How TVs convert and display clear HD footage

Not for the faint-hearted, but if you're intrigued by how HD happens check out this piece on Tech Radar: The Complete Guide To HD

1000 VIP50s get TiVo...free...for life UPDATED

There's a somewhat odd and long thread over on Cable Forum (and a smaller one on Digital Spy) about 1000 VIP50 customers receiving a free, personalised TiVo remote this morning that entitles them to a free TiVo and service for life.
I haven't received one (I'm a VIP50, signed up my interest in TiVo on the day it was announced) and the whole thing doesn't make a great deal of sense to me, especially when I read that some recipients of the remotes hadn't even heard of (let alone registered for) TiVo and weren't VIP50s.
So maybe all of us VIP50s will get the same deal but we're not being sent the personalised remotes. Let's hope so.

UPDATE:

Here's an email from Virgin Media on the Lucky 1000:

Thanks for your email, we are always grateful to receive feedback from our customers. I am very sorry that you feel disappointed by our Tivo roll out, I can assure you that we thought long and hard about how best to delight our customer base, and planned our customer communications very carefully. The first customers to get their hands on our new Tivo product was our staff last December, we are now in the process of going out to segments of our customer base and we will continue to do so until April when we open the offer out to new customers. We believe we have developed an offer for existing customers that is very compelling, and is better than the offer being made available to new customers, this is a core principle for us. The only new customers we have approached so far, as you indicated in your email, are some of the Tivo series 1 customers, and this is for some very specific contractual reasons which could not be avoided.
Thanks and regards,
Executive Director
Digital Entertainment
Virgin Media

So don't worry if you're a VIP50 and haven't received anything yet - it's early days and there's more of this type of activity planned.

More Sky Atlantic viewing figures

More ratings info on SkyAtlantic (posted Friday):

The launch of the seventh series of HBO drama Entourage barely managed to flick the ratings needle with an average of just 18,000 viewers between 10.30pm and 11pm. The second episode fared slightly better, despite the late night slot from 11.05pm to 11.45pm, with 27,000 viewers.
The last series of Entourage aired on ITV2 and averaged about 200,000 viewers per episode. The final episode hit 300,000.
Sky Atlantic's top-rating show last night was a re-run of the 10-year-old pilot episode of Six Feet Under, with 53,000 viewers.

What's a "fair price" for that I wonder?
What I find astonishing is the amount Sky is obviously spending on marketing the channel (posters are everywhere in London, and the press coverage is huge) and yet it's delivering these, frankly, pathetic numbers at the height of their advertising campaign. Strewth.  
Boardwalk's figures will take a tumble as it takes about four episodes to get going and many will give up before it hits its stride, and I don't believe anything on Atlantic's schedules will pick up an audience mid-run. HBO drama needs to be seen from the start - it would be like reading a novel from page 200...
Advertisers will not be impressed. If only they could reach an extra 3.7m homes it might stand a chance...

Interesting TiVo thread

Check this out on Cable Forum: One in a thousand

Sky: "Atlantic will not be on Virgin Media any time soon"

From The Guardian:

The BSkyB chief operating officer, Mike Darcey, warned Virgin Media subscribers who want to watch The Sopranos and Mad Men not to expect Sky Atlantic on their EPG any time soon.
Darcey indicated that Sky was in talks with Virgin Media about a carriage deal to get Sky Atlantic onto its cable TV service.
But he implied that the two companies were some way off agreeing what Virgin Media might pay to carry Sky Atlantic, saying the cable company "would love Sky Atlantic and love it on the cheap". "I think it was offered at a very reasonable price," Darcey said.
"Negotiating with Virgin Media is too strong a word. The team went down ... and made quite a substantial pitch [and] explained what we thought was a fair price. Thus far they have not been persuaded,"
He added that he felt that Virgin Media's "enthusiasm" for content had always been "a little bit lukewarm" – making reference to the sale Living TV to BSkyB last year and the current process to get rid of its 50% stake in Gold and Dave operator UKTV.

Hmmm. Well, if you were looking to sell content and were in negotiations, you would hardly say that you were asking an unfair price or that Virgin were willing to pay through the nose, would you?

