General : Coming Soon to Virgin TV (2018)

[Ultimate.Conj]

Originally Posted by vincerooney

7 HD channels eh? I wonder what these could be. I assume one will be Gold?

Sky Atlantic HD? lol

Maybe some of the football channels, MUTV HD?

Not sure what other ones we are missing in all honesty. Most of the channels I watch have the HD variant already.

[vincerooney]

Originally Posted by Ultimate.Conj

Sky Atlantic HD? lol

Maybe some of the football channels, MUTV HD?

Not sure what other ones we are missing in all honesty. Most of the channels I watch have the HD variant already.

I know i'm quite confused its that much unless its purely to test for potential channels far in the future and the ability for the system to handle them?

[jfman]

Right now it’ll be testing the system. There’s no real need for the space at present- there’s plenty of space elsewhere. It could allow them to consolidate the existing HD channels into less frequencies with no perceptible difference in quality to the end users.

[Ultimate.Conj]

Has there been any word on Love Nature UHD coming to virgin?
I heard a few rumours, but nothing concrete just yet.

Love Nature isn't a bad channel, some of the stuff on there has been pretty good. Shame there isn't more content.

[jfman]

I've not heard anything - although Virgin have been running UHD tests in the background so it isn't a capacity issue.

[johnathome]

Originally Posted by Mad Max

Who do you watch TV with MB, the missus?

One of us has to go upstairs 'cos she does watch some rubbish!

[jfman]

Although I doubt forum users here are interested the personality cult of Richard and jj20x have had me banned from Digitalspy. I would hope this forum remains more flexible - DS have in the past been essentially an advertisement for Sky anyway so disinformation about Virgin Media would suit their agenda.

I am however exploring legal options regarding their retention and use of data, as apparently this relates to an issue five years ago - which under GDPR I'd be amazed if their position is sustainable.

[Chad]

Originally Posted by jfman

Although I doubt forum users here are interested the personality cult of Richard and jj20x have had me banned from Digitalspy. I would hope this forum remains more flexible - DS have in the past been essentially an advertisement for Sky anyway so disinformation about Virgin Media would suit their agenda.

I am however exploring legal options regarding their retention and use of data, as apparently this relates to an issue five years ago - which under GDPR I'd be amazed if their position is sustainable.

Not sure bringing your problems from another website and airing them here is the right thing to do, especially in the coming soon thread. Totally off topic and inappropriate. Why name the people involved in your dispute? Are you hoping things are going to kick off here where you aren't banned so you can continue your grievance with them? I don't get it mate.

[flummox]

Originally Posted by jfman

Although I doubt forum users here are interested the personality cult of Richard and jj20x have had me banned from Digitalspy. I would hope this forum remains more flexible - DS have in the past been essentially an advertisement for Sky anyway so disinformation about Virgin Media would suit their agenda.

I am however exploring legal options regarding their retention and use of data, as apparently this relates to an issue five years ago - which under GDPR I'd be amazed if their position is sustainable.

Considering legal options because you got banned from a forum? Get a grip

[SonicMaster]

New international channels from Monday 3rd Channels:

And from 3 September, Asian Mela customers have got four brand new channels to feast their eyes on. SONY Max (CH 806), home to some of the best Indian telly out there, and SONY TV (CH 805) are both now available in dazzling HD. Still craving more beautifully crisp Hindi-tainment? Then you’re in luck, because both Zee TV (CH 809) and Zee Cinema (CH 810) are also available in HD! And there’s also the newly added channel Living Foodz HD (CH 812).

https://www.virginmedia.com/virgin-t...-channel-guide

[jfman]

Originally Posted by Chad

Not sure bringing your problems from another website and airing them here is the right thing to do, especially in the coming soon thread. Totally off topic and inappropriate. Why name the people involved in your dispute? Are you hoping things are going to kick off here where you aren't banned so you can continue your grievance with them? I don't get it mate.

No, although I accept your point - I won’t raise it again.

[jfman]

It would appear to me that my 'objectionable' post was this one:-

Originally Posted by Sirius C

One can only hope, that with another day of missing posts, the following can be accepted as fact by everyone on the forum:

There is space for more than 1 HD channel.

