BBC iPlayer HD comes to Virgin Media

A week after the BBC's catchup service went hi-def on the iPlayer Web site, Virgin Media customers can now stream HD iPlayer content through the Virgin V+ HD set-top box, absolutely free. You'll need to be a licence-payer, of course.

You can get access to HD iPlayer content over Virgin Media from today. If you don't have Virgin Media, however, you can still download HD content on your PC or Mac.

Concerning quality (warning: nerd content)

The standard-definition iPlayer content on Virgin Media uses a 3Mbps MPEG-2 stream, which is significantly higher than the 1.5Mbps stream used on the iPlayer Web site.

In fact, the iPlayer HD site only uses a 3.2Mbps H.264 stream -- a bit rate just 256Kbps greater than Virgin Media's standard-definition stream. Hopefully the new set-top box HD content will be higher-quality than that seen on the Web site, too.

We've not had a chance to test this out yet, so let us know your thoughts if you're a Vrigin Media customer.