I have switched......

[joyrider1]

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.

[gc10360]

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.

[joyrider1]

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...

[mr,m]

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.

[die5el]

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

[mr,m]

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/

[Stormblade]

Originally Posted by mr,m

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/

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).

[Stuart]

Originally Posted by joyrider1

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...

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.

[joyrider1]

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.........

[Stuart]

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.

[Mobes]

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!

[gadge]

Originally Posted by Mobes

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!

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.

[joyrider1]

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

[Mobes]

Originally Posted by joyrider1

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

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

[joyrider1]

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.