As a brand new customer of Virgin Media, I ordered the top package for TV (XL + movie channels with V+ box), telephone (XL) and broadband (XXL up to 50Mb/S). On the scheduled installation date the engineer arrived and I rechecked the services I was getting when the engineer even said that I could expect speeds of around 40Mb/S on my up to 50Mb/S broadband service.

When I noticed my broadband speeds were slower than 20Mb/S (sometimes much less at busier times), I immediately rang Virgin to to complain to find I was in fact only given the 20Mb/S service instead of the 50Mb/S that I’d ordered. I demanded the 50Mb/S service that I’d asked for, but initially the operator said, “there’s nothing I can do”, this was because the 50Mb/S has different equipment and another engineer visit was required. I had to complain to a manager when I finally got told I could be upgraded to the 50Mb/S because of the mistake, but I had to argue not to pay the £35 installation charge again that I’d already paid once, but the manager agreed to credit this back to my account. Unfortunately I had to wait almost 2 weeks for another engineer to visit to upgrade me to the 50Mb/S service when it all went completely wrong from there on.

The 2nd engineer visited and installed the new equipment for my 50Mb/S broadband service and all was okay for literally JUST 5 MINUTES when I suddenly couldn’t connect, I rushed out, but the engineer had already gone. My Internet wasn’t connecting at all, I tried everything to no avail and then I called Virgin to complain. I was shocked to be told that I’d now gone above my credit limit and therefore my account had been suspended when I’d literally only made £10 worth of chargeable telephone calls. My bill was due by direct debit to be paid in a couple of weeks from this time and therefore my account should have been in perfect order. I complained, but the operator said that I would have to pay a £20 activation fee for the 50Mb/S that hadn’t even been mentioned or agreed at the time of sale. I decided to complain later as I needed my service up and running very urgently, so I reluctantly paid on the promise that my service would be back up within 2 hours. I repeatedly stated how urgent it was and that I needed my Internet back up quickly and was assured I would be back on-line within the 2 hours, I asked for my service back immediately as it wasn’t my fault, but I got nowhere.

Unfortunately I had to go out that evening to a scheduled appointment, but on returning home I found my Internet still wasn’t back on over 12 hours later. I then decided to watch TV, only to find my TV had been suspended too, including my recorded series which had been lost because of this problem and they won’t have been recorded either. I called Virgin again to demand answers as to why even after paying the agreed £20, I still wasn’t on-line, but customer services was shut and technical support were extremely unhelpful in every way telling me that my account was suspended and there was nothing they could do. I was treated like I hadn’t paid my bill when this certainly wasn’t true. I’d done absolutely NOTHING WRONG and Virgin Media were totally and utterly out of order suspending my account in every respect without any warning or notice. I demanded to speak to a manager to no avail and in fact technical support were quite rude throughout, I think they assumed I hadn’t paid my bill and had heard it all before.

It’s been absolutely disgusting the way I’ve been treated as a new Virgin Media customer and I’ve read on-line about numerous complaints about other new customer’s who have also had their accounts suddenly suspended without any warning because they’ve gone over a credit limit which wasn’t even specified by Virgin in the first place. Then these unfortunate customers are expected to pay money immediately to get their services back on without any apologises what-so-ever, in fact they’re treated like they haven’t paid their bill. After making this unexpected and unscheduled payment, customers often then they have to chase Virgin and sometimes get messed about waiting without the services they’re paying for without an offer of compensation for the extreme inconvenience or even an apology. What’s more, what if someone hasn’t budgeted to pay Virgin Media all of a sudden when they suddenly decide to suspend their account for this reason? Customer’s might well have the money to pay Virgin on the agreed payment date, but then through absolutely no fault of their own, they’d have to make do without any services for quite sometime if they can’t pay then, this is absolutely scandalous.

At the time of writing, I still haven’t got any Virgin services what-so-ever (I’m using a friend’s Internet to write this) and I’m absolutely itching to speak to their customer services as soon as they’re available at 8am when I will be making a formal complaint to a senior manager, especially when I’ve already paid £20 extra to get my services back on that most certainly wasn’t agreed at the time of sale. I will also be demanding compensation for losing my recorded programmes and all the inconvenience as well as being treated like a piece of ‘dirt’ by their technical support department like someone who hasn’t bothered to pay their bill.

PAY YOUR BILL OVER 2 WEEKS IN ADVANCE OF THE DIRECT DEBIT DATE SAY VIRGIN MEDIA, THEN WAIT UP TO 24 HOURS FOR THE SERVICES TO BE RESTORED:

The following day at 8am I called Virgin Media to demand answers. I got told that I’m still over my credit limit. I explain that I was told that by paying £20 I would be turned on within 2 hours, but I got told this was in fact wrong and that I’d have to pay my entire bill that isn’t due for over 2 weeks to get my services back on. This is absolutely scandalous as nothing has been mentioned about doing this and the e-billing system clearly states that this payment is due in over 2 weeks by direct debit. Luckily I had the money available although I was budgeting for it to come out of my next pay, but I still haven’t got my services on after paying it in full and I’m now told it could be 24 hours or longer without any compensation what-so-ever. I’m now waiting to speak to a manager to make a formal complaint, but I’m forced to wait for one to call me back (if they ever do), it’s disgusting the way I’ve been treated and anyone else in a similar situation. I wouldn’t mind, but absolutely nothing has ever been mentioned about paying a bill early or credit limits.

Virgin are literally holding people to ransom over providing their services when they’ve done absolutely nothing wrong, treating them like they haven’t paid their bill when it’s not even due for weeks. I would have thought much better from a company like Virgin Media, I’m shocked how they can get away with this. Virgin seriously need to review and change their system to clearly warn people about their credit limits at the time of sale. If upgrading a service puts a customer over the limit, they should be asked to pay extra when ordering instead of being unexpectedly cut off literally straight after the installation engineer leaves. If Virgin treat customers like this when a bill payment isn’t even anywhere near due, I’d hate to see what they’re like if you need more time to pay your bill due to financial problems.

MY SERVICE ARE FINALLY TURNED BACK ON, BUT I’M FAR FROM SATISFIED – IMPOSSIBLE CREDIT LIMIT ACCOUNT RESTRICTIONS WILL BE IMPOSED FOR A MINIMUM OF 6 MONTHS SAY VIRGIN:

I managed to eventually speak to a Virgin Media manager after lots of attempts calling their customer services as no-one even bothered to call me back as promised on 2 occasions despite being clearly promised. Every time I called, I had to again listen to the same long recorded message that wasn’t in the slightest bit relevant to myself which I couldn’t even skip, before going through numerous menus. I finally got all my services turned back on around 18 hours after the wrongful suspension in the first place following being forced to pay close to £145 when it wasn’t even due by direct debit for over 2 weeks including an extra £20 that wasn’t even mentioned at the time of sale for the activation of the 50Mb/S broadband broadband service. Apparently my credit limit is set at just £120 when my services already cost £86 a month which leaves me only £34 for telephone calls or extra paid services a month which is absolutely ridiculous, especially when nothing has even been mentioned about this at the time of sale or until my account was indeed suspended. Virgin just won’t increase this virtually unusable credit limit for at least 6 months which is absolutely scandalous and it’s just not acceptable. As soon as my account goes as much as a penny over this very low credit limit, my services will be barred and suspended again where I’d have to go though the whole punishment process of complaining yet again as well as making another unscheduled upfront payment.