Virgin package price changes, April 1st 2011

Details of package price changes here

Sky Atlantic - just TOO exclusive?!!

Interesting couple of facts here: on Feb 1 this blog had a record number of visitors, the majority reaching here by Googling "Virgin Media Sky Atlantic". Over 5000 visitors yesterday alone, more than double the usual traffic and the highest in VMHD's three years. So there's definitely interest in us getting Sky Atlantic - I'm not going to apologise for the continuing coverage on it.
Maybe less impressive are the actual viewing figures for the opening night of the Sky Exclusive. For all the advertising millions spent, posters and column inches devoted to the launch, first night was very much a damp squib, even the debut of Boardwalk Empire barely matching a CSI:NY repeat on Five USA. Here's The Guardian's take on the debut:

With a price tag of $18m, the Martin Scorsese prohibition-set drama is reportedly the most expensive pilot ever made. It was also one of the most hyped. Kicking off Sky's HBO-packed brand new channel, Sky Atlantic – you may have read about it – it debuted with 438,000 viewers between 9pm and 10.30pm.
The Steve Buscemi drama was followed by another US show, Blue Bloods, a cop drama starring the actor once upon a time known as Magnum PI, Tom Selleck, which began with 225,000 viewers at 10.30pm.
Boardwalk Empire just snuck into the top 20 non-terrestrial programmes, ahead of ITV2's The Vampire Diaries, with 431,000 viewers and tied with CSI:NY on Five USA, which also had 438,000 viewers.
The most popular digital show, can you guess what it was yet? – was BBC3's EastEnders, with 767,000 viewers at 10pm.
Bear in mind that the new channel is only available in the homes of Sky's 10 million subscribers – where as the likes of BBC3, ITV2 and Five USA are in more than 90% of the 26 million or so UK TV homes.
Sky Atlantic kicked off with an introductory hour showcasing some of the channel's content, Let the Stories Begin, which averaged 147,000 viewers between 8pm and 9pm.

Maybe it's just too damned exclusive to get the audiences to justify the investment? At least we can hope that those very low audience numbers will give Mr Berkett's negotiators a better hand when negotiating with Sky over Atlantic carriage on cable.

No Sky Atlantic but...

According to this week's Radio Times we won't be seeing Sky Atlantic on VM soon (but I think we already knew that). "We do not have any immediate plans to launch Sky Atlantic but we're definitely looking at more launches in 2011 amd are currently in discussions with various content providers, including Sky." Radio Times was told by Virgin Media.
At least we still have Sky Living HD - there had been speculation on some of the forums that we were losing that, but it is still on 110. Good to see Sky investing in some better programming on Sky Living - Bedlam starts next week. Also, Mad Dogs which starts Philip Glenister, John Simm and Marc Warren is on Sky 1 HD next week, not Sky Atlantic as I've read elsewhere.

Digital Spy review of TiVo

Digital Spy has reviewed Virgin Media's TiVo: http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/digitaltv/news/a301229/virgins-tivo-platform-the-future-of-tv.html. It's a curiously muted review - perhaps not surprising as I have often thought DS editorial has a heavy Sky bias - and it lacks the actual release date, which is disappointing.

VM upgrades Broadband XL to 30Mbs and reduces price

Press Release extract: Virgin Media the UK's leading broadband provider, today announced the launch of a new 30Mb broadband service, due to replace the existing 20Mb service from February 1st. Unlike other fibre optic broadband services based on VDSL technology, such as BT Infinity, Virgin Media customers can expect to receive speeds close to the stated headline 30Mb speed1, and aren't subject to the "speed lottery" that plagues broadband delivered over telephone wires.

The new 'XL' service will cost just £18.50 per month, down from the previous price of £20 when taken with a Virgin Media home phone.
Existing customers already on 'XL' broadband at 20Mb are being invited to upgrade to the new 'XL' at 30Mb from 1st February, with only a one-off upgrade fee of £30 to cover activation and exchange of their old modem and router for Virgin Media's state-of-the-art 'SuperHub'3. The 'SuperHub' combined DOCSIS 3.0 modem and router is capable of Gigabit wired connectivity as well as dual-band 'N' WiFi for the ultimate in wireless connectivity to make the most of Virgin Broadband throughout the home.