JA
Don't you have access to the HD version on 603?
The SD version does look pretty poor here too though.
The SD version does look pretty poor here too though.
JM
JamesM0984
HD is only available on certain packages. Infact the HD offering on Virgin still lags behind that of Sky unless you're willing to pay for the top package.
NJ
Neil Jones
Founding member
I was under the impression that the concept of pointing a dish at 28.2 for cable distribution went out the window years ago and it was all done differently now. Part of Virgin's advertising for the benefit of cable over satellite says you won't lose the signal when it rains (in fairness you don't lose it on a dish if its setup correctly, and it would only take a monsoon or a heavy thunderstorm or a mass build up of snow to totally block it even then, and that being said its only temporary anyway).
FO
Yes, I have noticed the picture has become a lot worse, very soft and fuzzy, it reminds me of the bad CNBC picture we were getting. I have resorted to viewing Sky News now only via YouTube in near perfect HD and Free! Disgusting that I have to switch over to YouTube to watch channels that I'm paying VM for. Also, were VM messing about with the mpeg2/4 feeds which carry channels including SN and this is the result?
OV
There are still some channels delivered to Virgin via them picking up the satellite broadcast on 28.2, particularly the smaller broadcasters, but most of them are delivered via fibre now. Certainly in Sky's case they will be delivering over fibre now, the cable version of the channel disappeared off 28.2 years ago.
Taking a look at the monitoring on the Digital Bitrate website, it seems that Virgin played around with the multiplex on the 5th as all the channels on it, including Sky News and interestingly Sky Sports PL, briefly went unencrypted. It seems it's running at generally low bitrates with a resolution of 544x576, which would explain the degraded picture.
Don’t virgin just point a dish at 28.2e and refeed the same picture if so maybe the picture is soft on Sky now or virgin have put the wrong encoding settings on maybe?
I was under the impression that the concept of pointing a dish at 28.2 for cable distribution went out the window years ago and it was all done differently now. Part of Virgin's advertising for the benefit of cable over satellite says you won't lose the signal when it rains (in fairness you don't lose it on a dish if its setup correctly, and it would only take a monsoon or a heavy thunderstorm or a mass build up of snow to totally block it even then, and that being said its only temporary anyway).
There are still some channels delivered to Virgin via them picking up the satellite broadcast on 28.2, particularly the smaller broadcasters, but most of them are delivered via fibre now. Certainly in Sky's case they will be delivering over fibre now, the cable version of the channel disappeared off 28.2 years ago.
Taking a look at the monitoring on the Digital Bitrate website, it seems that Virgin played around with the multiplex on the 5th as all the channels on it, including Sky News and interestingly Sky Sports PL, briefly went unencrypted. It seems it's running at generally low bitrates with a resolution of 544x576, which would explain the degraded picture.
JA
The dishes that Virgin would use for picking up the channels will be much bigger than domestic dishes, so are going to be significantly less affected by adverse weather.
I doubt many people are willing to have 1, 2, 3 metre dishes on their houses (I do personally own a 90cm motorised one though!)
Part of Virgin's advertising for the benefit of cable over satellite says you won't lose the signal when it rains (in fairness you don't lose it on a dish if its setup correctly, and it would only take a monsoon or a heavy thunderstorm or a mass build up of snow to totally block it even then, and that being said its only temporary anyway).
The dishes that Virgin would use for picking up the channels will be much bigger than domestic dishes, so are going to be significantly less affected by adverse weather.
I doubt many people are willing to have 1, 2, 3 metre dishes on their houses (I do personally own a 90cm motorised one though!)
JA
Taking a look at the monitoring on the Digital Bitrate website, it seems that Virgin played around with the multiplex on the 5th as all the channels on it, including Sky News and interestingly Sky Sports PL, briefly went unencrypted. It seems it's running at generally low bitrates with a resolution of 544x576, which would explain the degraded picture.
128kbps MP2 audio (and not even joint stereo)- ouch!
Taking a look at the monitoring on the Digital Bitrate website, it seems that Virgin played around with the multiplex on the 5th as all the channels on it, including Sky News and interestingly Sky Sports PL, briefly went unencrypted. It seems it's running at generally low bitrates with a resolution of 544x576, which would explain the degraded picture.
128kbps MP2 audio (and not even joint stereo)- ouch!
LL
London Lite
Founding member
Not even Sky News SD is as bad as this on Sky and Freesat. 704x576.
However, welcome Virgin viewers to how bad the PQ is for those of us who watch on Freeview.
However, welcome Virgin viewers to how bad the PQ is for those of us who watch on Freeview.