Re: Coming Soon to Virgin TV (2019)
 

When the Sky multi channel analogue package launched on 5th Feb 1989 - Sky Channel kept it's name.

It didn't become Sky 1 until July 1989 when it became a UK and Ireland only service. Sky 2 was still several years away.

The original channel "SATV" which later became Sky Channel - pre-dates Channel Four.

ScreenSport, Lifestyle, The Children's Channel and MTV Europe were all on air on satellite as cable channels before the Sky multi-channel launch.

Re: Coming Soon to Virgin TV (2019)
 

Media Boy HQ has just found out the following DID move over to MPEG4 on April 1st or April 2nd:

We say that due it happen sometime between 04:35 to 12:38 on April 1st. They are -

-Animal Planet
-4Seven
-Discovery Channel
-Discovery Channel +1
-Home & Health
-Discovery History
-TLC
-Discovery Science
-Discovery Turbo
-Quest
-Al Jazeera Arabic
-Baby TV
-ITV2 +1
-ITVBe +1
-Quest +1

Q: WHY DID WE NOT HAVE TO RESET OUR FAVOURITES CHANNELS FOR THEM?
A: Channels posted did broadcast on the same stream before April 1st. Virgin Media UK just move them over from MPEG2 to MPEG4 to make room to add Nat Geo WILD, National Geographic, National Geographic +1, HISTORY2, HISTORY, HISTORY +1, Crime+Inv, MUTV, Sky Sports F1 and Sky Witness to the stream.

http://www.digitalbitrate.com/dtv.ph...ng=en&mux=C062

Re: Coming Soon to Virgin TV (2019)
 

I did not know that as I posted early tonight I first seen Sky in late 1989 or early 1990. I did see WWF WrestleMania 6 on Eurosport.

The first Sky 2 launch was on September 1st 1996 (7pm to 6am) until that well known day of August 31st 1997.

The slot was given to National Geographic. Fox Kids broadcasts in the Daytime hours.

Re: Coming Soon to Virgin TV (2019)
 

Though there appears to be nothing new, not even an MPEG4 switch, I just looked at DigitalBitRate and there have been a lot of multiplex/frequency swaps.

These are showing as a massive number of "Broadcast end channel" highlighted in orangey pink, and "New" labels.

Like I've said already, they've just swapped blocks of channels about, even blocks of HD channels have been moved elsewhere as a whole. And even blocks of SD MPEG2 channels have been moved but not switched to MPEG4.

It hasn't affected any of my Favourites, as changes on the network often can.

Given they are all moves, but they remain in the same blocks (i.e. their neighbour channels remain the same), and there are no (obvious to me) technical changes like MPEG4 switches going on, the only thing I can think of is this is some sort of preparatory housekeeping, balancing the network in order to make more obvious changes in the future.

Re: Coming Soon to Virgin TV (2019)
 

Just seen it Virgin was busy last night.

Re: Coming Soon to Virgin TV (2019)
 

Yup. When I first saw it I was like :shocked: and then I looked closer and thought "oh, nothing much has changed really".

It looks much more major than it probably was, not that I'm very tech savvy on cable networks.

Re: Coming Soon to Virgin TV (2019)
 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-K6Re8k02HE :D

Re: Coming Soon to Virgin TV (2019)
 

Very appropriate. :D

Re: Coming Soon to Virgin TV (2019)
 

Virgin Media has now combined the Factual and Lifestyle genres in their Channel Guide PDF:

https://www.virginmedia.com/content/...April82019.pdf

https://www.virginmedia.com/content/...April82019.pdf

Re: Coming Soon to Virgin TV (2019)
 

Good. It was looking a bit silly having some Factual channels at the end of the Lifestyle section. And combining them is the most sensible and easy solution.

And they've added Total Country to the Music section, that was missing from the April 1 dated PDF version of the TV guide.

Re: Coming Soon to Virgin TV (2019)
 

Although it doesn’t appear to have happened overnight the space freed up will find itself next to the broadband frequencies for more bonded downstream channels and delivery of DOCSIS 3.1.

Re: Coming Soon to Virgin TV (2019)
 

Only the Manchester based networks according to information I have seen, which is why it has shown up on DBR (which uses Manchester data). Virgin has a rolling programme of frequency changes usually updating related regional network groups at the same time. The rolling programme also applies to the conversion of any remaining 64QAM frequencies to 256QAM and, apparently, the conversion of the symbol rate used by Langley networks to match the symbol rate used by the rest of Virgin's networks.


These are interesting developments for techies who enjoy studying these changes but they are just housekeeping updates.

Re: Coming Soon to Virgin TV (2019)
 

5STAR is launching their first original British drama, Clink, on 18th April.

Also, new episodes of IMPACT! will premiere on 5STAR from 26th April.

It seems the ideal time to launch 5STAR HD.

Re: Coming Soon to Virgin TV (2019)
 

Based on that, yes, it would.

However it turned out the V-labelled feeds we were seeing on DBR with 5Star content were On-demand feeds.

Re: Coming Soon to Virgin TV (2019)
 

So a false alarm, that's a shame. However, Virgin Media and Sky customers can watch most new 5STAR shows in HD via Catch Up.