I have switched......
 

I have always been a follower of the Virgin brand. Going right back to when I bought "Tubular bells".....Lol. Anyway, I have been a loyal cable TV customer from the times of C&W, but my loyalty has been streched too far. I have ordered SKY HD. (I will retain VM Phone and BB).
I have had enough of waiting around for VM to give me a product that would unleash the potential of my HD TV. BBC HD only serves to let me see what i am missing. like many of you out there, i dont go to the pub as often as I did, I have a family. My main enjoyment of the weekend is to stay at home and enjoy TV, why not HD TV, espically Sports coverage? (it costs roughly the same)

I am no fan of R murdoch, but until VM take their heads out of the sand and see that HD is the future they are doomed. I will change back in the morning if VM can unleash the undeniable talents of the V+ boxes. But to keepthem schackled like they are makes them more like a VCR, not cutting edge technology....!

I will let you all know how the switch go's and wether it was worth it.

Re: I have switched......
 

I did the same, after being on the VIP package from the beginning, i have seen the light, ive kept my XL telephone and XL broadband and have made the move over to SKY HD - it was installed thursday, took 30mins lol and its the best decision ive made. the PQ on the HD channels has to be seen to be believed they look fab on my 52" 1080p bravia. believe me - uve made the right decision - yeh i miss the VOD and the ability to record 2 programs whilst watching a 3rd but for me the need for HD channels was greater.

Re: I have switched......
 

thanks gc10360. I have read here people trying to justify VM not putting resources towards HD....Why? The current Sky offer regards HD is a serious threat to VM's existance. Those around the boardroom table at VM have to seriously think.....Do they want 50meg broadband or something that will unleash the HD potential of the TV's that most of us own?
Whats the point of you having 50meg, when the site you are downloadin from cannot match that bandwith..just stupid.

As I said before, unleash the potential of the V+ box, and I will be back in the morning. I have a lot of brand loyality to VIRGIN, but this time its gone too far...

Re: I have switched......
 

I live in an apartment,we are not allowed dishes,but a couple of people have had sky installed,I'll wait a couple of months to see if they end up keeping them,then I too am off to Sky.I've had cable for 15 years but this HD issue is really hacking me off.Especially the sports channels when they say switch to channel so and so to watch in HD.Sky's add campaign for the £49 box must be pulling in thousands of people now.VM have GOT to do something or they will lose a huge chunk of their customers.

Re: I have switched......
 

I am also going back to sky aswell for the tv having the install on tuesday virgins picture quality is pretty awfull only had the virginmedia tv install about a week ago even my daughters said i got better quality tv through the freeview box

Re: I have switched......
 

My picture is excellent tbh,but still not as good as Sky HD.
Shame Virgin seem more interested in space flight now!

http://www.engadget.com/2008/01/23/s...rent-they-cut/

Re: I have switched......
 

That space flight is a serious business plan... accidentally crash into a few sky satalites, and suddenly they'll get a load more customers...

On a more serious note, I've just installed a new digital TV arial, and am getting ready to ditch VM for everything but the Cable Modem (ADSL is not a viable option here).

Re: I have switched......
 

The thing is, is Sky HD a serious threat to Virgin? Sky's HD user base is around 800,000. Or slightly more than 1/10th of the total number of subscribers. This was after fairly extensive price dropping as well.

Re: I have switched......
 

stuart, yout loyality to VM is to be applauded, but you cannot go on sticking your head in the sand over this issue. You must agree that SKY are the market leader, and where they lead, others would be foolish not to follow. How can you say HD is not upmost in a lot of VM subscribers minds. Just look through the posts on this forum....how many are about HD, or the lack of it? Putting the same point back at you....how many people are on the CF internet board screaming out for 50meg BB? Hardly a priority is it Stuart?

The simple truth is that VM are painfully slow to embrace this new technology. Many have speculated as to why this is so, lack of available bandwith, lack of funding etc. i have given up following the "coming to VM soon" thread here. Nothing seems to be moving on that front....

Antway, as promised, I have had SKY HD installed today, and I will give my honest opinion to the plus and minus points of both platforms. As I said before. I have been loyal to the Virgin brand for many years, and as a trade unionist I am no big fan of R Murdoch either. So this honest apprasial is without prejudice..

