Murray v Federer, BBC HD Sunday Jan 31st at 8am

4HD this weekend

Couple of films on 4HD this weekend that should look mighty fine in high def:
The Day After Tomorrow is on Saturday night at 8pm, followed at 10.20pm by Pitch Black.

Sky phasing out SD boxes and introduces a 1tb hard disc version

Sky is standardising on a single Sky+ HD receiver and introducing a new 1 terabyte PVR.
“Sky+ HD is our best box, it’s got a larger hard drive, greater processing power, it’s Ethernet enabled and is VOD and 3D Ready,” Sky CEO Jeremy Darroch said at an investor presentation in London.
Also announced, a new 1 terabyte Sky+ HD receiver that will store up to 240 hours of HD content. It will (initially) cost an extra £249.
Meanwhile, my SA V+ still chugs along recording HD programmes on a hit-n-miss basis, squeezing barely 20 hours of HD onto its 160gb disc...

Over 2m Sky HD customers

In its latest quarters' results BSkyB has announced that it has added almost half a million HD customers in the last quarter and now tops over two million customers in total.
Virgin's results are due shortly (normally a week or so after Sky's). Expect some additions to the HD lineup to be announced beforehand.

Murray v Cilic semi live on BBC HD, 8.30am Jan 28

Murray v Nadal on BBC HD Tuesday, 8.30am

BBC HD is showing the Murray Nadal match in the Australian Open tomorrow (Tuesday) morning at 8.30.

New blog feature

The most recent Comments posted on this blog are now listed top right. It doesn't like apostrophes but I thought it would be a useful addition to make.

Not HD but...

Two new series start on Sky1 that will interest the masses, even if they're not available to us in HD:
Battlestar Galactica prequel Caprica starts on Tuesday, Febuary 3rd with a double episode, and the sixth and final season of Lost begins on Friday, February 5th, again with a double episode. Both are 9pm, although the latter is preceded by a "the story so far" special at 8pm.
And if you didn't know, 24 is back tonight (Sunday) at 9pm.
Incidentally, Virgin's last quarter results and full 2009 results are due early in February and these announcements are often accompanied by the some new channels. Mind you, nothing happened last quarter, but maybe something on the HD front this time? ITV1 HD would be great. And Sky1 HD would be fabulous, albeit extremely unlikely.

Samsung V+

My previous post has led to a number of recommendations that I ask Virgin to replace my box with a Samsung. Couple of questions:

• Have any Samsung V+ users experienced failed recordings?
• Are there any other problems with the newer box you would warn me about before making the call?

Incidentally, it's disappointing to see that BBC HD, the home of the frequent repeat, isn't showing How Earth Made Us again this week. 

Bloody V+...

I'd been looking forward to How Earth Made Us all week and started watching it on BBC HD last night - sensational! Watched about 30 mins then had to go off to bed for an early start Wednesday. 'Never mind,' thought I, 'I'm recording it.'
Tonight I found a failed recording...and no sign of the programme in the Catch Up HD section of iPlayer, either. Bloody hell. As I watched the SD version on iPlayer, complete with loads of blocky artefacts and a very blurry picture, I almost wept.
Bloody SA V+ box...can I have a Samsung please Virgin?