Coming Soon to Virgin TV (2010) Vol. I

[EBD3000]

Originally Posted by kgollop

Good news on Discovery HD. I think Virgin are trying to encourage people to upgrade to XL. They'll be hoping many people will upgrade and this is how they'll gain extra revenue. This is why I think it unlikely you'll see any HD channels (other than the Freeview ones) on the M to L packages.

The only extra HD channels I'd expect on M & L in the next couple of years if/when Virgin get them are ITV HD, Five HD, E4 HD and if they do it possibly Virgin1 HD.

[Digital Fanatic]

Originally Posted by Hiroki

Doesn't that all depend on how well they advertise their hd offerings? Everytime you open the paper or look on the tv you see an advert for SkyHD and you never see them for Virgin so how are they taking revenue from sky?

We only know about the channels 'cause were sad geeks and I doubt the average Virgin customer even knows that they offer HD, so basically hurry up and advertise it virgin.

They do regulaty update the news section of My Virgin media and they have put it in the customer magazine... press releases etc...

I'm sure tv adverts will start once the portfolio of HD increases

[Media Boy UK]

Originally Posted by Ben B

Samsung box received 3.7 update overnight and V+ received 4.0 update after reboot this morning but still no sign of BBC Radio 4 LW or BBC News Multiscreen yet

I think your area is next to join NGTV - Virgin is working in Mid-England (And some North England areas) right now.

Here is the list of Headend that I know of who has join NGTV (As of 11/02/10).

Barnsley
Derby
Leeds
Leicester
Luton
Nottingham
Watford

[Nook29]

Is Bradford included under Leeds?

[Media Boy UK]

Originally Posted by Nook29

Is Bradford included under Leeds?

Do you have BBC Radio London on Channel 937?

That mean your area has join NGTV.

Q: HOW DO I KNOW IF MY AREA HAS JOIN NGTV?
A: Ex-ntl will find BBC Radio 4 LW on Virgin Channel 911 (You will also see BBC Radio London on Channel 937).
And Ex-Telewest will find BBC Radio Wales on Channel 931.

[EBD3000]

Originally Posted by Nook29

Is Bradford included under Leeds?

No because we haven't received any new smart cards whereas Leeds have.

[Nook29]

Originally Posted by EBD3000

No because we haven't received any new smart cards whereas Leeds have.

Well I have BBC Radio London, so evidently this update does apply to Bradford.

[virginruinedntl]

Originally Posted by Media Boy

Do you have BBC Radio London on Channel 937?

That mean your area has join NGTV.

Q: HOW DO I KNOW IF MY AREA HAS JOIN NGTV?
A: Ex-ntl will find BBC Radio 4 LW on Virgin Channel 911 (You will also see BBC Radio London on Channel 937).
And Ex-Telewest will find BBC Radio Wales on Channel 931.

What about Ex C&W ppl like me?

[Media Boy UK]

Originally Posted by virginruinedntl

What about Ex C&W ppl like me?

C&W (Cable TV) was took over by ntl so you are Ex-ntl - Just like Eurobell is now part of Ex-Telewest.

[virginruinedntl]

I sent this message to virgin on their twitter:

"@virginmedia When will Virgin be moving to MPEG4 as we are using mpeg2 which doesn't give great quality and costs you lots in Bandwidth?"

their response:

"There's no information I can give you at the moment but we appreciate the feedback ST"

I'm not sure what ST means? maybe sincere thanks??

[BenMcr]

As far as I was aware there is no difference in quality between a properly encoded MPEG2 program and an MPEG4 program

The only difference is size

[Hiroki]

Originally Posted by Digital Fanatic

They do regulaty update the news section of My Virgin media and they have put it in the customer magazine... press releases etc...

I'm sure tv adverts will start once the portfolio of HD increases

I've no idea what My Virgin Media is and I don't get the customer magazine but it's nice to see that they actively promote them and here's hoping that they can become a real alternative to Sky

[BenMcr]

Originally Posted by Hiroki

I've no idea what My Virgin Media

www.virginmedia.com/myvirginmedia

It's the bit where you access everything to do with your account.

[virginruinedntl]

Originally Posted by BenMcr

As far as I was aware there is no difference in quality between a properly encoded MPEG2 program and an MPEG4 program

The only difference is size

Not true at all, mpeg2 gives you blocks in scenes with lots of objects on the screen like footballers, scenes with lots of animals etc. You should read up about mpeg4. The size could obviously be reduced yes, but the quality could also be improved, BBCHD didn't look great at 17.8mbps MPEG2, now virgin have reduced it to 16.5mbps MPEG2 and its really looking poor now, it needs to be around 20mbps but with mpeg4 this could be reduced alot and still give us higher quality than we currently have.

You could also increase the quality and reduce the size of the SD channels which are blocky as HELL, you could also give us 720x576i for each channel with the bandwidth saved instead of giving us crappy 544x576i for some channels.

As far as i'm aware virgin have given customers boxes with MPEG2+MPEG4 support for the past few years, there can't be that many that would require a new mpeg4 supporting box, this cost of upgrading boxes would be ofset by the reduced bandwidth costs and viewers would have a much better picture.

[BenMcr]

Originally Posted by virginruinedntl

As far as i'm aware virgin have given customers boxes with MPEG2+MPEG4 support for the past few years, there can't be that many that would require a new mpeg4 supporting box, this cost of upgrading boxes would be ofset by the reduced bandwidth costs and viewers would have a much better picture.

Wrong.

So far the only box that has been MPEG4 enabled is the Samsung V+ box.