V+ Plus points
Extra tuner as opposed to SKYHD
Slightly better upscaled picture on SD compared to SKYHD
Catch up TV on Demand
Watch TV while going through menus
Free Setanta on XL

SKY HD plus points
Much better, quicker interface when going through menus
more channels in total
30+ HD channels
30+ Channels in 5.1 Surround sound
Much quieter hard drive
160 gb Hard Drive

Anyone else seen any comparisons I missed, please feel free to add. So all in all I am very happy with the SKYHD box and the HD Channels, and 5.1 sound for more or less the same price as I was paying. I have my Plasma hooked up to my PC, so catch up TV is still available to me to enjoy through the various catch up on demand services (iplayer etc). The quality the picture and more impressivley, the Dolby 5.1 sound gives makes me think that the V+ is just wasted on the current set up of Cable TV. There is much more the V+ could do, but it is very underused.

Stuart, I think you will see that the figures you quoted above regards SKY HD subscriptions is now hopelessley out of date. The engineer who installed my SKY HD said (without prompting), the HD offer was so well subscribed they had trouble keeping up with demand. Pity VM's board didnt focus on HD, they would have kept me as a subscriber.........

Re: I have switched......
 

Actually, I have no particular loyalty to VM. In fact, i dropped their broadband a couple of years back to go to Be*.

I also wasn't making the point the Sky don't lead VM in HD subscribers. They do, and I would be foolish to suggest otherwise.

I was making the point that HD in general has not had a great takeup. I can't find the link, but the figures I saw were from last year, so not that out of date.

Edit: Just done some Googling. The figures as at October 31st 2008 are considerably lower than I had read, at 531,000. http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/digitalt...bscribers.html. Compare that with Sky+ whch ADDED 421,000 users in the same quarter. Also, 531,000 out of a subscribed user base of just over 9 million is about 5% take up.

It's also worth noting that this forum, much as I love it, is not represenative of the average VM or Sky user.

Re: I have switched......
 

Are ALL those channels true HD? I was lead to believe they were not. Many programmes being upscaled to HD (which isn't true HD)

V+ upscales my picture anyway. I'm nor Virgintard or Skytard and i can't be arsed with all the childish bitching that goes on between the two factions (there are actually real issues out there to get properly worked up about)

I've always had great service with Virgin - any problems are sorted out with quickly an efficiently.

My TV picture is superb and the cable broadband reliable and fast.

I would like more HD and a quicker interface Re:menus

I would like red button access with Sky Sports

VOD is brilliant!

If i could get Sky i would think twice about it now.

I would also like £5 million quid and all the cheese on toast i can eat...but lifes a bitch that way!

Re: I have switched......
 

True hd channels
BBc HD
FX HD
Bio HD
luxe tv HD
Rush HD
Discovery HD
Nat Geo HD
History HD
Crime HD

those are the only ones that show hd and not upscaled the others have a mixture off hd and upscaled.

Re: I have switched......
 

VM, one part time HD channel............sad

Re: I have switched......
 

it's a bit sad it upsets you so much mate :)

Re: I have switched......
 

More up to date Stuart, andSky are creating 1000 jobs to meet demand in the next quarter


Sky slashes price of Sky+ HD box

Wednesday, January 28 2009, 09:22 GMT

By James Welsh
Sky slashes price of Sky+ HD box

Sky has cut the purchase price of its flagship Sky+ HD box from £150 to £49 with immediate effect.

In its results presentation for the six months to December 2008, the company said a "significant opportunity [is] emerging in HD", with 7m homes already equipped with TVs meeting the HD Ready specification and a growing penetration of HD game consoles.

"We are seeing a dramatic shift in awareness of HD and more and more people are starting to regard HD quality video as standard," the company said. "We have been positioning our business to take advantage of this long-term trend and have assembled the best HD service in the UK by far. At the heart of this is an outstanding range of content from high quality brands."

Sky said sales of Sky+ HD and its equivalent standard definition box "accelerated sharply" over recent months, with net additions reaching a record 188,000 during the latter half of the year. The company said it would create a thousand new customer service and installer jobs to support demand at a cost of £30m per year.

"We have structured our investment so that the majority of costs are geared to demand; Sky+HD customer acquisition costs will only be incurred in proportion to take-up of the product," the company explained. "At a headline box price of £49, we estimate an incremental cost of adding a Sky+HD customer (either new to Sky or existing customer upgrades) of £100. This cost is fully recovered within 12 months through the ongoing monthly revenue from the HD pack subscription."

