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Radio and Telly

Cable TV in the UK

Virgin Media Digital TV

What is Cable TV?

Cable TV is delivered to homes using under-street fibre-optic cables. It's only available in parts of the UK, typically areas of high population. Cable TV is a digital TV services offering more channels than the free-to-view digital TV service Freeview, but less channels that the competing satellite TV service supplied by Sky TV.

Until February 2007, the two UK big players in cable TV were NTL and Telewest. The two companies are now one, and the major UK Cable TV firm is "Virgin Media".

To get Cable TV, you need to be in a cable overage area, meaning that a cable firm has run their special fibre optic cable to your street. Assuming you're in a cable area, you can arrange to get connected to Virgin Media's cable TV, phone and Internet service.

To get connected to Virgin Media, their engineers will need to call and connect their cable service from the street into a special cable TV set-top box. Once connected, you can start to watch a range of cable TV channels and video-on-demand programmes and films.

 

Virgin Media's Offering:

Virgin Media offers digital TV, broadband and home phone services in a number of areas around the UK.

If you're in a cable TV area, they offer a number of packages, the top one of which, 'Extra Large', offers over 120 channels, including Sky One, ITV2, E4, MTV, Film4, Virgin Central and UKTV Gold. You can add extra subscription services such as Sky Sports, Setanta Sport, and Sky Movies, as well as adult services.

Virgin Media's digital TV offering also includes Virgin TV On Demand service, which offers on-demand viewing of over 500 movies, as well as instant access to 1000s of TV shows and music videos. They also offer a number of TV shows from the last seven day's TV available on demand, so you can catch up on any shows you may have missed.

Virgin's digital TV offering has some other optional extras - such as the Virgin V+ hard-disk recorder, and HDTV (High definition).

Virgin Media EPG
Virgin Media's EPG (Source: Vismedia)

 

Get Set For DigitalThe UK is set to turn off analogue TV services between 2008 and 2012, and switch over to digital.

The cable TV service from Virgin Media is compliant with the digital TV requirements.

 

Virgin Media V+

Virgin Media V+ BoxThe Virgin Media V+ Box replaces the original Telewest TVDrive. It's a hard-disc recorder that can store TV shows on the built-in storage for ease of viewing. It offers the following features:

  • Records up to 80 hours of cable TV.
  • Supports HD Hi-def.
  • Allows recording of two TV channels, while watching a third.
  • Lets you pause and rewind live TV
  • Has a series-link, so you don't miss your favourite regular shows

Outputs: 2 x SCART sockets, 1 x modulated RF output, 2 x audio phono outputs, and 1 x HDMI (Hi-def) socket. Click here for a picture of the v+ box connectors

Cost: Installation of the V+ box costs £150. Additionally, there's a monthly subscription for the V+ service (£5 a month, or free if you're on the XL package). 12 month minimum contract applies. More on Virgin Media's site Offer: Half-price V+ Box installation until 31st May 08

 

Other Virgin Services

Virgin Media also offers Broadband Internet and telephone packages, which can save you money when combined with your digital TV service.

If you live in a part of the UK served by Virgin Media's cable service, you can request that Virgin's engineers call to get you connected to their services. To find out more, or to check coverage, go to www.virginmedia.com

FrequencyCast Podcast
Listen to the FrequencyCast UK online radio show
We featured Virgin Media in Show 26 of our radio show, FrequencyCast.
Listen to the show online, or download it to your MP3 player.
Listen to Show 26 | Latest Show | More Info

 

Virgin Media FAQ

What happened to Telewest and NTL

They are no more. Telewest and NTL were rivals in the cable market. From 2007, they joined forces under the Virgin Media brand to become Virgin Media.
Virgin vs Sky?

On the first of March 2007, the Sky channels Sky One, Sky Two, Sky News, Sky Travel and Sky Sports News were dropped from Virgin Media's Cable TV lineup, after Virgin failed to renew the broadcast contract.

There was lots of controversy about this at the time, something we covered in show 13 of our podcast:

At the time, Sky created a 'rescue package' for Virgin Media customers keen to keep up-to-date with Sky's shows like Lost, 24, Nip/Nick and Battlestar Galactica. The package allowed Virgin customer to switch to Sky for just £16, including free dish and set-top box.
Cable TV on Freeview

We had the following question from a visitor: "My TV has built-in Freeview , but my area will not have the digital signal until 2012. I watch TV through cable so am I right in thinking the freeview tuner or twin tuner will not be able to decode the cable signal

Correct. Although Freeview and Cable are both "Digital TV" services, they use different technology and so you can't tune a Freeview receiver into a cable TV feed.
Watch one channel, record another

A site visitor asked us for advice about recording Virgin cable onto DVD. He wanted to be able to record one cable channel onto DVD whilst watching a different cable channel.

Well, a standard Virgin Media cable TV receiver box can only output one channel at a time. If you connect a TV and a recorder, they will both be fed the same TV channel from the Virgin box. To be able to handle two cable channels at the same time, the options are:

  • Get a second Virgin Media V box (one for your TV and one for your recorder)

  • Get a Virgin Media V+ box. This has a built-in hard-disk recorder and will let you record a digital channel onto the onboard storage while you watch a different channel.

Go to www.virginmedia.com to order either of these boxes.
V+ Questions

Q. Can I use an HDMI lead instead of a co-ax lead to connect to my TV? Is there any advantage to using an HDMI lead if there is no HD content at this time?

A. Thanks to Nicholas Divers for the following: "HDMI cables CAN be used to link TV's to Virgins V+ box. V+ also upscales the picture of SD broadcasts to HD. "

Q. Will the V+ box will allow me to record to it, and to record to my DVD recorder at the same time ?

A. Yes, this is possible. If you connect the output of the V+ box to the input of a DVD recorder, then the output of the V+ box can be recorded.
We've also been told by one of our forum regulars, MrHappy, that the V+ box has a handy extra feature. The V+ box has two SCART sockets - you can record onto DVD using SCART 2 while watching a different programme via a TV connected to SCART 1 (Press V+ > 'V+ Extras' > 'Copy to VCR/DVD').

Q. Can I get the BBC iPlayer?

Yes, from April 2008, the BBC's catch-up TV service, BBC iPlayer, became available on Virgin Media. You can access it via the Red button. More on our Unofficial Guide to the iPlayer.

Q. Will the V+ box record different channels at the same time for viewing later? How can one record several programmes at the same time ?

A. Many PVRs have a twin-tuner, but the Virgin Media V+ box has three tuners (beating Sky+). This means that the V+ box can record two channels while you watch a third. Handy for good telly nights. You use the Virgin Media V+ on-screen EPG (Electronic Programme Guide) to select shows for recording.

 

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