Media Boy's blog is reporting that Sky Sports red button is launching on Virgin Media in April. Presumably red button functionality on TiVo boxes will arrive around then too.
Also, for your convenience and information I've added a Blog List at the foot of the home page of VMHD so that you can see what the latest postings are on the other Virgin Media blogs.
February 28, 2011
SD upscaling on the TiVo
There have been several posts on Digital Spy suggesting that the upscaling of SD on the TiVo is inferior to the exisitng V+ box. There have also been posts asserting that there's no discernable difference and I guess as always it will be in the eye of the beholder.
I asked Scottivo what he thought and he said that he doesn't really watch any SD now but he'll have a look on his new TiVo.
I don't watch any SD myself anymore except the odd programmes on BBC News, BBC4, More4 and those things I record but don't have sufficient disc space to record them in HD, so if the SD upscaling is inferior I don't think it will personally be important to me and my legacy 32in 720p TV.
I asked Scottivo what he thought and he said that he doesn't really watch any SD now but he'll have a look on his new TiVo.
I don't watch any SD myself anymore except the odd programmes on BBC News, BBC4, More4 and those things I record but don't have sufficient disc space to record them in HD, so if the SD upscaling is inferior I don't think it will personally be important to me and my legacy 32in 720p TV.
February 27, 2011
Virgin Media's TiVo - in depth review
Firstly, a bit of background – my first PVR was a TiVo, which I bought the week it launched in the UK 10 years ago, and when the Sky+ was released I used both for a number of years. In recent times I’ve had both a Sky+ and a V+, having assigned the TiVo box to the attic.
I had the new “Virgin Media TV powered by TiVo” box installed this week and the minute I switched it on I realised how much my TV viewing had missed TiVo’s personality.
The noises TiVo makes when you push buttons on its remote have personality, the shape of the handset has personality, its menu messages have personality and it records programmes that it thinks I might want to watch as if it’s an old friend who knows my likes and dislikes. When pressing play while fast forwarding a recording it even anticipates where I wanted to start watching, jumping back a couple of heartbeats to allow for my reaction time.
There’s something about TiVo that makes it feel a lot less like a piece of hardware that provides a cable service and more like a TV-loving viewing companion.
As far as the interface and EPG response time were concerned, in my opinion, the V+ always lagged behind the Sky+, literally as far as the TV guide was concerned, whereas the V+ Catch-up and VOD services were far superior to Sky’s efforts, even with their new Anytime+ service. Now, however, I have the best of both worlds with the new TiVo box.
The TV guide is excellent and integrates Catch Up TV seamlessly, offering icons on shows that will become available to watch on demand after transmission, along with the ability to scroll backwards on the EPG grid to select something to watch that’s already been broadcast.
You can also view the TV guide through the pop-up screen you access by pressing the OK button, allowing you to scroll up and down a mini three-deck grid EPG
The Search facility on the TiVo is phenomenally powerful. You can search for anything – a show, a person, a movie or a keyword – across broadcast TV, on demand services and the Internet. As an example, I searched for Doctor Who. The results were broken into six sections – “Get this show”, “Upcoming”, “Episode guide”, “Cast”, “Bonus features” and “If you like this… “.
“Get this show” allows you to set a series link, record the next episode and view the episodes that are available on demand (broken down by series number).
“Upcoming” offers a list of episodes scheduled to be shown on broadcast channels (a mix of BBC HD, BBC Three and Watch), as always with the ability to record that episode or set a series link.
“Episode guide” offers a short synopsis of all modern-era Doctor Who episodes, listed series-by-series, with the ability to create a Wishlist search that will automatically record that episode if it’s scheduled to be repeated.
“Cast” lists stars who have appeared in the series – from Doctors and their companions, like Matt Smith and Billie Piper, to one-off guests, like Lee Evans – offering a short biography and the ability to view anything on the on demand service that features them or to record any shows or movies they are scheduled to appear in.
“Bonus features” connects to the Internet to view YouTube clips of Doctor Who.
“If you like this…” offers a selection of other series that fans of Doctor Who might be interested in viewing. Among others, it suggested Sarah Jane Adventures, Big Bang Theory, Star Trek and My Family. Not sure how that last one crept in, I’ll put it down to teething problems!
Yes, the Search facility is, as I said, amazing but what if you don’t want to constantly have to check whether your favourite series or star has popped into the listings? That’s when you’ll want to use the equally impressive Wishlist function. This clever little innovation allows you to use one or more of six fields – Keyword, Title Keyword, Actor, Director, Category and Wishlist Name – to set up a alert that will inform you if a show fitting your criteria appears in the listings and record it for you.
Add to all that an Apps and Games section that offers access to Ebay, Twitter, weather forecasts, celebrity news, a Who Wants to Be a Millionaire game and an excellent YouTube interface and you can understand why I’m so happy with my new purchase.
Don’t get me wrong, the Virgin TiVo box isn’t perfect and will need a few more software updates – for example, there are still glitches when moving from one menu to another and red button shows can’t be accessed yet – but it’s undoubtedly the best PVR available in the UK.
