Band of Bother

The sheer incompetence of Virgin Media's management of its On Demand content has reached a new level with its posting of the High Definition episodes of Band of Brothers in many regions over the last few months.
This brilliant landmark series is often repeated, but that does not excuse the way it's been handled by Virgin.
In HD, I have episodes 1 -10 ... except 6. I've never had 6. I had two episodes of 5 at one point, but still no 6. In the end, with the clock ticking ("9 days left" it cheerily pointed out yesterday) I'm going to have to watch 6 in SD and gorge myself on the last four episodes in a flurry of Bank Holiday weekend viewing - I've only had the last three episodes a few days and already they're going.
Video On Demand is a fabulous, fabulous opportunity for Virgin to offer a genuine alternative to Sky and Freeview/sat, but it has to sort out its content loading processes for the service to be trusted by its viewers. No-one likes getting into a TV series and then finding it unceremoniously dropped prematurely by the provider. It's happened before (Lost, Ghost Whisperer, Night Stalker...pretty much everything in HD come to think of it) and it will no doubt happen again.
It's incompetent, pathetic, and cheating the paying customer.

New HD documentaries and other stuff

As you may have noticed, there are several new documentaries now available in HD via TV choice on demand - all free to TV XL customers. Listing in the usual panel to my right.
Also available - though you have to dig a bit deeper in the darker areas (Late Night 24/7!) - is Bikini Destinations in HD. I should point out that I didn't stumble over this myself but someone mailed me about it ... honest!
Darren Clift kindly mailed me a response he's had from VM on the provision of HD channels. Same sad old story I'm afraid - here it is in full:

In regards to ITV and C4 HD channels Virgin Media is not planning to launch these channels in the immediate future but will continue to deliver HD programming via our market leading Video-on-Demand (VOD) service.
One of the reasons we're focusing on using VOD is that the few existing HD broadcast channels operating, currently only show a rather limited selection of their programmes in True HD format. We will however continue to monitor developments on both ITV HD and Channel 4 HD channel and their popularity with viewers.
As you know, we've already made a wide range of HD programmes available in HD via our VOD service, including Planet Earth, Lost, Desperate Housewives and Ugly Betty, and currently Lost series 3, Band of Brothers, and The Sopranos are all available in HD on our on demand service.
We have an agreement with Channel 4 to continue showing more of their HD programming via the 4 On Demand area of the Virgin VOD service, and we will also continue broadcasting the BBC's HD channel, which will be improving its programming line up in 2008. In addition we will be working with the BBC to provide HD programmes within the recently launched iPlayer service later in the year.

Finally, on a more positive note: Radio Times is publishing full BBC HD listings in its latest issue. Hurrah - the Beeb is taking it seriously at last! Of course TV & Satellite Week has been publishing them for months, but hopefully with this and Freesat promoting BBC HD things will improve now schedule-wise with our sole HD channel.

HBO HD arrives in TV Choice On Demand

Albeit slowly. The following has appeared in some regions this morning:
Band of Brothers episodes 1-4
Bill Maher: The Decider
The Sopranos (S5) episodes 1-4
Check the new HBO HD folder or the High Definition folder in TV Choice on Demand

Virgin Media's Q4 2007 results

Virgin Media’s results for the final quarter of 2007 make interesting reading. Tucked away in the fairly lengthy press release are numbers that show good growth on the TV front (the best quarter’s growth since 2004 in fact) and also strong performances on all other fronts. Here’s the TV piece in full:

Total TV net additions were 61,100 in the quarter, up from 20,400 in the previous quarter. This represented the best quarter for at least seven years, based on pro forma combined operating statistics for periods prior to the cable merger. We believe this result was aided by the attractiveness of our VOD platform. 1.5 million of our TV customers are now using our VOD service on a monthly basis, representing a reach of 47%. Average views per user per month in the fourth quarter were 23 compared to 10 at the start of 2007. Average monthly views were 33 million in the quarter, up 45% on the previous quarter.

TV net additions were also positively affected by a record quarter for driving DVR penetration, partly due to a promotional reduction in DVR pricing. During the quarter, we added 72,200 V+ DVR subscribers to reach an installed base of 262,400. This represents a penetration level of just 8% of our digital subscribers and so the growth opportunity remains strong. In addition, based on our experience, DVR subscribers and VOD users are less likely to churn.