In the most recent quarter, Sky reported net customer additions of 171,000 - up 2% year on year - with its customer base now totalling 9.238m. 779,000 of those subscribers now take Sky+ HD, with over half its total subscriber base now taking Sky+ in its standard or high definition forms.

The rise in subscriber numbers coupled with reduced churn and increased revenue per subscriber contributed to total revenue of £2,601m in the second half of the year, up 6% on the year before, and an adjusted operating profit of £388m.

also................



BSkyB to create 1,000 jobs on back of HD demand
British Sky Broadcasting Group, Britain’s biggest pay-television provider, announced plans to create 1,000 jobs thanks to rising demand for its Sky+HD services.

By Telegraph staff
Last Updated: 7:51AM GMT 28 Jan 2009

British Sky Broadcasting Group

"As a result of our actions on efficiency and costs, and to support the anticiapated acceleration in demand for Sky+HD, we are creating around 1,000 new jobs in our customer service and installation teams."

The news came alongside BSkyB's results which showed that earnings before interest, taxes and exceptional items in the six months to Dec. 31 climbed to £388m ($553million) from £307m a year earlier, the Isleworth, England-based company said in a statement today.

Sales climbed 5.8pc to £2.6bn ss the company won 171,000 net new subscribers in the final three months of the year.

BSkyB, which broadcasts live England Football Premier League games, is winning subscribers after adding high-definition channels last year and offering broadband access since 2006 to compete with cable-TV provider Virgin Media and BT Group.

Re: I have switched......
 

Strictly speaking that is not a fair comparison. Comparing like for like BBC HD would be classed as the same as 8 of the 9 movie channels, which are 100% HD with exception. Strictly speaking BBC HDs criteria is a maximum of 25% SD or low grade HD content per programme and BBC HD has shown upscaled material in the past. I know they like to pretend otherwise but is has physically actually happened. So there are infact 17 true HD channels on your criteria.

Re: I have switched......
 

Sorry missed your post, too busy eating my cheese on toast......

Re: I have switched......
 

Give me a slice! :)

Re: I have switched......
 

OK, you can have the "standard" cheese, I will keep the good stuff for myself......

Re: I have switched......
 

I'm sure i saw a piece of upscaled cheddar in the back of your fridge.

Re: I have switched......
 

It was only a rumor....

Re: I have switched......
 

Ah, that must be it...

Re: I have switched......
 

Tbh you pretty much covered everything, there but there are a couple of points - SKYs new EPG that is coming soon - has the ability to watch tv whilst on the EPG like virgin, also ive heard u can upgrade the HDD in the Sky boxes to larger capacity 1s - thats good - theres other little bits like the ability to remote record from ur mobile or pc and the red button functionality.
it makes all the difference. Which box did u get with ur install - i got the samsung box, after reading the forums on digital spy, ive heard the samsung and amstrad boxes are the better option.

Re: I have switched......
 

So if the product is selling as well as Sky claim - why did they feel the need to cut the price to £49? Companies are not usually in the charity game?

Re: I have switched......
 

Cancelled my VM tv subscription on monday and when i told them why, they gave me the blurb on VMs HD channels coming in the next few months - apparently they are doing it in 4s - the first 4 include ITV hd (only a part time channel) and Discovery HD then they should have 4 more by the end of the year - not much of a hard sell to get people to stay - so VM may have 9 HD channels by the end of the year - how many will sky have - 31 and counting lol

---------- Post added at 15:58 ---------- Previous post was at 15:54 ----------

Sky are obviously investing heavily in HD so they are pushing that into peoples homes - they obviously want people to wake up to HD quality - how many people have updated their TVs and now have HD ready sets - by making HD affordable for every1 (skys words) they are opening the doors for people to actully make use of their investments which will in turn have a knock on effect - people who have seen Sky HD and Blu Ray at my house cant believe how good the quality is - and are now keen to make use of their newer TVs

Re: I have switched......
 

I agree, especially SKY..! So you would imagine that they have thought this one out, and the possible subscriber base makes it viable.

Regards the VM spiel to make you stay with their TV service.., well I thought they just went through the motions. The possibility of "some" HD channels was never really pushed forward to me. It seemed the assistant had gone through this procedure many times and was resigned to the fact people couldnt be swayed by very vauge promises of HD advancement

Re: I have switched......
 

