Dabbling with the Dark Side: Now TV and Game of Thrones update

I have had my wee Now TV box and Entertainment subscription for two months now and I’m pleased to report it has been pretty much faultless for watching Game of Thrones season five, albeit through the Catch Up service rather than live viewing on the Sky Atlantic channel. Not a single instance of picture break up and the 720p picture quality has been extremely good. The Sky Atlantic fan show Thronecast has proven a hit with my family, too, but we’ve found little else on the channel (or ITV Encore, the other Sky exclusive, come to that) that justify keeping the Entertainment sub running after GoT has finished in a few weeks. I will cancel it in June (unless he reviews for the second season of True Detective suggest it's as good as the first).

One blip was with the final episodes of Mad Men when there has been a notable drop in PQ for a few minutes on a couple of occasions during episodes. But again, no break-ups to report and the service has been solid.

Netflix website to undergo major redesign

And hopefully the TiVo app will follow. 

Netflix confirms that it will roll out a new user interface on the web to all users worldwide beginning in June.  The most notable aspect to the new design is that it eliminates the slower, scrolling carousels for content discovery in favour of an updated look with larger thumbnails in each section which can be clicked on in order to expand a detail screen showing additional information about the title in question.

More details on the redesign can be found on TechCrunch.

Sky Arts 2 HD to close June 9th

Sky is to merge its two HD (and SD) arts channels and close Sky Arts 2 HD, from June 9th.
It is the latest channel to be axed by Sky after the company announced this week that it plans to turn Sky 3D into an on-demand service (that will kill home 3D stone dead, I'm sure). Virgin never carried the 3D channel, but the loss of the HD channel leaves us one down and I'm not aware of anything new arriving.

Virgin launches new Cloud app (press release)

Virgin Media Cloud is the safe, simple way to store, access and share files from your computer, phone and tablet. And now, with the new Cloud TiVo® app you can share and view your files, pictures and videos on your big screen telly too…

The new app lets you browse your files and curate and edit slide shows, playlists and personalised collections, then view them on your TiVo® box.

You can also use the Virgin Media Cloud service on your PC and Mac – and via apps for iOS, Android and Windows Phone. It’s secure, easy to use, and once your files are stored, you can access them wherever you are, as long as you have an internet connection. And if you change anything that’s stored in our Cloud, we’ll back it up automatically.

The service allows up to 10 accounts per household; each with 5GB of free cloud storage space. For those wanting more, customers can increase their data allowances through paid-for packages from as little as £3.99 per month.

To get started, just log on to My Virgin Media.

New Sky Atlantic rumour

I haven't reported any new rumours of Sky Atlantic "coming soon" to Virgin Media, but this pic, courtesy of Media Boy on Cable Forum, is from a VM survey he's found. The suggestion is that Atlantic may appear as a subscription channel. I'm currently paying for Now TV for a few months but would still prefer to have Atlantic via my TiVo.

Game of Thrones on Now TV - update

On to episode two of season five and, I'm pleased to say, Now TV's On Demand service has delivered again. Excellent picture (720p) and no sign of buffering at all. Whatsmore, it's been available via On Demand all day since the show was simulcast on Sky Atlantic at 2am this morning, which will help spread demand on the service away from the prime time broadcast at 9pm this evening. Clever.

I'm also watching the final episodes of Mad Men on Now TV, again through the On Demand service. Picture quality again very good, but I noticed a slight dip to SD in the latter scenes of episode one. My broadband was fine so I'm not sure what the problem was. 

Sky Sports price hike for Virgin Customers

MediaGuardian reports that Virgin customers who take Sky’s sports package will see a £2 a month increase – double the £1 a month hike that Sky’s own subscribers face from June.
From June 1st Virgin customers who take Sky Sports will pay £2 a month more, while those who have Sky Movies will pay 50p a month more.
Virgin claims that “Sky is spreading the cost across its other TV packages, so their customers who don’t take Sports or Movies will also see the cost of their packages go up … Our rises are simpler and only mean that customers who take the content pay the increased price for that content. We don’t want to make our non-Sky Sports/Movies watching customers subsidise costs for those that do.
“This price rise is entirely due to the increase in charges we have to pay Sky … As we have made clear to Ofcom, any increase in the value of the Premier League’s live TV rights eventually ends up hitting the pockets of fans.”
This Sky Sports customer was already questionning the value I get from Sky Sports and is not a happy chappie. BT Sports costs for next season haven't been announced yet, but I think if they hit my charges too I may make a call and I think it will be Sky dropping out of the mix as I do enjoy the Champions League more than the mid-season matches from the Premiership.

Game of Thrones season five - updated

Is it season five already? Bloody hell. And still no sign of Sky Atlantic being made available to us poor Virgin Media customers.
At least there are a few more options now for us. Aside from the illegal downloading route, episodes should appear to buy on iTunes and Amazon soon after broadcast (although neither has added the season opener for sale yet in the US - I'm not sure how long it will take to appear).
Me? I'm giving Sky's Now TV another go, signing up for GoT and the last season of Mad Men. Will I fare better than last year's futile efforts to watch it live, or even the following night via catch up? Hopefully Sky has sorted out the ridiculous back end issues it had last year for GoT and other popular programmes. Game of Thrones on Now TV proved unwatchable with season four - will five be any better? I will let you know how I get on.

UPDATE:
Pleased to say I had no issues with the Now TV box this evening during Game of Thrones. Picture quality was SD but no buffering at all to report. Even better, it was available through Now TV Catch Up after ten minutes' broadcast, too, which meant I could switch over to the 720p version at the first ad break - and also miss all the other ad breaks! Result.

Sadly, not all were so lucky; Now TV community forums ablaze with complaints  http://community.nowtv.com/t5/Entertainment/Will-there-be-capacity-Problems-for-Game-of-Thrones-this-evening/td-p/293679

I advise everyone to use just the Catch Up service on Now TV. Not only do you get no full ads (just a smattering of promo reels) and 720p picture, but you also can watch GoT from episode 2 of season 5 at any time next Monday after it's first broadcast as a US simulcast at 2am - you don't have to wait for the 9am showing. That should reduce the demand at 9pm considerably.

Virgin Media TiVo deal extended

Concerns that virgin may move to Liberty Global's Horizon platform have been dispelled with the news that Virgin has confirmed an extension to its agreement with TiVo.

The new agreement extends for a further three years the existing five-year partnership between Virgin Media and TiVo in the UK. As part of the new agreement, Virgin Media has committed to the development of next-generation solutions from TiVo.

PictureBox closes

When we were desperate for HD films a few years ago PictureBox seemed like a handy service. Sadly though, the films were rarely better than you could pick up at a garage for a few quid, and the "HD" was not the best. Now it's gone. I doubt it had many subscribers and Netflix offers far better value.