General Coming Soon to Virgin TV (2018) - Page 140

Raider999 · 11-09-2018, 16:33

Quote:

Originally Posted by figgyburn

I just went to the virgin website last week and looked at the additional channels that you could subscribe to and premier sports is there to subscribe to at £0.00 extra a month.Confirmed by email.

Indie that a couple of weeks ago - no mention how long this free access lasts for either on the website or in the confirmation email.

Also no indication that you are signing up for x months or starting a new 12 month contract with Virgin.

jfman · 11-09-2018, 20:44

Premier Sports in the past has always been standalone, so I think a 30 day minimum term applied and that was all. Didn’t affect your contract.

1andrew1 · 11-09-2018, 21:08

I think as Premier Sports get the vast majority of their subscribers via satellite, they and VM are not too bothered about the discrepancy. I agree it's not great and as viewing on mobile devices increases, I would expect to see the situation improving.

jfman · 11-09-2018, 21:32

Looking at the frequency plan, space available and lack of channels likely to launch I can see most of the capacity available going to broadband. The frequencies running duplicates in my area are presently those directly above the broadband spectrum.

That is of course not to say that there isn’t space available for future HD channels to launch.

heavyside · 12-09-2018, 07:55

Quote:

Originally Posted by jfman

Looking at the frequency plan, space available and lack of channels likely to launch I can see most of the capacity available going to broadband. The frequencies running duplicates in my area are presently those directly above the broadband spectrum.

That is of course not to say that there isn’t space available for future HD channels to launch.

I can understand that the extra capacity can be used to squeeze in more TV channels to the spectrum but what would this mean if it is used for broadband?

jfman · 12-09-2018, 09:14

Quote:

Originally Posted by heavyside

I can understand that the extra capacity can be used to squeeze in more TV channels to the spectrum but what would this mean if it is used for broadband?

It’d help solve broadband capacity issues in some areas by sharing the load across more frequencies. For areas that presently have no real issues they could push faster broadband.

If they released superhubs that could support 32 bonded downstream frequencies that’s theoretically 1.6Gbps shared between the users online in the area, and 500Mb realistic as a customer offering.

My hub currently connects on 139-323Mhz inclusive. I’m not near the results of my last scan but everything to near 403mhz is either legacy broadband frequencies or duplicates. That’d allow full 32 bonded downstream channels with compatible hubs.

heavyside · 12-09-2018, 10:29

Quote:

Originally Posted by jfman

It’d help solve broadband capacity issues in some areas by sharing the load across more frequencies. For areas that presently have no real issues they could push faster broadband.

If they released superhubs that could support 32 bonded downstream frequencies that’s theoretically 1.6Gbps shared between the users online in the area, and 500Mb realistic as a customer offering.

My hub currently connects on 139-323Mhz inclusive. I’m not near the results of my last scan but everything to near 403mhz is either legacy broadband frequencies or duplicates. That’d allow full 32 bonded downstream channels with compatible hubs.

Thanks for the explanation, jfman. Of the two I'd rather have more, higher definition TV channels right now but maybe the faster broadband speeds would be more interesting in the future with IPTV.

jfman · 12-09-2018, 10:51

Well it’s not a choice of one or the other - there’s space for more HD channels remaining anyway - even if a number of frequencies get moved to broadband.

Virgin should have now removed all SD boxes from the network so, should it be necessary in the future, there’s scope to remove a reasonable number of SD channels where HD & SD are in the same package anyway. All BT Sports and Sky Movies channels being obvious quick wins, Sky Sports potentially soon as they’re notifying their remaining SD customers of a £2 charge to go HD (not optional). Would also help tidy up the EPG.

Mad Max · 12-09-2018, 11:35

By all means give us more HD, but get rid of the dross and make room for more quality shows in HD.

jfman · 12-09-2018, 18:05

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mad Max

By all means give us more HD, but get rid of the dross and make room for more quality shows in HD.

Indeed, although it'll not come to the choice between one or the other. Once the available space is fully utilised there are further efficiencies to be made.

