Re: Coming Soon to Virgin TV (2009)
 

For all those eagerly awaiting OFCOMS rulings on HD and premium channels I read something on Digital Spy that someone posted about Cable in the US when it was challenged as it was too dominate. I though you might find it interesting reading:

http://www.satelliteguys.us/archive/t-64739.html

Re: Coming Soon to Virgin TV (2009)
 

This link will display the last persons answers.... Advice over on DS is to remove the link

Re: Coming Soon to Virgin TV (2009)
 

Ah I did wonder why the survey had such strange prefilled choices.

Re: Coming Soon to Virgin TV (2009)
 

when the card changes happen will the people with doggie boxes no longer be able to watch vms premium channels for free

Re: Coming Soon to Virgin TV (2009)
 

i would be surpsoied if they coudl watch any channels at all

Re: Coming Soon to Virgin TV (2009)
 

Completed the questionnaire. At the end of the day, the attraction to Virgin is the lack of a HD sub. I'm fairly unlikely to spend any more for a few good channels, as most aren't worth it for me.

Re: Coming Soon to Virgin TV (2009)
 

There is a big difference between "are not being updated" and "knew nothing about this" and it is not unusual for CS or faults to be (almost) the last to know about such changes.

Never believe a rumour until it's officially denied.

Has anyone tried to access http://www.virginmedia.com/smatrcards/ yet? Maybe I'm just jumping the gun and it's not an official page for public consumption yet.

Anyway, Sky have been issuing new cards, chorus:ntl (upc) in Ireland have already done so therefore one would expect VM to follow suit fairly soon.

I've never had my ntl: branded card changed even when I had a replacement STB so I guess I'm due a shiny new one. I don't know why, but it has £32.00 credit on it. I think money does come off it if you buy a movie but is then miraculously credited back at some stage. I wonder if I bought ten movies in one day / month if it would say I was out of credit.

Yes, postal disputes and Christmas are likely to interfere with any planned rollout of smartcards but I imagine that a goal of year end would still seem desireable and achievable to VM.

I don't know if any of this applies to FreeSat or FreeView as none of their programming is encrypted but I imagine they still have viewing cards in the boxes.

Re: Coming Soon to Virgin TV (2009)
 

MTV to rebrand TMF as Viva.

From October 26th MTV will rebrand TMF as Viva on Virgin Channel 313.

http://uk.viva.tv/

Re: Coming Soon to Virgin TV (2009)
 

i Access the page yesterday and it wa slive, but it has bene taken down i think someone has been a bit to quick of the mark, i sene it happen in microsoft, internal peopel release ifnormation there not suppose to early and put a sit elive when it not meant ot be, like windows 7 rtm page was up 2 months early but the following day was down

Re: Coming Soon to Virgin TV (2009)
 

is this the 1st time ever that vm will be changing their cards

Re: Coming Soon to Virgin TV (2009)
 

yes first time virgin has, but i remeber telewest doign it ages ago not logn after i first became a memeber it hink 6-12 months after

Re: Coming Soon to Virgin TV (2009)
 

Do some more research into Nagra 3 and which channels are encrypted with what and you may not be as surprised. It makes things harder and will take out some, but certainly not all of the people getting free cable.

Re: Coming Soon to Virgin TV (2009)
 

i have some friends hat have these doggie boxes

---------- Post added at 15:19 ---------- Previous post was at 15:18 ----------

good news for them if theyre not affected

Re: Coming Soon to Virgin TV (2009)
 

No-one said it wouldn't affect the dodgy boxes

Re: Coming Soon to Virgin TV (2009)
 

Link is live again, but now say's "Please come back on October 16 2009"

Re: Coming Soon to Virgin TV (2009)
 

Why would that be good news?

Re: Coming Soon to Virgin TV (2009)
 

and eventually fixes will be able for all but the noobs. One mans code and all that lol

Re: Coming Soon to Virgin TV (2009)
 

Hey i have just been thinking about what is happening at the moment with the new cards and also the survey that is going round in regards to the new HD channels ?

