The Virgin Media Television thread

Mickey Mike

galtee boy wrote: »

Virgin 2 and 3 have just been moved right into the corner. Virgin 1 hasn't been moved into the corner yet though.

I don't know why VM1 have not moved their logo up to the corner yet.

deezell

icdg wrote: »

I’d have thought they’d have had something of a proper launch for it by now, but maybe not.

Meanwhile, viewers in the U.K. are getting this:

https://www.virginmedia.com/shop/tv/4k-ultra-hd.html

VM Ireland doesn’t do 4K, so it won’t be available here. Interesting though as I don’t think House of Cards US has got a traditional TV airing before in a country where Netflix was available when it launched.

Just to put some perspective on this, this is an image with just under 51 times more pixels than vm1-3. Any of the blurry vm channels would fit into the DOG corner of this channel.
Is the picture resolution on VM cable boxes as bad? Do they have HD?

icdg

All three channels are in HD on VM. Also it may be just my experience, but Virgin’s SD picture never seems to be as bad. (That’s entirely subjective on my part, and I’m told may be as much to do with the television sets in question).

Tigerandahalf

That extra 4k channel in the UK is a nice addition plus the addition of the BT Sport 4k channel. Are the BT channels included free in the UK?

EdgeCase

In this day and age, broadcasting in SD is a bit of a joke. Can you imagine if RTE had continued to broadcast in upscaled 405 line television in the old days.

Based on just looking around me and my friends and relatives, very few households have standard definition televisions anymore, certainly not as their primary screens anyway.

You need crisp, sharp, clear HD at the very least and 4K is most definitely not some 'out there future technology' at this stage either.

irishfeen

EdgeCase wrote: »

In this day and age, broadcasting in SD is a bit of a joke. Can you imagine if RTE had continued to broadcast in upscaled 405 line television in the old days.

Based on just looking around me and my friends and relatives, very few households have standard definition televisions anymore, certainly not as their primary screens anyway.

You need crisp, sharp, clear HD at the very least and 4K is most definitely not some 'out there future technology' at this stage either.

Virgin Media 3 showing the football in SD on sky is actually embarrassing.

deezell

irishfeen wrote: »

Virgin Media 3 showing the football in SD on sky is actually embarrassing.

Portugal Italy match was barely watchable, wide angle shots were so blurred that you simply couldn't tell which player was which, faces just a pink or brown blur. Couldnt even read the pitch advertisements. Which is exactly what VM want. You either pay for cable with HD or sign to their streaming channel. The mandatory FTA requirement of certain sporting events is being met with this ghastly offering, leaving them free to extract subscriptions for what should be part of normal FTA service. The FAI and IRFU would want to cop on, they need to insist on sport broadcast bidders having a certain standard. It would turn you off sport, having to sit through 70's quality TV. Actually the old sports footage on Reeling in the Years looks better.

Delta2113

irishfeen wrote: »

Virgin Media 3 showing the football in SD on sky is actually embarrassing.

Embarrassing for Sky!

JDxtra

Delta2113 wrote: »

Embarrassing for Sky!

Not really. That's up to the broadcaster, not Sky as platform operator. Same for Saorview - Virgin Media could make all their channels HD if they wanted, but they don't.

icdg

Tigerandahalf wrote: »

That extra 4k channel in the UK is a nice addition plus the addition of the BT Sport 4k channel. Are the BT channels included free in the UK?

You have to take at least the “Full House” bundle - which is a bit pricer than the equivalent bundle of the same name here, to be fair.

lgs 4

I wonder if Richard Branson knows he owns TV channels in Ireland

icdg

He doesn’t. He has nothing to do with them other than receiving a nice cheque every so often for them using the name.

mackersdublin

Placeholder channels launched today on VM

400 Virgin Media Sport
430 Virgin Media Sport HD
451-56 VM Sport Extra 1-6
471-76 VM Sport Extra 1-6 HD

409 Sky Sports Mix - previously on 400
439 Sky Sports Mix HD - previously on 430

TheRedDevil10

Tuesday 18th September

UEFA Champions League Matchday One

5.55pm
Inter Milan v Tottenham (One)
Barcelona v PSV (Sport)

8pm
Liverpool v PSG (Sport) also on RTE2
Red Star Belgrade v Napoli (Sport Extra 1)
Monaco v Atletico Madrid (Sport Extra 2)
Club Brugge v Borussia Dortmund (Sport Extra 3)
Schalke v Porto (Sport Extra 4)
Galatasaray v Lokomotiv Moscow (Sport Extra 5)

Delta2113

lgs 4 wrote: »

I wonder if Richard Branson knows he owns TV channels in Ireland

He doesn't actually own them but has a small shareholding and yes he is well aware about VMT in Rep of Ireland.

batistuta9

What's going with the football coverage on VM3, it's stuttering away like a bad online stream.
Anyone else notice this? Stick it on now if your up

All three VM channels were actually froze there a minute ago.

This is on saorview.

lertsnim

batistuta9 wrote: »

What's going with the football coverage on VM3, it's stuttering away like a bad online stream.
Anyone else notice this? Stick it on now if your up

All three VM channels were actually froze there a minute ago.

This is on saorview.

Noticed it recently. It's very annoying.

