December 27, 2007

C4 HD on Virgin Media - the votes are in


It’s difficult to know who are the more disappointed with Channel 4 HD – those who don’t have the new channel (Virgin Media customers) or those that do (Sky HD folk). The poll run on this blog received almost 300 votes from VM customers with the vast majority (92%) voicing their disappointment at the absence of the channel from the VM line up despite launching on Sky mid-month. In fact, almost fifty voters sited it as the final straw and have decided to opt for Sky HD, whilst less than 10% declared themselves “not fussed”.

However, a quick look at the Sky HD forums will prove that the other man’s grass ain’t always that much more colourful. Check out the threads here and here: much disgruntlement with the paltry amount of actual HD currently on C4 HD – films apart, there is frankly bugger all HD at the moment. Sky customers say the upscaling is better than the upscaling their boxes do on Channel 4, but we know already that the V+ makes a better job of that than a Sky HD box.

So until Channel 4 start broadcasting in HD, Virgin Media customers ain’t missing that much. Don’t get me wrong, I’d much rather be complaining about the lack of the HD programmes than the lack of the entire channel, but anyone thinking of shifting to a dish just for C4 HD should perhaps take their time before making any expensive changes.

But come on Virgin – what’s going on with HD services on cable??!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Just like to say keep up the blog, read it for a couple of months now. After a half baked installation got a V+ box a few days before christmas and have finally got it working in 720p over hdmi and am very impressed with it. I think the upscaling capabilities are amazing and was very surprised. I did get a V+ for the HD capabilities but it exceeded my expectations by a long way and I've hardly used the pvr facilities an already turned into a hd snob - trying not to watch non-hd programmes or decent source material that has been upscaled well.!

Onto your question of C4 HD. I'm extremely disappointed it is not on vm and even put off getting a V+ for a couple of months to try and get a definitive answer. When it wasn't coming (an answer rather than the channel - hoping anyway) in the end I got one anyway - handy with deals on. There is very little on c4 apart from films but it is one of my most watched channels and although tastes vary, there will be a decent sized minority that share my viewing tastes and I think it would strongly beef up HD on both cable and if happened, freesat.