No compensation has been even offered for all the inconvenience and stress I’ve been through when it’s entirely Virgin Media’s fault. I’ve for-instance lost an episode of a series I was religiously recording which failed thanks to Virgin’s unjustified and sudden account suspension without any warning, plus I’ve been bored out of my brains without TV or Internet while at home. I had to inconveniently visit a friends home to access my essential on-line services that really couldn’t wait until Virgin decided to reinstate my account that shouldn’t have been suspended in the first place. When they failed to reinstate my services as agreed after initially phoning and paying £20 by card, I had to then wait all night until 8am the following morning when their customer services re-opened again to find out that they wanted a lot more money upfront to reinstate my account because the previous Virgin customer services operator clearly didn’t have a clue what they were talking about. I’m now £20 out of pocket permanently that wasn’t agreed or mentioned at the time of sale. I’ve made numerous time consuming calls to Virgin to sort out the problem that they’ve directly caused. I’ve been ultimately forced to pay a total of £145 that wasn’t even due for over 2 weeks when I would have been paid again, yet the customer services manager amazingly asked me when I could make yet another payment! Remember that some people simply wouldn’t have this kind of money available until the agreed direct debit payment date, they certainly shouldn’t be suspended until then because Virgin suddenly decide to demand it! It looks like I’ve got to keep paying Virgin well in advance to avoid future suspensions. Since Virgin Media have proved that they can’t be trusted, I’ve also got to watch that Virgin don’t try to also take the same payment again by direct debit in just over a couple of weeks at the time of writing when my first bill is really due for payment and I’ll have to watch out for this again every single time I’m forced to make unscheduled advance payments in future to prevent repeated account suspension until my credit limit finally increases after 6 months minimum. Keeping a very close eye on my account which is extremely awkward and inconvenient to say the least. The whole low credit limit situation really isn’t fair or right and should have been made clear when I was originally sold the service!

I’m totally shocked at how Virgin have literally blackmailed me to pay a large amount of money that’s not even due until I get paid next to get my services turned back on at their convenience, NOT mine, plus I didn’t budget for this very early payment. I’ve been punished and treated like I haven’t paid my bill throughout when this certainly isn’t the case. I’ve now written a formal complaint and I will go higher than Virgin Media if necessary until I’m completely satisfied, plus I’m demanding compensation for the stress and inconvenience caused. If anyone else experiences similar unfair treatment from Virgin Media due to imposed credit limits or otherwise, please persevere and continue to complain until you’re absolutely satisfied as this is the only way Virgin Media will ever stop treating their customers in this scandalous and extremely unfair manner.

PLEASE ALSO SEE MY COMMENTS FOR UPDATES!

Legal Disclaimer

This article is my own personal opinion and is without prejudice to Virgin Media or any other organisation. My full legal disclaimer applies to this article, any comments and all other articles on this website.

Star Trek – Of Gods and Men

One may realise that’s there’s various amateur Star Trek fan film productions out there which are available to watch totally free on-line, but only one actually features some of the top cast from Star Trek the original series as well as from other series acting alongside some of the most dedicated Star Trek fans to produce what is actually a high quality and well acted feature length production with surprisingly reasonable special effects. I won’t ruin the surprise, but Star Trek fans will most certainly immediately recognise many of the actors. It’s the only fan production of Star Trek that in my opinion has really captured and followed on from the original Star Trek series and it’s never been on television meaning only a small fraction of people will have even heard of it, let alone watched it. The script is also professionally written and won’t disappoint.

If you’re a Star Trek fan, then I recommend you watch Star Trek – Of Gods and Men, it’s so well made that you will probably forget it’s a fan made production at all. If you have a reasonable broadband connection, right click and select high quality when watching as well as full screen. The feature length production is in 3 parts, enjoy!

To watch Star Trek – Of Gods and Men and for more information, please visit the official site at:

http://startrekofgodsandmen.com

Other Star Trek Fan Productions:

Star Trek: Phase II

If you’re a fan of the original series, then have you heard of Star Trek: Phase II? The series attempts to bring back the original series to life with the new voyages of The Starship Enterprise. In fact Star trek: Phase II has created quite a stir amongst many die hard Star Trek fans with already quite a cult following. With an extremely limited shoe-string budget and only some of Star Trek’s most dedicated fans as the unpaid actors, they have done an incredible job to reproduce the original Star Ship Enterprise and crew in this non profit production. This is certainly a true fan production and they have already produced 5 full length episodes at the time of writing with at least 3 more planned. The work to produce just one episode must have been an absolute mammoth task.

Unfortunately, unlike Star Trek – Of Gods and Men, Star Trek: Phase II doesn’t have the luxury of being able to include any of the professional cast from any of the official Star Trek series and it’s at first very difficult to get your head around having totally different actors taking the place of all the original crew on Captain James T. Kirk’s Star Ship Enterprise. The amateur actors try very hard to pretend they’re the original crew in every respect, but to me it just doesn’t work too well although it’s hard to criticize when they’ve achieved so much attempting this almost impossible task. The acting is in my opinion obviously going to be inferior to the original actors on the original series and I was left constantly comparing them, feeling disappointed. My favourite character, Mr Spock is played by more than one actor throughout the series, although neither are anywhere near as good as Leonard Nimoy in the original role and Mr Spock’s logic and the humour around him just hasn’t been reproduced well at all in my opinion, nor is his complex and sometimes humorous relationship with Dr. McCoy. In fact a lot is lacking and the way these actors try to imitate the original crew is in my opinion very artificial. I certainly found it very difficult to take it seriously and to really get into the story which I suppose isn’t too badly written although in my opinion still not a patch on the talents of the various original series writers including Gene Roddenberry himself who obviously also created Star Trek in the first place.

The visual special effects used in Star Trek: Phase II are obviously very cheaply created on a PC and are often somewhat dodgy to watch, although they fit the purpose they’re certainly not fully authentic to the special effects used in the original series. The sound effects and incidental music is very cleverly recreated authentically from the original series throughout which is quite impressive. Most of the original Star Ship Enterprise is amazingly visually reproduced in fine detail throughout, especially the bridge which is probably the most amazing achievement of this fan production. Most of the characters are authentically dressed and made up including the original looking Klingons as from the original series which look nothing like the Klingons seen since Star Trek The Motion Picture in 1979 when Klingons were completely redesigned with the familiar ridges on their foreheads.

