First Seasons of Lost and Brothers and Sisters in HD

Looks like Virgin Media has added more episodes of both Lost and Brothers and Sisters in High Definition to its Video On Demand listings. You still have to hunt around for Lost HD (it's not under 4OD or High Definition, but only appears in the A-Z listing for TV Choice on Demand) but they've now added the missing episode and you get 1 -13 inclusive, all free.
Brothers and Sisters season one is where you'd expect it: under High Definition, Pay TV. They've added the missing episode and it now runs through to the end of the season, episodes 13 - 23. 99p each. The earlier episodes are similarly priced in Standard Definition.

BBC HD highlights for the rest of the Autumn

The BBC's trial service is due to run another month until the findings of the Public Value Test evaluation by the BBC Trust is announced at the end of November. Here is the final list of highlights for the trial service:

Not Going Out
The Royal Television Society and Golden Rose award-winning sitcom returns to for an extended second series this autumn. (already broadcast on BBC ONE)

Live at the Apollo
The BAFTA nominated series Live at the Apollo returns with guest hosts Jack Dee, Joan Rivers, Jo Brand, Jimmy Carr, Lee Mack and Dara O Briain. (From BBC ONE)

The Green Green Grass
The third series of the comic spin-off from Only Fools and Horses (Simulcast with BBC ONE)

The Life and Times of Vivienne Vyle
Jennifer Saunders stars in this new comedy drama. (From BBC TWO)

Fairy Tales
Four comedy dramas made in Northern Ireland make up this anthology of modernised fairy tales. (Simulcast with BBC TWO)

The Tudors (Simulcast with BBC TWO)

Robin Hood (Simulcast with BBC ONE)

Strictly Come Dancing (Simulcast with BBC ONE)

The Antiques Roadshow (Simulcast with BBC ONE)

Heroes (Simulcast with BBC ONE and BBC THREE)

England v Croatia (Simulcast with BBC ONE on November 21st)

For those wondering what happens once the trial is over it was reported in September that the BBC Trust has given a provisional go ahead to launch a full HD channel "as soon as possible". OFCOM also gave the new BBC HD channel the green light. As reported in Digital Spy;

The Trust said the channel should have a mix of genres, which will be specified in the service licence. It said that the service must not become a "head-on competitor for sports and movie HD channels".

Other conditions include not replicating the BBC One schedule through simulcasting, but that the service should show programmes from across the BBC's portfolio of channels, in order to "make the best use of the upgrade in quality that HD offers".

Galapagos

Not much change in the BBC HD schedule in the coming week - more Heroes (hurrah!), Tudors (yawn) and the gloriously defined wrinkles of The Antiques Roadshow and Last of the Summer Wine, but there's a little treasure parked at 9pm on Thursday Nov 1 - Galapagos. This has some of the most breathtaking HD photography I've ever seen and is highly recommended if you want to put something on your V+ hard disc to impress the neighbours with. Glorious.

HD On Demand changes this week

Just sitting at the box and have noticed some additions and changes in the VM Video On demand offering for ex-NTL areas:

FreeTV HD
Rick Stein and the Japanese Ambassador
Superstorm 1
Superstom 2
the Innocence Project 1 - 7 (not ep 4 for some bizarre reason)

Filmflex HD (all £4 unless mentioned)
Amazing Grace
Apocalypto (£4.50)
Arthur & the Invisibles
Bobby
Goal II
Hannibal Rising (1p...yes, 1p! And still you'll feel robbed!!)
The Illusionist
A Knight's Tale (£3)
The Messengers
Outlaw
The Painted Veil
Until Death
Venus
Wild Hogs

More from Berkett on his likely Virgin Media strategy

Interesting piece in the FT today on Berkett stepping up his campaign to be made permanent CEO at Virgin. Berkett appears to be suggesting that if he gets the job he may be more concilliatory towards Sky; "fighting the gorilla in its home zone was silly". There's not many customers who would disagree with that, though the stand against Sky's allegedly extortionate price hike for its basic channels was in my view justified at the time, the subsequent tit-for-tat playground fighting lost the plot completely.
But from an HD/premium TV service perspective, we're assured that (according to Digital Spy) Virgin will continue to offer premium television services; the shift will be made in terms of marketing rather than product offering. Whilst that may be true, one must have concerns that the money will fund the growth opportunity (broadband provision) rather than improve the less exciting TV service. I don't pretend to understand the funding of VM, but if money is as tight as analysts suggest, the shift of emphasis away from digital TV is not good news for those of us hoping for an evolution of the V+ and HD services rather than stagnation.

Virgin to become Freeview+?

I shared the cynicism of some when a story appeared in The Times this weekend suggesting Virgin Media was focusing on broadband rather than premium TV services going forward, but it's repeated, with quotes, in The Guardian today:

[Neil Berkett, acting Virgin Media CEO] wants to move the focus away from TV and onto more mass-market households who do not need Sky's sports and movie channels but do want more than basic Freeview digital TV. Virgin Media reckons these households can be tempted with services such as video on demand that require fast broadband.
"Despite our technical advantage we are still not really standing out from the crowd," admitted Mr Berkett. "I really do want to re-focus our energies onto the broadband platform."
"Think of Freeview as a nursery and you have millions of kindergarten kids who once they have got the taste for multi-channel TV may upgrade an element of the service."