Well I switched over to Sky today, for the lot, TV/Phone & Net. We spent ages debating the pros & cons of it all, and in the end we went over to Sky. Have been a loyal customer to Virgin for years, but we had problems with the Net speed and our TV picture freezing and jumping, they were out 3 times to fix that, but they never did.

Now we will get 31 H/D channels, with 2 more being added every month, and the Net & Phone packages were cheaper as well.
Mind you, when we phoned Virgin and mentioned that we might be leaving, they offered me a £6.50 a month less in our payment, and upgrade our Net from 10 to 20Meg! Having said that, we were never getting near the 10Meg we were paying for before?

I feel a bit bad about it just now, but no doubt that will change on Monday when we got our 31 H/D and movie channels
Cheers, Smudger.

Re: I have switched......
 

What 2 more hd channels a month where did you here this?.

Re: I have switched......
 

Or are they cutting the price by a third to try and accelerate demand?

Yes they have had a record breakign rise in subscriber numbers. But are people buying the HD subscriptions?

BTW, for copyright reasons, please do not post entire articles. A few quotes and a link is enough.

Both those articles talk about expected figures. I am talking about actual figures.

Re: I have switched......
 

Sorry about the full links, didnt know this was copyright infringment material.

Yes these are projected figures. Remember Stuart that the thing about posting on the internet is that this is a permanent record of your thoughts. I will keep an eye on developments and discuss this with you in the future, thanks for your input........

Re: I have switched......
 

Wise move, its a joy to be able to have a great picture on the tv for eveyday viewing and DD5.1 sound. id be very surprised if you were disappointed when u get it installed. where did u hear about the 2 channels a month, im intrigued - all id heard was that there would be more by the end of the year, if 2 a month is true, coupled with £49 box and free install then virgin really need to pull their finger out!

Re: I have switched......
 

What I don't understand is, why do people care so much? If you want HD, go to sky, if you want VOD, go to Virgin. Both have their advantages, both have their disadvantages! I will say this though, SKY blows goats.

---------- Post added at 10:34 ---------- Previous post was at 10:33 ----------

2 more upscaled channels per month, hurrah. Virgin already have all their channels upscaled. Come on Sky, catch up.

---------- Post added at 10:38 ---------- Previous post was at 10:34 ----------

Yeah, that's Murdochs dream, make sure everyone is using their TV to their fullest potential. Even if it's at his own expense cos he's just that kind of guy! :banghead:

Re: I have switched......
 

Come on, yeh i admit there is upscaled content on the HD channels, but thats going to happen during a transitional period where studios and production companys are switching equipement over to HD but that will change in the near future - surely if youve seen HD content and upscaled content you can tell the difference. I have been with virgin (NTL) for many years now and their constant disregard for customer demand amazes me - i still have their phone and BB but in terms of TV after buying into HD DVD and BLU RAY i have been spoiled by the PQ of HD and V+ paltry upscaling no longer cuts it. People buy HD ready tvs and still watch SD broadcasts on them, they need to be educated and persuaded to invest in HD - thats what sky are doing, looking to the future and trying to get as many customers on board as possible, thus protecting their investment - cant u see that in order for broadcasting to move forward, the viewers need to move forward too!:rolleyes:

Re: I have switched......
 

Have you considered that the demands made on here for HD on Virgin are not representative of the VM customer base as a whole? I for one find HD nice to watch but SD upscaled is also nice. I haven't once thought "This is a joke, I can't accept this SD picture anymore, I just can't". And why? Because it's just TV. SD/HD, ultimately there aren't enough people who give a flying monkey funk to warrant any major investment.

Re: I have switched......
 

How true!

:clap::clap:

Re: I have switched......
 

The last line of this quote is a contridiction. If there is not a lot of people intrested in unlocking the potential of their HD TV's then why did they upgrade to them in the first place. They should have stayed with the old CRT sets they had.

Why do people want to get PC's with high specs? Surley Pentium 2 processors would suffice, but people want more. That is just the way technology works. Innovation is constatly taking place, and then the end user makes avail of the new products.........then the innovation carries on.

The whole history of consumer technology makes it apparent that when new products or services become available the providers evolve to incorporate the new products. Otherwise we would all still be watchin B&W tv's and sending telegraphs

Tell me one company in this field that has stagnated and stayed rigid and survived? You have to keep up with the times

Re: I have switched......
 

:clap:here here:clap:

Re: I have switched......
 

