TOP FOXTEL VOICE COMMAND SHORTCUTS

FIND YOUR FAVOURITE ACTOR

If you’re a fan of Keanu Reeves, for example, you can ask to see a list of his most recent films. The actor has starred in 76 movies, so you can refine the list by asking just for comedies, like Destination Wedding, family films, like Toy Story 4, or action films, such as his bullet-dodging work as John Wick.

2 FIND A FILM YOU CAN’T NAME

If you can remember a famous quote from a film you want to find, or one of its characters, this feature might pin it down for you. The voice command service is programmed to recognise 500 famous movie lines.

3 TURN ON CLOSED CAPTIONS

Rather than hunt through menus and options every time you want to see closed captions, ask the iq box to show them and hide them again.

4 JUMP BACK IN TIME

While there are rewind and fast-forward buttons on the remote, voice commands provide specific shortcuts. You can ask to “jump forward five minutes” or “jump back 10 minutes”, for example.

5 FIND YOUR SPORTS TEAM

Colloquial names for Aussie sports teams have been added to this guide so users can ask to see games with the Rabbitohs or the Tigers, for example.

6 REQUEST A CHANNEL

Rather than remembering the channel number for Cartoon Network, ask to switch to it by name.

7 LOOK FOR A SPECIFIC FILM

Ask Foxtel to show you films by category, such as asking to see the latest comedies. It also works with more specific genres, eg kung fu or dance movies.

CHECK THE GUIDE

The Foxtel Voice Remote doesn’t provide physical shortcuts to the program guide or your library of recordings, but you can ask to go straight there. “Show me the library” will display your list of prerecorded or downloaded shows.

9 LAUNCH AN APPLICATION

You can launch third-party services such as Netflix and ABC iview, but you can’t use voice control to search through their catalogues yet.

CHANGE THE VOLUME

You can mute Foxtel, or raise or lower the volume, simply by asking.