Is Virgin gonna get more HD channels!!!

[dark side moon]

Does anyone know if Virgin are gonna get anymore HD channels? What and when??

Just BBC HD is not the best when the keep showing the same old thing over and over again.

 

[markymark34]

theres loads of threads on this in here. Short term answer appears to be no.

I see sky have channel 4 HD now and we dont.

Mark

 

[dark side moon]

thats pants tbh i just looked on Sky site and the are way more £££ than Virgin. What to do

 

[beaker656]

thats pants tbh i just looked on Sky site and the are way more £££ than Virgin. What to do

Wait until VM upgrade to QAM 256 and then they'll carry more HD channels

Unless you listen to VM management when they tell their staff that TV and phone services are NOT corps interests / services!! Hmm that only leaves them with internet. Does that mean they too will go down the route of TV over IP

 

[nialli]

Whilst you're waiting for "real" channels, check out the On Demand HD content - there's over 100 hours of that, the vast majority free to XL package customers.

I personally question the value of HD Sky One and Channel 4 at the moment - the former is primarily The Simpsons in the evenings, whilst C4 has pretty much zero HD content apart from movies.

 

[Spacecat]

I really dont see the big deal with HD channels
if you have a decent tv and a HDMI box u can upscale most channels to near HD quality.

After a while the whole HD effect wears off and you concentrate more on whether what your watching is any good rather than if you can make out the Nose Hairs and Acne of all the actors.

Its just another thing to get totally geeky about to be honest

 

[teejay38]

Thanks for the laugh, Spacecat. You're absolutely right. I'm more worried about the stability and capacity of Virgin's infrastructure than any rush to put on HD channels peopled by upscaled SD programmes. However, it has made me wonder why I rushed to buy a Bravia HD TV when they first came out when I don't have much opportunity to use its superior definition. There's a geek in all of us logging onto an AV forum!

T

 

[markymark34]

thats pants tbh i just looked on Sky site and the are way more £££ than Virgin. What to do

yeah that was my problem too. Money won out in the end so i went with VM. You will find the SD pic quality with th V+ box to be very good anyway.

 

[dan1979]

I really dont see the big deal with HD channels....

It really depends what you're watching and what sort of screen you have.

I got the TVDrive so I could watch the world cup in HD, on my 60" projector (RIP) it was a great jump in quality and made a massive difference to my viewing, on that size of screen upscaled SD is nowhere near HD quality.

Regardless of whether it's worth it you've paid good money for something they advertise as the way to make use of your HDTV, you're paying for the technology so you want the best out of it.

For sticking on a comedy or a cooking show I don't care about the quality but for films and big sporting events it makes a difference for me.

That said I don't care about it enough to pay the ridiculous sky prices!

 

[shocket]

Its still annoying that we dont even get channel 4 hd, whats the deal with that?

 

[markymark34]

Its still annoying that we dont even get channel 4 hd, whats the deal with that?

not enough bandwidth to fit it in.
Ps this is what was posted on here im not an expert!

Mark

 

[mike7]

Virgin will have to seriously address this problem later this year when FreeSat comes on stream. The prospect of HD BBC, Channel4 and ITV as well as other channels at no cost other than the installation of a box and dish is going to lure a lot of people away from Virgin. I would speculate the impact will be greater than the departures after the Sky services were withdrawn. I would like a V+ box to go with my HD ready tv, but will not make the change until more HD services come on line. If Virgin do have bandwidth issues then they need to find ways around this. There are loads of channels which, I suspect, have very low viewing figures and yield little in the way of income either for Virgin or the advertisers. I would be reluctant to part company with Virgin, but I may have no choice unless things improve in the HD camp. The programmes are out there.

 

[t11rmh]

Virgin will have to seriously address this problem later this year when FreeSat comes on stream. The prospect of HD BBC, Channel4 and ITV as well as other channels at no cost other than the installation of a box and dish is going to lure a lot of people away from Virgin. I would speculate the impact will be greater than the departures after the Sky services were withdrawn. I would like a V+ box to go with my HD ready tv, but will not make the change until more HD services come on line. If Virgin do have bandwidth issues then they need to find ways around this. There are loads of channels which, I suspect, have very low viewing figures and yield little in the way of income either for Virgin or the advertisers. I would be reluctant to part company with Virgin, but I may have no choice unless things improve in the HD camp. The programmes are out there.