(For those not savvy with the acronyms, VOD is Video on Demand and DVR is Digital Video Recorder.)

So there are now over a quarter of a million VM customers equipped with HD capable boxes. Although the release talks of the “growth opportunity remains strong”, there’s no indication how they attend to secure that growth – marketing the V+ seems to be taking a backseat to the broadband push and certainly there’s no enhancements to the HD services to shout about. In fact, the only place I’m seeing the V+ promoted is on the side of the vans whizzing around South East London (Blackwall Tunnel permitting).

For me and mine, the V+ is the best piece of technology in the house. Easy to use, reliable, and an absolutely cracking TV picture. It’s a shame that VM don’t realise that with this and the VOD service they really do have something to shout about that’ll grow their revenues. But no, they’re still pushing a broadband service that has notable speed deficiencies in the peak evening hours and declining to add HD channels despite an obvious deficiency with even the basics (such as 4HD). Ho hum.

Postscript: The presentation made to investors today can be found here

Night Stalker HD now complete

Took a day or two, but the ABC series Night Stalker is now complete with all ten episodes available in TV Choice on Demand. As mentioned in an earlier post though, it's 'complete' as in every episode is now available on VM, but not 'complete' as in the story...it was cancelled prematurely and unlike Day Break was never wrapped up properly.
Incidentally, I've noticed all the US drama programming appearing in HD, with the exception of Criminal Minds, is originally from the ABC network - does anyone know if Virgin has a deal with ABC (owned by Disney I believe)? If so, we could soon have Desperate Housewives, Men In Trees, Grey's Anatomy, Ugly Betty, Brothers & Sisters, Pushing Daisies and the intriguing Eli Stone joining the HD On Demand line up

Night Stalker in TV Choice on Demand HD

Night Stalker is slowly materialising in the High Definition section of TV Choice on Demand. There are now five episodes listed in my ex-NTL region (1-5). [Edit: as of Saturday, we're now up to episode 7]
It's another of those attempts to fill the post XFiles sci-fi mystery void, but it met with general apathy in the US and was whipped off the air after six episodes in 2005. There were actually ten filmed in total (the unbroadcast ones appearing online as downloads) though whether Virgin Media will make all ten available I don't know. Here's a summary from tv.com:

Crime reporter Carl Kolchak is partnered with Perri Reed at The Beacon , a Los Angeles newspaper. Together they investigate a string of strange murders...all of which may be related to the death of Kolchak's wife 18 months earlier in a similarly bizarre manner.

Be warned: the tenth episode ends with an unresolved cliffhanger.
(Incidentally, Lord of the Rings fans may find leading man Stuart Townsend interesting to watch; he was Peter Jackson's original choice for Aragorn, but was sacked after a few days of filming as it was felt he was too young for the role.)

HD On Demand update

Here's an update (Saturday, Feb 18 2008) on the HD On Demand programming available currently to ex-NTL customers. Virgin have finally completed some seasons (notably Day Break and Lost, which are now all complete) and the inconsistencies are a lot less irritating now.

BBC (Home - 6 - 2 - 1)
Ant Attack
The Blue Planet: Introduction
The Blue Planet: Frozen Seas
The Blue Planet: Coasts
The Blue Planet: Coral Seas
The Blue Planet: Frozen Seas
The Blue Planet: Open Oceans
The Blue Planet: Seasonal Seas
The Blue Planet: The Deep
The Blue Planet: Tidal Seas
Desert Lions
Diana - Last Days of a Princess
Great Natural Wonders of the World
Hannibal
Hotel Babylon Season Two episodes 2 - 8
The Innocence Project 1-8 except episode 4
Planet Earth: episodes 1-5
The Quatermass Experiment
Rick Stein and the Japanese Ambassador
Superstorm 1-3
Supervolcano 1-2
All saying "79 days left"

Filmflex HD (all £4 unless mentioned)
Alpha Dog
Black Christmas
The Breed
Face/Off
Gone in Sixty Seconds
The Messengers
Moliere (£3.50)
The Painted Veil
The Queen (£3.50)
The Village

TV Choice On Demand (Home - 5 - 9 - 1)
Criminal Minds Season One 1 - 22
Day Break 1-13
Dog Fight 2 episodes
Engineering An Empire 3 episodes
Ghost Whisperer Season One 1 - 22
Mega Movers 2 episodes
Lost Season One 1-25
Lost Season Two 1 - 23
Lost Season Three 1 - 23
Night Stalker Season One 3, 4, 5

Finally - Day Break 13 arrives!

