Virgin Media XL packages are having Sky Anytime added to their repertoire of VOD content.

Adding the large Sky Anytime catalogue to Virgin Media's services see's the company's already-sizeable VOD offerings increase by as much as a third.

"Virgin Media offers the most complete TV on demand experience in the UK and is the perfect place for movie fans with over one thousand fantastic films available instantly on demand," said Cindy Rose, executive director of digital entertainment at Virgin Media.

"The addition of Sky Anytime on Virgin Media forms part of our ongoing commitment to developing a compelling and complete digital entertainment service. With a growing on demand library designed to offer range and depth, all delivered instantly, customers now have even more flexibility to enjoy whatever they want, whenever they want it."

Sky subscribers who fork out each month for the sports and movie packages will get access to these too with the new on-demand offering.

For more info, click here.

Catch-up TV services like the BBC iPlayer and Channel 4's 4OD service mean that we've fewer excuses than ever for missing our favourite shows, but even they have a "show-by date" of only around a week in most cases.

Making unmissable TV even harder to miss then is a new search engine called TimeForTelly. As well as offering the next week's worth of Freeview TV programming, the engine also trawls VOD on demand services, grabbing links to your favourite shows displayed in a grid layout before directing you to the appropriate player before they're off the air and the web for good.

The service will also provide you with suggestions of shows you may like to watch, based on ones you've already selected to track and place in your personal Catch-up TV section.

Try the engine by visiting www.timefortelly.co.uk.

Image via Wikipedia

It's a big coup for Virgin Media subscribers, as Film4 HD offers one of probably the best catalogues of films outside of Sky Movies and Sky Movies Premier.

"Channel 4 has a great track record in delivering innovative and compelling content and we're delighted to bring some of their very best films and most popular programmes to our customers in stunning HD", said Cindy Rose, executive director of digital entertainment at Virgin Media.

"As more and more households become HD-ready, we're lining up content that makes the most of High Definition and are making HD available to all our of customers for no extra fee."

As well as Film4 HD and E4 HD, Virgin Media's HD line up also includes BBC HD, C4HD, ESPN HD, FX HD, MTVN HD, National Geographic HD, LIVING HD and Eurosport HD, with Discovery HD also on its way.

Perhaps Men Behaving Badly star Martin Clunes should be the celebrity face for promoting high definition in the UK, because he's certainly appearing in his fair share of HD programmes at present.

Hot on the heels of playing a rejuvenated Reggie Perrin (Friday nights, BBC HD), he's also been filming a three-part series trekking around Britain's islands.

Sketchy details have emerged about a new project to animate Rudyard Kipling's classic "The Jungle Book" in high definition.

The 3D project will be shot in HD in India, with an expected delivery of 2011. It will cost around $12 million and be produced as a 52-episode 11-minute series and an hour-long TV feature.

NBC Universal has home video distribution rights for the UK, France, Australia, New Zealand and Japan, so we'll likely see it on Blu-ray in a couple of years' time.

(Via Hollywood Reporter)

Engadget reports that The Simpsons will finally be made in high definition.

From 15th February (Stateside), FOX will debut the animated series.

Presumably, as Sky has rights to broadcast the show in the UK, it will appear on Sky One HD in due course. No official word on that yet.

(Via Engadget)

The BBC has used state-of-the-art filming technology to capture nature at its best for its new wildlife documentary series Nature's Great Events to be shown on the BBC HD channel.

Narrated by David Attenborough, the series will look at a variety of animal life including grizzly bear cubs, baby elephants, humpback whales, dolphins and sharks in South Africa, and polar bears.

The six-part series boasts a number of TV "firsts", including aerial footage of Arctic narwhal whale migration, high definition footage of polar bears feeding on seals, the sardine run (including pioneering a boat stabilising mount), high definition helicopter camera mount to film a shoal of sardines 15 miles long and 5,000 common dolphins, cape fur seals coming ashore, the eruption of the Ol Doinyo Lengai Volcano in the Serengeti, wildebeest migration, grizzly bear families, packs of wolves, underwater footage of bears, salmon leaps filmed with high definition cameras shooting at 2,000fps, extensive Okavango Delta flood filming, and more.