Well, I bought my HD TV to watch HD DVD content on. Over the air programs come secondary to that. Heroes in HD was a vast improvement on the way that the Sc-Fi channel showed it mainly because they showed it in 16:9 - not because it was in HD..

 

[Spacecat]

It really depends what you're watching and what sort of screen you have.

I got the TVDrive so I could watch the world cup in HD, on my 60" projector (RIP) it was a great jump in quality and made a massive difference to my viewing, on that size of screen upscaled SD is nowhere near HD quality.

Im watching on a 42 inch panny plasma and the picture is nothing short of superb on SD and HD , but like i said before the whole HD thing quickly wears off once you start watching its amazing how you take it for granted quite quickly.




If the show is crap its just crap with a better picture , you cant polish a poo.

a bit like watching England lose in HD

 

[nialli]

You may be interested in this...on my Virgin Media blog I've just run a poll on what channel people would like to see next in HD on the cable platform. 300 votes in all, which is quite a good sample...and Channel 4 just scraped into the top five, probably because there's so little actual HD on it to date. More here for those interested.

 

[muzza1uk]

Maybe I got a good guy or maybe their attitude has changed but the guy i spoke to in sales yesterday when upgrading to V+ made sure he warned me that current HD content was limited before I went ahead. That said being passed back to Retention afterwards just to confirm the Upgrade package was being done at the price they quote still involved way too much hassle and mis-information !! Luckily we tape our phones at work so I got a copy of the conversation incase the bill comes out wrong.

Muzza1

 

[nialli]

Rumours over a normally reliable source over at Cable Forum that Virgin Media are planning to add six HD channels this year. Posting here

 

[markymark34]

If the source is reliable then fantastic news! Having said that i wont be holding my breath

Mark

 

[dan1979]

I'd bet money on it not being accurate, it was only two weeks ago someone from customer loyalty (after I'd emailed the CEO) told me they couldn't make any promises with regard to HD content now or in the future.

 

[panasonicman666]

I spoke to Virgn last night, the guy told me Channel 4 HD channel will be available via the on demand service very shortly where as SKY have to pay for it!! He couldnt say a date but did say it would be very shortly!!

 

[av addict]

Rumours over a normally reliable source over at Cable Forum that Virgin Media are planning to add six HD channels this year. Posting here

oh if virgin could get these channels it would be excellent news--keep fingers crossed lads

 

[TeamGers]

Apart from channel 4 & ITV, who else watches the other three regularly its the popular channels we want to be HD, like Sky sports for example

 

[meltonboy]

Form my own experience, i would ignore the comments about extra HD channels. It's reasonable to assume that VM are "in discussions" with HD channels, just as they were "in discussions" with sky over sky one just before they lost it.

From before, they post press releases as soon as anything is concrete and normally before the call centre staf even know about it.

I hope it's true though, don't get me wrong.

I intend to move house this year and will have the sky vs cable decision which i dont have at the mo as we can't have a dish.

At the moment we have the fact that the misses likes some of the us crime drama we had on sky one (although five is good for that these days), i'd like more HD, especially sky sports HD.

The issue of 2 tuners rather than 3 is a major plus for cable, though, as we know often have overlapping programmes.

MB

 

[SemlinaPilchard]

I heard the same thing the other day. My V+ box was installed last Saturday and the installer said several new HD channels were coming, he thought as early as March.

That's no more authoritative than any of the other sources, but the more indications we get pointing in the same direction then the more likely it might be true.

Kind of makes sense too because if Freesat launches in the spring with HD channels there's going to be some fierce competition.

Here's hoping!

 

[SemlinaPilchard]

By the way, very pleased with my V+ box. Excellent quality SD picture.

But almost immediately had cause to remember why I tried for Sky first. Watched my team (West Ham) on Sunday (in SD but great picture) then straight after the match they went to Spanish football. "For analysis and interviews of the WH game, press the red button now".

Wha . . ?