New V+ box still in testing

Word from a Virgin Media insider suggests that the new Samsung V+ box reported earlier this year is still in testing at the company and doesn't look like to be available to customers just yet. As always with VM, the holding of breath is not advised...
(Personally, I find the existing Scientific Atlanta box as stable as any other PVR these days, so I'll happily wait until the inevitable bugs are sorted out before asking for a newer one.)

Christina: A Medieval Life

New on BBC HD at 8pm Thursday 28th: Christina, A Medieval Life.
"Historian Michael Wood presents a portrait of ordinary people living through extraordinary times, tracing the story of Christina Cok, a peasant of 14th century Hertfordshire." That's all I know I'm afraid - may be worth an hour of your time, or it may just remind you of the opening of Monty Python and the Holy Grail :o)

Two more series coming to BBC HD

News on two more interesting series appearing on BBC HD this autumn.
First off, the Jonathon Ross show makes its debut in HD on Friday, September 5th. To my knowledge this is the first regular studio-based series from the BBC to appear in high definition; hopefully, more will follow.
Then there's Amazon, a series following The Tribe's Bruce Parry on an "epic voyage" up the Amazon from source to ocean. The current vogue for personality-driven documentaries (eg Lost Land of the Jaguar) can prove a little tiring after a bit but the scenery in HD should more than make up for irritations in the commentaries.
Auntie's on a bit of a roll at the moment, as I'm sure anyone who saw Britain From Above will agree; stunning TV.

BBC HD coverage of 2008 Paralympics

Those suffering from Olympic withdrawal symptoms will be delighted to know that from September 6th to 17th BBC HD will be showing extensive coverage of the 2008 Paralympics from Beijing. More detail here. It won't be the full "through-the-night" coverage we saw with the Olympics, but there will be afternoon HD simulcasts over the first weekend and a nightly highlights hour at 7pm through the tournament.

Virgin1's blog goes offline

Fellow blogger Virgin1's blog, Not NTL, not Telewest... Just Virgin Media, appears to have gone off-line. I've removed the feed from the blog - hopefully it's just a temporary disappearance as it was a valuable and informative read.

Music on demand in HD

There's some additional HD content tucked away in the Music on Demand Genres listing these days. If you select Music HD you'll find five half hour shows from the London Live series, featuring The Killers, David Gray, The Hoosiers, Sugarbabes and Kanye West, all 30 mins long, plus a track by The Editors.

HD over the Bank Holiday weekend

Highlights on BBC HD this holiday weekend include

• Love + Hate, a British independent movie on Saturday night 10.30. (Radio Times warns that it runs five minutes longer than billed, so be sure to add some padding if recording). Something of a rave review on IMDB I see
  
• The closing ceremony of the Beijing Olympics is at noon on Sunday. If it's anything like the opening ceremony, it'll be spectacular. Unlike the London 2012 Party that follows it at 3.15pm - can you have lacklustre HD?
  
• After an After You've Gone marathon (!) Britain From Above concludes at 9pm Sunday. Bravo, Mr Marr, and bravo BBC - fantastic series, especially in high definition.
• Unfortunately BBC HD resorts to repeats on Bank Holiday Monday, with just Hairy Bakers as something new. Also, post-Olympics, we're back to a 7pm start on the channel.

Also of note: a couple of new movies appeared on Filmflex's HD listings on Friday: Black Water and the awesome There Will Be Blood.

Interesting article on HD in the UK

An interesting piece here from the Broadband TV News site. Couple of observations:

• The author clearly states that "Channel 4 is known to have an exclusive contract with the DTH [ie Sky] platform". I didn't know that for certain, but it explains the C4HD absence from Freesat and possibly the delay in getting it onto Virgin, too. With C4 HD being proposed for the Freeview HD service next year, maybe that exclusivity with Sky is just for 12 months, which means it will end in the autumn.
• I love the expression "HD Empty", referring to folk who have HD ready sets but have not subscribed to HD services. Personally, I would describe us V+ owners as "HD Double Empty" - we have HD ready TVs and an HD ready PVR...but no service!

Meanwhile, on Sky HD

Another day, another announcement from Sky on more HD channels.
I guess everyone who wants high definition services in the UK already knows that there's just one show in town, but this almost daily growing of Sky's offering is making even this cable veteran look twice. Having had my eyes popped by Armageddon in HD at the weekend, I'm hungry for more, but I won't find it on Virgin Media. FilmFlex HD? It's bloody expensive compared with Sky's £10 a month. If they offerred unlimited HD movies for £10 a month I'd bite, but no sign of that.
If it wasn't for the hassle and cost of changing suppliers (and my family's daily use of VoD) I'd be seriously tempted to switch...

BBC HD New Season

Not much going on with Virgin Media HD at the moment, so let's look ahead to the new autumn schedules and see what's coming to BBC HD over the new season.
First up is the comedy drama Mutual Friends starring Marc Warren, Alexander Armstrong and Keeley Hawes. It starts next Tuesday at 10pm (an hour later than its broadcast on BBC1) and it looks pretty good. I'm always a touch sceptical about "comedy drama" as they tend to feature little of either, but this may well be worth investing time in.
I'm still struggling to see why the BBC have bothered to shoot Hairy Bakers in HD, but a series more likely to make your eyeballs sparkle is Oceans. Click the link to find out more about another HD showcase documentary series.
Later in the season there's drama aplenty in high definition, with new adaptations of Dickens' Little Dorrit, Hardy's Tess of the D'Urbervilles and, er, Frank's The Diary of Anne Frank. On the documentary front there's Simon Schama's new series on the USA in election year.
Two new series that look great but I'm not sure if they're in HD are Stephen Fry In The USA (he visits every state - in a black cab!) and Kenneth Branagh in the Scandinavian detective drama Walllander. More information as soon as I find it.