I don't see the contradiction. There must be a lot of people buying new TVs for other reasons than them being HD ready, otherwise there would be more than the present half a million or so people paying $ky for HD. :erm:

Re: I have switched......
 

You are, of course, assuming that

1. People upgraded their TVs by choice rather than replaced dead ones.
2. People actually wanted a TV for a good picture rather than the fact that it is large and relatively flat (a 40 inch LCD takes a lot less space than even a 28inch CRT).
   

This is a difficult one. I supect that if you analysed most people's use of their PCs (not counting PC gamers because they will always have the latest hardware), you'll find that they spend most of their time on the web or email, and some time doing other stuff, such as word processing or limited photo/video editing.

Yes, a P2 would suffice for that, and I suspect a lot of non-technical people would probably be happy with one if they could get it. Look at the PS2. It's an 8 year old console, and it is *still* outselling most of the "next gen' consoles. Also, look at the netbooks.. A lot of people are buying these instead of laptops.

Remember, although this forum tends to attract technically minded people, most of the poeple have little clue or do not care that much about technology
VM haven't stayed rigid. OK, so their DTV service lags severely behind Sky's, but they have advanced in other areas, such as faster broadband (STMed though) and On Demand, neither of which Sky can match.

Re: I have switched......
 

I agree with both sides of this. There are plenty of people who got tvs as they were smaller and mums secretly resented these superlarge CRTs in the front room, my parents were the same. I know very few people who have plasmas and LCDs have always been a budget technology that keeps on giving. I don't know many people other than gamers who are really keen on HD but other people who are not enthusiasts do mention it. It is something they want but they aren't that bothered about it and don't want to pay a large amount of money for it. They'd really rather it was there but they won't worry about it unduely. On the other hand it's 2009 and Virgin really have slacked on this. It was acceptable to have 1 or 2 HD channels in 2006 and 2007. 2008 and 2009 it's unacceptable. I think for what bandwidth could be reasonable be expected and contracts signed we should be on about 6 or 7 by now (going up all the time as new HD channels carry on appearing slowly).


I do disagree with this. VOD was innovated by Telewest in 2005. In terms of content and newbies it's stayed very static for much of that time, only starting to improve the last 6 months or so. VOD's great, things have been allowed to wallow in complacency though.

Re: I have switched......
 

Quote gs10360 "Wise move, its a joy to be able to have a great picture on the tv for everyday viewing and DD5.1 sound. id be very surprised if you were disappointed when u get it installed. where did u hear about the 2 channels a month, im intrigued - all id heard was that there would be more by the end of the year, if 2 a month is true, coupled with £49 box and free install then virgin really need to pull their finger out!"

It was the woman in the call centre that told me about the future channels coming, when I was giving my details for the switch. They are coming this Monday for the TV change over and the Internet/Phone the week after. So I will let you know how it goes;)

Re: I have switched......
 

Yeah, sorry, not a contradiction. Now to respond to your points, I will set you a challenge... find me a TV for sale (new) that ISNT at the very least HD Ready.

Your point about PCs: Again, people have PCs that are not Pentium 2s because that is what is sold. Am I missing something here? Let's say you have a Pentium 2 PC and it blows up, what are your choices on the market? Any Pentium 2s....no? How odd!

And finally, your doozy of a comment about the evolution of providers catering for new technology...Not overly sure what you mean here BUT, like I said, the HD market is miniscule compared to the SD market....why...THE MAJORITY OF PEOPLE DONT CARE. It makes no odds that their TV is HD ready...thats all they could buy. It makes no odds that their PC is a Quad Core...thats all they could buy.

Anyway, thats my rant over. HD looks nice, but so does SD upscaled. END OF.

Re: I have switched......
 

Thats your opinion, but as said before, time will tell, but from what we know, people are abondining VM's TV service in their droves.
When the next quarters figures are released then we will see how much of an uptake there is of SKY's HD offer, I bet its huge. Why not when it costs more or less the same money..?

You might be happy to pay for what I would consider an inferior TV service for roughly the same price, a lot of people will want to utilise the potential of their TV's they paid quite a few quid for.

Anyway, must go, Ross Kemp in Afgananistan is on in Full HD.........makes all the difference, you can hear the bullets fly in 5.1 surround sound.