I, for one, find this v. depressing. So those of us who at the top end of the market (VIP package, V+ dependent) are now going to have to settle for a Freeview+ service? That line about the Sky Movies and Sports channels is particularly concerning, especially at a time when there's a popular misconception with the general public that you can't get any Sky channels on cable. Clumsy or just plain foolish? Or ominous...is he saying that VM customers may not have the Sky Premium channels going forward?
I have cable out of choice - I do not want a dish on the outside of my house but Virgin Media appear to be going out of their way to push me to Sky with their lack of investment in HD services. If the FreeSat service next year offers more HD than cable I may even go there. Even though I work in IT I do not want or need 50mb broadband at home - the 20mb I currently have is more than sufficient and what use is it if the downloaders of pirated TV, movies and games are capped with download limits? That's the same folly as having a car capable of racing at 250mph with a speed limit on 50 on the roads!
I could be wrong...it could be that Virgin are planning to shift all their services over to IPTV and everything will be delivered over IP. But I don't think so. I think Burkett is desperate for a strategy that differentiates the VM offering and pulls in some more customers. Freeview+ certainly ain't it and besides, BT Vision is already offering that with limited success.
Somebody buy this company quick!

Technical specfication for the V+

Here's a link to the technical spec for the V+. (Actually, it's for the original silver Telewest TVDrive that many of us have been given as a V+ by Virgin Media like the one pictured.) Anyone interested in what may be coming soon (no guarantees) should have a look at the manufacturer's site at http://www.saeurope.com/index.html, where there's some extremely impressive kit that could hit our shores. Or not...
The good news for those who didn't know is that, whereas Sky customers are likely to have Amstrad boxes in future, Virgin Media's supplier, Scientific Atlanta, are part of Cisco and are regarded by most as the most innovative and reliable set top box manufacturer around.

Recent BBC HD problem "sorted"?

I've been following this thread at Digital Spy with some interest, as I've had a similar problem when (effectively) recording two HD channels* simultaneously myself (as reported in previous postings). Is it sorted? Time will tell - but I think it's a problem with the box being unable to handle two HD feeds rather than a network issue.

*Yes, I know we only have the one HD channel, but if you record one and watch at the same time, you've got two tuners accessing the HD channel. If you want to record an HD programme and watch it, my advice is to actually watch it from your Recorded Programmes listing rather than as live TV. You'll only then have the one tuner accessing HD, and will still be able to pause or rewind without stretching the box to its limits. Well, that's my theory anyway!

+1 Channels

One of the reasons Virgin Media have given for not carrying more High Definition channels is a lack of bandwidth whilst they're still supporting the old analogue TV service over their wires. (Understandable, though I really do wish they'd bite the bullet and make the digital switch for the entire network and swallow any churn as a strategic necessity.) And the situation's not helped by the fact that Virgin are using the legacy Telewest HD technology rather than the less bandwidth hungry new .h264 standard; an HD channel on Virgin takes roughly four times as much room as a Standard Definition one and twice as much as HD on Sky.
But hang on, there IS sufficient bandwidth there; believe it or not, at my last count there are some TWENTY FOUR of these dang-fangled +1 channels now littering the Virgin wires. What's more, nine of them are Virgin's own offerings, including the newly launched V1+1 (surely that should be called "V2"?) and Dave+1 (sounds like a party invite).
Now Channel 4 HD is coming in December, but is not confirmed for Virgin yet, and ITV HD will be launched in time for the Euro 2008 finals next summer. And let's not forget BBC HD, now almost certain to be promoted from its "trial" status to a fully fledged channel despite the cuts at the corporation to be announced today. Surely surely surely some of these timeshift channels could be handed over to an expanded HD service? With HD Ready TV sales again likely to leap in sales again in the run up to Christmas, Virgin should be considering what will drive new customers to cable. It ain't gonna be the timeshift +1 nonsense, especially in these days when Virgin are promoting the V+ as the new standard. But three or four linear HD channels, complimented by a fuller HD VOD offering, and people will notice. Anyone disagree?
Come on Virgin, you gotta admit it makes sense!

V+, HD and Delay TV

A word of warning for anyone using the Delay TV function (ie pause and rewind) when viewing the HD channel. I guess cos the amount of data for the HD transmissions are around four times as much as a regular standard definition one, the buffer used for Delay TV seems to fill up after around twenty minutes. I was using it for the Michael Palin broadcast last night and it came out of pause after about 20 minutes and I couldn't re-pause it. When I then started watching again, the box did a complete reboot after half an hour's viewing. I was recording an SD channel at the same time, but I would have thought the box could cope. It couldn't.
I've seen posts on the Sky HD forums that suggest a similar issue on Sky boxes, especially if recording two HD channels simultaneously (we should be so lucky!) - I think it would be fair to say that the current generation of HD PVRs are very much 'first generation' and there's a limit to their capabilities at the moment.