It’s nice to have you back TiVo, watching TV is fun again!
TiVo question
Does anyone know why the TiVo's 1Tb disc is only capable of recording 100 hours of HD*, whereas the V+ 160Gb drive records 20 hours? By my calculation the Tivo disc should take 125 hours (8Gb per hour).
* According to the manual: "Your TiVo box comes with a whole terabyte of hard disk space. That’s about 400 hours of standard TV, recording or 100 hours of HD TV"
* According to the manual: "Your TiVo box comes with a whole terabyte of hard disk space. That’s about 400 hours of standard TV, recording or 100 hours of HD TV"
February 23, 2011
Sky Atlantic coverage on this blog
...will continue even though it's not "coming soon" according to Sky and Virgin bosses. Why? Well, the four most popular pages on this blog this month, excluding the home page, have all been stories about Sky Atlantic on Virgin Media - 10% of visits in all. I know it's not of interest to everyone, not specifically HD or TiVo-related, but if the people are interested I'll still post on it occasionally.
February 22, 2011
Sky Sports 2 HD sync problem
SD channel is fine, but the HD feed is badly out of sync this evening on my V+. I hope they get it sorted before the match kicks off in ten minutes.
Incidentally, the football pitch-side mikes on both of the Sky HD sports channels often seem out of sync (you hear a kick before you see it, albeit only fractionally). This time though it is the pre-match discussion that's out by a good second or two. Anyone else got this problem with it?
Incidentally, the football pitch-side mikes on both of the Sky HD sports channels often seem out of sync (you hear a kick before you see it, albeit only fractionally). This time though it is the pre-match discussion that's out by a good second or two. Anyone else got this problem with it?
Sky Atlantic viewing figures: Treme
From the creator of The Wire, Treme is the second of the big new HBO series on Sky Atlantic and made its debut last Friday. But if Boardwalk Empire's figures are seen as weak and the debut of the new season of Entourage drew an embarrassingly small audience, then Treme has gone off the scale: Friday's opening episode of the post-hurricane Katrina New Orleans drama averaged a sad 66,000 viewers, and that number includes timeshifting and HD viewers. By comparison FX in the same timeslot had True Blood (another HBO drama) that pulled an audience 236,000 for a mid-season episode.
Whilst Sky may argue that it is targetting a demographic measured by quality (A,B,C1) rather than quantity I'm not sure advertisers will agree.
HBO's next big debut on Sky Atlantic is Game of Thrones which launches on April 18th, the day after it debuts in the US. The audience numbers for that will be interesting as it's close enough to the US release to minimise the impact of those who download shows, but of course that also means that it won't come with much US acclaim (or hype) to get the general UK public's attention. Expect the Sky marketing to hit overdrive again as it tries to secure an audience to appeal to advertisers.
BTW, Treme is available on DVD/BluRay in the US from March 29th. Expect Boardwalk Empire as a box set in the summer, shortly before season two arrives Stateside.
Whilst Sky may argue that it is targetting a demographic measured by quality (A,B,C1) rather than quantity I'm not sure advertisers will agree.
HBO's next big debut on Sky Atlantic is Game of Thrones which launches on April 18th, the day after it debuts in the US. The audience numbers for that will be interesting as it's close enough to the US release to minimise the impact of those who download shows, but of course that also means that it won't come with much US acclaim (or hype) to get the general UK public's attention. Expect the Sky marketing to hit overdrive again as it tries to secure an audience to appeal to advertisers.
BTW, Treme is available on DVD/BluRay in the US from March 29th. Expect Boardwalk Empire as a box set in the summer, shortly before season two arrives Stateside.
February 21, 2011
BBC2 HD and 3D plans
A while back BBC HD boss Danielle Nagler promised that all BBC channels will eventually be simulcast in Hi Def, but it now appears that the next to appear, BBC2 HD, won't launch until at least 2013 because of cost constraints and some technical issues. 'The BBC’s commitment to HD is not in debate - there is no one here who doesn’t believe we should move towards it pretty rapidly - but it has to happen along with everything else the BBC does,' Nagler told Broadcast.
It's also reported that all new BBC content will have to be produced in high definition by April 1st this year, but I thought that the news output, Match of the Day and of course the older repeated shows weren't shooting in HD until next year, so I'm a wee bit confused on that.
And if you want to know about Nagler and the BBC's plans for 3D, there's an interview with her on 3D Focus.
It's also reported that all new BBC content will have to be produced in high definition by April 1st this year, but I thought that the news output, Match of the Day and of course the older repeated shows weren't shooting in HD until next year, so I'm a wee bit confused on that.
And if you want to know about Nagler and the BBC's plans for 3D, there's an interview with her on 3D Focus.
February 20, 2011
TiVo problems, hints and tips
There's a useful new thread over on Cable Forum for those enjoying their new TiVo box: Tivo problems hints and tips.
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