Eurosport HD to become British Eurosport 1 HD

British Eurosport 1 will get a high definition simulcast channel on Virgin Media on July 25th, promising "a more UK focus to the HD sporting coverage". That means though that Eurosport International will disappear (and presumably much of its cycling coverage) and, unlike Sky customers, we're not getting Eurosport 2 HD.
Not a viewer of the channel myself but it sounds to me that those who are currently enjoying the Tour de France coverage in HD will be getting a raw deal after the 25th.

Details at British Eurosport HD (and that odd cropping on the logo appears to be intentional branding!)

HD in the UK

Good read over on The Register on the state of HD in the UK. Check it out here. You don't get anything about Virgin until the last page (surprise surprise);

Another affordable option – though only if you live in an area that can receive the service – is the Virgin TV cable service. The V+ box that Virgin provides to its customers costs £150 and is capable of receiving both standard-definition and HD channels. However, when we rang them they offered to let us have it for £75 – obviously an attempt to lure us away from Sky and Freesat.
Virgin offers three packages of channels, called Small (free), Medium (£9 per month) and Large (£9.75), and for another £5 per month you can get the BBC HD channel added to the Small and Medium packages - there’s no additional cost for the Large package. Virgin also has an ‘on demand’ option that includes pay-per-view films, some of which are in HD. However, Virgin were a bit vague about the HD films that are currently available, so Freesat looks like a better deal if you’re looking for an affordable entry into the world of HD.

Hardly a glowing endorsement, but then what do Virgin expect? The HD movies are of course on VM courtesy of Filmflex (28 of them at last count). I got the distinct impression the guy had never seen Virgin as he makes no mention of the On Demand HD stuff (which gets picked up in the Comments attached to the piece.

Channel 4 HD - what HD?

We all know that Channel 4 HD has been something of a disappointment since its launch late last year. For Sky customers there's precious little actual HD content; for Virgin Media and Freesat customers there's precious little sign of the channel at all. (And don't get me started on the C4 HD On Demand we were promised.)
At launch and around Christmas it looked like VM customers were really missing out as there were some pretty good films on show on C4HD. Then as we headed into the new year and the US imports started their annual runs there was quite of a bit of HD scattered around the schedules, albeit none homegrown.
Now it has all but dried up. I see that Hollyoaks is now HD...but that's about it. Most US series are now debuting on E4 or More4 (neither HD services) so there's even less high def than there was a few months ago. Even the films are down to one or two minor titles a week, normally in the wee hours.
So, something of a damp squib. Maybe the Channel 4 HD capability would be better used going 'a la carte' like BBC HD, showing a selection for the 4 stable of C4, E4, More4 and Film4? It seems a waste as it currently broadcasts, and I feel we're not missing much on VM without it.

Virgin Media HD petition

Enough! Time for a call to arms!
I've created an online petition calling for Virgin Media to increase their high definition services (both channels and on demand programming). The petition will be sent to Neil Berkett's office at the end of the summer, so please spare a few seconds and sign up at

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/VirginTVHD

HD vs SD

Anyone wanting to see some good example of high definition pictures versus standard definition should check out this post from "Supremus" (not his real name, but wouldn't it be cool if it was?!) over on Cable Forum.

Euro 2008 on BBC HD - week two

The BBC have three matches next week showing in High Definition. These are:

Monday 16 June 7:30pm - 10:00pm
Austria v Germany

Tuesday 17 June 7:30pm - 10:00pm
France v Italy

Friday 20 June 7:30pm - 10:00pm
Live coverage of the second quarter-final (tba)

Picture and sound quality this week have been outstanding; here's hoping they continue to keep up the high standard for the rest of the tournament.

When the Levee ... Broken

That must be a record...it appeared late last week, four episodes of Spike Lee's award-winning HBO documentary in high definition, checked in last night to watch the second episode and the whole lot have gone. What the hell's going on, Virgin? How incompetent can you be??