If you want to discuss this further then I will get two bean tins and a piece of string for us to communicate with, you obviously havent evolved too far.....lol

BTW, who gives a stuff aboutt 50meg BB, VM are always banging the drum about that one and putting a lot of resources into its development and roll out? mabye they could have channeled some of that cash into moving with the times and sorting out the poor HD content......

Re: I have switched......
 

Ok, if we are sinking to these levels (and I will skip over the abondining guff) then how about this...while you are watching Ross Kemp on Gangs, I will be recording it whilst recording a further channel whilst watching a third. Also, I will then peruse the VAST on demand library available at my finger tips, oh and perhaps I will do some surfing at 50 meg. All at the same time as you are watching Ross Kemp (!) with a few hundred more pixels! ha ha. WAKE UP!

---------- Post added at 21:32 ---------- Previous post was at 21:28 ----------

Also, you aint getting the HD Ready TV thing are you. Again, find me a TV for sale that is NOT HD Ready. You really have not got a point.

Re: I have switched......
 

Yawn........

---------- Post added at 21:39 ---------- Previous post was at 21:38 ----------

You really should look over the posts on this forum and actually see how many are about the lack of HD on VM. mabye you should wake up Fred Flintstone..lol

Re: I have switched......
 

:rolleyes: What was the very first thing I said earlier today? THE COMMENTS ON HERE ARE NOT REPRESENTATIVE OF THE VM CUSTOMER BASE AS A WHOLE. Easy. Simple. Get back to Ross Kemp, it's a piece of cinematic genius

Re: I have switched......
 

Moved on from Ross now, soooo much HD to choose from, what is a man to do......?

Re: I have switched......
 

How was your upscaled Ross Kemp? Any good?

Re: I have switched......
 

Not great to be honest. Switched over to live Football in HD, that is where you can really tell the difference...

Re: I have switched......
 

Lets put it this way, I pay over £130 a year for a tv licence, and £47 a month for TV i payed £2000 for a TV, why shouldnt I want the best picture quality. if u go have a family portrait done or wedding photographs for example, would you pay for or settle for pixelated or slightly blurred photos, its the same with the TV, we pay money to watch TV so why shouldnt we be entitled to the best quality images we can get, the technology is there, so why settle for SD pixellated images or upscaled slightly blurred but better than SD images, when we can have HD high quality images, fine there is upscaled material broadcast on hd channel at the moment. but really if people cant tell the difference between Real HD material and Upscaled SD material, they have a serious problem, the difference is night and day. upscaled images could never come close to HD images and for the same money near HD or Real HD - ive voted with my cash!

Re: I have switched......
 

Well said, there are those on this board who will not admit that HD is an emerging market that is ready to take off big time. VM are no positioning themselves early enough to capatalise on this.

---------- Post added at 08:18 ---------- Previous post was at 08:13 ----------

This is for Stuart, some new data for you to chew over

The best HDTV deals
By Charlie Ponsonby, SimplifyDigital
February 17 2009

Adverts for high definition TV (HDTV) are hard to escape, but is it any good and what are the cheapest deals for watching it?

Recent research commissioned by Sky and YouGov reveals 96% of people are now aware of HDTV and 74% are "interested" in watching their favourite programmes in HD quality.

With this in mind, Sky recently took the much anticipated decision to drop the price of their Sky+ HD digiboxes to £49 and push their HD service as their lead digital TV package.

At the same time Freesat, which also offers HD viewing, announced it has more than 200,000 customers.

---------- Post added at 08:24 ---------- Previous post was at 08:18 ----------

Time for VM to make plans to capture the new possible customer base. 74.....yes 74% of nearly all the population (96%) ar intrested in getting HD
So all those who say this will not be a mass market must feel your cheeks reddening now..

I told you Stuart. VM need to be ready to capatlise on this now if their TV service has any future. Its no point missing the bus. When new subscribers go to SKY they will be in no hurry to switch to cable, thus the possible sale is more or less gone forever

Anything to say about the Poll quoted above all the naysayers....?

Re: I have switched......
 

Lets Break that down shall we -

I agree that HD is emerging market that could make Virgin a lot of money. Plus they should start plans now instead of waiting until they are forced to do it.

Stats stats stats, can be manipulated anyway you want. It depends on how the question was worded. Finally its extremely dodgy to upscale 74% of however many people were asked for a survey (where 3% to 4% of those asked would have responded) to the population of the uk.