Star Trek was often quite sexually controversial for the 1960s in various ways and love it or hate it, Star Trek: Phase II attempts to continue in this tradition in Episode 4: “Blood and Fire”, by featuring a gay kiss scene. The male couple are engaged to be married and this is accepted on board the Enterprise by all it’s crew including Captain Kirk himself in exactly the same way as a straight relationship would also be similarly accepted. The episode certainly promotes gay equality and gay marriage. Obviously it shows that times have changed however since the 1960s original series as a gay relationship, especially a gay kiss scene would have been much too controversial even for Star Trek back then.

To me Star Trek: Phase II just doesn’t cut the mustard although it’s still quite entertaining. It in my opinion remains somewhat weak and non gripping when compared to the genuine article, but like I said earlier, it’s still an incredible achievement for a non-profit fan production and is certainly worth a look if you’re a die hard fan of Star Trek The Original Series. Incidentally, Jeffrey Quinn, who plays Mr Spock in the earlier episodes of the series also plays a part in Star Trek – Of Gods and Men, you might want to watch out for him. In fact Jeffrey Quinn has starred in various Sci-fi fan productions.

Some Star Trek fans may know that the name, “Star Trek: Phase II” was originally going to be the title of a new Star Trek series which was planned to be aired back in 1978, but instead it evolved into Star Trek The Motion Picture. It’s therefore a fitting name for a good quality Star Trek fan production series.

To watch Star Trek: Phase II, the fan production series and for more information, please visit the official site at:

http://www.startreknewvoyages.com/

Even More Good Quality Fan Star Trek Fan Productions:

There’s many more good quality Star Trek fan made productions which I will soon review here, they all have original settings and story lines unlike Star Trek: Phase II (reviewed above) that reproduces the original Enterprise and crew, so you don’t have the problem of getting your head around having different inferior actors playing existing very well known characters.

In the mean time, PLEASE CLICK HERE for more information on all the fan productions available.

Please watch this space for further updates…

Many people are being mis-sold DVD players in the UK believing that they are able to watch HD (High Definition) movies in high definition, but unfortunately this ISN’T usually the case. Many of these people will be watching DVDs and unless they’ve actually experienced true HD in the past, most people won’t know any different and will continue to live with this lie.

The DVD Players in question often have HD and/or 1080p written on the box in big bold letters. The sales person at your store will sometimes even mislead you that the DVD player has HD, High Definition or 1080p. So how do they get away with it when the product isn’t HD at all?

In fact most of the DVD players in question have HD upscaling or 1080p upscaling, which ISN’T true high definition at all and this isn’t always understood or made clear by sales personnel. Unfortunately many of these DVD players have “High Definition” and/or “1080p” displayed on the box in large bold while “upscaling” is displayed much smaller which is in my opinion purposely trying to mislead the customer which is bordering on a scam. In fact all HD upscaling does is convert your low definition standard DVD output to a high definition output by basically enlarging / blowing up the picture. It’s therefore most certainly NOT a true high definition video and doesn’t look as good either even though it does connect through an HDMI cable.

Please don’t confuse standard DVD’s with HD DVDs. HD DVD’s are truly high definition DVD’s as they do output in true high definition, mainly 1080p. The problem is HD DVDs DON’T work in most DVD players today even if they have HD or 1080p upscaling. In fact the HD DVD format is completely dying out, most films aren’t released in this format now and it’s quite difficult to purchase titles in this format in the average high street shop in the UK. It’s therefore in my opinion NOT worth searching and paying a considerable amount more for one of the few DVD players that really do play HD DVDs in true high definition. Instead I recommend investing in a Blu-Ray player (please see below for more details).

Blu-Ray Disks:
The New Standard in True High Definition Video

If you want to experience true high definition video and movies at home, then one really needs to purchase an HD Blu-Ray player. This format is taking off as the new standard for true HD movies, new titles are released in this format and they’re already readily available in most high street shops in the UK Etc. Newer Blu-ray players are backward compatible meaning they will also play standard definition DVDs using HD upscaling which is explained earlier in this article. Blu-ray players are still a lot more expensive than DVD players although the price has and still is coming down. You can already purchase an entry level Blu-Ray player in the UK as cheap as around £100 on-line at the time of writing which is well within most people’s budgets if they really want one, put please remember that it’s pointless having an true HD player without a suitable HD display / TV to take advantage of the increased resolution, please see the section titled “Choosing a Suitable HD display / TV” below for more details.

The Blu-ray disk format is far superior to the much older DVD format as it can store a lot more data, allowing much more space to achieve much higher quality resolutions. For this reason Blu-ray is also likely to eventually to take over as the preferred choice for PC optical disks over DVDs. If you compare the DVD and Blu-Ray disk formats, a single layered DVD can hold around 4.7GB of data when a Blu-ray disk can hold a massive 25GB. There are dual layered DVD’s that hold around 8.5Gb of data, but there’s also dual layered Blu-ray disks available that hold a massive 50GB. What’s more is the amount of layers is set to increase to quad layered Blu-ray disks holding 100GB of data and eventually even 16 layered Blu-ray disks that have already been demonstrated by Pioneer at the time of writing which promises to hold an unbelievable 400GB of data. In fact we could see even more layers available as time goes on, so it’s likely the Blu-ray disk will continue to remain popular in the foreseeable future.

Choosing a Suitable HD display / TV

The Difference Between HD Compatible, HD Ready and True HD Displays / TVs (UK):

As I’ve already mentioned earlier in this article, there’s little point in having a true HD Blu-ray player if you haven’t got a suitable high definition display to output it to. If you want to experience full HD 1080p then you need a full HD 1080p display, NOT just an HD Ready display and certainly NOT just an HD compatible display or you will be losing quality.

HD Compatible ONLY means that the display will allow a true HD input via an HDMI cable and it DOESN’T mean your display will really display a true HD video in high definition. Instead the HD input will be reduced to the true resolution of your display losing the added quality that makes it high definition in the first place. These displays are usually cheaper than HD Ready and much cheaper than True HD displays.

HD Ready displays are also NOT true high definition although again they will again allow you to input a true HD input via an HDMI cable. HD Ready displays are however better than just HD compatible displays, but not as good as True HD displays. HD Ready is usually in 720i, 720p, 768i or 768p (please see the section directly below for more details), but the resolution can vary. It’s still much crisper than low definition and 720p is currently good enough for watching Sky HD television (please see the “Sky+ HD TV” section below for details why). Sometimes HD Ready TVs also have the 1080p symbol in advertisements like “HD Ready 1080p” and in my opinion this is again trying to deceive the customer as it’s NOT true 1080p. These display are usually cheaper than True HD displays, but more expensive than just HD compatible displays.