Those who've been waiting for the final episode of Day Break in HD - it's arrived!
TV Choice On Demand now has all 13 episodes listed under High Definition. Hurrah!

High Definition On Demand programming

Here's an update (Saturday, Jan 26 2008) on the HD programming available currently to ex-NTL customers.

BBC (Home - 6 - 2 - 1)
Ant Attack
The Blue Planet: Introduction
The Blue Planet: Frozen Seas
The Blue Planet: Coasts
The Blue Planet: Coral Seas
The Blue Planet: Frozen Seas
The Blue Planet: Open Oceans
The Blue Planet: Seasonal Seas
The Blue Planet: The Deep
The Blue Planet: Tidal Seas
Desert Lions
Diana - Last Days of a Princess
Great Natural Wonders of the World
Hannibal
Hotel Babylon Season Two episodes 2 - 8
The Innocence Project 1-8 except episode 4
Planet Earth: episodes 1-5
The Quatermass Experiment
Rick Stein and the Japanese Ambassador
Superstorm 1-3
Supervolcano 1-2
All saying "79 days left"

Filmflex HD (all £4 unless mentioned)
Alpha Dog
Black Christmas
The Breed
Face/Off
Gone in Sixty Seconds
The Messengers
Moliere
The Painted Veil
The Queen (£3.50)
The Village

TV Choice On Demand (Home - 5 - 9 - 1)
Criminal Minds Season One 1 - 22
Day Break 1-12 (missing the season finale, 13!)
Dog Fight 2 episodes
Engineering an Empire 3 episodes
Ghost Whisperer Season One 1 - 22 except 21
Mega Movers 3 episodes
Lost Season Two 1 - 24

Lost Season One - Lost!

Lost Season One has been removed from the HD On Demand listings in my area. However, Lost Season Two is now showing as complete in HD, with all episodes IN THE RIGHT ORDER! Strewth.
Ghost Whisperer in HD season one has the whole season...except 21.

BBC iPlayer coming to Virgin Media "in the spring"

According to a news story on Digital Spy, the BBC is saying that the port of its iPlayer to cable TV is a top priority and likely in the spring. Although the iPlayer has had a long, protracted birth, anyone who's used the streaming version launched just before Christmas will know that this is a simple but impressive interface for video on demand content, and will be a big improvement over the current EPG for BBC VoD programming.
Taking the speed of the software demoed here with a pinch of salt (presumably running on a dedicated PC rather than a set top box), this demo video may whet your appetites further (apologies for the distinctly non-HD picture quality!)

Updated: HD in Video on Demand

Here's an update (Saturday, Dec 8) on the HD programming available currently to ex-NTL customers. I've put the new stuff in bold, but there's not a great deal of change to report. Lost Season Two is the main one, but it's not quite all there yet (in typical Virgin style). For those who aren't sure where to look, please see my earlier post.

Free TV
Ant Attack
Desert Lions
Diana - Last Days of a Princess
Hotel Babylon episodes 2 - 8
Planet Earth: episodes 1-5
The Blue Planet: Frozen Seas
The Blue Planet: Coasts
The Blue Planet: Coral Seas
The Blue Planet: Frozen Seas
The Blue Planet: Open Oceans
The Blue Planet: Seasonal Seas
The Blue Planet: The Deep
The Blue Planet: Tidal Seas
The Innocence Project 1-8
Rick Stein and the Japanese Ambassador
Superstorm 1-3

Filmflex HD (all £4 unless mentioned)
Alpha Dog
Amazing Grace
Apocalypto (£4.50)
Arthur & the Invisibles
The Breed
Gone in Sixty Seconds
The Illusionist
The Messengers
Outlaw
The Painted Veil
Until Death
Wild Hogs


"Hidden" HD Programmes
Check under the TV Choice On Demand High Definition
Criminal Minds Season One 1 - 22 (exc. 7, 17)
Day Break 1-12
Grey's Anatomy Season One 1,2,5,6,9,10
Lost Season One 1-25

