V+ HD A Couple of Questions
 

Hi all,
Just upgraded the VIP package to go with my New Toshiba 37" WLT LCD tV.

My question are:
I looked at the HD samples and Planet Earth blew my socks off for quality of picture. However on some of the non hd programmes things occaisionally seem slightly pixelated. When i switch to my freeview input this seems clearer. Is it my big telly highlighting imperfections in the normal cable TV signal. My cable comes in through my bedroom to a Samsung STB & SACM then downstairs to my Tosh TV. This is because of concrete flooring and the best way for the cable. Will my new digital box suffer from being the last on the line?

Also, when Sky broadcast the footy or films in HD do we get it as well because i can see no reference to it in the HD section on my box. Or maybe (for example if watching footy) does the 511 Sky Sports 1 recieve the HD signal if you have a HD box.

Your responses to these question will be much appreciated :)

My 10meg broadband is the dogs ******** though:tu:

Re: V+ HD A Couple of Questions
 

Cant help with the first part, sorry. (toshiba is great tv though, we got the 32inch model.) None of the sky hd is available to virgin just the stuff you see on 108 which is mostly evenings plus some sport like football and rugby. There is also some hd vod available as well. No doubt things will change in time.
Just a point on the tv issue, did u let the engineer set it up for you? Mine did and it was much better than the way i had it set up.
Yes the 10mb is really good. very solid and really consistent and very close to 10mb when tested.

Re: V+ HD A Couple of Questions
 

Yeah the engineer set it all up but i've just been tweeaking to see if i can improve it any. Really pleased with the TV.
I mistakingly thought all sky's HD stuff was available :(

As it is are lass watches all the tv downstairs whilst i'm on the computer upstairs. She's done her first recording to the box tonight, hope she got it right :D.

I'll have a dable when she's in bed.

Cheers for the comments davee
Stan

Re: V+ HD A Couple of Questions
 

As a matter of intrest, how did the engineer configure the HD? Just to give me a head start after the (second) engineer turns out to look at my V+ on Saturday (I have the same TV )

Re: V+ HD A Couple of Questions
 

Can't really help there, he changed a few settings in the engineering menu & i wouldn't mess with that.

Basically when it was up and running on the scart lead he then fitted the HDMI lead & then set the input to HDMI in the Home/Settings/Technical Stuff menu.

Input was left at 720 but i've changed it (whilst watching a HD test transmission) rightly or wrongly to 1080wide. He told me if the box looses its power or is powered down the box would revert to SCART input automatically. Well i've removed my scart & i don't want that to happen. I found the setting "Auto detect SCART" was ON by default and i've set it to OFF. I guess you always need to keep your scart lead handy just in case.

Hope that helps

Re: V+ HD A Couple of Questions
 

He set mine at 720. said there r no transmissions at 1080.
Ive got the pc connected to the tv so we can both do things together on the internet. Means any movies via the net can be shown on the tv. Impressive on my 32inch.

Re: V+ HD A Couple of Questions
 

It looked a beter picture at 1080 but that might just be my dodgy eyes & it was midnight:D

Re: V+ HD A Couple of Questions
 

Ooooh - errrrr. Lucky you thats all I can say.

On the subject of picture quality - That's my main bugbear at the moment. I consider the quality on some of the channels terrible, so much so, an engineer is coming out on Monday to have a look. By the looks of it, it seems to be a regional problem. I don't have a HD TV and it's via scart (RGB) but believe me the pixalisation i really bad. It was so bad tonight on the football, I still have Sky for a week or so, we switched over to Sky to watch it.

Re: V+ HD A Couple of Questions
 

i had an engineer out yesterday for that very reason bad pictures on non hd channels all he did was swop the box has made no difference what so ever.
they must have a fault somewhere along the line is this reginol or national?
which area are you in as im ex ntl in cardiff.
football on sky sports was bad again last night come on virgin sort out your problems with sky and get sports hd please!

Re: V+ HD A Couple of Questions
 

BBC HD is broadcadt in 1080i and so is the VOD HD stuff so if you select 720p you will be downconverting it,

Re: V+ HD A Couple of Questions
 

Not sure where you are (I'm in Surrey KT13 and on the Bromley network), so can't tell if it's regional, but my first thoughts on the box were that the BBC, ITV, C4 etc SD broadcasts look really good but that Sky Sports looks poor. That's on an HD tv.

If an engineer can fix that for you it would be very interesting.

Re: V+ HD A Couple of Questions
 

Austin and mstirk - I'm ex-ntl Manchester. Could this be a ex-NTL only problem?

Anyone ex-Telewest with poor pictures?

Re: V+ HD A Couple of Questions
 

The only time I've suffered from pixellation was one night this week. next day someone from Virgin actually 'phoned me to check all sevices were ok as they had found an amplifier down the night before that had affected the whole street- never had a call like that from NTL.

Re: V+ HD A Couple of Questions
 

Doesn't this depend on the resolution of your tv. I didn't think there were many around that can display 1080.

Re: V+ HD A Couple of Questions
 

There's not many that can display 1080p, but I think it is a criteria of the "HD Ready" logo that they can display both 1080i and 720p.

Re: V+ HD A Couple of Questions
 

According to some posts over at DS, Virgin have stopped taking the Sky Sports feed directly from Sky via fibre optic cable. They now take the feed from Satelite.

^^^^ Dunno if that's true or total BS, but for me, Sky Sports 2 last night was very bad for picture quality. Green blocks of grass galore on the football pitch.

Re: V+ HD A Couple of Questions
 

Cheers for that....nice to know:tu:

---------- Post added at 19:03 ---------- Previous post was at 19:01 ----------

I'm ex NTL Leeds, so it would seem it's in a lot of areas

Re: V+ HD A Couple of Questions
 

I'm getting my V+ box and my new Toshiba 37WLT66 HD tele on saturday. I was just wondering if anybody knows whether either of these comes with a HDMI cable as I've just been to Comet and nearly passed out when I saw the price of a 1 metre HDMI male-to-male cable.

Re: V+ HD A Couple of Questions
 

Yeah i saw one at Asda for £40:shocked:

People said on here you have to order one but i rang up and told you get one as standard. The engineer brought one with him:tu: so you should be okay

Re: V+ HD A Couple of Questions
 

Thanks, that's good to hear. I didn't fancy paying nearly a months subscription charge on a metre long cable!

Re: V+ HD A Couple of Questions
 

Lots of stores and cable vendors are taking advantage of the fact that as it's newish, HDMI is not understood by most people and that the cable is 'magic' = expensive so are getting away with ripping people off, many inexpensive cables and the ones supplied by Virgin are more than adequate.