Patty O Furniture

mackersdublin wrote: »

Placeholder channels launched today on VM

400 Virgin Media Sport
430 Virgin Media Sport HD
451-56 VM Sport Extra 1-6
471-76 VM Sport Extra 1-6 HD

409 Sky Sports Mix - previously on 400
439 Sky Sports Mix HD - previously on 430

I don't know whether it's mentioned here or on the Sports thread:

Thanks, that clears up what i've heard what Non-paying VM customers will cost them €20 extra a month for, as i thought it was only 1 channel - (VM Sport)




https://twitter.com/CWeston_Indo/status/1017683517629763585

More info here:



Similar to Eir, as they have BT Sports free on their package:

But where will these channels show up on sky?

EDIT: It'll be available thru the app: Link

It's funny though, when Virgin bought over TV3, head honcho was on radio, saying "No, we wont' be changing the station names, that'll be ridiculous" :P;)

mikeym

Has anyone seen the signup to the Virgin Sport App yet?

Its 3 days till the launch.

No sign of it yet on the Apple App Store.

Delta2113

https://www.virginmedia.ie/virgin-media-sports/ -Click on Last "Buy now".

"Once your account is activated you will receive an email from Virgin Media prompting you to register first for My Virgin Media, once you have registered for My Virgin Media, you should download the Virgin TV Anywhere App from the Apple or Play store or via virginmediatv.ie and use these new credentials to log into the App. Note that access to the app will only be granted at 8am the day after purchase. So plan in advance for those must-see matches!"

icdg

mikeym wrote: »

Has anyone seen the signup to the Virgin Sport App yet?

Its 3 days till the launch.

No sign of it yet on the Apple App Store.

As far as I can tell, there is no separate Virgin Media Sport app. Just the Virgin TV Anywhere one.

iseegirls

Judging from TV guides, Virgin Media Sports will have live Champions League and Europa League matches starting from Tuesday, with full coverage of matches spread out over the few days.

However, it seems to go back into hibernation mode from Saturday onwards, with nothing scheduled all day Saturday.

Hard to understand why they haven't gone for some filler sports, or made a deal with Eleven Sports to broadcast some games from Serie A, La liga etc.

Digifriendly

iseegirls wrote: »

Judging from TV guides, Virgin Media Sports will have live Champions League and Europa League matches starting from Tuesday, with full coverage of matches spread out over the few days.

However, it seems to go back into hibernation mode from Saturday onwards, with nothing scheduled all day Saturday.

Hard to understand why they haven't gone for some filler sports, or made a deal with Eleven Sports to broadcast some games from Serie A, La liga etc.

Surely Eleven Sports having just come into the UK sports media market would not want to cede exclusivity of their rights so early even to a limited audience? Just a thought.

icdg

No, why would they do that? (Certainly not to any extent greater than they are doing with Facebook, anyway).

But looking at the schedules, it seems this will be very much a part time channel, coming alive only on the days and nights when there is UEFA football scheduled.. After Friday there’s nothing in the advance schedules at all and there likely won’t be anything either until matchday 2.

Good news about the Extra channels being HD - BT’s aren’t.

iseegirls

No listings of the sports channel on TV Now and RTE Guide. If they want it to appear, I guess they need to have some form of content there on a daily basis.

Mickey Mike

Please tell me what parts of the country can you get Virgin Media TV? Being from Kerry I don't think its anywhere near me, although we had Chorus TV via arial about 10 years ago.

OneEightSeven

Mickey Mike wrote: »

Please tell me what parts of the country can you get Virgin Media TV? Being from Kerry I don't think its anywhere near me, although we had Chorus TV via arial about 10 years ago.

Urban areas only and it would still depend on where they are allowed to lay their TV cables. My estate still has old cables from the 1970s, which isn't compatible with broadband or digital TV, but I can see a coil of cable on the 3rd house at the entrance of my estate where they attempted to upgrade here in 2013, but díckhead neighbours object to Virgin upgrading the cables running across their fascia board even though there's one already there, Virgin just want to replace it with a modern one. It's a common problem Virgin face across the country. All it takes is one díckhead to object and dozens of homes can't get better broadband.

You'll find Virgin Media in:

• most apartments
• many townhouses
• modern housing estates with ducts.

If this country had proper housing planning and regulations, Virgin would have a better reach, but the lack of ducts and ridiculous number of one-off housing limits how many customers they can reach.

No live free to air champions league football in either the RoI or UK on Wednesday night for the first time ever. Personally have Eir Broadband so can get the BT channels, but for those who don’t, I think its scandalous that Virgin dont have at least one match FTA instead of the usual rubbish filler programming that normally pervades these channels.

iseegirls

I'd say we'll soon see them put matches on a Wednesday evening.

This dramatically reduces their ratings. If they want VM One and Two to challenge RTE 1 and 2, they need to put up their best programming possible.

The 6pm matches on a Tuesday that VM One will show are of very low quality over the coming weeks, that I can't see them getting much in the ratings. The big matches are at 8pm, and so RTE2 will come out a small bit better as its as normal for them compared to last few years (apart from the final), while there will be plenty of anger towards Virgin Media on Wednesday when people realise no live fixture is free to air.

lertsnim

[Deleted User] wrote: »

No live free to air champions league football in either the RoI or UK on Wednesday night for the first time ever. Personally have Eir Broadband so can get the BT channels, but for those who don’t, I think its scandalous that Virgin dont have at least one match FTA instead of the usual rubbish filler programming that normally pervades these channels.

Virgin will still be showing a FTA game every week. Granted its the same night as RTÉ but we will still get the same number of games FTA.