Heroes on BBC HD this week

This Thursday's simulcasts of Heroes on BBC HD are disrupted by the Euro 2008 coverage. Just the one this week, and I said in an earlier post it would be the BBC2 simulcast.
Wrong. Bad Nialli. It's actually the BBC3 episode (episode 9) that's showing on BBC HD at 10pm Thursday. The following week we're back to both the BBC2 and BBC3 showings, with the final episode of the season (just 11 thanks to the Hollywood writers' strike) to follow.
I've enjoyed this season, despite the poor reviews Stateside. I think they gave me low expectations, whereas it's been very similar to the first season - lots of promise but only limited delivery. Hiro's adventure in Japanese history was no duller than his and Ando's US adventure last season, but at least it looked spectacular in HD! Things have definitely picked up in recent weeks and I'm hoping for a strong finish. Fingers crossed.

All Change with HD On Demand

BBC content under "High Definition" is all back - no new additions. The absence of the standard definition series makes TV Choice on Demand a very light selection at the moment - it's all planned maintenance apparently, and will be back soon. (Hope they sort out the PQ on much of the library - watched an IT Crowd last night at the quality was decidedly second rate.)

Lots of changes with TV Choice on Demand HD. As warned, Band of Brothers has gone, as have other series. At the moment, little new of note except the HBO series When the Levees Broke. Highly recommended; Spike Lee's very personal films on New Orleans after the hurricane.

There are a few Cartoon Network series appearing in the same section: they're not HD. Also, Sopranos season five fans will rejoice at the arrival on a ninth episode, but despair that it's not ep. 9 - we have episode 12!

High Definition - why the fuss?

There's a thread over on Cable Forum about this old chestnut which I've just posted on. Would be interested to hear others views on this if you'd care to comment guys:

I think it very much depends on what you're watching. If something has been shot in HD, the PQ on the SD channels is notably stronger. I have watched the BBC's excellent Wild China on both BBC2 and BBC HD; the latter is stunning, but, unless you literally watch them back to back, the BBC2 version is pretty spectacular too. Ditto with Heroes and Mad Men. But if I compare PQ on Channel 4 programmes shot with SD cameras (pretty much everything home grown) and there's more of a difference. In terms of PQ, I think you can use this as a rule of thumb, from lowest to highest:

Filmed in SD, broadcast in SD via SCART - average
Filmed in SD, broadcast in SD via HDMI - good
Filmed in HD, broadcast in SD via HDMI - very good
Filmed in HD, broadcast in HD via HDMI - excellent

So what I'm saying is that the comparisons you're making with the V+ box are between "very good" and "excellent". I don't disagree with what you're saying btw - my wife cannot tell the difference (32" Tosh Regza viewed from 8ft, 720p) and if I'm recording something for her, I save on disc space by recording the SD version...

New BBC HD On Demand content?

It's been static for many, many months, but hopefully we'll see new content added to the BBC's On Demand HD selection (Home - 6 - 2 - 1) in the next few days. Why the optimism? Well, the "Days Left" counter on all the programmes I've checked is now down to a single day and, unlike the counters on the TV Choice On Demand HD selection which appear somewhat random, these have been pretty accurate in the past.
Now for my natural pessimism. My money would be on it all disappearing completely for a while - that would be fairly typical VM content management and is even more likely with the likely focus on the appearance of the BBC iPlayer to the Virgin On Demand listings next week. (And although they've said HD content will appear 'in the future' in iPlayer I'm not anticipating it being imminent, and when it does appear it will only probably be content from the previous seven days.)
Hopefully older "showcase" content will eventually appear, replacing the tired Blue Planet/Innocence Project/Supervolcano programming that most of us have already seen a zillion times. It would be nice if they added a broader selection of content, and my pick of the more recent programming would be Glastonbury 2007, Galapagos, Torchwood, Earth: the Power of the Planet, Robin Hood, BBC4 Sessions, Electric Proms, Around the World in 80 Gardens and Wild China. Given that US series are presumably not available, there's actually not as big a selection to choose from. Am I missing anything?

Channel 4 HD - where's the HD?