As far as I can tell (per Virgin website) there are 30 HD channels being broadcast in the same package as their SD counterpart (that is to say - there shouldn't be anyone out there now that needs the SD channel to be on air at all if VM have removed the SD boxes on schedule). I haven't for these purposes included the main channels of BBC/ITV/C4 and Five, or considered legacy packages that I'm sure Virgin could swap the HD versions into or migrate the customer to a new package by retentions.

BBC News
BBC Four
Cbeebies
CBBC
Paramount
4 Seven
Quest
BT Sport 1
BT Sport 2
BT Sport 3
BT Sport ESPN
Crime & Investigation
Discovery
Animal Planet
Nat Geo Wild
National Geographic
H2
History HD
Nick HD
Sky Cinema Premiere
Sky Cinema Hit
Sky Cinema Greats
Sky Cinema Disney
Sky Cinema Family
Sky Cinema Action & Adventure
Sky Cinema Comedy
Sky Cinema Crime & Thriller
Sky Cinema Drama
Sky Cinema Sci-Fi
Sky Sinema Select

Further to this if Sky absorbing the 'HD charge' for Sky Sports into the main subscription cost follows onto the Virgin network we can add a further 8:-

SS Main Event
SS Premier League
SS Football
SS Cricket
SS Golf
SS F1
SS Action
SS Arena

If things get really desperate there are 48 '+1' channels (again, on their website not from a scan). By that point I'm sure the V6 would be well established and between six tuners and on demand I'm not sure the majority of +1s will justify their existence. An outdated idea going back to single tuners and the terrestrials trying to corner Freeview.

cheekyangus · 12-09-2018, 18:40

On the Mix pack and we only get SD versions of Nat Geo, H2, Discovery, Animal Planet and Nick from that list jfman.

japitts · 12-09-2018, 19:38

Wasn't there an issue a while ago, that you needed to have an HDMI lead connected to your Tivo in order to view HD channels? Or to flip it round, if you only had an SD TV and therefore no HDMI lead, you couldn't view HD variants? This, I assumed, was one reason why Gold HD hadn't just replaced Ch124 but was now going to be a new EPG slot.

Which I guess would mean the question is how many VM TV viewers only have SD TVs...

Also in jfman's list above, National Geographic is included. Not sure this is entirely right, NatGeo is in Fun and above according to my current channel guide (August 2018 V6), NatGeo HD is only Full House. Same with Nickelodeon I think.

Totally as an aside, we do still record in SD sometimes - where the program content isn't going to hugely benefit from HD it does give the benefit of disk space. But that's only a small proportion of our viewing, to be fair.

jfman · 12-09-2018, 19:58

https://www.virginmedia.com/shop/bundles/vip.html was the list I used - but I do know that packages change quite regularly and some people remain on old packages. And websites go out of date!

I've had a look into the Tivo/scart issue and can't see any posts about it - presumably something that can be resolved with a software update if it is still an issue? Anyone got a Tivo and a scart cable handy?

Derekb108 · 12-09-2018, 20:16

Why is no one rejoicing virgins first 4K tv channel that isn't football

Horizon · 12-09-2018, 21:38

Quote:

Originally Posted by jfman

If things get really desperate there are 48 '+1' channels (again, on their website not from a scan). By that point I'm sure the V6 would be well established and between six tuners and on demand I'm not sure the majority of +1s will justify their existence. An outdated idea going back to single tuners and the terrestrials trying to corner Freeview.

Sorry, but disagree on the +1s. I find them very useful in my household.

Not everything is on catchup and you can't record a whole programme if its already started, hence the need for the +1s and besides, not everyone has a recordable box yet.

On the 30 SD channels/space issue, on satellite, these take up about 3 slots (or channels/transport streams) so would not save much space on VM either. However, I agree that they should be axed as they're pointless now.

I would assume that if people can afford cable tv, they most probably would have a hd set too, including secondary bedroom/kids tv sets too.