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

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Re: Coming Soon to Virgin Media TV (2017)

Cheers SP, I think I'll go in and delete the ones after the freeview ends.

---------- Post added at 21:13 ---------- Previous post was at 20:14 ----------

Quote:

Originally Posted by RichardCoulter (Post 35920859)

I didn't go to bed in the end as my head was hurting, so put the TV on. At exactly 6am all TV & BB went down. I tried a reboot, but it came up with a channels loading bar that stuck at 16%. Probably cos the BB was down; the V6 must need the internet to populate the EPG.

I rang VM to tell them about it, press 1, press, 2 etc and entered my password. Only at that point did it tell me they were closed until 8am grrrrrr. It was at that point that I really decided that it was time for bed :D

One thing that makes me doubt my own theory is why all the coded names? BBC local radio is hardly earth shattering :D. Maybe they are to follow Sky and use codes all the time to frustrate the likes of us!

Also, ViLoR isn't infallible:

https://radiotoday.co.uk/2017/09/eig...s-fall-silent/

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Sorry, I said the Tune-In app earlier, it's actually the Radioline app as you say.

All the national stations are also available in the app, as well as on the EPG.

Being on the EPG would enable us to record, set series links, set reminders etc.

Good thinking John and maybe this is why the services are being added piecemeal.

There are currently 15 local BBC1's (the three Nations are already HD) and BBC2 Scotland (the only difference is the last 20 minutes of Newsnight)

This makes a total of 16!

Only the other week, the Points Of View programme answered a viewers question about the time being taken to roll out the regional variations in HD. They said that budgetary constraints had led to them having to use "imaginative ways" to carry out the task.

Maybe they meant that it will be delivered over the internet??

The use of codes may be that they want to keep it secret before making a formal announcement for all platforms.

For completeness, this is what was actually said about upgrading the BBC regions to HD and the possible use of the internet as a solution:

Quote:

Viewers in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales who watch the BBC One HD channel get everything in glorious HD. But when it comes to their local news, viewers in England are confronted with a red holding screen and instruction to switch to BBC One Standard Definition.
So why are the English regions the poor cousins to the nations when it comes to high-definition?

BBC STATEMENT

"This is a really tricky issue for the BBC. We obviously want to give our audiences the best possible experience and not having Regional news content on BBC One HD is a problem, given that our 6.30pm bulletins are the most watched news programmes in the UK. We know it doesn’t bother all of our audiences, but many viewers find it inconvenient to switch to BBC One SD and that bothers us.

The problem remains one of money. There are 15 regional versions of BBC One across England and the Channel Islands. Most of those 15 BBC One’s originate from Regional studios that are not yet fully HD and upgrading Regional news output is a priority for investment. To then take 15 BBC One’s to air in both HD and SD on all platforms would cost the equivalent of a third of the annual editorial budget for regional TV bulletins. So we have to balance our plans with the best interests of the licence fee payer and try to find creative solutions. And we mustn’t forget BBC Two viewers in the Nations also experience a similar issue.

In a world where two thirds of homes have their main TV connected to the internet, we could look to the internet to provide local content in HD. Alternatively we might find a way for audiences to move more conveniently between HD and SD. We will address this problem one way or the other, but we don’t want to take money away from other BBC services if we can possibly avoid it.

In the meantime, the vast majority of the BBC’s content is available free to air to audiences in HD across all platforms and directly over the internet on BBC iPlayer, which is generally included by default within internet-connectable TVs and set-top boxes and with the added benefits of live restart and 30 days to watch programmes as standard."

BBC Spokesperson

Re: Coming Soon to Virgin Media TV (2017)

How do I go about finding hidden and scanning channels on a TiVo or a V HD box as I have both.

Re: Coming Soon to Virgin Media TV (2017)

Apparently, Spike is to be rebranded as 5Spike.

Re: Coming Soon to Virgin Media TV (2017)

Quote:

Originally Posted by RichardCoulter (Post 35921078)

For completeness, this is what was actually said about upgrading the BBC regions to HD and the possible use of the internet as a solution:

Quote:

Alternatively we might find a way for audiences to move more conveniently between HD and SD. We will address this problem one way or the other, but we don’t want to take money away from other BBC services if we can possibly avoid it.

The "alternative" is the problem, how to trigger a change of channel from a regional HD channel to a local SD channel.

Being regional, the HD channel data won't be aware of the correct local SD channel. On Freeview, BBC Red Button channel 250 attempts to switch to BBC 1 SD when the red button is pressed on that channel. It does that by searching through a list of BBC 1 SD SID numbers and switches the tv to the first matching entry found in the list of channels stored on the tv. Where the tv has stored services from multiple transmitter sites, the chances are that the channel selected won't be the correct local channel for the viewer. If BBC One HD sends a signal to initiate that sort of switch when regional content is shown, it would certainly remove the need to manually change channel, at least as far as DTT is concerned. The trouble is, many viewers would find that they had been switched to the news report for an adjacent region, or even be faced with a "no signal" message if reception for the auto-selected region is poor.

---------- Post added at 00:18 ---------- Previous post was at 00:18 ----------

Quote:

Originally Posted by Aguero9320 (Post 35921094)

How do I go about finding hidden and scanning channels on a TiVo or a V HD box as I have both.

Ummm... you don't.

---------- Post added at 00:20 ---------- Previous post was at 00:18 ----------

Quote:

Originally Posted by RichardCoulter (Post 35921095)

Apparently, Spike is to be rebranded as 5Spike.