True HD displays (also known as true 1080i / 1080p) allow you to input a true HD input via an HDMI cable and will display it in full resolution without any loss to your picture quality although 1080i isn’t as good as 1080p (please see the section directly below for more details). True HD, mainly 1080p is the best choice for watching high definition movies although also the most expensive.

720i, 720p, 768i, 768p, 1080i or 1080p?

There are various standards for HD ready and True HD definition TVs displays Etc. They are mainly 720i, 720p, 768i, 768p (HD Ready) and 1080i and 1080p (True HD). Personally I would stay away from 720i, 768i and 1080i where possible as “i” stands for interlaced. Interlaced updates the display twice in every frame updating odd and then even lines, the display can appear to shimmer or flicker when watching closely which could noticeably reduce the quality of your video. “p” however stands for progressive and updates the entire screen for each and every frame sequentially in one pass ensuring there’s no flicker. “720″, “768″ and “1080″ stand for the number of horizontal lines displayed down your display making up the picture, having 1080 lines give a noticeably clearer and crisper picture. In fact 720i or 720p gives a resolution of 1280×720 and 768i or 768p gives a resolution of 1366×768 while 1080i or 1080p gives much higher resolution of 1920×1080, so with 1080 lines you also get more vertical lines considerably increasing the resolution. Therefore 1080p is certainly the preferred choice for watching true high definition movies at the time of writing as there will be no flicker or loss of resolution. Surprisingly Sky TV still aren’t using the best 1080p for their HD broadcasts, please see the section below for more details.

Sky+ HD TV ISN’T Broadcast in 1080p, Why?
(Sky TV is available to residents in the UK)

Although Blu-Ray disks are available in 1080p format, unfortunately at the time of writing Sky TV in the UK only broadcasts HD television in a choice of 720p or 1080i format, NOT 1080p format which is certainly the best. Because 1080i creates a somewhat flickery output for many, most people with large HD screens choose to watch in 720p instead. It’s a shame if you’ve got a true HD 1080p television as although you can usually still watch in reasonable 720p which is still better than standard definition, you won’t be getting the most out of your high definition television watching Sky. Because of this many Sky+ HD subscribers with 1080p TVs will be bitterly disappointed and often won’t realise until after their purchase. Sky do disclose this drawback although you do need to read the in depth information provided. Sadly at the time of writing this situation is unlikely to change soon as Sky would have to make considerable changes to implement 1080p. Virgin cable TV takes most of programmes from Sky TV and is therefore subject to the same constraint. Incidentally, changing the subject slightly, Sky+ HD also broadcasts in Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound when available, not 7.1.

Legal Disclaimer

This article includes entirely my personal opinion and is without prejudice to Sky, Virgin or any other organisation. Although I have tried to make this article as accurate as possible, PJCNET cannot be held responsible for any mistakes made or any indirect losses incurred as a result. When purchasing high definition equipment, we advise people to seek a professional opinion. This article, any comments and all other articles are covered by our full legal disclaimer.

The well known alleged TV psychic Derek Acorah has conducted what he claimed to be a live seance on Sky One on the 6th November 2009 at 10pm where he allegedly attempted to communicate with the spirit of the late Michael Jackson. Please read my opinions before and after this extremely controversial TV programme below.

(Sky One is a popular television channel available via satellite & cable in the UK by subscription only!)

My Opinion Before The TV Programme:

Firstly in my opinion Derek Acorah has been proved face beyond any reasonable doubt. The most conclusive hard evidence against Derek shows that he deceived audiences on Most Haunted. On the show in question Derek shouted out the name, “Kreed Kafer” that he apparently picked up during a partial possession. What Derek didn’t know was the parapsychologist, Dr Ciaran O’Keeffe had set him up beforehand by mis-feeding him the information which he had personally fabricated. “Kreed Kafer” is an anagram of “Derek Faker” and in my opinion this is alone almost certain proof of Derek’s deception. Later even Yvette Fielding of Most Haunted admitted that she believed the alleged possession was a “fake possession”. Apparently Derek was set-up yet again a few weeks later when he came out with another name, “Rik Eedles” which is an anagram of “Derek Lies”. Even without all this hard evidence that Derek has deceived people on TV, as a paranormal investigator since 1996 who has witnessed genuine trance mediumship (possession) on numerous occasions, I know Derek’s alleged possessions are fake (well in my experienced opinion) and everyone else I know with paranormal investigation experience also agree totally. To me Derek Acorah was someone to watch for light entertainment only, but in my opinion a seance to contact the late Michael Jackson just isn’t funny in the slightest and can potentially upset a lot of people whether they believe in Derek or not.

Please see the following footage and hard evidence that Derek is allegedly a fake spiritualist medium by saying “Kreed Kafer” (”Derek Faker” anagram):

(The above YouTube video is a clip taken from Living TV’s Most Haunted – All rights reserved!)

Please note that Most Haunted showed the spelling of Kreed Kafer wrongfully as Creed Kaifer which wasn’t as originally intended by Dr Ciaran O’Keeffe when he set Derek up.

So why when Derek Acorah is allegedly a proven fake are Sky One giving him the time of day? Well Sky One are bound to get a lot of viewers even if it’s for the wrong reasons and it’s sadly in my opinion mainly about money. The potential of a lot of extra viewers means very expensive advertising and a lot more revenue for Sky. Also the show has the potential to cause a real media stir and even bad publicity is good publicity for Sky. It’s in my opinion obvious Derek will be shown to make alleged contact with Michael Jackson as simply turning round, saying he that couldn’t contact him just doesn’t make entertaining television. In my opinion it’s a complete and utter insult to the late Michael Jackson, his family, his fans and anyone else who knew him, Derek Acorah has in my opinion taken it much too far this time for fame and fortune. It’s also in my opinion a total insult to all genuine psychics and trance mediums as many people will unfairly tarnish them with the same brush.

Will my opinion change after watching the programme? Well I’d be absolutely amazed if it did. I’m expecting to see Derek Acorah go off into a fake possession, throwing himself about. I’m expecting Derek to say some extremely controversial things about Michael Jackson’s death. I’m convinced it will be all carefully planned and rehearsed, Derek is probably going over his lines one last time as I write this very sentence one night before the live seance. Derek will certainly have done his homework on Michael Jackson and might even already have some information most people don’t know in an attempt to try an prove he is genuine, watch out for this.

I don’t really want to watch the TV programme as I’m disgusted by what I’m certain will be an absolute farce and I don’t really want to be supporting Derek Acorah & Sky by viewing it, but I will watch it only so I can comment further about what went on here.