Like all V+ customers, I'm getting increasingly frustrated with the wait for C4 HD content. Late last year, when the channel was launched on Sky, we were told that Virgin had secured the rights to the C4 HD as both a linear channel and for video on demand. Almost six months later and we're still waiting.
It may be a delay because of bandwidth restrictions. It may be because C4 itself isn't truly free-to-air quite just yet. It may be a technology restraint. It's most likely just not a priority in the days of marketing "super fast" broadband and "Mix It Up TV". Whatever. I feel like I'm still waiting for my last 2007 Christmas present...
But before we take to the streets burning effigies of Neil Berkett, have you seen what's actually showing in HD over on Channel 4? Pardon my french, but absolutely bugger all - six months after launch and there's still only a couple of films and a handful of US imports in HD. No homegrown HD programming whatsoever next week and, given that C4 has recently announced they're cutting back on the US stuff and focusing on UK programmes, that's pretty worrying.
In fact, Skins apart, I cannot recall any HD from these shores on C4 in 2008. Shameless? No. Peep Show? No. Even the weekly overstuffing of Ramsay and Oliver cookery entertaining, which uses very few cameras and can look sumptuous in HD, is still being shot in standard definition. Even I can pop down to John Lewis, buy myself an HD camcorder and make a better hash of it.
And because the HD channel's a C4 simulcast, HD shot shows on E4, More 4 and Film Four have no HD outlet whatsoever. Think how great an HD showcase taking the best of all four Four channels could be. But even on C4 new series of US imports like Smallville and ER , shot in HD but still being shown over here in SD, it's pathetically weak when compared to Sky One HD or even the often-maligned BBC HD.
Virgin Media should broadcast C4 HD as a priority to make a statement of intent with high definition services for its customers, but Channel 4 needs to make a similar statement by making an effort and delivering what it says on the tin: high definition programming.
Come on, chaps...before Christmas 2008 is upon us...

Wild China on BBC HD

Every so often, something sneaks on to the BBC HD channel that, quite literally, takes your breath away. I'll never forget the beauty of seeing Galapagos in HD for the first time - a beautiful series that really showed high definition filming at its finest. Similarly, Earth: The Power of the Planet was pretty awesome, stunning photography and fascinating subject matter.
Well, they've gone and done it again. Wild China is shown on BBC2 on Sunday evenings, but at 9pm on Mondays it is repeated in all its glory on BBC HD. If the first episode is typical, then this is to be a real treat. Image after image of mind-numbing beauty, a heartstopping insight into a lost world few have seen before. Absolutely fan-bloody-tastic - I cannot recommend it highly enough.

Virgin making room for faster broadband...and more HD?

Confirmation that Virgin Media is (finally) turning off the legacy analogue cable network is probably the best news VM has announced in many a moon. Full story here and further details here, both reports from Digital Spy.
Virgin Chief Executive Neil Berkett talked at some length to investors last week about the upgrade plans for the network and the imminent demise of the analogue network:

"Relatively modest investment in customer equipment and [headend] ports for channel bonding is required to do this and is included in our current capital expenditure guidance.
"Next year our 20Mbps and 50Mbps customers will move to the DOCSIS 3.0 platform. This will significantly improve the quality of service provided to all our customers, as the 2Mbps and 10Mbps customers will have more bandwidth specifically dedicated to them. This will help push real world delivery speeds as close as possible to the advertised headline speeds.
"We currently only use two 8Mhz channels to serve all our broadband customers. For DOCSIS 3.0 this will be tripled. Each additional channel will be freed up by switching off a single analogue channel.
"Clearly it will not be long before we are in a position to switch off analogue completely, and this will free up significant bandwidth for even higher broadband speeds. We could easily provide 100Mbps if we chose to do so. We have a huge broadband advantage over competing technologies for speed quality, reliability and cost."