True its harder and more expensive to convince people to come back than it is to keep people. Virgin needs to get its finger out as I doubt it needs to get as many channels as it thinks to satisfy people. I'd be happy with 5+ true HD channels over 30 part time HD/SD upscale channels.

Re: I have switched......
 

You really are the most naive person I have ever virtually met. As the person above has already stated, you cannot take research conducted by SKY(!!!) and suggest the results are representative of the entire population! You just cannot do that! Here's what I would be asking: Who did you survey? Are they existing Sky customers? What demographic.

You appear to be suckered in by every marketing ploy you come accross be it HD, Sky "Research" or whatever.

So it still comes down to this, there is not enough interest in HD at the moment to warrant any major investment. It's been said elsewhere that most of the HD on Sky is just upscaled SD. Whoop-de-doop!

Re: I have switched......
 

If people can't hold a sensible debate without constantly having a pop at each other they're very quickly going to find themselves in my bad books.

Debate the topic people, don't make it personal.

Re: I have switched......
 

Polls can be wrong. As for the lack of HD channels, how do you know VM is not ready now, or if not now, will be soon? As I understand it, the technical problems stopping them introducing HD are bandwidth related. This is why they are in the process of turning off the Analogue TV system. How do you know that VM are not in discussions with various channels so that they can launch HD channels (I'd be surprised if we didn't see at least ITV HD and 4HD on the service)? That they haven't talked about it means nothing. Very few companies talk publically about negotiations.

Oh, and just to make one thing clear. I am saying that HD has not taken off YET. I am not saying it won't.

Re: I have switched......
 

I have a question about Sky, that I know I should have asked earlier. Has anyone had any problems with their V+ H/D box? Reason I ask is, when we were with VM they would come out an repair or even replace the box, if a problem occurred.
I have since been told that Sky don't do this, and that you need to take out a insurance policy to cover any possible repair, is this true?

Its not going to change my mind about switching over to Sky, as I believe that the quality of H/D is worth it, (as mentioned in an earlier post)

I know my Internet wont be so good, but that's the down side of it all, but you never know, VM might just improve their H/D service in the future, and entice me back again.

Re: I have switched......
 

The difference with Sky is that you own your stb, so if anything goes wrong with it,[outside of warranty of course] you are liable for the costs.
As you say Sky do offer an insurance plan to mitigate any heavy repair costs which in my opinion would be well worth getting.

Re: I have switched......
 

$ky charge abour £70 to repair / replace a Sky+ box and give you a new 1 year warranty. I don't know if it's more expensive for a HD box. When I was with sky the repair charge was cheaper than 1 years insurance/repair plan.

Alternatively if your box breaks, threaten to leave. They have always repaired it for free in my experience. ;)

Re: I have switched......
 

However if the box dose fail outside of the warrenty and you dont have an insurance policy just threatern to cancal and they will repair/replace it for free (with a new 12 month contract) my mum is now on her 3rd sky+ box and has only ever paied the origional install fee the 2 replacement boxes have been free

Re: I have switched......
 

Remember that even though an item (SKY HD Box of example), mabye outside its 12 month warranty, if the box fails you have recourse through the comsumer protection laws in that they state. "The item must last a reasonable amount of time to be fit for purpose".

So if your box fails after 18 months then the onus is still on the supplier to fix/repair the item, as this would not be considered a reasonable amount of time for a non portable appliance.

A 12 month warranty is offered IN ADDITION to your standard consumer laws, dont be fobbed off if you find yourself in this situation. If you think it is worth it, threaten a small claims court case. Always works...

Re: I have switched......
 

Sorry for taking this debate right back to the beginning but......
I was under the impression that to have Sky you had to have a BT phone line, you seem to be implying that you can keep your cable phone and still have a Sky TV HD box is this correct?

Re: I have switched......
 

Yes. You can have Sky TV with a VM phone line.

Re: I have switched......
 

As stated above, yes this is perfectly possible, and tbh, I was on the VIP pack but waited and waited for HD from virgin, and when this £49 Sky+HD offer came along, i decided it was too good to miss, there is a difference of around a pound if u keep the XL phone and Broadband with virgin and Sky+HD for TV - if youre waiting for HD you may be wise to look into sky, i am extremely happy with it.

Re: I have switched......
 

Yes, I am in much the same position. I would like to keep the cable broadband and phone, both of which I think are an excellent service, but would certainly like more HD content and red button options. If I can get a Sky HD box and a normal box in another room, and keep the broadband and phone for about the same money I pay now I will have to seriously consider it.

