Dire picture quality
 

I can't help but notice that the picture quality on many of the smaller channels has deteriorated to the point that it's a bit like watching a fuzzy YouTube video,with the picture frequently breaking into fuzzy blocky squares and jerking about 'Max Headroom' style.

I still have a CRT tv,so I'm guessing that if I'd got a huge LCD tv that the picture would be completely unwatchable.

The HD channels are fine,but if I record an hour of HD onto my V+ box it uses 5 hours of space,which isn't ideal.

Is this poor picture quality now normal for Virgin,or is it just me?

Re: Dire picture quality
 

If it's doing a Ma...Ma...Ma...Ma...Ma...Max...Max Headroom impression, that's almost certainly a signal problem that only affects you. Give VM a call.

Re: Dire picture quality
 

Ive got to say i too have noticed that over the past year or two the quality of the picture on virginmedia's SD channels as got worse an worse, there HD channels are so few its hardly worth meantioning them (i don't could +1 channels).
I have been with virginmedia for 12yrs or so when they were cabletel, So im not some new customer simply complaining cause they have nothing better to do. I have had the V+ ,V hd an most recently the Tivo box.
My wife watches alot of shows on 5star for example and to be totally honest its worse than youtube. It looks as tho someone messed up the codecs or the compression ratio. I have a 40inch sony 3d lcd tv an i was so sick of the bad picture i cancelled the tv service completely an moved to sky+ HD, i know it works out i pay slightly more (about £5) but man, the tv picture is incredible and there so much more HD.
I hate to say it but when it comes to TV virgins service an quality is simply not worth the cash unlike there broadband.
I would recommend if you get no joy with virgin CS and your still not happy with the quality of the picture then take a look at sky.

Re: Dire picture quality
 

I haven't noticed any decline in the picture quality of any channel, although FX HD is annoying especially when it broadcasts in 16:9.

The problems you are experiencing maybe limited to your local area and franchise, even when this area was Analogue, the picture was always good apart from BBC1 until they started phasing it out.

I would suggest you contact Virgin Media via the community forum on there website, they will forward your complaint to the right department that deals with broadcasting of Channels.

Re: Dire picture quality
 

I'll have a gripe at Virgin about it and see if they offer to fix it then.

Re: Dire picture quality
 

You say you are in a Cable Tel area, I know people in Surrey in a Cable Tel area and they had blanking and freezing picture for about a year, then it was fixed and then it started pixelating, NTL at the time said there was nothing they could do, it eventually went away.

Maybe it is a bad set up?

Re: Dire picture quality
 

Same problems here, anything thats SD appears to have had its bandwidth reduced...pixellation is getting worse for me too.

Re: Dire picture quality
 

If it is pixelating all the time, you need to report it as a fault and if they cannot do anything about it over a short period of time they should give you a discount of your TV package.

Re: Dire picture quality
 

You need to report it. There are no known headend issues with poor picture quality (bar the Channel 5 group of SD channels)

Re: Dire picture quality
 

So what's the explanation for the poor picture on the Channel 5 group of SD channels then?
Are you saying that they're meant to be poor?

Re: Dire picture quality
 

It's since they added Ch5+1 to their satellite feed. All the other channels on the same transponder got more compressed to make room, and VM acquire the channels from this satellite. VM and Channel 5 are working together to find a solution.

I didn't mention this on my original post because the low bandwidth will only cause pixellation, not stuttering.

Re: Dire picture quality
 

Well it sucks if they've made the picture quality rubbish just to give us another stupid +1 channel.

Re: Dire picture quality
 

Yeah, it is a little silly. Hopefully they can get it sorted soon. It's worth noting that Channel 5 HD is unaffected by this.

Re: Dire picture quality
 

Yeah,but I don't watch live tv,and if I record from the stupid HD channels my V+ box uses 5 hours of memory for each hour of programme.

Re: Dire picture quality
 

Ah, I see... hopefully Channel 5 will get it sorted soon.