Coming Soon to Virgin TV (2009)

[Fred Fish]

I have generated a list of all of the HD programmes showing on Channel 4HD in .pdf through to 14th Aug and can send it to anyone who wants. The file is 97kb. Just PM me.

I can also provide the same for all HD available on virgin but the file is considerable bigger (about 1.5 meg). Again PM me if you want a copy.

[Felim_Doyle]

Originally Posted by LiamTG

National Geo HD channel is nothing but pixelated and actually froze my box!

FX HD seems great tho!

So this ESPN thing - do we get the premier matches in HD?

Ta

LTG

Originally Posted by sammyjayuk

I'm no expert, but the pixellation sounds like a signal issue. I expect VM are using frequencies they've never used before (for digital, anyway) and with the best will in the world they can't make sure that they're receivable, without changes, at the millions of ends of many thousands of miles of cable.

I'd say call VM - it could be a simple fix like boosting your power.

hth,
Sam

Go into Settings / Technical Stuff / Page 2.

You want SNR to be high (>30dB), AGC to be low (<80%), Pre RS Errors to be 0 (a small number are correctable), Post RS Errors to be 0 (anything else will cause pixies and chirps).

I base these figures on my setup. Your experience may differ.

The values will vary greatly from one channel to another. I typically find the documentary channels in the 200 range most prone to problems. They are ususally borderline with SNR at 28dB to 29dB and AGC at 90% to 100% with some occasional Pre/Post RS Errors. Nat. Geo. HD is likely to be in a bad frequency range requiring a lot of bandwidth and so prone to errors.

Check your readings on channel 232 then check all your connections on the wall socket, any splitters and your STB then take the readings again and post both sets here please.

I have more to say on the quirks of this problem but I'll post that later.

[Bailey Boy]

Glad to see 4 HD on Virgin it looks good looking forward to ESPN HD

[Felim_Doyle]

Originally Posted by Fred Fish

I have generated a list of all of the HD programmes showing on Channel 4HD in .pdf through to 14th Aug and can send it to anyone who wants. The file is 97kb. Just PM me.

I can also provide the same for all HD available on virgin but the file is considerable bigger (about 1.5 meg). Again PM me if you want a copy.

Is there anywhere you can upload these to and post links to them?

[musicbravo]

Is there anymore news regarding SKY premium pricing? Following from comments posted on DS the other day?

[BenMcr]

They are mostly going up by £1.50 from 1st September - same rise as Sky customers are getting

[Media Boy UK]

Originally Posted by BenMcr

They are mostly going up by £1.50 from 1st September - same rise as Sky customers are getting

Any news on Racing UK, Liverpool FC TV and Arsenal TV yet?

Are they set to be remove from Virgin or is Racing UK going to cost £20 per month?

[Fred Fish]

Originally Posted by Felim_Doyle

Is there anywhere you can upload these to and post links to them?

I will try to sort out a free account somewhere

[Interesting Ian]

Originally Posted by Felim_Doyle

Go into Settings / Technical Stuff / Page 2.

You want SNR to be high (>30dB), AGC to be low (<80%), Pre RS Errors to be 0 (a small number are correctable), Post RS Errors to be 0 (anything else will cause pixies and chirps).

I base these figures on my setup. Your experience may differ.

The values will vary greatly from one channel to another. I typically find the documentary channels in the 200 range most prone to problems. They are ususally borderline with SNR at 28dB to 29dB and AGC at 90% to 100% with some occasional Pre/Post RS Errors. Nat. Geo. HD is likely to be in a bad frequency range requiring a lot of bandwidth and so prone to errors.

Check your readings on channel 232 then check all your connections on the wall socket, any splitters and your STB then take the readings again and post both sets here please.

I have more to say on the quirks of this problem but I'll post that later.

Hi,

Many of my channels are also pixelated including 2 of the new HD channels FX and mutvHD. Are these values different for each channel?

On SNR it says 24.0dB, 32.0dB, 29.0dB

Do all these have to be above 30, or just one?

AGC says -16dBmV, -11dBmV, -13dBmV I have no idea how these figures relate to a percentage value.

Pre RS errors says 0,0, 11 per 0.5s

Post RS Errors says 0,0,0 per 0.5s

So anything wrong with these figures? Probably give Virgin a ring.

[Fred Fish]

Originally Posted by Felim_Doyle

Is there anywhere you can upload these to and post links to them?

OK I have just uploaded the files to rapidshare.

The listing for the Channel4 HD stuff is http://rapidshare.com/files/262138041/Channel_4_HD.pdf

The listing for all High Definition programmes on the Virgin platform is http://rapidshare.com/files/262139109/all_virgin_hd.pdf

These listings are ONLY the programmes being shown in High Definition through to 14th August (not every programme).