Exact schedules to be confirmed.

BBC HD

The National Trust for Scotland has announced that it is to make a new version of its "Battle of Bannockburn" educational drama currently playing at the Stirling heritage centre.

The original film, made in the 1980s, will be replaced with a high definition version using the latest video techniques, which should offer visitors an "awe-inspiring educational film".

The ten-minute film will combine computer-generated imagery and human actors.

Film director Craig Collinson said, "As a Scottish filmmaker, getting to visually interpret the Battle of Bannockburn on this scale is a rare privilege.

"My aim is to capture not only some of the sheer drama of how the battle unfolded - the incredibly intimidating site of Edward's vast army, the jaw dropping duel that took place between Bruce and one of the English knights and the awesome sight of the Scottish spearman advancing."

(Via BBC News)

MTV's European roll out of its high definition channel continues with news that it will launch on France's CanalSatellite service on 6th November, to coincide with the MTV Music Awards taking place that evening.

As far as I'm aware, the channel - which boasts 250 hours of high definition programming including live and Unplugged concerts and special events - doesn't have a UK launch date yet, but hopefully it won't be long now.

(Via Rapid TV News)

Next week sees the start of a groundbreaking new series on Channel 4. Following on from the successful "Animals in the Womb" comes "Extraordinary Animals in the Womb".

A joint project between the National Geographic Channel and Channel 4, the series used advanced high definition cameras to capture animals and embryos during pregnancy and birth.

Techniques included infrared and 4-D scanning techniques, as well as a host of realistic computer-generated models.

Glyndebourne Festival Opera brings three operas to the cinema in stunning high definition this autumn.

Giulio Cesare is being shown nationwide from 5th October. Hänsel und Gretel comes in November, with La Cenerentola following in December.

All screenings feature high definition content and 5.1 sound. Participating cinemas include:

• ODEON Basingstoke
• ODEON Blackpool
• Cinema de Lux Bluewater
• Cinema de Lux Bristol
• Royalty Bowness
• ODEON Colchester
• Cinema de Lux Derby
• GF1 Glasgow
• ODEON Guildford
• Empire High Wycombe
• Picturehouse Keighley
• Cinema de Lux
• Leicester
• ODEON Lincoln
• ODEON London Covent Garden
• Empire London Leicester Square
• Genesis London Mile End
• Reel Loughborough
• ODEON Maidenhead
• Palace Malton
• Mwldan Theatre Cardigan
• ODEON Norwich
• New Picture House St Andrews
• Showroom 1 Sheffield
• Plaza Skipton
• ODEON Southampton
• Empire Swindon
• ODEON Tunbridge Wells
• ODEON Wimbledon

Glyndebourne

MTV, the granddaddy of the TV music video genre, has announced that it's to push out a high definition music channel across much of Europe this month.

MTVNHD (MTV Networks High Definition) may not be the most catchy acronym around, but it'll do the job. Debuting on 15th September, it will contain over 300 hours of new music and programmes for children.

Though it's first coming to Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Poland and Sweden, it will only be aired in English -- still, that's the official language of music, isn't it?

Stars of Emmerdale, one of several British soaps to get the high definition treatment, are concerned about the show's transition, worried that the new HD video will draw attention to their facial wrinkles.

According to a source close to the show, "the HD format of the show promises to show every wrinkle, every blemish and every eye-bag. The women especially are worried they are going to be made to look awful!"

However, actress Lucy Pargeter said that the final results weren't as bad as she first feared.

Maybe it's time to slap on some HD-friendly makeup, or act like you just don't care.

If it's any consolation, there are probably not too many people watching Emmerdale in HD yet, given that it's only available via ITV1 HD on freesat.

