Virgin Media Community

[tivosux]

BBC2 is now HD WHY? I have a 36" screen TV and I have to watch channel 102 with a 25" picture, this is the same on ALL the HD channels. Also, WHY is NORMAL (full screen) BBC2 now down in the 800's??? If Virgin are going to make all their channels HD with a 25 inch picture I will be canceling our contract and DON'T think you'll be charging me £200 for the privilage of leaving either.

[BenMcr]

What TV do you have?

Virgin Media no longer have any SD only V boxes (and are currently withdrawing all remaining V boxes), so have started to move channels over to HD where possible. This frees up network capacity for new services as it means that they don't have to broadcast two versions of the same channel.

For most people with a Flatscreen TV, there should really be no difference between the HD and SD channels in picture layout.

I have to be honest, I'm not sure what the experience for BBC Two HD would be where a TiVo box is connected via SCART.

[sjp123]

Given its size, I'm guessing it's a Sony

Good point re: CRT connected via SCART though, wonder if any thought was ever given to such customers

OP - have you given any though to compiling a "Favorite" list of channels?

[nodrogd]

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@tivosux wrote:

BBC2 is now HD WHY? I have a 36" screen TV and I have to watch channel 102 with a 25" picture, this is the same on ALL the HD channels. Also, WHY is NORMAL (full screen) BBC2 now down in the 800's??? If Virgin are going to make all their channels HD with a 25 inch picture I will be canceling our contract and DON'T think you'll be charging me £200 for the privilage of leaving either.

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The change was the result of a contract change by the BBC, who are now providing national region output to England , Wales & NI on BBC2 in HD. BBC1 will be next.

This has already happened on Sky & Freesat, so don't think of moving to them either.

With the majority of TV's now HD (the first HD broadcasts started in 2006, 13 years ago) broadcasters are looking at reducing costs by dispensing with SD feeds. With the exception of terrestrial Freeview, which is a spectrum limited platform, expect SD channels to keep disappearing in increasing numbers on satellite & cable.

[tivosux]

No, it's a Toshiba. Recently bought to replace the old 24" Goodmans which gave years of trouble free service but eventually gave up the ghost so, a bigger screen for my small living room was called for. Now I have a massive black stripe either side of the picture on NORMAL (?) BBC2. I also discovered last night that Sky one SD is also in HD so I now have 'Sky one' and 'Sky one HD' BOTH IN HD!!! NO wonder Branson has decided to quit Virgin, I feel a lot of his customers will be doing the same, especially as I'm paying £61 per month for TV with a load of channels I don't watch (sport) or can't watch due to the narrow HD issue.

[BenMcr · Accepted solution]

Sky One SD is still in SD, but most channels whether HD or SD now expect they're watched on a widescreen TV.

What are your Video Output settings (Home > Settings > Video Output), in particular the Aspect Correction Mode?

It sounds like that it's currently set to Panel. This is designed to preserve the origin aspect ratio of whatever you're watching, so will add black bars to the screen to do so - for widescreen channels on a 4:3 TV these are at the top and bottom. However this could be an issue when a widescreen HD channel is showing 4:3 content as black side bars are also added by the broadcaster, and so you may see a black frame around the whole picture.

You may want to try the Zoom option as this will expand the picture to fill a 4:3 TV, however it does so by cutting off some of the widescreen picture where it exists.

[sjp123]

Is it a flat panel or a CRT? Purchased "recently" suggests the former though 36" is, IMHO, a non standard panel size.

But - Any new flat panel should handle whatever is thrown at it, it should not reduce the screen image down to less than the panel size. Might there be some screen setting that is responsible? Not familiar with Toshiba setup menus.

[tivosux]

Non standard panel? Well there are plenty of them in Tesco and not just Toshiba. Anyhow, update time. After reading through the replies I have gone into the TV Menu settings and set the picture at 16.9 and this has now given me BBC2 HD with a nice full screen picture again. Thanks for the help peeps.