January 26, 2018

A more efficient standard for HD channels

Virgin Media TV is in the process of switching its HD channels to the more efficient H.264(MPEG4) video standard.
According to this thread on Cable Forum a number of customers have noticed that this can be a mixed blessing. Recordings take less space, which means you will be able to get almost twice as many recordings on your TiVo or V6 box*, but FF is now a more delicate beast and you have to be quicker with the remote as it flies through a recording much faster than before.
It appears that HD channel is being carried twice - once in MPEG2 and once in MPEG4 - which VM has confirmed is standard practice when switching to a new standard until all tests are completed.

*Obviously this only applies to recordings made since the switch to the new standard

11 comments:

Chris said...

I can’t stand the FF now. I’m so used to it being the speed it was and now they’ve ruined it. It’s so fast that it’s basically impossible to use and it hurts to even look at.

How about getting 1080p at the very least, and also cleaning up the channel list so we don’t have a useless SD version of every channel. It’s crazy that they haven’t done anything about that.

Unknown said...

v6 box is 1080p. old TiVo box is 1080i. hope this helps

Chris said...

But the channels are still broadcast in 720p right?

Nialli said...

The V6 is capable of outputting in 2160p (4K), 1080p, 1080i, 720p, 576p, 576i. My Sony TV said the picture from the TiVo was 1080i and from the V6 is 1080p but I believe Chris is correct and VM still broadcasts in 720p or possibly 1080i, which is still the HD standard as far as I know for Sky etc, too.

Nialli said...

Just to clarify: Virgin's Mpeg 2 HD channels are and have always been 1080i. The Mpeg 4 HD channels are most likely the same but someone's checking for me.

Unknown said...

Some 4k channels would be nice. Becoming a joke now. What's the point of this super 4k HDR V6 box if all I can do is YouTube in 4k which is worse then my telly YouTube app as that supports HDR...

Unknown said...

Ok Netflix as well again does not support HDR on v6 app. Rubbish.

Danny Boy said...

The v6 isn’t hdr

Scott McCarthy said...

Couldn't agree more. Virgin have the network, and they have the hardware, but the 4K content is non-existent.

Anonymous said...

Isn’t H.265 the new standard?

Anonymous said...

has anyone notice lip sync issues with this new Mpeg update?