If Channel 5 promotional material is to believed. I suppose it is fair enough in terms of branding and marketing but I think "Spike" sounds better.

---------- Post added at 00:26 ---------- Previous post was at 00:20 ----------

Quote:

Originally Posted by RichardCoulter (Post 35920998)

Maybe the huge amount of apps that Cindy Rose promised are about to arrive? Are apps added and 'broadcast' in the same way as linear TV channels? I'd have thought that they wouldn't be and that they just prompted the TiVo to connect to the internet and take an online feed instead, but you'll know better than me.

Apps don't have to be added to the DVB SI tables at all. There could be well be a huge amount of apps coming soon, without any link to the EPG. Don't hold your breath though. :p:

---------- Post added at 00:32 ---------- Previous post was at 00:26 ----------

Quote:

Originally Posted by RichardCoulter (Post 35921030)

Think I'll give the film about a man who married a tree a miss though :D. These foreign channels do show some odd things!

Reminds me of a Belgian guy I once knew who named himself after a tree and wanted to have several wives. Although I don't think he actually wanted his many wives to be trees. :shocked:

Re: Coming Soon to Virgin Media TV (2017)

:D :D :D

Thanks for taking the time to answer my questions; and yes, I think that Spike does sound better too!

Re: Coming Soon to Virgin Media TV (2017)

I think the Spike rebrand will just be transitional so that viewers realise it is part of the Channel 5 family.

I suspect it was partly instigated by the Spike channel in the US being rebranded. It's going to be be called The Paramount Network apparently. As some will remember Comedy Central UK used to be called Paramount Comedy Channel.

Re: Coming Soon to Virgin Media TV (2017)

Well, it's been speculated that Viacom will rebrand one of their existing channels in order to bring Paramount to the UK.

I guess this development probably rules out Spike being used for this purpose. You'd think that one of the +1's would be used, but it was Viacom that reintroduced 5* +1 after Dirty Desmond dropped it to launch 5+ 24 (now My5)??

@ jj20x, been told that TS 44 is not present in the Manchester area, don't know if that info is of any use to you!

Also, despite being in HD, BBC Wales still get their local news in SD!! Someone working in the industry has said that this is due to be remedied in the first quarter of 2019; a further setback to my calculations/theory :D

Work to make the BBC1 NI newsroom HD is now complete, so it looks like BBC1 NI will be going fully HD in the near future.

How do VM treat the BBC1 HD Nations on the EPG? Have they swapped them with the SD variants to make them more accessible to viewers?

Re: Coming Soon to Virgin Media TV (2017)

Quote:

Originally Posted by RichardCoulter (Post 35921177)

@ jj20x, been told that TS 44 is not present in the Manchester area, don't know if that info is of any use to you!

No use at all as it isn't correct. TS ID 44 is a national transport stream, available on all of VMs regional networks. Assuming that you were actually told that the test services aren't present on TS ID 44 in the Manchester areas, that would be correct. As I said previously, NIT analysis shows that only one of the test services has currently been added to the NIT and only on 4 internal VM networks.

I received updated scan data this morning but it raises even more questions and no answers, so I'll borrow a DNP order from MB until I get the next scan update. :D

Quote:

Also, despite being in HD, BBC Wales still get their local news in SD!! Someone working in the industry has said that this is due to be remedied in the first quarter of 2019; a further setback to my calculations/theory :D

Upscaled SD, yes. It wouldn't really be prudent to upgrade the old news studio when they are about to relocate to new premises.

Quote:

How do VM treat the BBC1 HD Nations on the EPG? Have they swapped them with the SD variants to make them more accessible to viewers?

Same as the English version, with no EPG swap.

Re: Coming Soon to Virgin Media TV (2017)

Heart TV temporarily rebrands to Heart Xmas from 1/11/17.

On the same date QVC Extra is said to be temporarily rebranding to QVC Christmas, however, Ofcom have received an application to change the name from QVC Extra to QVC Style.

Suggests to me that it will be QVC Extra--->QVC Christmas--->QVC Style.

Euronews is to be renamed Euronews NBC following its purchase by NBC.

Re: Coming Soon to Virgin Media TV (2017)

Quote:

Originally Posted by RichardCoulter (Post 35921253)

Richard, seriously, no disrespect mate, but do you really think anyone gives a **** about those channels?

Re: Coming Soon to Virgin Media TV (2017)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mad Max (Post 35921259)

Richard, seriously, no disrespect mate, but do you really think anyone gives a **** about those channels?

Well, I don't watch any of them myself, but thought i'd give the heads up for anyone that does.

I think that the only channels that people are really bothered about are UHD, Sky Atlantic, Freesports and possibly MTV Classics (that was removed in 2010) and maybe GOLD HD.

We have virtually everything now Max.

Re: Coming Soon to Virgin Media TV (2017)

Insight tv to launch on vm as a UHD channel in 2018, no exact date given at this time.

Re: Coming Soon to Virgin Media TV (2017)

Quote:

Originally Posted by theone2k10 (Post 35921275)

Insight tv to launch on vm as a UHD channel in 2018, no exact date given at this time.

About time! Let's hope it doesn't stop there.

Re: Coming Soon to Virgin Media TV (2017)

Quote:

Originally Posted by theone2k10 (Post 35921275)

Insight tv to launch on vm as a UHD channel in 2018, no exact date given at this time.

That's the clincher, I will start saving for the UHD tv replacement, not!

Nice to hear VM is finally catching up with the rest of the world, just need them to get football, rugby etc in UHD.