My Opinion After The TV Programme:

In my opinion this programme was one of the worst pieces of paranormal evidence shown on TV ever.

Firstly the live seance was conducted in Michael Jackson’s part time residence in Ireland and as expected it fitted in very conveniently within the time scale of the TV programme schedule and of course Derek Acorah claimed to be in contact with the late Michael Jackson. The show beforehand made out that Michael loved his residence in Ireland more than anywhere else in an attempt to make out that it’s more likely that the spirit of Michael Jackson would be there. Genuine spiritualists and psychics will tell you that one cannot summon a spirit and you can only communicate with who chooses to be there. In reality, Michael Jackson’s spirit in my opinion would more likely be near where he died, but he could well have simply moved on to the light, but this wouldn’t make good entertainment if Derek hadn’t been successful.

Invited to the live seance were a few of Michael Jackson biggest die hard fans including a couple of tribute impersonators. They loved Michael Jackson that much that they appeared to in fact worship him almost like he is a God. Before the seance they all thought that Michael Jackson was watching over all his fans. In my opinion it’s completely impossible that Michael Jackson is watching over ALL his fans as there’s literally millions and saying that he is watching over them all is in my opinion comparing him to Jesus or God as they certainly appeared to mean “ALL” in the literal sense of the word meaning all at once. The way some people worship Michael Jackson is in my opinion somewhat similar to how Christians worship Jesus as they believe Jesus is watching over everyone and that he will live forever in spirit. These particular Michael Jackson die hard fans were in my opinion very carefully hand picked as they were all desperate to believe that the spirit of Michael Jackson is watching them, so it wouldn’t be hard for someone like Derek Acorah to brainwash them slightly further by making them believe he is in direct contact with the late Michael Jackson.

As expected Derek almost immediately allegedly picked up on Michael Jackson’s spirit, but he conveniently said that Michael didn’t want to channel through him fully and I assume he meant that Michael did want to talk by taking full control of Derek’s body, E.g. full trance mediumship or possession, although Derek did “appear” to channel (pass on) Michael Jackson’s words through himself. In my opinion, if Derek had made out he was possessed by Michael Jackson, it would have been far too obvious it was fake as too many people are very familiar with Michael Jackson and Derek couldn’t easily act as Michael Jackson to their expectations, talking exactly like him. It was easy for Derek to make out he was taken over by spirits of people no-one actually knew apart from when he came out with the set-up name Kreed Kafer on Most Haunted (an anagram of Derek Faker).

In my opinion Derek wasn’t in the slightest bit convincing and came out with things anyone could know if they did a small amount of research into Michael Jackson’s life. It was easy for him to say what he chose as he hardly accepted any questions or interaction. Most of what he said was about the false allegations against him while he was living, but towards the end he spoke personally to the people there. Nothing specific that only Michael could know came out and if it was the spirit of Michael Jackson, it’s very likely he would want to prove to people he was in fact himself beyond any doubt. Towards the end, according to Derek, Michael Jackson made out the die hard fans attending were his close friends and even offered to watch over them, the fans appeared to believe and were extremely emotional as expected, but like I said earlier, in my opinion they desperately wanted to believe and were therefore very easily brainwashed.

In my opinion, the only interesting thing that was spoken by Derek during the seance was when one of Michael Jackson’s die hard fans and a tribute act himself asked which was his favourite tribute performance at the end when a small amount of interaction was finally allowed. Well there are hundreds of Michael Jackson impersonators and tribute acts, so how could Michael Jackson actually know this particular tribute’s performances? Either way, Derek allegedly passed on from Michael Jackson that it was to do with a race horse stadium. Later this die hard fan went on that no-one knew about this stadium except him and his close friend beside him, saying that Derek couldn’t have known this information. I’m extremely sceptical about Derek not knowing this information as the programme certainly hand picked Michael Jackson’s die hard fans extremely well indeed, they would have most likely sent in detailed applications and they would have been interviewed carefully, in fact it’s also very likely they spent quite some time beforehand going over their roles in the live seance with the crew, so at any time this information could have been leaked out. It’s surely very likely that he would have boasted about his Michael Jackson tribute performances and probably where he played at some point beforehand. If he didn’t pass on the information about the stadium, then it’s also possible that this particular fan was part of the deception although there wasn’t conclusive evidence of this. If none of the 2 explanations about the stadium truly are the case, then perhaps Derek did pick-up on this, but I think even this is unlikely and in my opinion I’m still absolutely convinced that the spirit of Michael Jackson wasn’t passing information through Derek as he claimed.

Why wasn’t there a genuine independent parapsychologist overseeing the seance? Why wasn’t there any scientific equipment present? If the seance was so real, they wouldn’t be afraid to stand up to scrutiny. Instead the programme was in my opinion extremely one sided towards allegedly proving that Derek really was channelling the spirit of Michael Jackson from start to finish and no-one even slightly questioned the authenticity of the seance.

In my opinion there was absolutely no evidence that Derek was really in contact with the late Michael Jackson’s spirit and therefore in my opinion it’s an insult to genuine psychics out there plus to Michael Jackson, his family and his fans. Many of Michael Jackson’s fans however won’t let go after his sad death and will continue to kid themselves to believe in a similar way to how Elvis Presley lived on many years after his death.

A More Positive View Of Derek Acorah:

Derek Acorah has in fact got thousands of dedicated fans who believe truly in his work as a psychic medium and clairvoyant. I’m not legally allowed to copy any text from his fan club site, but I can say that it describes Derek as an absolutely incredible clairvoyant and sensitive man. Before taking a negative view of the man, I ask people to consider all the evidence.

For an alternative and very positive view of Derek Acorah, please visit his official website at http://www.derekacorah.org/ and his official fan club at http://www.derekacorah.org.uk/.

We try to give both views of an opinion where-ever possible. In my opinion I think Derek has in fact got some psychic abilities, but I suspect that the immense pressures of getting high TV ratings forced Derek to start falsifying evidence on Most Haunted.

Legal Disclaimer

This article is my personal opinion only and shouldn’t be taken as definite fact. It is without prejudice to Derek Acorah, the late Michael Jackson, his family, any Christians, Jesus or any other people or organisations. In fact PJCNET always means the absolute utmost respect to anyone who has past on from this life. The purpose of this article is not to do any harm. The video footage is stored on YouTube’s servers (not on PJCNET) and is a clip from Living TV’s Most Haunted, all rights reserved. My full legal disclaimer applies to this article and all other articles plus comments on this website.