So far, so good. Personally, I'm happy with 20Mbps of broadband (when I get it - not as reliable as it used to be but hopefully that will improve as part of the upgrade). But this ain't just about broadband as releasing the bandwidth of the old analogue network will open up opportunities for more TV services too...including high definition linear channels and more on demand content. C4 HD? ITV HD? Sky basics in HD? If bandwidth's not an issue we could well see the former at least soon (even if Sky is a bit of a pipedream still).
But let's not get ahead of ourselves. Berkett's recent presentation on the Q1 results doesn't make a single mention of current high definition services, let alone future ones. It's a big gap - when Sky execs talk about the future of their service, it's all HD-this and HD-that. With Virgin, not a word.
But things are moving, and hopefully in a positive direction for every Virgin Media customer. On past experience I wouldn't recommend holding your breath just yet for more HD, but a more efficient network is good for all. Let's just hope Berkett and VM take full advantage of it and don't put all of their eggs - and our money - into just the broadband basket.

HD Nickelodeon show appears in On Demand

First Nickelodeon show, Genie in the House, has appeared in the TV Choice On Demand HD selection today. Five episodes (25 mins each) for the more discerning kids. Only in 4:3 rather than widescreen - odd.

Head of BBC HDTV's blog

There's a really interesting post on the BBC's Internet blog from Seetha Kumar that is well worth checking out. Seetha is the BBC's Head of HDTV and this is the first time I've seen her online. Check out the post here and be sure to leave a comment or two as we really could do with some more "insider" news from the BBC on the HD front.

Band of Brothers and Sopranos update

My region's now showing episodes 1 - 8 of BoB in HD, except episode 6 still, but that's not the case in all regions apparently.
We have Season Five of the Sopranos 1-8 with no missing episodes.
Cannot believe that Virgin Media still cannot get this consistent. It's not as though we're talking hundreds of hours of HD content coming on line - just a handful of programmes! Crazy.
Incidentally, anyone noticed how fabulous Heroes Season Two is looking in HD? The clarity and colours of the Hiro japanese sequences have been some of the best HD I've seen to date.

BBC HD over the holiday weekend

Friday night is a treat for fans of Gavin and Stacey, with all seven episodes of the second season being shown in HD back to back from 9pm.
On Saturday things kick off a little earlier than usual with a Natural World about the snow leopards. The "entertainment" of I'd Do Anything is the only new programme today though - the rest of the schedule being repeats of Robin Hood, Hotel Babylon, Gavin & Stacey, Mitchell and Webb and...in case you thought you were going to escape him completely, Jools Holland's Later.
Sunday: Tiger Spy in the Jungle, The Invisibles and something called Scallywagga all pale into insignificance, cos the Beeb are showing RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK in glorious HD at 20.05! Awesome!
On Monday, there's the not-at-all-bad Nicholas Cage movie National Treasure at 16:35, but the evening is all repeats including Hustle and Saxondale.

BBC iPlayer arrives

They said it would be here in the spring, and although some may question whether we've actually had any 'spring' yet, BBC iPlayer has arrived on Virgin Media this morning, accessible via the red button.
There's a really interesting post on the BBC's blog about porting the hugely successful catch up service onto the cable platform. Here's an extract that caught my eye:

The programme offering is pretty much the same as that which you get on the web, although there are some exceptions due to rights. Regional variations, radio programmes and some acquistions are not available at present. However, we hope this will change in due course. We also hope to be able to offer High Definition programmes too!

A shame they haven't added the radio just yet - I often use iPlayer to listen to episodes of The Goons and Hancock from Radio 7 - but HD on its way? That may be the same listing of Blue Planet et al we've had for months in the On Demand listings, but you never know - it could be a way of supplementing the BBC HD channel programming during the summer's sporting and Glastonbury blanket coverage - that would be pretty neat.

Berkett in Madrid

According to the Broadband TV website Virgin Media CEO Neil Berkett has said at the Cable Congress 2008 show in Madrid this week:

“We’re significantly improving our proposition in terms of HD and expanding our library, but we still have a long way to go before we hit the consumer mainstream that we aspire to. We need to educate consumers and drive experimentation.”

Berkett returned to familiar ground during his Wednesday evening keynote, putting his case for “economic access” to [Sky’s] pay-TV content and setting out the advantages of cable broadband over DSL to a willing audience.

What does this mean? Hopefully there will be more HD on demand available when the new iPlayer and 4OD services are introduced in May, and maybe a return of the Sky basics is pending, and possibly a Virgin IPTV offering is in the pipeline. Interesting.