Virgin Media V And V+ Box Now In HD
If you wanted to watch HD content on a Virgin box in the past, you would have to take the Virgin PVR, which adds an additional fee on some packages. Now though, we have another option, now there is the V and V+ HD boxes. For a one-off cost of around £50 for the box, an installation fee of £35 and a monthly subscription, you can access all the HD content on Virgin’s broadcast and on-demand channels with this new compact receiver.
If you want multiple boxes, then that extra boxe cost £9.95 a month on Virgin, although the company will often offer a discount to long-standing customers, especially if they threaten to leave. If the V HD is your only Virgin box, then we think it’s a really great way to access Virgin’s HD and on-demand content.
The V HD box is made by Cisco. Although Cisco might not sound like a familiar name when it comes to cable TV, the company has been making cable boxes for a very long time.
Normally, cable set-top boxes are ghastly-looking devices that appear to have travelled forward in time from the early ’80s. That’s not so with the V HD, which has curved lines that Norman Foster would be proud of.
The box is quite small too, which makes it ideal if you’re short of space, or don’t want a big, ugly box dominating your room. The only problem with its design is that you can’t stack things on top of it all that easily. It will, however, rest on another device quite happily.
The remote control is pretty good too. It’s long and thin, and very comfortable to hold. Its buttons have a pleasingly positive feel, and it’s easy for even chubby-fingered men to operate.
The V HD box can save you money on your electricity bill, as well as help save the planet. When you press the standby button, you can choose whether to put the box in standby mode or switch it off entirely. We like that feature because it lets you turn the box off overnight, but have the machine ready to go at a moment’s notice the rest of the time.
Virgin has lagged slightly behind the competition in terms of offering HD channels, but some regulatory changes and a desperate desire to beat Sky at its own game have led the company to increase its hi-def fare. Five HD has recently launched on Virgin, and the company has an exclusive deal to show Film4 HD before Sky gets the channel.
Additionally, Ofcom has recently decreed that all UK distributors should be allowed to sell Sky’s HD sport, movie and entertainment channels. Keep your eyes peeled for Sky Sports HD and Sky One HD on Virgin in the near future.
There’s also a selection of HD content available via Virgin’s on-demand service, most notably the BBC’s HD iPlayer programmes. Virgin is still the only external company that can boast access to the BBC’s HD on-demand content.
Virgin has a unique position in UK broadcast terms, as it delivers everything to your door via a cable. It’s a fibre-optic cable to your street, and then coaxial to your door. This gives the company plenty of bandwidth to play with, and the technology is constantly evolving to provide more and more capacity. It’s also the reason why the company can offer true on-demand movies, TV shows and catch-up services from the likes of Demand Five and BBC iPlayer.
Currently, TV is still broadcast by sending each channel out on the cable. But, within a few years, it’s entirely likely that Virgin won’t broadcast channels as it does now. Instead, your set-top box will stream them from an on-demand server. That technology will render the PVR unnecessary — you’ll simply stream any TV programme you like at a time that suits you. This system will work in a similar fashion to Virgin’s existing catch-up TV services, but there will almost certainly be a new way of browsing content.
The picture quality of this machine is very impressive. The detailed and bright image pays testament to both the receiver, and the service that Virgin pipes down its fibre-optic lines.
The sound quality is also impressive, and, if you want to hook the machine up to your surround-sound system, you can do this with the optical digital output. And that’s a fantastic idea if you’re looking to get the best out of your HD content.
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[...] If you wanted to watch HD content on a Virgin box in the past, you would have to take the Virgin PVR, which adds an additional fee on some packages. Now though, we have another option, now there is the V and V View the Original article [...]