1. Could this be to do with sky saying to the cable operators in IRELAND that they need to make it more secure if not they will pull the channels (I.E NAGRA 3).

2. Could this also be sky saying that if you are able to make the cable network more secure that they will be able to get the HD channels before the OFCOM review is complete just to try and alleviate the problems that it is able to cause .

3. Or have sky got jist of what OFCOM are going to do as they will need to do this before the CONS get in to power as they said that they will get rid of OFCOMS powers to do such a thing .

These are just my opinion and wonder if anybody else has thought this and also if there is anything else to add if they think that these assumptions could be valid ?

Do not know about the non sky channels on there but it is just the sky ones that have got me pondering ?

Re: Coming Soon to Virgin TV (2009)
 

None of the above, sky wont care much about the encryption system used bu the operator, UPC Ireland already have some of sky hd channels. In fact sky are hopign cons get in so they get rid of ofcom and they can do what they want. I say it more a point of sky wanitng ot get a better deal that ofcom will give them so have lower the price a bit

Re: Coming Soon to Virgin TV (2009)
 

Sky Movies to launch an ''Christmas Channel'' on Virgin Media..

Sky Movies is to launch its first dedicated Christmas Channel with full "box set" seasons of the Back to the Future, Indiana Jones and Home Alone franchises.

From 1 December, Sky Screen 2 will be rebranded Sky Movies Christmas Channel, for the entire month.

Re: Coming Soon to Virgin TV (2009)
 

lol them movies aint christmas movies what a swizz should be all festive like White Christmas 3 times a day and Its A Wonderful Life etc lol

Re: Coming Soon to Virgin TV (2009)
 

Err yes Sky very much care about what encryption system other operators use. They don't like their channels being trivially available from a weak network when they themselves use such strong encryption on their own network. They actually warned UPC to secure their platform or risk losing channels.

Re: Coming Soon to Virgin TV (2009)
 

Like bbc are trying to do ;) but wont be aloud to ;)

Re: Coming Soon to Virgin TV (2009)
 

Virgin Media launches 2nd page on ''twitter''.

I have just found an page on twitter for Virgin on Demand.

http://twitter.com/vmondemand

Re: Coming Soon to Virgin TV (2009)
 

old news tht twitter on demand being there for a while

Re: Coming Soon to Virgin TV (2009)
 

not old news for us that didnt know. thanks media boy.

Re: Coming Soon to Virgin TV (2009)
 

Not Christmas movies? I seem to remember a lot of snow, fir trees, baubles and bells in the Home Alone movies and Indiana Jones was often to be found in the desert near where the first Christmas took place searching for religious artefacts. At least it's a better lineup than the war movies that are 'traditionally' shown at Christmas.

Re: Coming Soon to Virgin TV (2009)
 

very traditional

Re: Coming Soon to Virgin TV (2009)
 

More information on the Sky Movies Christmas Channel

http://tellychannelsnews.blogspot.co...christmas.html

Re: Coming Soon to Virgin TV (2009)
 

New to Virgin: Tape 3 thing at same time!!!

At 8.58pm tonight my V+ HD stop working - no film on any channel.

But I saw three red lights on my box.

It was taping ITV1 and More4 - both start at 8.30pm to end at 9pm.
And Movies 24 - Movie was going to start at 9pm.

It was the first time I have seen this.
Is this something new to Virgin Media? Or is my box just playing up?

After reboot all of my channels was back on air.

Re: Coming Soon to Virgin TV (2009)
 

I would say it is your box playing up

Re: Coming Soon to Virgin TV (2009)
 

Unless of course MB's box has somehow become "self aware", and found a way to reproduce another tuner.;)

Re: Coming Soon to Virgin TV (2009)
 

The V+ has three tuners, just one is usually reserved for live TV...

Re: Coming Soon to Virgin TV (2009)
 

The boxes have always been capable of doing this, but Virgin have deactivated the feature - presumably because they didn't want to deal with the complaints from Joe Hoi-Paloi saying that they were recording 3 things and couldn't change channels.

