Re: Coming Soon to Virgin TV (2009)
 

I believe analouge has been switched off in all the digital areas now, only analogue only areas still exist but these i think cant be or wont be upgraded.

Re: Coming Soon to Virgin TV (2009)
 

Urban legend Epileptic Societies has said it is ok to use it. It the PC brigade again!

Re: Coming Soon to Virgin TV (2009)
 

Well, here's a coming soon item just to interrupt the back biting on here, VM's bosses are to award themselves up to 100% of their base salaries. Not bad for a company in several billion pounds worth of debt...:

http://www.rapidtvnews.com/index.php...-up-again.html

Clearly, VM is no better than its predecessor companies and although we've had the recent launch of ITV on demand we've had no new channels launched on the platform since August last year when the +1s of Hallmark and Diva appeared. This excludes the launch of Sky's channels in November which were simply a reinstatement of missing channels.

So nothing new since August, HD is coming "soon", as it always is. The basic functionality of of using cable tv is as crap as ever, channel change is still slow and only 1 day of tv guide data and that's when it works. But yet VM's bosses have enough money to spend on themselves.

Cable is still "the best platform" or will be "soon", but yet cable insiders have been saying this for 20 years now, when cable first started...The sooner a viable and large enough fibre optic competitor(s) comes on the scene, the better.

Re: Coming Soon to Virgin TV (2009)
 

Good find Horizon, there certainly is something sickening about the fact that we mere customers have just had another increase in prices, just as top brass at VM award themselves bonuses of up to 100%:td::td:
As the link says, countless CEOs of VM, Telewest and NTL, all of which to a man has failed, have walked away with fat golden handshakes for being a failure.
Each of them telling us how great the network is, and to a man each one of them promised jam tomorrow, but tomorrow has never come.
One of these "failures" came up with the statement in 2005 that soon would be dozens of impending HD channels on the network...four years later VM still have only one HD channel.
Hopefully the shareholders will put a stop to these money grabbing failures, nowadays its accepted that bonuses should only be payed to successful executives, how they justify up to 100% bonuses for themselves in the current economic climate will be entertaining indeed.

Re: Coming Soon to Virgin TV (2009)
 

Lets look at this in a bit more detail. Right now they don't have any bonuses, they need, in the longer term, to earn them.

So to earn anything this is what they have to show they have achieved:

(i) cash flow; - make it so people spend more and turnover more cash = better services
(ii) net present value of customers; - see above
(iii) customer satisfaction; = make the company work for the customer
(iv) fault rates; - see above (what will we have to complain about if this happens)
(v) employee engagement; = talk to the "little man" on the front line and find out how they tick
(vi) achievement of various operational objectives; = actually make the things happen they say they do
(vii) operating cost controls. = get rid of waste (see analogue)

If all the above happen, better services (HD anyone), less faults, understanding what is happening at the front line and making the company work then IMHO they will have earned their bonuses !

However having spent yesterday talking to an ex Fujitsu VM internet tech there have a lot of work to do and the chances of any bonuses are slim in the short term.

Re: Coming Soon to Virgin TV (2009)
 

just took a survey and when finished got direct to site link below with virgin not the ceo in press conferance stating hd channels comming this year

http://www.virginmedia.com/wehearyou/

Re: Coming Soon to Virgin TV (2009)
 

Virgin Media to launch ''Ads on Demand''.

Virgin Media is to roll out targeted ads across its VoD service, following the conclusion of its first trial of VoD advertising to 100,000 Virgin Media-subscribing homes in north London.

More than half (54%) of the triallists reacted positively to the VoD ads, while 65% preferred to view ads before VoD clips. VoD ads lasting 30 seconds were most popular.

Also, 42% of respondents said ads were worth watching if they were relevant to the programmes chosen, for example haircare ads being shown before shows such as Britain's Next Top Model or ads for homewares after Grand Designs.

Virgin has not put any dates on when they will add it.

http://www.mediaweek.co.uk/news/8982...-London-trial/

---------- Post added at 12:40 ---------- Previous post was at 12:32 ----------

Liverpool FC TV is having an Freeview day on Virgin Channel 544.

Re: Coming Soon to Virgin TV (2009)
 

I know we can't call this progress but at least it's an indictaion that they know a lot of us are annoyed by the lack of linear HD.

It's good to know that, at least, they acknowledge it.

A lot of my gripe was that they just didn;t say anything.

Re: Coming Soon to Virgin TV (2009)
 

The targetr ads are already live i noticed them this morning when watching vod

incase anyone doesnt beleiv eme go to cacth up tv and go to 4 on demand then monday night epsiode at 9pm

Re: Coming Soon to Virgin TV (2009)
 

Virgin really need to do some fact checking on these pages.

"On Demand HD content for you to enjoy whenever you choose, including The Sopranos, The Wire and Dexter"

Sounds very promising, until you realise the wire wasn't filmed in HD (it wasn't even filmed in widescreen) as it was filmed on Digibeta which only has the capacity for SD, so just how are they planning on making it available in HD on demand? It's not going to be more upscaled content passed off as HD is it?

Re: Coming Soon to Virgin TV (2009)
 

How have they made a lot of old show and films filemd only in sd into HD? its simple they remaster them into HD, however as i do not know the show in question i can not comment on hwo it going ot be done it could be upscalign it could be remastering, it could be its a completely different show ot what you think or it could be something etnerily different.

Re: Coming Soon to Virgin TV (2009)
 

Old films and tv shows are filmed on normal film. They aren't filmed "in SD", the frames from the film are just sampled at SD resolution to create an SD picture, you can then go back to the original film and resample it at an HD resolution to get an HD picture (part of the remastering process). The HD image is always there though because normal film does not have a resolution.

Digibeta however is a digital format that therefore DOES have a resolution (either SD PAL or NTSC) so to take it from SD to HD the only thing you can do is upscale, and upscaling something then passing it off as HD is extremely bad form as it's simply not in any way shape or form HD.

It's definitely not a different show, there's only one show called The Wire (and you should be watching it nightly on bbc2!)

Re: Coming Soon to Virgin TV (2009)
 

The analogue service on in Nottingham at the moment begs to differ. Please refrain from posting blanket statements unless you have concrete proof - and not the "donkey" kind either. ;)

Re: Coming Soon to Virgin TV (2009)
 

I assume you have never looked at the dictnoary for hte word 'believe' as i tmeans not compeltely certain just what you know.

Re: Coming Soon to Virgin TV (2009)
 

Oh right, I think I misread that one. You have my apologies, now begone with you. :D ;)

Where it's analogue only TV at the moment, VM have a lot of work to do to upgrade the service to make it digital capable. Some of the areas in London are apparantly hellishly old! :eek:

However, while analogue's on in digital-enabled areas, I'll make use of it, especially as it gives me channels (some timeshared) that I don't get on an M subscription STB. These include ComedyCentral 1, TCM, Nick, Cartoon Network, MTV ONE, Bloomberg, and best of all British Eurosport.

I wonder if they're (Virgin Media) aware that they have some premium channels on FTA analogue at the moment...... :o: