The Virgin Media Television thread

ftakeith

brooke 2 wrote: »

Saw Collette Fitzpatrick interviewing George Hook in the VB show slot last night. My God, she was woeful!! I don't blame GH for rearing up at her. She is the epitome of tabloid journalist.

I saw that also

Her radio show on newstalk is terrible also and her newspaper column for the evening herald is crap also
she is only a newsreader

Joo0

Studio looks terrible for the show, that red rock dog doesn't help either

icdg

Did I imagine TV3 being awarded rights to the UEFA Super Cup? Appears to be on RTE2 as previous.

Sam Russell

I flicked onto TV3 or was it 3E with the Norton Show in the most appalling fuzzy vision that I had to turn it off. It was an old show because yer man had no beard. What are TV3 playing at showing such dreadful picture quality?

dulpit

Sam Russell wrote: »

I flicked onto TV3 or was it 3E with the Norton Show in the most appalling fuzzy vision that I had to turn it off. It was an old show because yer man had no beard. What are TV3 playing at showing such dreadful picture quality?

They're always like that. Watching Vincent Browne is like watching a cheap community TV station. Hopefully the transition to HD will occur, and will occur for all their shows where possible.

Sam Russell

dulpit wrote: »

They're always like that. Watching Vincent Browne is like watching a cheap community TV station. Hopefully the transition to HD will occur, and will occur for all their shows where possible.

Do they deliberately reduce the bit rate to save on transmission charges on Saorview? It would appear so to me.

ftakeith

icdg wrote: »

Did I imagine TV3 being awarded rights to the UEFA Super Cup? Appears to be on RTE2 as previous.

TV3 made a great play of getting live uefa super cup earlier this year

did tv3 passed on this game to RTE2

I watch this super game live on BT sport europe

Harry Palmr

Well its good that this showpiece non-event will be in HD and not Fuzzyvision.

satelliteman20

The bitrate used on tv3 both on saorview and sky are variable bitrates which can go quite high at times so i dont think thats the problem its more to do with the low 544x576 resolution and tv3's studio cameras and possibly the play out since vb moved to the sony hd studio there has been a marked improvement in the picture i would fully expect that to be hd when tv3 hd commences.
in the next month would be a good time for the minister for communications to intervene and get the specs changed for all sd on saorview to be 720x576 resolution it makes sense considering they dont use a constant bitrate.

Sam Russell

Is the bit rate on TV3 Saorview the same as used on TV3 Sky SD?

satelliteman20

No Because the bitrate is not fixed on either saorview or rte's transponder on sky they both differ depending on the amount of bandwidth available on each tp

mackersdublin

Placeholder for TV3 HD appeared on UPC channel 150 sometime on Monday. Noticed it myself around 6pm

It's viewable with a HD box, but without the HD pack - just like RTE One, RTE2, UTV Ireland and BBC One and Two

galtee boy

TV3 HD on Sky EPG 103 and SD on 273.

Joo0

Still no sign of it on UPC

zefer

Joo0 wrote: »

Still no sign of it on UPC

It's on ch103 on UPC

TheRedDevil10

Joo0 wrote: »

Still no sign of it on UPC

No.150

TheRedDevil10

Honestly cannot see the difference between the SD and HD on UPC

Bummer1234

HD is abit annoying at the top right hand corner

icdg

Remember that UPC only has HD replacement on the Horizon platform.

bk

One point I haven't seen discussed is UPC owning TV3 gives them a better negotiating person with Sky for Sky channels on their own service.

Previous to this, Sky could pretty much charge whatever they liked for UPC to carry their channels. But now Sky needs to be more careful in their negotiations, as TV3 is a relatively important channel in the Irish market and they need it on their own platform.

TV3's market share is 13% versus all of Sky's channels combined being 6.6%.

UPC should now be able to negotiate substantial reductions in what it pays Sky for it's channels.

lertsnim

I think that is a stretch. UPC needs Sky channels a lot more than Sky need TV3.

Imagine a scenario where Sky pulls its channels from the UPC service. How many customers do you think UPC will hold onto?

Now imagine if TV3 was pulled from Sky. How many would genuinely care enough to cancel Sky? Not too many especially if TV3 is available via Saorview.

Elmo

bk wrote: »

TV3's market share is 13% versus all of Sky's channels combined being 6.6%.

13% is a stretch their best month so far was May with BGT and TV3, +1 and 3e had just 11%, more like 9% on average. Though RWC will help.

HD packages on UPC? Do you have to have a HD pack to get RTE2 HD?

Also Sky's figure only counts those channels selling advertising and if you include Sky partnerships with other broadcasters such as Viacom well you see it increase again.

icdg

Elmo wrote: »

HD packages on UPC? Do you have to have a HD pack to get RTE2 HD?

On UPC there is a divide between "old" customers and Horizon customers.

"Old" customers must pay extra for HD like on Sky. However IF they have equipment that can receive HD, then they will receive RTE One, RTE Two, TG4, BBC One NI, BBC Two, and UTV Ireland in HD at no extra charge.

Horizon customers don't pay extra for HD, except for Sky Sports.

Goose81

Ok, so I am watching tv3 HD on UPC, thoughts..

For reference the television is a 2 year old high end Panasonic plasma that has been professionally calibrated.

Picture quality on the news broadcast is brutal, studio shots and outside shots look to be upscaled SD.

Advertising goes from a mixture, some advertisements are clearly from a high quality HD source but still look fairly grainy or soft, especially noticeable artifacts around and sort of text on the screen.

Il check again later on the late review because that should be definitely be a HD studio with a clean feed.

On first glance it appears the bitrate is lower than BBC, Rte HD etc. Maybe someone else with more knowledge can elaborate.

Elmo

Goose81 wrote: »

Il check again later on the late review because that should be definitely be a HD studio with a clean feed.

As far as I can tell The Late Review comes from their old studio rather than the HD studio.

zefer

Elmo wrote: »

As far as I can tell The Late Review comes from their old studio rather than the HD studio.

It does, Ireland am is in the HD studio

bk

lertsnim wrote: »

I think that is a stretch. UPC needs Sky channels a lot more than Sky need TV3.

I'm not saying it is a slam dunk, but it gives them a more powerful negotiating position. I see them doing the same in the UK with ITV if they end up buying a controlling stake in it.

Kerrydude1981

Must you ring Sky up to activate TV3 HD?

Im getting a message on screen to go skyviewinghelp.com to upgrade

zefer

Kerrydude1981 wrote: »

Must you ring Sky up to activate TV3 HD?

Im getting a message on screen to go skyviewinghelp.com to upgrade

Do you have the sky HD package?

Kerrydude1981

zefer wrote: »

Do you have the sky HD package?

No,thought it would be like RTE 2 HD and BBC 1 and 2 HD and be free.