As to whether they've had a change of heart or it's a fault with the box.... time will tell.

Re: Coming Soon to Virgin TV (2009)
 

Have a look at the Settings -> Technical Stuff pages on the box. I've noticed a couple of changes of Application Version and Software Version on my non-PVR, non-HD, V- box over the past week. Have a look at the error logs too. I've been seeing entries that are new to me ('DMX Reset ...' messages) and the number and content of the Technical Stuff pages has changed. I'm also seeing differences in the data displayed between reboots, including the software and application versions and my QoS. Looks a bit buggy.

Last night I had trouble getting into BBC iPlayer via On Demand due to extremely long delays in responses to key presses. Eventually I rebooted and used the red button on BBC News to get to iPlayer as the menus were toooooo slooowww.

Disclaimer: My V- box is behaving strangely. Your V+ box experience may differ.

---------- Post added at 10:58 ---------- Previous post was at 10:42 ----------

Media Boy / MythBuster, when you record a programme do you tell the box to start a couple of minutes early and end a couple of minutes late? Maybe the box is seeing an overlap in recording times and commandeering the third tuner.

It's V box anarchy! The machines are taking over!

Re: Coming Soon to Virgin TV (2009)
 

Mine did something ****y. It went all green it looked like what happens your xbox when it 3 rings of death happen but now it seems to be working fine

Re: Coming Soon to Virgin TV (2009)
 

Wouldn't it be nice if we had this as an HD Channel?


:xmas:

Re: Coming Soon to Virgin TV (2009)
 

early xmas

Re: Coming Soon to Virgin TV (2009)
 

it would but i dnt think sky like giving good christmas presents ;) they liek to give cheap ones

Re: Coming Soon to Virgin TV (2009)
 

Smartcard info now available at http://www.virginmedia.com/smartcards :)

Re: Coming Soon to Virgin TV (2009)
 

I'm wondering if the whole smart card update thing will work during the next few months, with the postal strikes and all

Re: Coming Soon to Virgin TV (2009)
 

It depends when they intend deactivating the old ones. You would think they would extend the period if the strike drags on.

Re: Coming Soon to Virgin TV (2009)
 

Don't worry, the cards aren't being sent by Royal Mail.

Re: Coming Soon to Virgin TV (2009)
 

Ok then. Panic over hehehe

Re: Coming Soon to Virgin TV (2009)
 

no news on primetime, its ment to be added today

Re: Coming Soon to Virgin TV (2009)
 

Primetime isn't on Virgin. It's Sky only, so it's an online jobby for Virgin TV customers

Re: Coming Soon to Virgin TV (2009)
 

oh no i was waiting for it

---------- Post added at 12:28 ---------- Previous post was at 12:28 ----------

is it on temporary

Re: Coming Soon to Virgin TV (2009)
 

Nope - so if you want to watch it, you will have to sign up online http://www.primetimelive.co.uk/

Re: Coming Soon to Virgin TV (2009)
 

any more new channels coming to vm

Re: Coming Soon to Virgin TV (2009)
 

If the smartcard is sent out in a letter than it will be delivered by royal mail.

Other delivery companies like TNT have letters and small packages delivered by royal mail via downstream access.

Re: Coming Soon to Virgin TV (2009)
 

You don't know that. Virgin could employ a company to drive round and deliver every letter by hand if they wanted

Re: Coming Soon to Virgin TV (2009)
 

sky is more prepared

Re: Coming Soon to Virgin TV (2009)
 

How so?

Re: Coming Soon to Virgin TV (2009)
 

However I can't see virgin paying someone else to do that when they already have a contract with someone which would be done through downstream access.

Re: Coming Soon to Virgin TV (2009)
 

Why do they use carrier pigeon?.

