Forums Forums Enthusiast Forums A - Z Gadgets & Tech Vrigin Remove More Channels

- BBC HD <-would watch
- Sky One HD <-would proberbly watch, but havent really missed it since the loss of it on VM
- Sky Arts HD <-wouldnt watch
- Discovery HD <-occasionally watch
- National Geographic HD <-occasionally watch
- History Channel HD <-wouldnt watch
- Sky Box Office HD 1 <-depends on ppv pricing
- Sky Box Office HD 2 <-depends on ppv pricing
- Luxe.tv HD (in a week or two) <-wouldnt watch
- Channel 4 HD (December 2007) <-would watch
- FX! HD (January 2008) <-would watch
- ITV1 HD (February 2008) <-would watch
- MTV HD (Q1, 2008) <-would watch
- Ultra HD <-wouldnt watch
- Rush HD <- would watch

Is BBC HD not broadcasting atm, it was last tuesday when I watched heroes in HD on it.

It is broadcasting select content... but its not exactly a full time channel, and certainly not something that Virgin should be raving about when ranting on about their "HD service".

The reason there isnt more channels in HD, is mainly because the HD content costs so much, only bigger broadcasters can afford to offer it, especially given the fact that take-up of HD isnt that great.

More will come in time, its just a question of waiting.

HD isnt the future of TV anyway, if it was, we wouldnt all be using YouTube

on demand is the future of TV imho, schedules will disapear and you will just be able to watch any programme at anytime, with the od list being update daily.

so instead of waiting to see heores on BBC2 on tuesday at 9pm, it will be added to the BBCoD service at 6am for example on the day that it would have been normally broadcast and then be availabe to watch at any time you want, and then the following week the next episode is uploaded to join it on the od list.

That sounds familar, oh yes a bit like Virgin1. lol

You will be very lucky if that happens im afraid fella... for that to happen, everything you watch (bar PSB stuff) will be charged on a PPV basis.

Id rather pay a set monthly fee and have Sky+ at my disposal along with utilities like BBC iPlayer/Sky Anytime TV/Sky Anytime PC/ITV Player (when they fix it) then PPV on just about everything I watch... Not to mention the wonderful resource that is UK Nova! With UK Nova, I can watch what I want, when I want, where I want, all I need is my laptop and a net connection lol.

Im not restricted by schedules... and havent been for over 4 years now. The reason = Sky+, whilst all ye cable subscribers were still awaiting CR3 back in 2002, we Sky customers were embracing what is "like having our own tv channel" as the tagline goes lol.

Well some rich fookers were "plussing" in 2001, or even 2000 when TiVo launched, but their the peeps who have had SkyHD for a year already!!

Again tho, with SKY+ the same as V+, I have to know its on before hand before I can set the +box to record it. people have been able to do that long before sky+, with a little known piece of kit called a VCR, even TIVO if you want digital recording.

Virgin already give free access to a huge selection of od programmes to their XLTV customers.

Maybe so, but this is to keep you on the package, its my understanding that most of the content is sourced from either PSB (which they cant charge for anyway) or Flextech channels (which means they own the rights to show the content so include it whilst the channels remain profitable via advertising revenue as a result of Sky customers).

Atm, TVoD is a niche market, and therefore see's very little in the way of use, although it is expanding. In the grand scheme of things, cable is a niche, when we consider there is circa 3 million using cable, and 25million+ using Freeview, Sky et al.

Once TVoD takes off, cable will start charging, for many reasons, but one to bring in a revenue stream, and also because content suppliers will eventually demand it, otherwise it will devalue the market price of their content.

If Sky turned around to Virgin tomorrow, and said, right we no longer want all the Flextech channels, Virgin would be charging for TVoD content, trust me. They would no longer have a guaranteed revenue stream from the Flextech rights owned content if they didnt. But this compliments both companies... Sky arnt likely to give Sky One and the like back to Virgin, and Virgin cant take the Flextech channels away from Sky. So in this little war, its having some very strange consequences. You are benefitting from Sky customers as you get free TVoD... and we get Sky One and dont have to let you have it lol, whilst we retain the Flextech channels. I have a feeling Sky will soon be advertising Champions League exclusive to Sky One, but if they do it remains to be seen what the CC and rate card overseers will have to say about it.

With regards to the VCR, beautiful piece of kit, I agree, I am a strong supporter of VCR's, I myself archive to SVHS from my Sky+ - I got my last SVHS machine at the same time as my Sky+ for that sole reason.

But one cannot, even with all the systems like Video+ etc, compare using a VCR to a PVR im afraid. As wonderful and reliable as the technology is, its slow and very limited in many ways (i dont give a damn about picture quality so long as I can watch it, VHS is fine, my SVHS is awsome, puts out around 380 - 400 lines on TDK XP film).