Virgin V+ HD

[hezzer]

Thinking of upgrading from my knackered old Sky+ and noticed that Virgin Media (http://www.thedvdforums.com/affiliatelink.php?localaffiliateid=350) are offering the V+ HD box with no extra fees for HD channels (if you take XL package). Anyone got this already and can advise if it is worth getting, or is there any advantage to upgrading with Sky?

[The Cleaner]

HD Channels are always free with the XL package but there are now 10 (maybe a few more now?) which makes it better value than it did a year or so ago.

I find with the box (and a lot of others too) is that SD upscales quite nicely too for your non HD channels.

[neilalford]

I switched from SkyHD to V+HD a few months back and I'm fairly happy with it, box has a few little quirks and bugs but generally works OK and the On-Demand TV stuff is quite nice.

Plus sometime soon-ish we should see the reults of the deal between Virgin And TiVo, at which point the Virgin boxes should beat the Sky ones hands down, though may be that a new box will be required, no one knows for sure quite what will happen.

[HubbaHubba]

The problem with all these HD channels now is that the relatively small hard disk gets filled up quick if you're unable to keep on top of watching recordings for a period of time!

[w_n_s]

I got the virgin HD only box as I didn't want to take the XL package, so for £50 I got the HD box hoping to get BBC1HD, Ch4HD and ITV1 HD so I could watch the world cup in HD .

Unfortunately, ITV1 HD is not available to Northern Ireland viewers due to some issue with our own native UTV (which is essentially our regional ITV channel) . And UTV surprise surprise aren't supplying their own HD channel to virgin media.

It's a right pain in the arse.

Also, is it not about time that BBC just go full HD and have proper BBC1 and BBC2 HD channels. At the minute, apart from a few Documentaries, there is Doctor Who and Doctors and some kids programmes. IMO, it's a disgrace. Ch4 seem to have done it properly at least which is decent as I find myself watching channel 4 mainly in the evening anyway.

Even though some of their content is in SD, at least you only have to put it on one channel, whereas with BBC HD it's only certain things and you have to switch over.

[DVDWotcha]

BBC really need to sort out their sound on HD, they regularly goof it up. Hence I usually watch the SD channel even if there's a HD simulcast.