Day Break

The US series Day Break now has twelve episodes in HD, again hidden away in the A-Z listings of TV Choice on Demand (thanks to Carol Steele for spotting this).
Day Break was an ABC series from 2006 starring Taye Diggs that ran for half a season (thirteen in all) before the axe fell, which means we are one short! Haven't seen it myself but you can find more background on it here.
Carol also reports that in ex-Telewest areas a few episodes of Lost Season Two have appeared. They're now showing in ex-NTL too.

Lost Season One

Lost Season One is now all there in HD, but still tucked away in the TV On Demand, A-Z. It's not listed under Drama nor High Definition - that would be too easy! All 25 episodes are free to XL customers.
They've also added more HD episodes from the first season of Criminal Minds - up to 22 now, but still oddly missing 5, 6 and 7.

Virgin quietly adding more HD on demand content

Whisper it quietly, but the HD fairy has been adding more content to the TV Choice On Demand service.
And, as before, they've not added it where you would expect to find it (under "High Definitiion") but only under the "A-Z" listings. Bizarre. Or just incompetent?
Anyhow, let's be grateful that this additional stuff is free to XL customers.
Criminal Minds Season One HD now has episodes 1-4 and 8-15 (don't know what's happened to 5,6 and 7)
There's something called Day Break, episodes 1 & 2
And Season One of Lost is now almost all there: 1-22 are now in HD and free (there were 25 episodes in the first season in case you were wondering).
There may be more - please let me know if you find other stuff hidden away.

Virgin Media announce Q3 results

Details and comment from Digital Spy here. Essentially it's good news, but there's a sting in the tail: check out the comments to investors (slide 15 of the 7/11/07 presentation here) and you'll see no mention of expanding HD services whatsoever. In fact, quite the reverse; "Premium TV" is conceded as being a market dominated by Sky, low growth opportunity, heavy investment and poor content economics. Uh oh: "limited opportunity" to Virgin Media.
Bad news? Not necessarily. Here are my first thoughts...
Thinking about it, Acting CEO Berkett is probably right. If it was my business, I'd look for what differentiates my product from the opposition, and as he says, that's higher speed, reliabe broadband services and the excellent Video On Demand. The former they're promoting heavily but the latter remains a well-kept secret that knocks the socks off the opposition from Sky, Tiscali and BT. It's not perfect (the menu system's a nightmare and inconsistent) but it works great on the V+ and Samsung boxes, and those who don't see it as a viable delivery method of delivery HD content are living in the twentieth century. Especially when you consider how ill-suited the V+ is when recording HD broadcasts - limited disc space and rocky when handling more than a single HD channel. And don't think the Sky box is any better - there are Digital Spy threads reporting hardware failures when recording two HD channels simultaneously. VoD is the way in our new, when-I-want-it world.
I'm still hopeful that VM will add more 'linear' HD channels, but I expect they'll be the free ones from the BBC, C4 and ITV in the short/medium term, the same stuff that'll be on offer on FreeSat. But more VoD HD is essential and I've come round to the opinion that Virgin is right to prioritise that over, say, the linear Nat Geo or History Channel in HD. 99p for an episode of Brothers & Sisters in HD? Only if it's the latest episode. Virgin need to sort out their pricing as well as the all-over-the-place menus. Also, I won't pay £4 for a film in HD when it's going to be on DVD discounted for £5 in a few months and the difference ain't that great on my 32in LCD, so they need to price that more competitively.
But the good news is they're getting their priorities right at VM and the thinking's straight, even if it's not immediately attractive to those wanting more HD. Berkett's offering Sky an olive branch - expect the return of the Sky basics soon as both sides step down from the head-on confrontation earlier this year - and a stronger VM is good for everyone, and more HD will follow, albeit perhaps in a different form from that offered by Sky.

Petition for more HD content on Virgin Media

Some like-minded soul has opened a petition to send to Virgin Media regarding its lack of HD channels: you can add your signature here.

I don't necessarily agree that we don't need more HD via Video on Demand ... we need more HD, period! Channels would be good. Anything will be good

Exciting new stuff on BBC HD in the next seven days...

...if only...
It's the same old stuff. Torchwood. Old bits of Later and Coast. Robin Hood. Bleak House. Strictly Come Dancing. Antiques Roadshow. Bloody hell...and we're in the middle of the autumn season when Auntie has all the big stuff on its regular channels!
No Spooks. No Long Way Down. No Top Gear. Neither of the new Poliakoff dramas. Even the new series of Lead Balloon isn't listed as HD in The Radio Times (the last season was shown in HD several times).
I hope they're saving up all the new stuff for BBC HD proper when it launches. They have decent stuff in the archive in HD but for some reason it's the same old stuff broadcast week after week. Strewth...

