No one has mentioned HD yet - so I will ... I can't have Sky as I practically live in a forest so it's not possible to get a dish working around the trees (unless I get a huge one) but I was really only interested in the HD content anyway and that leads me to a point about using this service over a broadband connection.
If Sky do stream HD content it would great but I would still have issues with my provider as Virgin Media has a throttling mechanism that they implement under their "fair use policy" Basically if you "download" over 4GB in a 24 hour period you are throttled by 75% so a 10Mb line is reduced to 2.5Mb for the remainder of the 24 hour period. I argued the point that if I had paid for something like Apple TV or now something like this Sky service I would be unable to use it because Virgin Media would not give the bandwidth needed!?
They had no answers but did bump me up to 20Mb for only a few pounds extra. "of course Sir - you could sign up or our V+ HD box which would give you a great selection of HD content" - I replied "oh - so you would run another line into the house for that then?" - "no Sir ... it comes down the same cable" SO WHY THE F*CK CAN I NOT USE APPLE TV!?!? etc etc
Anyway - I would love to have some HD content streaming over the internet but realistically if that means "downloading" over 4GB then it doesn't look good if the service providers will not allow it!?
I'm sorry - I appear to have been raving on a bit there.
You're exactly right. Virgin Media is effectively maintaining a monopoly on the transmission of HD video content on their cable network. Their bandwidth limits make it impossible to download or stream HD video, unless it's part of their V+ package.
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No one has mentioned HD yet - so I will ... I can't have Sky as I practically live in a forest so it's not possible to get a dish working around the trees (unless I get a huge one) but I was really only interested in the HD content anyway and that leads me to a point about using this service over a broadband connection.
If Sky do stream HD content it would great but I would still have issues with my provider as Virgin Media has a throttling mechanism that they implement under their "fair use policy" Basically if you "download" over 4GB in a 24 hour period you are throttled by 75% so a 10Mb line is reduced to 2.5Mb for the remainder of the 24 hour period. I argued the point that if I had paid for something like Apple TV or now something like this Sky service I would be unable to use it because Virgin Media would not give the bandwidth needed!?
They had no answers but did bump me up to 20Mb for only a few pounds extra. "of course Sir - you could sign up or our V+ HD box which would give you a great selection of HD content" - I replied "oh - so you would run another line into the house for that then?" - "no Sir ... it comes down the same cable" SO WHY THE F*CK CAN I NOT USE APPLE TV!?!? etc etc
Anyway - I would love to have some HD content streaming over the internet but realistically if that means "downloading" over 4GB then it doesn't look good if the service providers will not allow it!?
I'm sorry - I appear to have been raving on a bit there.
Cheers.
Sounds like pretty reasonable raving to me. You go right on with it, sir.
+1
You're exactly right. Virgin Media is effectively maintaining a monopoly on the transmission of HD video content on their cable network. Their bandwidth limits make it impossible to download or stream HD video, unless it's part of their V+ package.
what are you talking about virgin has 1 half day he channel (BBC) and a couple of on demands, they are useless at hd not a monopoly
@ Bob
Maybe you're not understanding this right:
I can sign up for Virgin Media's V+ HD service but I can't use the same cable to stream/download over 4GB in a 24 hour period!?
That sounds like monopolising to me!?
Cheers.