Re: Coming Soon to Virgin TV (2009)
 

No, their mail delivers itself

Re: Coming Soon to Virgin TV (2009)
 

If you mean you had a picture but only in shades of green (i.e. G but no R&B), your SCART cable is probably loose at one end or the other. Has someone been back there with the vacuum cleaner? Just a thought.

---------- Post added at 18:59 ---------- Previous post was at 18:53 ----------

VM may send them by UKMail but surely they'll still be sorted and delivered by Royal Mail and it's both the sorting and delivery staff that are having the strike days.

---------- Post added at 19:03 ---------- Previous post was at 18:59 ----------

I'm beginning to think that the funnies that MB and I have experienced with our boxes may be as a result of (dodgy) software updates to facilitate the new viewing cards. What say you all?

Re: Coming Soon to Virgin TV (2009)
 

ill give it a test tomorrow sinc ei have nothing recording see if ic an get 3 recordings if i can i wont complain be hopign for that for ages

Re: Coming Soon to Virgin TV (2009)
 

No its using HDMI. The V+ box restarted itself off and all.

Re: Coming Soon to Virgin TV (2009)
 

Bear in mind my question to MB about setting the recordings to start a few minutes earlier and end a few minutes later forcing an overlap. It may not allow you to set up three concurrent recordings but it might not see an overlap situation until it goes to record and then it says "both tuners are in use, I'll borrow the third one". (Well it doesn't actually say that. If it does, you have a substance abuse problem.) :rolleyes:

Re: Coming Soon to Virgin TV (2009)
 

If they do then UKMail will pick the letters up from virginmedia then drop them off at a local royal mail mail centre (downstream access) to be sorted and sent round the country in royal mail vans. The vans take the letters to the delivery offices to be sorted for distribution by the postmen/postwomen.

Re: Coming Soon to Virgin TV (2009)
 

mines are always set to 10 before and 10 after due to broadcaster never airing on time

Re: Coming Soon to Virgin TV (2009)
 

Yes, that was what I was saying. However, I doubt that VM have cut it so fine that viewers' cards will expire before the replacements arrive.

IMHO ...

Don't panic until the on-screen reminders have been appearing for a few days and become frequent.

Do read through the Find out more > and other links on the Switching your Smart Card page first.

You really don't need to watch the video until the card arrives and, even then, only if your having problems.

---------- Post added at 21:26 ---------- Previous post was at 21:19 ----------

Yep, that should do it.

If it records four programmes, be afraid, be very afraid! :Yikes:

I think Tivo boxes could analyze your regular recordings, profile you and suggest, rightly or wrongly, other shows you might like to watch. I saw it on Two and a Half Men, so it must be true.

Re: Coming Soon to Virgin TV (2009)
 

Why are you sending me a new card?

We're about to upgrade the technology of your Virgin TV set top box so you can benefit from more improvements, more security and more of the good stuff fibre optic technology brings.


I can't find loads about this...can someone enlighten me as to what we should expect to chnge after the new cards??!! :)

Re: Coming Soon to Virgin TV (2009)
 

For customers, nothing (for the moment)

For non-customers, bye-bye to most/all of their channels

:D

Re: Coming Soon to Virgin TV (2009)
 

sweet :p

Re: Coming Soon to Virgin TV (2009)
 

I tried to record 3 thigns at once it refused to allow me, so it must be a faulty or buggy box you have, i wouldnt mind havin yours ;)

Re: Coming Soon to Virgin TV (2009)
 

meh, virgin should spend money on moving to h264 instead, i believe all their boxes that have been rolled out for the past few years have the capability of doing h264. mpeg2 is such a poor codec for HD.

Re: Coming Soon to Virgin TV (2009)
 

mpeg2 is not a poor codec it is jsut bandwdith hungry one, you can get eth same quailty with h264 and mpeg2 but mpeg2 i think is a bout 3-5 times larger in size

Re: Coming Soon to Virgin TV (2009)
 

No, only the Samsung V+ has.