I have so far at the time of writing watched the 1st 2 parts of Most Haunted Live: Halloween 2009 where they are running an 8 night investigation named, “the eight faces of evil”. I am an experienced paranormal investigator who started in 1996 when I first visited Chingle Hall in Lancashire which was then known to many as allegedly the most haunted house in Great Britain until it finally closed it’s doors to paranormal investigators after the very sad death of the joint owner, Judy. This was well before Most Haunted appeared on our TV screens, when Yvette Fielding was known to no-one in the paranormal field. With my experience which leans more towards scientific investigation techniques than psychic techniques, I can certainly advise that in my opinion the recent Most Haunted Live paranormal investigations were conducted in a very unprofessional manner, this can probably be said for most of the main series although one sees little behind the scenes as only the live events have webcams and you only see the best edited bits unless it’s live.

Some reasons why Most Haunted Live: Halloween 2009 is unprofessional in my opinion:

1…The name of the show could insults spirits:

They call the live show “the eight faces of evil”, this is extremely insulting to spirits in the first place. On a professional paranormal investigation, one should always show compassion and forgiveness to spirits who are in fact people with feelings who have lost their physical body.

2…Too many people on set, many wandering about aimlessly:

From looking at their live webcams, people are left to wander the location and they don’t keep track of where everyone is. This is very bad as other people could make noises that could easily be misinterpreted by the investigation team. Also there’s too many people in the audience to conduct an investigation nearby where quiet is required as it only takes one person to whistle or make noises to make a mockery of it. Some noises may not even be purposeful, E.g. stomachs rumbling, coughing, shuffling, knocking, heavy breathing, wheezing, sniffing Etc. Because of all this it’s virtually impossible to eliminate explainable sounds and therefore it’s almost impossible to admit any sound evidence as certainly paranormal in cause. People should be locked off and they need to constantly know exactly where everyone is near any investigation. Also the people wandering around have torches, which could also interfere with the investigation if they don’t know where everyone is.

3…Suspicious activity around their webcams:

I have seen real people that have acted suspiciously around the webcams and I’ve already heard some of these mistaken and read out on air as possible paranormal activity. These cameras should ideally be locked off in empty rooms. E.g. a) On the 1st night I saw a member of the team turn his torch off and then hang around in the darkness at the top of the stairs in the distance of the camera, he stayed their for a few minutes and you could hardly see him, he then moved back out. I know it was a real person and NOT a ghost or spirit apparition from my experience. b) On the 2nd night I saw a member of the team flash his flash-light behind a door in the distance of the camera, to me with my experience I know it was certainly a torch light, but many people will be mistaken reporting it as light anomalies. Incidentally, the webcams appear a few minutes behind the actual live show on the TV, is this so they can cut out bits if they see them inappropriate or perhaps if it exposes something the public shouldn’t know? I’m now wondering how live the TV show itself really is too?

4….Screaming instead of examining crucial evidence:

Sometimes when suspected paranormal activity does occur, some members of the team scream and have to be attended to. Surely with years experience investigating the paranormal, the team should be immune to screaming and if not, they shouldn’t be on a team of professional paranormal investigators as this is extremely unprofessional in every way. Screaming completely ruins any serious paranormal investigation. When something unusual happens, it’s very important to ascertain the facts as quickly as possible in a calm and rational manner, instead with screaming, this completely destroys any chance of studying the evidence properly. I’m unsure if the members of the team are really this unprofessional and scared, or if they’re doing it artificially to entertain people watching the show.

5…They rarely investigate explainable causes of alleged activity:

When something happens that initially the team can’t explain, it’s rare that the team thoroughly investigate it for all possible explainable explanations. If for instance, they hear a knock, one should try to ascertain exactly where the knock has come from, one should then try to duplicate the knock and study anything that could have possibly caused it no matter how unlikely, until everything is investigated thoroughly, the knock isn’t unexplained phenomenon, yet Most Haunted usually jump to the obvious paranormal explanation very quickly.

6…Explainable webcam evidence presumed to be paranormal evidence:

The public are watching the web-cams, but most come out with all sorts of unbelievable phenomenon that they’re supposed to have witnessed, usually I have seen absolutely no evidence of what they claim, but usually there is an obvious explainable explanation, but Most Haunted don’t even consider this. Much of what is seen is in my opinion is camera noise or in some cases interference as the quality via the Internet is awful and certainly not good enough for studying paranormal evidence, yet Most Haunted haven’t even explained to people what camera noise is and that you can see random ‘movement’ sometimes because of this, instead they’re just reading out all these fantastic visions people are supposed to be seeing in the webcams as supposed paranormal evidence. One person for instance said they saw a yellow mist which came and went, well yes, it was certainly camera interference that was intermittent on one camera as I witnessed this on numerous occasions. Most Haunted still didn’t explain this and ignored my attempts to advise reason despite sending them various messages.

7…There’s massive amounts of auto-suggestion:

There’s a massive amount of auto-suggestion which means people are all hyped up expecting and wanting something to happen, when this is the case, they can often believe something is happening that isn’t, this is psychological and is amplified in groups, E.g. in the audience. The ‘psychic mediums’ also know everything about the location before they visit, so there’s no evidence that they are really picking up what they claim. I have mediated between 2 members of BirminghamIU to see if they’re really picking up information from spirit. They got exactly the same very specific information that each of the 2 members couldn’t have possibly known about spirit people they certainly knew nothing of and I ensured they were kept apart throughout. Why couldn’t Most Haunted do an experiment like this using unbiased external experts? I doubt if they’d have the nerve for fear of failure.

I WILL CONTINUE TO COMMENT AS THE LIVE SHOW CONTINUES!

The Most Haunted paranormal craze & it’s impact on serious paranormal investigators:

Most Haunted is the main cause of a British craze for the paranormal and the want to attend haunted locations, but sadly it hasn’t in my opinion taught professionalism and instead it’s created a new breed of people who only want to investigate the paranormal for the thrill of being scared, instead of to perform a genuine and professional investigation. It’s a real shame that since Most Haunted there’s been a massive influx of paranormal groups that unfortunately want to copy the show including everything that’s unprofessional about a serious paranormal investigation. I’ve even seen some groups holding paid events totally mimicking Most Haunted, like, “Nearly Haunted Live” instead of Most Haunted Live. Because of the Most Haunted demand, these events are sadly often mainly for thrill seekers, instead of serious paranormal investigators and these type of investigations now completely outnumber professional ones.

Before Most Haunted, paranormal groups where few and far between, but the ones that existed were a lot more professional and involved very serious enthusiasts. Also because of the massive increased demand for haunted locations which is almost entirely thanks to Most Haunted, they have become tourist attractions and big money spinners. Before Most Haunted, it was a lot easier to get indoor locations for free, now these locations charge and often they charge ridiculous amounts as they can now get away with it. Because of this it’s harder for non profit serious paranormal groups to get locations and although there’s a lot more groups out there, it’s harder for people to choose a professional paranormal group if they decide they need their home investigated. Numerous owners of potentially haunted locations are also trying to jump on the band wagon whether they are genuinely haunted or in some situations, not in my opinion. If people go in search of spirits anywhere, before long spirits will usually come. It’s currently impossible to prove in a British court of law whether a location is haunted or not, so it’s virtually impossible to accuse anyone of deception when advertising a paid ghost hunt at any location even if people suspect it was never haunted in the first place.