New Poll

I've added a new poll (right); should Virgin be looking to add HD content as full channels, Video On Demand content, or a combination of the two?
Personally, I'd like the combination approach, albeit with much more stuff that we currently have. I'm really looking forward to the full BBC HD service when it launches, and hope Channel 4 and ITV HD services make it to Virgin Media as free services to XL customers soon after. Other stuff though I'd be happy with as Video On Demand, though they'd have to price it right (free would be good!). Much as I like HD and Brothers & Sisters, I balked at the 99p per episode price for the HD versions after the broadcasts on E4. Now if they were shown a week earlier than the regular broadcasts and in HD, I'd consider it.

The +1 vs. HD debate

Last month I ran a small poll on this site regarding the proliferation of "+1" channels on Virgin Media and whether that bandwidth would be better used delivering a handful of linear HD channels in addition to the BBC HD trial channel. (For those new to the Blog, my original post on the matter is here.) I also posted a thread on the topic on Digital Spy and Cable Forums.
As you'd probably expect for a blog on HD services on VM cable, the responses to the poll were heavily in favour of the notion of the +1 bandwidth being used for additional HD channels:

• 85% agreed with the notion
• 10% said that the +1s were not dispensible but were essential
• And 4% said that HD was not going to take off in the UK
• (There were 48 respondents in all)

The debates on the threads though was more surprising: a number of correspondents felt that the +1s were invaluable, and when I checked out the BARB viewing figures I was taken aback by some of them - some +1s get almost as many viewers as the real-time channels! For example, Challenge +1 is almost on a par with its parent. Bizarre
Whilst I'm not questioning the value of the +1s for the bigger channels (C4+1, E4+1, Virgin 1+1, Sky Movies Premier +1) some really are a 'luxury' which could be sacrificed for the more forward looking adoption of more linear HD channels, notably the imminent C4HD and ITVHD services. I was talking to a friend in the US and he tells me that he has over 30 HD channels now on his cable set up...and NO +1s. His cable supplier (I can't recall if it's ComCast or TW Cable) now ships its V+ equivalent as its standard box, so he couldn't see why they would have them, especially with VOD content available FoC. Having said that, once I explained to him what they were, he thought it would be good to have them for some channels, which I guess is true as long as "some" doesn't restrict the delivery of other services.
Anyway, for now I'm taking the poll offline. Thanks to everyone who responded. 10% of the blog's visitors in October took the time to voice their opinion, so sincere thanks to all.

MPEG4 on Virgin Media

There's a lot of discussion in a Digital Spy thread about the use of MPEG2 for HD transmission on Virgin Media rather than the more efficient compression technology of MPEG4 (thread here), but here's a thought: When the V+ launched earlier this year, it wasn't marketed as an HD box, nor did VM promote the (sparse) HD content available. And they're still not pushing it. Not surprising given that they have so little and they're doing their best to hide the VoD HD content they've got (see previous posts).
So, pure speculation this, could they be considering a fuller HD service launch using MPEG4 boxes sometime soon? Then they could 'upgrade' the boxes of those seeking HD content, maybe with one of the new generation Scientific Atlanta boxes charging similarly to Sky a £10 premium for the service, whilst the V+ becomes the middle tier box for customers on the XL package, lower tier getting the Samsung boxes. They could keep BBC HD on MPEG 2 so everyone gets a taster, but only those subscribing to the new box would get the additional MPEG 4 linear channels.
Just a thought...a man can hope, can't he?

New HD content in TV Choice on Demand

Bloody hell Virgin, you don't make it easy for us HD cable customers, do you? Not only do you charge a premium for HD Filmflex movies (why?) and keep an ancient analogue network running, restricting newer services, but you hide what little HD content you have in the hardest to find places! Strewth...
Anyway, in addition to the programming listed under 'High Definition' in TV Choice on Demand, if you go to the A-Z listings for TV CoD you'll find the following HD programming:

Criminal Minds Season one episodes 1-4
Dogfight (two episodes - I think it's a National Geographic programme)
Engineering an Empire (three episodes - Nat Geo again)
Lost Season one 1 - 15
Mega Movers (three episodes, not sure which channel but suspect another NG one)

I haven't spotted any 4OD content apart from the later episodes of Brothers & Sisters (at 99p a pop) but I'll have a root around. Let me know if anyone out there spots some I've missed.