Re: Coming Soon to Virgin TV (2009)
 

if you believed a user on wikipeida then you think there a v box that h264 capable and that does hd to that is getting trialed ;)

Re: Coming Soon to Virgin TV (2009)
 

not true, mpeg2 gets blocky with multiple objects in high motion, mpeg4 is much better at this. SD could look way better if virgin switched to mpeg4, xfactor for example is hurrendously blocky due to 100's of people on the screen, the bitrate could be reduced alot too and save virgin in bandwidth costs. sky's mpeg4 for the hd channels are way better as the encoders are far better even with sky's lower 1440x1080i vs virgin's 1920x1080i.

Virgin need to bite the bullet and spend money on replacing the older non-mpeg4 capable boxes and switching broadcasts to mpeg4, in the long run they would save alot of money but the short term would obviously be costly.

Re: Coming Soon to Virgin TV (2009)
 

they dnt acutally, it works fine, it only becomes blocky on veyr large screens, until virign are out of debt or it a abolsute requirement ot ugprade they wont.

and yes mpeg4 is the better codec i dnt deny it but if you are comparing only one or two factors and not giving what bitrates etc then no it not, for a fair comparsion oyu need to say what the settings for h264 youa re using and mpeg2 so it can be seen they are simialr then the resutls can be compared and h264 does win but not by much the thing it wins on most is bandwidth which is wher ei agree virign should upgrade for. btw only use h264 on hd not on there sd boxes

Re: Coming Soon to Virgin TV (2009)
 

anyone recieved their smart card yet?

Re: Coming Soon to Virgin TV (2009)
 

they wont be out fora while

Re: Coming Soon to Virgin TV (2009)
 

will it affect the doggy box users?

Re: Coming Soon to Virgin TV (2009)
 

That's the reason they're doing it.

Re: Coming Soon to Virgin TV (2009)
 

That's a bit misleading. They may be sent via a company such as TNT and that may appear on the envolope instead of a stamp but who do you think actually delivers them?

ROYAL MAIL.

Re: Coming Soon to Virgin TV (2009)
 

so who deliver ups? and other courioers? royal mail no if that was the case then people would really be worried but ther enot because ther eotehr ocmapnies who do the delivering themself

Re: Coming Soon to Virgin TV (2009)
 

UPS and others deliver their own parcels. Letters go via Royal Mail as it has an established delivery system.

Re: Coming Soon to Virgin TV (2009)
 

that doesnt stop them deliverying them themself they have done it ebfore i have recevied a letter from ups delivered to my door

Re: Coming Soon to Virgin TV (2009)
 

But that would cost VM a fourtune. Royal Mail still have a monoply on final point letter delivery for under £1 (meaning VM would have to pay at least £1 per card to have the delivered by someone other then royal mail). I doubt the strike will cause too many problems for the issueing, i beleave n3 is backwoods compatable so they will peoberlly still use the current n1 encryption system untill they have compleated the card roll out, bare in mind sky are STILL issueing new cards about 9 months after they started the roll out, VM havent even began the roll out get (exept maby in trial area's) so they have plenty of time to beat the strike.

btw its UKMail that VM use for letter sourting not ups ;)

Re: Coming Soon to Virgin TV (2009)
 

wasnt sayig who vm used jsut ups was example ;)

i think your right the striek wont affect ti as they wont be starting it that quick but if they did want ti done quick they coudl bypass royal mail was my point

Re: Coming Soon to Virgin TV (2009)
 

Didn't anyone read my :gpoint: on Saturday? (Click the sign to view it.)

VM usually uses UKMail for letters and small packages and so the final sorting and delivery is performed by Royal Mail. I don't see that there is any pressing need for VM to justify the expense of end to end delivery by courier.

Unless, of course, they are worried that the cards will be stolen by postal workers and sold on the black market but, having said that, government data goes missing in transit by secure courier too! :rolleyes:

Re: Coming Soon to Virgin TV (2009)
 

Or unless Virgin were aware of the upcoming Postal Issues and have taken appropriate steps

Anyway, even if they do use the Royal Mail for the last part, bypassing the majority of the rest of the network will minimise the issues

AFAIK once the strike is over the Royal Mail will have to deliver any new post that arrives, e.g from a private mail firm at the local sorting office, before the backlog - unless someone can correct me?

