out the official use guide for the T-Box here.
Hi,
I would like to confirm some information i heard about TBox. Is it true that Tbox concept is a solution to a customer suggestion? if not i would like to know how does the Tbox concept initiated.
While I really enjoy using my T-box, I have a suggestion that would improve my viewing experience and hopefully gain some backing from current users.
At the moment I use my T-box to record tv shows and view some Foxtel On-Demand shows. I also have a computer linked to my tv for streaming shows I’ve missed from the internet. Here’s my suggestion
I’d like to see integration with the On-Demand services from the main terrestrial channels. Like the metered YouTube app, you could provide a similar app to browse and stream missed shows from the SBS, Ch7, Ch9 and ABC websites.
I realise this would be a big deal to work out but I’m very confident that, if implemented correctly, you would lure many potential customers and please current users.
Also, as a side note: while using the YouTube app the other day I realised, while I can access my account and playlists on YouTube, the playlist does not auto-play. I have to click on each video clip in the playlist. I’d like to click the first video clip and have the playlist play through.
I bought the T-box when they first came out on the basis that IView would be “available in the next few months”.. That was 18 months ago, so don’t hold your breath!
I wish they would get that idiotic movie Sub Division out of the new releases in Big Pond Movies. It has been out for months. Do they ever bother checking these things? The whole setup is completely hopeless and amateurish. Avoid the Tbox like the plague if you have any sense. It is a piece of rubbish
hi guys,
i would just like to know how to watch movies which r on my usb. i have put the usb into the t box but nothing happens.
wud appreciate ur help.
Thanx.
christine
You can’t really do this on the T-box is the real answer.
The only playback capability that this silly device has is
The ability to play back movies that have previously been recorded on the tbox that you have archived. Telstra have disabled any playback capability of any AVI, mpg etc style movie.
This is one of the many reasons why the box is absute rubbish. Some people don’t require this functionality, hence this is not a real issue, but in terms of other products on the market, absolute rubbish.