Cable Forum - General Coming Soon to Virgin Media TV (2017)

Pack codes haven't changed but appear to have been suppressed for the following channels: SONY SAB, SONY TV, HUM EUROPE, Islam Channel Urdu, B4U Movies, B4U Music, NDTV India, NDTV Spice, NDTV Good Times, Zing, Zee Cinema, Star Plus, Star Gold, Star Bharat, Rishtey Europe, Zee TV, &TV, MTV Beats, Islam Channel English, Brit Asia TV, Zee Punjabi, Rishtey Cineplex, COLORS & SONY MAX. (Phew thank heavens for copy & paste.) - Suggesting that each of these channels should currently be available to all VM subscribers.

Not a good time then for Islam Channel English to apparently be broken, with a blank screen and Islam Channel Urdu to be displaying the Oops! technical difficulties slate.

Also the EPG Name of Star Bharat has changed from Bharat to StarBharat.

Brit Asia TV and Rishtey Cineplex have had a change of category from Entertainment to International, so should now be listed correctly in the International EPG option.

Erm.. yay! I'm quite sure this is just the sort of change everyone wanted. :D

Thanks, that explains it then. If they haven't changed the pack codes, but just suppressed them, it looks like it's a time limited thing. Wonder if it's anything connected to the changes that Sky have made for these sort of channels? Freeview periods have sometimes been known to last for months.

Do they normally just suppress the pack codes for Freeview periods? You'd think it would be easier to just switch off the encryption for a set period of time.

Btw I was told by sometime at VM today that there have been reports of people erroneously getting things like Sky Sports, but it only last about a day.

jj20x

14-10-2017 01:28

Re: Coming Soon to Virgin Media TV (2017)

Quote:

Originally Posted by RichardCoulter (Post 35920115)

There's no official terminology for this, these features are undocumented. Basically it is a bit level on / off switch or 1 bit switching between 0 and 1. The pack codes are left in place, ready to be reactivated after the free period. So not complicated at all.

When VM move channels around, between transport streams, the new location is sometimes "in the clear" for a short period. Possibly something similar happened with Sky Sports.

OLD BOY

14-10-2017 02:16

Re: Coming Soon to Virgin Media TV (2017)

Quote:

Originally Posted by jj20x (Post 35920110)

What, you mean like Sky Atlantic?

Hey, dude, let me into your world! :drunk:

Or maybe you were jesting...

jj20x

14-10-2017 03:24

Re: Coming Soon to Virgin Media TV (2017)

Quote:

Originally Posted by OLD BOY (Post 35920117)

What, you mean like Sky Atlantic?

Pfft! much better than that old thing.

Quote:

Hey, dude, let me into your world! :drunk:

Or maybe you were jesting...

Or maybe just sarcasm...

MichaelScofield

14-10-2017 12:01

Re: Coming Soon to Virgin Media TV (2017)

Quote:

Originally Posted by jj20x (Post 35920110)

All Asian channels are free for all VM customers this week for Diwali. It says it in the TiVo hotbar.

Mad Max

14-10-2017 12:26

Re: Coming Soon to Virgin Media TV (2017)

Quote:

Originally Posted by jj20x (Post 35920116)

:wtf:

nicknewark

14-10-2017 12:37

Re: Coming Soon to Virgin Media TV (2017)

Maybe we will get something free at Christmas, probably not.

Inactive Digital

14-10-2017 13:08

Re: Coming Soon to Virgin Media TV (2017)

Quote:

Originally Posted by nicknewark (Post 35920144)

Maybe we will get something free at Christmas, probably not.

Quite often in recent years, the UKTV channels have been made available in all packs during December.

jj20x

14-10-2017 13:36

Re: Coming Soon to Virgin Media TV (2017)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mad Max (Post 35920142)

:wtf:

It's just a temporary over-ride to make channels available to all subscribers. Simply the answer to Richard's question.

---------- Post added at 13:36 ---------- Previous post was at 13:20 ----------

Quote:

Originally Posted by MichaelScofield (Post 35920137)

All Asian channels are free for all VM customers this week for Diwali. It says it in the TiVo hotbar.

I've yet to see it appear there. Hmm, so VM's justification for making the Islam channels available to all is that it is in celebration of the Hindu Festival of Light? Interesting... :erm:

theone2k10

14-10-2017 13:57

Re: Coming Soon to Virgin Media TV (2017)

Quote:

Originally Posted by nicknewark (Post 35920144)

Maybe we will get something free at Christmas, probably not.

Yeah a price rise.

OLD BOY

14-10-2017 19:32

Re: Coming Soon to Virgin Media TV (2017)

Quote:

Originally Posted by nicknewark (Post 35920144)

Maybe we will get something free at Christmas, probably not.

Yeah, like free new +1 channels....

Still hoping we will get Amazon.

RichardCoulter

14-10-2017 20:49

Re: Coming Soon to Virgin Media TV (2017)

Quote:

Originally Posted by jj20x (Post 35920116)

I suppose they do this as an easy way to check that the EPG is pointing to the correct stream.

---------- Post added at 19:46 ---------- Previous post was at 19:43 ----------

Quote:

Originally Posted by MichaelScofield (Post 35920137)

All Asian channels are free for all VM customers this week for Diwali. It says it in the TiVo hotbar.

Thanks; VM's own staff didn't know about this, not that that's anything unusual.

---------- Post added at 19:49 ---------- Previous post was at 19:46 ----------

Quote:

Originally Posted by jj20x (Post 35920149)

I've yet to see it appear there. Hmm, so VM's justification for making the Islam channels available to all is that it is in celebration of the Hindu Festival of Light? Interesting... :erm:

I've not seen it on the Discovery Bar either, perhaps we all see different things dependent on our past viewing habits??

It does seem odd to lump all Asians together!

jj20x

14-10-2017 21:14

Re: Coming Soon to Virgin Media TV (2017)

Quote:

Originally Posted by RichardCoulter (Post 35920195)

I suppose they do this as an easy way to check that the EPG is pointing to the correct stream.

The EPG a different section of the SDT.

Quote:

I've not seen it on the Discovery Bar either, perhaps we all see different things dependent on our past viewing habits??

It does seem odd to lump all Asians together!

It would be nice if VM gave a heads up on the discovery bar before the channels actually appear. At least, that would give customers a chance to plan their viewing. Lumping all of the Asian channels together suggests that not much thought went into the decision.

denphone

15-10-2017 15:45

Re: Coming Soon to Virgin Media TV (2017)

Quote:

Originally Posted by theone2k10 (Post 35920155)

Yeah a price rise.

We have already just had one.;)

Dave42

15-10-2017 19:48

Re: Coming Soon to Virgin Media TV (2017)

been very very quiet year for VM

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