I have a suspicion that they can only be downloaded a total of 10 times - so if you try and cant get it just let me know and I will redo the file.

---------- Post added at 15:10 ---------- Previous post was at 14:32 ----------

Originally Posted by Fred Fish

OK I have just uploaded the files to rapidshare.

The listing for the Channel4 HD stuff is http://rapidshare.com/files/262138041/Channel_4_HD.pdf

The listing for all High Definition programmes on the Virgin platform is http://rapidshare.com/files/262139109/all_virgin_hd.pdf

These listings are ONLY the programmes being shown in High Definition through to 14th August (not every programme).

I have a suspicion that they can only be downloaded a total of 10 times - so if you try and cant get it just let me know and I will redo the file.

Update - I have noticed when I generated these listings it generated different end dates for each channel so the listings in the All Virgin HD file cover the following dates:

FX HD 30th July - 1st October
C4 HD 30th July - 14th Aug
BBC HD 30th July - 15th Aug
National Geographic HD 30th July - 1st Oct
MTVHD 30th July - 1st Sept

[Media Boy UK]

As you may know Virgin1 Player has launch on Virgin TV but I have just found out that Virgin Media has also launch ''Living Player'' and ''Bravo Player'' on TV Choice on Demand ''All Channels''.

Living and Bravo has been removed from Catch-up on Demand.

[Felim_Doyle]

Originally Posted by Interesting Ian

Hi,

Many of my channels are also pixelated including 2 of the new HD channels FX and mutvHD. Are these values different for each channel?

On SNR it says 24.0dB, 32.0dB, 29.0dB

Do all these have to be above 30, or just one?

AGC says -16dBmV, -11dBmV, -13dBmV I have no idea how these figures relate to a percentage value.

Pre RS errors says 0,0, 11 per 0.5s

Post RS Errors says 0,0,0 per 0.5s

So anything wrong with these figures? Probably give Virgin a ring.

You have a slightly different display to me so I'm guessing you have a different STB. I have a Pace Di400-N V Box STB. What's yours?

I'm not exactly sure what figures you're quoting. Can you elaborate? Are they the three sets of figures for the three new HD channels? Maybe you can list BBC HD and an SD channel (e.g. BBC One) as well for comparison.

The figures shown apply to the channel you are currently watching. Each channel will differ as they come down the co-ax on different frequencies and are subject to different levels of interference and attenuation.

An SNR of 32.0dB is good, 24.0dB is very bad. The AGC value of -11dBmv sounds good and -16dBmV sounds bad. The Pre RS Error value of 11 is a relatively small (but not perfect) number of correctable errors and, at the time of the snapshot, there were no unrecoverable Post RS Errors so, in theory, you should not be having any pixellation. However, it is a snapshot and you have to go out of Settings and back in again to refresh periodically.

Have you checked and tightened all of those connectors?

One time I discovered a break in the centre core of a short patch cable from my broadband splitter to the STB. Most channels were fine 'jumping' the gap in the cable through capacitive coupling. Others were very badly affected to the point of generating an error screen rather than just showing a pixellated picture. When I wiggled the cable it improved things so I checked it with a meter and found a break about a third of the way along.

Some time later I was still having intermittent problems with selected channels due to poor signal levels so VM replaced the amplifier in the green box on the street corner.

I have noticed that hot weather often coincides with this kind of problem and, as my STB is kept quite cool, I think it might be the green box on the street corner but check your STB isn't overheated.

I still get occasional problems early in the morning with Discovery, History etc. but I haven't reported it again yet as it's not a major issue.

Finally, if I am getting pixellation I sometimes lift the front of the STB up a couple of centimetres and drop it gently. I said gently! This usually works and indicates a possible loose connection or solder joint inside the box. The RF cable also gets a giggle from this operation but I'm fairly sure that the cable and it's connectors are in good shape. I've only had this box about nine months as my original older model Pace box failed after many years of faithful service.

Apologies for the lenghty post but as more channels are added, especially HD channels, I envisage more pixellation problems and 1202 errors 'Coming Soon to Virgin TV'.

[Andrewcrawford23]

there quoting the v+ box figures as youg et 3 of them

[SB_07]

BB isn't in HD?

[i am annoyed]

Originally Posted by appledoor

yes i have tv xl, V+ box connected via hdmi to a hd tv, bbc hd is available but the new ones are not.

Same here, I've always had BBC HD on 108 so I can definitely receive HD, but all the new channels are greyed out and I'm apparently not subscribed. And I am on XL TV aswell.