A mixture of HD and SD channels can be broadcast on the same frequency (and stat mux in two groups HD/SD using fixed bandwidth limits for each type in total). As carried out by Vodafone in Germany. Virgin have done the same with Sky Sports Box Office HD.

HD channels could be broadcast with fixed bitrate - as done so on the Astra 2 satellites without issue. Nobody believes this to be the most efficient way, however if 10Mb/sec is left over somewhere, and it's going to be dead space anyway...

Virgin are actively testing 7 HD channels per frequency - and nobody has (thus far) noticed a drop in quality for those (at least) 12 HD channels affected.

Virgin could change a number of frequencies to 256 QAM from 64 QAM, increasing the bandwidth for each by 30% or so. This was carried out last year for the majority of frequencies but a small number remained 64 QAM due to software on legacy boxes which are being phased out (tomorrow officially?).

BSkyB have indicated the closure of Sky Sports SD channels could occur as early as January 2020, with HD being 'free' between October and this date, with a price rise of £2 per month taking effect then. This could give a green light for Virgin to close Sky Movies and Sports SD channels, plus BT Sport SD channels later this year - as nobody subscribing to these channels will be using legacy SD hardware on the Virgin network.

There are a number of issues around carriage on the Virgin platform, especially around fledgeling broadcasters who are free to air on satellite but would prefer Virgin to pay them, market issues with Sky having significant market power and seeking a unique selling point for their own platform.

I think if everyone could agree on all of the above the conversation could move forward constructively and give value for forum users here versus elsewhere discussing the same topics. Capacity isn't the issue on the Virgin network.

Indeed there is so much capacity and there are so many options that while DVB-T2 and DVB-S2 are natural successors to DVB-T and DVB-S respectively the people most "in the know" are asking if DVB-C2 is a technology that missed the boat.

http://www.csimagazine.com/pdf/featu...-jun_09/22.pdf

It may enter the cycle at some point but at this point no cable operator in the world has it on the roadmap.

I look forward to contributing to this forum on an ongoing basis, offering insight, opinion and constructive conversation with anyone willing to engage with me in that same spirit of respect. If people are off the forum reading this and think I'm wrong then let's cut out the middle man - hit the join button. I've been on forums discussing cable, satellite and terrestrial since about 2000 and yes every once in a while you learn something useful.

The HD box office channel has to resurface at some point and it'll be interesting to see where. Will it be a seventh HD channel - which may make sense because of the minimal broadcasting hours over the average month. Will it have 'protected' space in with SD channels or red button events.

There could also be an argument for Virgin making BT/Sky channels share space for red button events - as there will only be six simulcast Champions League games going forward instead of eight (and of those six probably two on main channels). I can't remember the last time a Sky 'red button' event required more than 3 or 4 streams. That said I've not looked at the fixture list for enhanced coverage of the Football League.

I'm happy to contribute to this forum while others do not. I'd hope that everyone on a 'coming soon' thread would consider my input of some value, especially considering neither of them can offer evidence based opinions on the capacity on the Virgin network.

If we aren't considering the evidence made available by others then what is the point.

My intention of quoting my post from the other place is to ensure comments on available capacity are evidence based and not speculative. I'm happy to discuss those further should forum members require it.

For clarity the legal issue may arise around GDPR. Although that's not relevant to any discussion here.

[ozsat]

Only one actually appears to be new - Living Foodz.

The others, if correct, are just switching to HD and maybe the package too.

Originally Posted by SonicMaster

New international channels from Monday 3rd Channels:

https://www.virginmedia.com/virgin-t...-channel-guide

[RichardCoulter]

That's a good point actually ozsat. As VM switch to HD only emissions, I suspect that their policy of only supplying the majority of HD channels to those in Full House will be quietly dropped. Either that or VM will again start to advertise HD as being available at no extra cost.

They can hardly insist upon customers upgrading packages as they start to make their channels available in HD only!

[SonicMaster]

Originally Posted by ozsat

Only one actually appears to be new - Living Foodz.

The others, if correct, are just switching to HD and maybe the package too.

That's correct.

SONY TV HD replaces Sony TV on 805
SONY MAX HD replaces Sony Max on 806
Zee TV HD replaces Zee TV on 809
Zee Cinema HD replaces Zee Cinema on 810
Living Foodz HD replaces Zee Punjabi on 812

5 new HD channels.