Check under the TV Choice On Demand A-Z
Dog Fight 2 episodes
Engineering an Empire 3 episodes
Lost Season Two 1 - 24, missing 12 and 21 and 3 is listed at the end! The full season is listed in SD, btw
Mega Movers 3 episodes

Some tinkering with the On Demand stuff

The double listing of episodes of Lost etc in the HD TV Choice on Demand category has been removed, and three more episodes from Grey's Anatomy have been added from season one. But they're random episodes rather than in sequence from the first two, so I wouldn't recommend anyone start watching just yet until Virgin get their act in gear.

Finding the HD On Demand programming

I've been asked to clarify where you can find the Virgin Media HD on demand programming as Virgin seem to be doing their darnest to hide it, so here's where you go (at least in the ex-NTL areas):

Press the Home button to access the On Demand Home menu.

Under 3. Movies On Demand there's no specific HD category, but the HD versions of around a dozen of the Filmflex films are listed in 7. All Movies A-Z next to the SD versions. They are normally £4 a pop, 5op more than the SD ones.

I can't be fussed to go through all the Music On Demand listings, but there may be some HD content in there; I've never noticed it though.

in 5. TV Choice On Demand select 9. More>. Under 1. High Definition you'll find Lost Seasons 1 and most of 2, some episodes of Grey's Anatomy and the first seasons of Criminal Minds and Day Break. For some reason, most are currently listed twice but they'll sort this out. The same programmes are listed in 2. A-Z alongside their SD equivalents (where they exist) plus there's some documentary programming like Mega Movers and Dog Fights (full details here).

Finally, there's the second listing of HD under 6. More On Demand in the Home menu, option 2. High Definition. This is where you'll find five pages of the BBC HD stuff (which gets changed pretty regularly, albeit subtly), the FilmFlex HD stuff all together, the lone Music On Demand offering and some 4OD Pay TV in the form of Brothers & Sisters.

Hope that helps. Virgin say they're adding more each week (and so far they are good to their word, though we all want MORE!). Still no word on the Channel 4 HD simulcast which is now imminent on Sky HD, nor any Channel 4 HD on demand.

More content being moved under the HD category

Virgin have now moved the first seasons of Lost, Grey's Anatomy, Day Break and Criminal Minds under the correct High Definition category in TV Choice On Demand (in my area at least). No new episodes, and for some reason each episode is listed twice, but the intent is there even if the execution is somewhat flawed this time around!

How should Virgin Media deliver High Definition programming?

This month’s blog poll asked “How should Virgin Media deliver High Definition programming?” We had a majority (52%) vote for “full” channels like BBC HD or C4 HD. Sadly, that’s not where it appears Virgin are going strategically at the moment, preferring to offer HD selectively via (the undervalued) Video On Demand. So, how many voted for Virgin’s preferred option? A measly 2%! Bloody hell, Berkett - listen to your customer base!
Interestingly, 44% felt that a combination of the two would be most appropriate. That’s not insignificant and is demonstrates that if VM can strike a suitable balance they’ll appease almost half of their customers’ HD needs.
My personal view is that VoD is a great way of delivering HD content, but a number of additional regular HD channels will be essential to remain competitive with the new FreeSat service when it launches in 2008. We have to be realistic that VM under its current management (and with some technical restrictions due to the adoption of Mpeg 2) will never offer as many HD channels as Sky HD. But then, what is Sky offering in HD that appeals to the masses? HD football has limited appeal, the movie channels have weak programming and Sky One HD is running out of new content thanks to the Writers’ strike in Hollywood. Which’ll mean even more Simpsons. In HD. Be still my beating heart…
Much as I like the idea of Nat Geo, History, Sky Arts and Discovery in HD, I never actually watch them in SD, preferring the BBC’s factual offerings. FX in HD? MTV in HD? Hardly compulsive stuff. Compared to VM’s 100+ hours of HD on demand, Sky’s offering isn’t that strong. And the Sky HD box struggles to record two concurrently btw – check the various forum threads on it on Digital Spy. Like the V+, erratic recording and limited disc capacity will be an issue with more linear channels - another plus point for VoD HD.
If VM secure at least C4 HD, ITV HD and maybe a future Five HD offering, that plus whatever the BBC serves us will just about do me if they keep adding to the On Demand library too. Maybe I’m easily satisfied, but that would mean the majority of my regular viewing would then be in HD. A guy can dream, can’t he?
(Incidentally, the poll respondents were 290 in total, two of which voted for the “HD is a dead duck” option. This blog, in its first full month, has attracted over 3,500 page views and has had over 1,700 unique visitors. Steadily growing over the month, we’re averaging now 200 hits a day. Wake up Virgin…your public's hunger for HD is growing!)