(Via Digital Spy)

According to Digital Spy's exclusive interview with the director of Hollyoaks, Bryan Kirkwood, Channel 4's youth-friendly show will be the first British soap opera to get the high definition treatment -- at least excluding "Doctors" which the BBC has been filming in HD since December last year.

Hollyoaks is already being filmed in HD, and is due to broadcast from 2nd June. Other soaps could well follow shortly, with Emmerdale due to broadcast in HD from July.

Naturally, viewers will need to have suitable equipment to watch Channel 4 in high definition.

(Via Digital Spy)

As classic US children's programme Sesame Street enters its 39th series, it's getting a makeover and going high definition.

Airing in the US from 11th August, the Sesame Workshop's production has been helped in part by Sony, which has provided high definition cameras and switches. Ten portable and studio cameras have been used in filming.

"The decision to shoot in HD has been so exciting because it has brought 'the Street' to life, making our neighborhood of adults, children, monsters, grouches and 8-foot birds come alive," said Carol-Lynn Parente, executive producer of Sesame Street.

No word on whether we'll ever get to see Big Bird or Bert and Ernie in high-def this side of the Pond, but there's no doubt that technological advances in kids TV are being taken just as seriously as TV for us grownups.

(Via Electronic House)

Arabic broadcaster Al-Jazeera has partnered with Welsh broadcaster S4C, and the Welsh independent production company Cynhyrchiadau Ceidiog Creations, to create the second 52-part high definition series of Baaas, a children's programme about an extended family of all-singing, all-dancing multiracial sheep.

Work begins next month, with the Arabic version also being completed in Cardiff.

The programme is designed to give young children a taste of a wide variety of musical styles, as well as promoting family interaction and green themes.

It will be available from the autumn on S4C, under the title "Meees", and on al-Jazeera Children's new pan-Arab pre-school service from early 2009.

(Via The Guardian)

Virgin Media has announced that new high definition content from HBO has been added to its On Demand service.

Programmes including Steven Spielberg's "Band of Brothers", and "Sopranos", will be available this April and May, as well as comedy from Bill Maher and George Lopez, and factual show "Little Rock Central".

Malcolm Wall, chief executive of content at Virgin Media, said "The public's appetite for high definition programmes continues to grow, so we're delighted to offer our customers two of the US' most popular and highly acclaimed shows in HD. We're constantly adding new films, TV shows and music videos to our already huge On Demand service, but the addition of Band of Brothers and the Sopranos is a real coup."

Virgin Media

The Children's BBC nature programme Smalltalk Diaries has been featured by Digital Arts Online magazine, in particular how they captured close-up high definition shots of insects using a tiny HD camera and motion control rig.

"Being able to have very, very small lenses fit onto a very, very small camera helps to create a look and a feel that we hope no one has ever seen before," Dohrn observes. "We've captured some very extraordinary images with the Iconix [HD-RH1F] that wouldn't have been possible with an ordinary camera, in particular the endoscope work. There's no other way to do that kind of image. There isn't another camera that can do what we are doing."

Disney will launch its Disney Cinemagic HD channel in France and other French-speaking territories, tonight from 8.30pm.

It will offer a range of family movies, debuting tonight with Brother Bear 2, broadcasting from 6am to 1am each day exclusively on CANALSAT.

In its first year, it's expected to broadcast up to 50% of its content in native high definition, with other content being upscaled.

(Via WorldScreen)

Both Sony and Toshiba have today announced that they've expanded their LCD TV manufacturing presence in Europe, to cope with the continuing rise in demand for flat panel high definition screens.

Sony has opened its new plant in Nitra, Slovakia (pictured). The factory employs state-of-the-art equipment and will produce large size, high-end BRAVIA LCD TVs. It commenced full scale production this month, and is expected to churn out three million LCD TVs every year, and employ 3,000 staff, by 2008.

It will jointly serve with Sony's plant in Barcelona as the company's main LCD TV factory, while the existing Trnava plant will produce tuners for the BRAVIA LCD TVs, as well as providing technical support for Sony's PlayStation products.