Please remember that spirits are in fact people with feelings, they are NOT there for thrills or as a tourist attraction, they should be treated with the great of respect and compassion where possible, they’re NOT a circus act.

On a good point, Most Haunted Live is quite entertaining as long as serious investigators don’t take it too seriously. It’s a shame in some ways that Derek Acorah has left, even though I know his trance episodes where totally fake (well in my opinion) as I’ve seen genuine trance medium experiments on numerous occasions myself, he was certainly very entertaining indeed. Unfortunately Derek was set-up and was proved fake when he came out with the name, “Kreed Kafer” which was set-up beforehand as an anagram of “Derek Faker” by their parapsychologist, Dr Ciaran O’ Keeffe who was simply doing his job to discover the real truth in my opinion. Unfortunately now the parapsychologist’s scepticism seems to take an even smaller part of the show. I strongly suspect that a team of totally unbiased parapsychologists would challenge the show, probably bringing it to it’s knees, but they should have the nerve to do this and take the flack to have any chance of earning the respect of genuine professional paranormal investigators in the future.

Most Haunted Live Night 4: Was this really the most significant paranormal evidence EVER?

On the 4th night of Most Haunted Live 2009 at Ashton Hall in Lancashire, the presenter repeated that this investigation was the most significant ever achieved because of alleged paranormal evidence they captured through an experiment conducted by Dr Ciaran O’Keeffe and the team. Have they really obtained such ground breaking and significant evidence as they claim?

Well unfortunately, in my opinion, I most certainly don’t think so. Most Haunted apparently played back 5 names using a speaker system that was inaudible to the human ear as the speech was converted to ultrasound. According to Dr. Ciaran O’Keeffe, only he knew these names as he clearly informed viewers. The team then sat during a ouija board seance and quite quickly the glass moved to point out all 5 names. According to Most Haunted, this proved without doubt that spirits could in fact hear the ultrasound and then they communicated the words via the ouija board to the team.

Firstly, why is it when Most Haunted conduct seances, they virtually always get a response within just a few minutes or seconds, even when transmitting live? I have sat in genuine attempted seances and more often than not, one has to be very patient to get a response if any and I’m still quite sceptical about seances as paranormal evidence for various reasons. Secondly, the 5 names were printed on the screen for viewers to see very shortly after Dr. Ciaran O’Keeffe assured viewers that only he knew the secret words, for it to be displayed on-screen members of the production crew must have known the words as otherwise the controller wouldn’t know what to print on-screen. Later they corrected themselves to say that hardly anyone knew the words and the team didn’t, this could have been after people challenged them via the Internet. Thirdly, throughout the evening, the team were supposed to be dealing with another ‘face of evil’, yet all of a sudden when it suited them, a spirit allegedly became very reasonable and decided to work with the team, relaying this information via the ouija board. Where was the so called evil spirit then? I’m very sorry, but it far too difficult for me to believe and extremely convenient how easily the information came across with the ultrasound experiment going so perfectly. Don’t they think experiments have been conducted like this before, yet there’s been no real evidence of any previous success.

Earlier on the live show on day 4, the team performed another seance and as usual they also got responses almost immediately, this time it was done using just a table where they all apparently heard scratching sounds from the table before it kept vibrating knocking a torch over which they kept standing on it’s end. The scratching was heard for a couple of minutes and was also heard by viewers. I watched the team and one member slipped and his hand moved quite a bit to his left even when the table wasn’t moving much, why would he slip so much if he wasn’t putting a fair bit of force onto the table? From my experience, paranormal activity usually only occurs for a short period of time when it does happen, so I’m also sceptical how long the scratching went on for if it was really unexplained. After this seance the teamed checked under the table to see a hand print that could be seen using what I thought was ultraviolet light, but this wasn’t good evidence as they had no footage of underneath the table before the seance. This hand print could easily have been there before as people may for instance move the table, yet the team continued to go on how interesting and significant it was.

I apologise again, but I’m simply not taken in my these experiments and I’m extremely sceptical to say the least. I would want to see the experiments repeated with totally independent parapsychologists conducting it under very controlled conditions, then the results would be very interesting, but Most Haunted won’t actually do this as I know they would be ripped to shreds by totally unbiased parapsychologists who aren’t on their pay roll. An unbiased independent parapsychologist would be for instance very sceptical of seances as he/she would certainly consider that it’s very possible the glass or table could be pushed either consciously or unconsciously a member or members of the team.

Also during the night, Yvette Fielding tried to conduct a lone vigil and was apparently so scared out of her wits that she had tears in her eyes, repeatedly going on about how frightened she was. How can one conduct a professional investigation when there’s so much irrational fear? It’s extremely unprofessional and I would expect much better from someone so experienced. Later Yvette was finally calling for her husband to rescue her instead of investigating the location and possible phenomenon properly. This is the same Yvette Fielding who is supposed to be one of the best paranormal investigators in the UK. Well if I’d have been in that room, I would have been as calm as anything, carefully observing and recording anything unusual. From experience, you normally learn not to be scared and to deal with very haunted locations as just a walk in the park.

As usual the location wasn’t locked down at all and people were wondering all over the place as seen on the webcams. The webcams were again plagued with lots of interference and camera noise, often one would even see torch lights, sometimes even shining by which would confuse some inexperienced people to believe it could be paranormal in cause. I wrote numerous comments daring the team to speak them on air, but as normal they only read out comments that either praised Most Haunted or about apparent anomalies or apparitions that frankly I didn’t see. I did see a couple of possible light anomalies, but with the terrible interference and camera noise, plus with torches and people all over the place, it was impossible to prove it was unexplained.

Most Haunted Live Night 6: Was it really “the most dangerous experiment ever”?

I missed night 5 of Most Haunted Live as I was called out to an emergency private paranormal investigation which for the purposes of confidentiality I cannot disclose information, but I can tell my readers that it was conducted in a very professional manner without any screams or fear like on Most Haunted and the problems were dealt with very well. In fact a professional paranormal investigation isn’t anything like Most Haunted and I’ve certainly been on plenty over the years.

On night six the Most Haunted Live team set-up a large Tesla coil and made out the experiment was extremely dangerous indeed, Yvette Fielding even went as far as to say her emotional goodbyes to her husband who was taking part in the experiment, saying, “I love you”. Fear showed on everyone’s faces, especially the 3 team members who took part.

