Foxtel disabling RF output? Apparently not.

My brother emailed this link the other day to a forum discussion in which it was alleged that Foxtel had been performing firmware updates on its various set top boxes which, for unaccountable reasons, were disabling their RF output. Obviously RF output is used by only a small proportion, but some find it useful for multiroom setups and such. (Theoretically one might be forced to use this if the only TV one had was an old analogue model devoid of A/V inputs, but that seems particularly unlikely in practice.)

I put the claim to Foxtel, which replied today denying it. Specifically:

FOXTEL is not disabling the RF output in set top boxes. Not all models of FOXTEL set top boxes are provisioned with RF output (these include all iQ2 set top boxes and iQ set top boxes installed in subscriber homes from October 2008), but for those that are, the RF output is not being disabled. Should the RF output stop working, the customer should put the set top box into standby and then take it out of standby, the set top box should then tune to the required RF channel.

That seems pretty clear. I’m not signing up to the forum to correct the original report, but any readers who are signed up to Whirlpool Forums might want to post a correction, linking back here.