Re: I have switched......
 

The only thing that may bump up the price is the multiroom, unless u can come to an agreement with sky, I dont know, the only other alternative is to downgrade one of ur services on virgin to compensate for the extra multiroom cost, i never used my additional box so i wasnt bothered bout that, but im sure like u say its a factor for some, just glad ive got my HD channels now, ive had my fix and now i wait for more - "one day all tv will look like this" lol

Re: I have switched......
 

Thanks for all your posts folks about the repair side of the Sky contract, they were all very helpful to us. We git the box installed today, and its is really great! A bloke from Sky called today as well, and I asked him about this Phone/Net being free deal, and he said he will sort that out after the TV has been installed, it looks like we are going to get a better deal then the £17 a month for our Net and £5 for all talk with £10 rental?

Anyway, we are both really happy with our TV package, and your were all right, it was worth switching over;)
Cheers, Smudger.

Re: I have switched......
 

Which Sky+ HD box have you got smudger?

Re: I have switched......
 

i got rid of sky because i couldn't put up with the loss of signal during bad weather i.e thunder storms, heavy rain, strong wind .Whats going to happen to all sky subscibers when global warming really takes a hold and the analog transmitters are all turned off ...no tv.. back to vm,maybe that's part of there master plan

Re: I have switched......
 

We got the V+ H/D box in the living room, and the Sky+ put into the bedroom, and we are well pleased with it.
We are still getting used to it, as there are some things that are not as good as VM, ( getting the information on other channels)
Looking forward to getting the Phone/Internet installed.

Re: I have switched......
 

I meant which brand of box. Glad you like it :).

Re: I have switched......
 

Excuse my ignorance, but how do you go about having SKY with a VM phone line?

Re: I have switched......
 

simply plug the sky STB into the VM phone line. the only sky stuff you cant have with a VM phone line is skytalk and skyBB

Re: I have switched......
 

Thanks for that.

So an order for SKY can still be processed online and the engineer will have no problems with installation into a VM phone line?

Re: I have switched......
 

Yes this can be done, but think about this first. If you go online you will not get the first months premium pack free. Something that the operator will give you the option of if you phone.

Think of anyone who you know who has SKY, get their Account number and use the introduce a friend offer. You will both get £50 of M&S vouchers. A good freebie..

I was phoned by VM yesterday and they asked why I had cancelled the TV service. I explained that it was purely down to the HD issue, nothing else as I am happy with the customer service of VM.
I was paying £75 for my old package, the operator offered it to me for £68 and told me I had the right to cancel my SKY order 30 days after install. She also offered to pay any monies I would have paid out in the switch to SKY.

This is a really good offer, and just go's to show how good VM can be at customer service. Its a pity that the TV service they are offering cannot match the high customer service they provide, I would be back in the morning.
The total ignoring of HDTV in yesterdays press conference confirms that I made the right switch. This coupled with the poor performance of VM over the last quarter actually makes you wonder about the future of the company as a whole...

Re: I have switched......
 

I completely agree - i dont know why people have such downers on either company, tbh i was happy with vm services until recently - it was the complete disregard of any firm HD improvements that tipped me over the edge coupled with the blinding offer that sky has for its hd services, im still happy with my BB and phone through virgin tho.

---------- Post added at 09:23 ---------- Previous post was at 09:20 ----------

you will have no problems whatsoever and if u do order online u wont have to pay your HD premium for a month (its only 9.75 but its an offer lol) and you may get ur services installed in a matter of days.

Re: I have switched......
 

You an many others i suspect.

I have always enjoyed outstanding service with VM. From intial Ananlogue instillation through Digital upgrade and now to their V+ box.

Any faults have been dealt with quickly and efficiently.

CS and the tech guys have always been quick and polite.

I LOVE my V+ box, the upscaling, the ability to record 2 programmes and watch a third, to pause rewind and fast forward prgrammes.

BUT, HD is the future of television and their inability to put more than 1 full time HD channel onto our screens lacks vision and forethought.

It makes VM look like a backward thinking company!

Re: I have switched......
 

Same for me, I was hoping to keep VM for my Phone & Net but it was too expensive, cheaper to have all 3 with one company. We will be paying £15 for all calls 24/7 with Sky, it was £18.50 with VM. I know the Net service wont be as good with Sky, but Hey! 2 out of 3 aint that bad;)