Re: Coming Soon to Virgin TV (2009)
 

I think if a firm has paid for express delivery then it gets done first otherwise it done on first in first out type of system

Re: Coming Soon to Virgin TV (2009)
 

You may know this but...

Virgin will shortly be piloting a TV Smart Card swap initiative in Leeds, Harrogate and York to 85,000 customers.

Re: Coming Soon to Virgin TV (2009)
 

Again, there is no pressing need for guaranteed next day delivery unless all the old cards are due to expire or VM have some contractual obligation to roll out all the new cards and Nagravision 3 this month.

Again, it's sorting office and delivery staff who are striking (so far on different days) which probably accounts for about two-thirds of the normal Royal Mail process, with only handling to the point of delivery to the local sorting office being performed by UKMail, so there will still be significant impact.

I expect that UKMail and other firms will endeavour to continue deliveries to Royal Mail offices both to fulfill their obligation to their clients and to avoid the responsibility and cost of storing vast amounts of post. Therefore the backlog will most probably have to be dealt with by Royal Mail in whatever order they see fit or are contractually / legally obliged to do so.

Re: Coming Soon to Virgin TV (2009)
 

Not sure if anyone has noticed the card swap is now on the help and info section on the tv guide.So cant be far away.

Re: Coming Soon to Virgin TV (2009)
 

AC, did you set two up to record simultaneously and one to record later but with the preset 10 minute overlap? I'm pretty sure that's what MB was doing. Of course if, as appears to be the case with my V- box, the software has been updated again since MB had the 'feature', it may have gone away.

My V Box details:-

Application Version: 14.100.3p89
Card Status: OK
Credit: 3200
QOS: rkldJKDHS (should be silver.cm and was one day last week)
Total Channels: 299
TS Streams: 31
Total Services: 299
Hardware Type: Di4000-N
Hardware Version: P3.213
Software Version: 3_7_29_P10CN_P_BonBK_P4000_R_

Re: Coming Soon to Virgin TV (2009)
 

Nope i jsut tried three things at once i will try later what you said and see if it works any time i have tried before it fails or doesnt extend

Re: Coming Soon to Virgin TV (2009)
 

I have try again to tape three things at one time - I cant.

All of my show did tape all right on Thursday night (Someone ask me on Friday).

Re: Coming Soon to Virgin TV (2009)
 

What does this mean for silly people like me? :monkey: :p:

Re: Coming Soon to Virgin TV (2009)
 

If you li8ve in one of the areas mentioned I would presume you go and swap your card.

If you mean you use a dodgy box then I presume it means that Virgin are indeed switching to Nagra 3 encryption which to date has not been sucessfully cracked.

That means you will soon habe a doorstop.

Although there has been no confirmation that I know of that they will be switching, I connot see any other reason for a replacement card.

Re: Coming Soon to Virgin TV (2009)
 

List on post one has now been update for this week.

Re: Coming Soon to Virgin TV (2009)
 

cheers

Re: Coming Soon to Virgin TV (2009)
 

I demand Eurosport HD before January :(

Re: Coming Soon to Virgin TV (2009)
 

Europa update: Five to show Everton VS Benfica LIVE on November 5th.

Info from Livefootballontv.com.

Re: Coming Soon to Virgin TV (2009)
 

Is this the 1st time ever vm are changing their smart cards?

Re: Coming Soon to Virgin TV (2009)
 

Dating back to 1999 when Telewest launches Digital Cable in my area - Yes.

In 1999 when I joined Telewest had:

75 TV/Radio Channels

They was -
65 TV Channels.
5 Information Channels called i-Zone.
5 Local Radio Channels.

---------- Post added at 15:56 ---------- Previous post was at 15:51 ----------

Live football on Virgin TV this week list now online @ http://footballonvirgintv.blogspot.c...s-week_19.html