Virgin uncovering its hidden content?

May be old news to some areas, but SE London's TV on Demand menus seem to be being fiddled with. If you go to TV Choice on Demand, there's a new category 9, "More>", which then takes you to two options: "1. High Definition" and "2. A-Z". The only thing in the former is currently Lost season one (all 25 episodes). All the other stuff that's been hidden in the A-Z is still in the A-Z, but hopefully VM are in the process of moving it all under the single category now. And then there's the other HD listings; Free TV (BBC), Filmflex, Music (Gorillaz at the Apollo) and Pay TV (a few episodes of Brothers & Sisters).

Why some HD content is "hidden"

Just picked this up from the newsgroup virginmedia.support.tv:

We have now received an update from our Support Team and they wished to thank you for your feedback. Please read through the reply below:

All HD cannot be put into the same folder as some are transactional (Pay Per View), some content is free only to XL customers. Our current architecture cannot support mixed propositions in the same folder.

We are aware however that the current way we are managing HD in the user interface is not as intuitive as it should be and we are actively looking at how better to organise this. However we will always want to put HD programming next to its SD counterpart where possible, as this benefit customers looking for a film title( for example) and seeing there is also a HD version available.

HD on Demand surpasses 100 hours!

At some point in November Virgin Media quietly added more HD content to their On Demand service and tipped over the 100 hours mark. No fanfare, and almost half of it is completely unpromoted, appearing just in the A-Z listing rather than under the 'High Definition' classification. Here's the latest listing of all the HD content I've been able to find.
(n.b. this is a listing for ex-NTL customers: experience suggests ex-Telewest will have pretty much the same but maybe additional stuff)

Free TV
Ant Attack
Desert Lions
Diana - Last Days of a Princess
Hotel Babylon episodes 2 - 8
Planet Earth: episodes 1-5
The Blue Planet: Frozen Seas
The Blue Planet: Coasts
The Blue Planet: Coral Seas
The Blue Planet: Frozen Seas
The Blue Planet: Open Oceans
The Blue Planet: Seasonal Seas
The Blue Planet: The Deep
The Blue Planet: Tidal Seas
The Innocence Project 1-8
Rick Stein and the Japanese Ambassador
Superstorm 1-3


Filmflex HD (all £4 unless mentioned)
Alpha Dog
Amazing Grace
Apocalypto (£4.50)
Arthur & the Invisibles
The Breed
Hannibal Rising
The Illusionist
The Messengers
Outlaw
The Painted Veil
Until Death
Venus
Wild Hogs

Pay TV (99p each)
Brothers & Sisters Season One 21 - 23

"Hidden" HD Programmes
Check under the TV Choice On Demand A-Z listings
Criminal Minds Season One 1 - 22 (exc. 7, 17)
Day Break 1-12
Dog Fight 2 episodes
Engineering an Empire 3 episodes
Grey's Anatomy Season One 1 -2
Lost Season One 1-25
Lost Season Two 1,2,4,5
Mega Movers 3 episodes

Virgin quietly adding more HD on demand content

Whisper it quietly, but the HD fairy has been adding more content to the TV Choice On Demand service.
And, as before, they've not added it where you would expect to find it (under "High Definitiion") but only under the "A-Z" listings. Bizarre. Or just incompetent?
Anyhow, let's be grateful that this additional stuff is free to XL customers.
Criminal Minds Season One HD now has episodes 1-4 and 8-15 (don't know what's happened to 5,6 and 7)
There's something called Day Break, episodes 1 & 2
And Season One of Lost is now almost all there: 1-22 are now in HD and free (there were 25 episodes in the first season in case you were wondering).
There may be more - please let me know if you find other stuff hidden away.