General : Coming Soon to Virgin TV (2019)

[spiderplant]

Originally Posted by fox35

So just in layman's terms, what does all this moving about channels from mpeg-2 to mpeg-4 actually mean to the normie average Joe viewer?

Your recordings will take up less room on the hard drive. Other than that, you shouldn't notice any difference.

[Raider999]

Originally Posted by spiderplant

Your recordings will take up less room on the hard drive. Other than that, you shouldn't notice any difference.

I suspect the PQ will drop a bit

[alwaysabear]

Originally Posted by Raider999

I suspect the PQ will drop a bit

It should not , its just a way of compressing the broadcast more efficiently.

[cheekyangus]

Originally Posted by cheekyangus

5 channels switched over to MPEG4 overnight.

MUTV, Sky Sports F1 and Sky Witness have replaced the remaining 3 "New Sans Nom" on C062.

On C063, Channel 4 Audio Description and Boomerang have appeared in MPEG4 replacing 2 of the "New Sans Nom".

Additional: I thought Sky One had changed already. For whatever reason it disappeared from my Favourites like the other MPEG4 switched channels. Maybe it moved mutliplex, or I was mistaken about it being switched already.

Yup, Sky One is showing in 5 places. Discounting the HD channel, that's 2 on C055 and 2 on C063, one being MPEG2 and one MPEG4 on each. So it's moving position on the network (not the EPG, just so you don't misunderstand me) at the very least.

I noticed the Sky One duplications disappeared yesterday afternoon, but I didn't post. So that move is complete.

Following on from yesterday's MPEG4 switches, more happened overnight again.

C063 now has ZERO "New Sans Nom", they have now been named and confirm the frequency/multiplex move that I thought was occurring.

The following channels are now MPEG4 as of overnight: Boomerang+1, More4+1, Film4 SD, Film4+1, CNN, 4Music and Cartoon Network. On C031 the Sans Nom has been confirmed as Cartoon Network+1.

So if you Favourite any of these channels on your Tivo/V6 you'll (probably) need to re-Favourite them.

With these switches/moves on the network the C055 frequency/multiplex is basically going to be empty, as the overnight changes were its remaining channels.

Oh, and C067 is basically empty following the changes I mentioned over previous days, only Sky Sports Racing is on it. So expect a switch and/or more for that soon.

[Raider999]

Originally Posted by alwaysabear

It should not , its just a way of compressing the broadcast more efficiently.

Having experienced several codec changes in the past, I can catagorically say that each reduced the size of recordings at the expense of Picture Quality.

[BenMcr]

Originally Posted by Raider999

Having experienced several codec changes in the past, I can catagorically say that each reduced the size of recordings at the expense of Picture Quality.

When in particular and how did you identify the change?

There are always at least two factors. Encoding and bit rate. You can have a high bit rate MPEG2 that'll look better than a low bit rate MPEG4.

However if you do it right between the two you should see zero difference from a quality perspective.

[ScottishSteve]

I noticed this on DigitalBitrate

5Star testing in HD, maybe another HD exclusive from 5 to join Paramount

http://www.digitalbitrate.com/dtv.ph...&sec=0&lang=en

[cheekyangus]

Originally Posted by ScottishSteve

I noticed this on DigitalBitrate

5Star testing in HD, maybe another HD exclusive from 5 to join Paramount

http://www.digitalbitrate.com/dtv.ph...&sec=0&lang=en

Nice find!

Given the Catch-up On-demand for C5 channels tends to only come in HD flavour these days (I only really have Law & Order SVU on 5USA to go on for regular observations of this) it doesn't surprise me as much as it might have in the past, pre-Paramount Network HD.

The screen capture on that DigitalBitRate page is dated 24th March 2019 and it's a bit odd it's in MPEG2, but very interesting.

Had a look prompted by your find ScottishSteve and found that it also on a different multiplex (here) and the screen capture is dated last night, 3rd April. And also here, screen capture dated 29th March.

[ScottishSteve]

Yes I noticed a few versions of it
It’s certainly very promising but as you stated MPEG2 is unusual
But Virgin works in mysterious ways

[jfman]

The Vxxx streams are all VOD, so will vary depending on what users in an area are watching. It’s likely that at different times channels with the same label have different compression/resolutions.

[cheekyangus]

Originally Posted by jfman

The Vxxx streams are all VOD, so will vary depending on what users in an area are watching. It’s likely that at different times channels with the same label have different compression/resolutions.

That makes sense. Thanks jfman!

This makes me wonder how VM will use the space once they move their On-Demand over to IP-based delivery, only apps like iPlayer are doing it via VM's TV boxes at the moment, to my (limited) knowledge. It will probably go toward broadband services, to allow them to increase speeds.

[Media Boy UK]

Look like the following channels are set to move over to MPEG4:

-MTV
-MTV BASE
-Club MTV
-MTV HITS
-BET
-MTV MUSIC
-VH1
-Disney XD
-MTV OMG
-MTV ROCKS
-Disney Channel
-Disney Channel+1
-Disney Junior
-XXX Brits (Channel 979)

http://www.digitalbitrate.com/dtv.ph...ng=en&mux=C063

As you can see all the channels listed on this post is broadcasting in MPEG2 and MPEG4 on that link I have posted.

[jfman]

Originally Posted by Media Boy

Look like the following channels are set to move over to MPEG4:

-MTV
-MTV BASE
-Club MTV
-MTV HITS
-BET
-MTV MUSIC
-VH1
-Disney XD
-MTV OMG
-MTV ROCKS
-Disney Channel
-Disney Channel+1
-Disney Junior
-XXX Brits (Channel 979)

http://www.digitalbitrate.com/dtv.ph...ng=en&mux=C063

As you can see all the channels listed on this post is broadcasting in MPEG2 and MPEG4 on that link I have posted.

They moved on 1st April, the old data is just retained from historic scans because the same V-PID and A-PID are used. By clicking on 'more' next to any channel it'll show a graph of the video information which changed from red to blue to signify the change.

[Media Boy UK]

Originally Posted by jfman

They moved on 1st April, the old data is just retained from historic scans because the same V-PID and A-PID are used. By clicking on 'more' next to any channel it'll show a graph of the video information which changed from red to blue to signify the change.

We just seen them - sorry.

[jfman]

No worries- it's harder than it looks interpreting the data at times. Thanks - and to cheekyangus - for looking at it so often.