The Tesla Coil produces a high electrical charge that sends sparks outwards towards earthed objects which on the show were large metal cages containing 3 members of the team that were allegedly chosen by a ouija board on the previous seance. The sparks can hardly be seen in bright light, but in dimly lit rooms, the sparks can look quite spectacular and could appear to be dangerous to the average uninformed onlooker.

Despite what was said on the show, the experiment on the show wasn’t dangerous, in fact even directly touching the sparks without a cage cannot kill you, at worst even this could only mildly burn in unusual unlucky circumstances. The ONLY real danger is directly touching the capacitor itself as this could in fact be lethal, but the crew obviously had no intention of going anywhere near this. In the metal cages, the sparks harmlessly discharge every time as the cages are strongly earthed. The crew inside the cages also took off metal objects as a further precaution, so nothing could possibly go wrong. When the sparks started, the team in my opinion looked way too far into which way the sparks went, claiming that spirits were effecting them (I doubt it).

The reason the experiment is NOT dangerous is even though it might technically produce 3/4 Million Volts of electricity as the host kept repeating, there’s almost no Ampage and it’s therefore nothing like for instance the power going through an electric pylon cable. One could technically say that a spark of static from a CRT monitor screen is thousands of Volts, but it certainly won’t harm you as again the Ampage is negligible. Most Haunted didn’t explain about the low harmless Ampage, but instead they blatantly described the experiment as, “The Most Dangerous Experiment Ever” and later, “I’m amazed they made it back..”, this is complete and utter rubbish and therefore in my opinion the show was purposely misleading people. This proves in my opinion just how much the show is prepared to exaggerate just to make the show more exciting to viewers, so with this in mind, how could one now actually trust any of the evidence? The experiment certainly ‘appeared’ very spectacular never-the-less and was in my opinion very dramatically played out.

What amazed me the most was Dr. Ciaran O’Keeffe extreme reluctance to go into the cage apparently showing fright and apprehension. As part of parapsychology, he would surely have studied basic physics, so he would be the first person to know that the experiment isn’t dangerous at all. I would have been happy to stay in the cage with the Tesla Coil on for hours. I really wish they’d invite an unbiased totally independent team of parapsychologists who aren’t on the payroll onto the show, but they wouldn’t in my opinion dare do this as they’d in my opinion be ripped to shreds.

The night also included lots of pointless screams that stopped the team carrying out any reasonable paranormal investigation, the worst member of the team for this was Kath who appeared constantly scared and even had to be led away at one point as she clearly couldn’t cope. If a team member cannot cope in an allegedly haunted location, then they’re not in my opinion fit to be a paranormal investigator at all, especially with so much experience. Unfortunately Yvette Fielding is the 2nd worst for pointless screaming.

Numerous serious points were missed again during the investigation which made any paranormal evidence virtually inadmissible. For instance, when a seance was being conducted in the small pub, 2 members of the team were shouting and banging, investigating the toilet, also they had the toilet door open. Toilets are often colder and sometimes the windows are left open to disperse smell, opening the door could cause drafts and one seance member, Kath apparently reported a cold breeze at this time, but then as usual started screaming instead of investigating the source, forcing the rest of the team to attend to her instead of any possible evidence. Also outside the locations wasn’t locked off and it’s obvious people will interfere making noises outside the locations as it’s live, we did hear someone mucking about outside in the 2nd location and at least this was brought to the attention of the viewers then, but I suspect many more noises heard could also be this accounted for by this or similar.

I was again very sceptical at all the various seances as every one went perfectly and started working within seconds which isn’t what would really happen every time. When was the last time a seance actually didn’t work at all on Most Haunted or when did an experiment last go completely wrong? Also they were supposed to be again dealing with an ‘evil’ spirit from hundreds of years ago (a face of evil), yet during the seances and the Tesla Coil experiment the spirit was allegedly extremely co-operative which is contradictory for a so called ‘evil’ spirit. Also it’s absolutely incredible how someone from hundreds of years ago had an understanding of electricity and the Tesla Coil even though it was invented hundreds of years after they allegedly lived!

Most Haunted Live Night 7: Team members collapse!

I was attending a training course this evening at my local spiritualist church, however I did just catch the incident where 2 team members allegedly collapsed during a seance.

Firstly the team, mainly Yvette were purposely trying to wind the place up in a negative way which in itself isn’t professional, showing absolutely no compassion or understanding for any spirits that might be present good or bad, in fact doing this could drag the wrong kind of spirits in from outside. They even played a ridiculous soundtrack that was supposed to sound frightening to attempt to get the place going even more, but instead it was impossible for the team to hear any genuine paranormal activity because of it and for this reason they did eventually turn the stupid recording off when they struggled to hear something possibly unexplained nearby.

2 team members appeared to collapse, Matt the cameraman was first, followed very shortly afterwards by Karl Beattie. The cameraman ‘appeared’ genuine and could well have been simply ill, perhaps partly or entirely through fear, but instead of the rest of the team dealing with the incident in a calm and collective manner, most of the team were running around like headless chickens panicking and Kath as usual kept screaming instead of helping. In fact it was so bad and unprofessional that they had to call a commercial break. I was more sceptical of Karl Beattie’s collapse shortly afterwards as to whether it was genuine or whether it was a pathetic attempt to make the show even more exciting to viewers, although if any team are genuinely frightened in an apparently haunted location, it’s a medical fact that when one person is adversely affected, other team member will be severely psychologically effected which can cause them to subconsciously follow suit unless they are of-course very professional, experienced and trained to stay calm, unlike in my opinion most of the Most Haunted team. Unfortunately there’s no hard evidence that either of the collapses where actually caused by paranormal activity in my opinion.

REPLACE KATH PLEASE:

The team often ask for things to happen, but when anything does, many of the team simply scream, especially Kath who runs in fear at the very slightest thing whether paranormal or otherwise, even if someone as much as clears their throat for instance. In fact if you watch Kath, all she ever does is jump, scream, pull faces and constantly moan complaining she is frightened, often refusing to do important parts of the investigation. Why is Kath on the main team as after attending hundreds of paranormal investigations, if she isn’t able to stay calm in an alleged haunted location by now, it’s obvious she never will! Sorry, but in my opinion, Kath is complete and utter liability and does absolutely nothing to help the team, but instead hinders them by requiring constant attention to try and keep her calm, SHE JUST ISN’T SUITABLE! Yvette Fielding is sadly only slightly better and I really don’t know how she’s managed to gain respect as one of the best paranormal investigators in the UK, it’s certainly very worrying and in my opinion it shows up genuine professional investigators who I can assure you from first hand experience don’t operate like Most Haunted at all.

Most Haunted Live Night 8: Another experiment that just wasn’t dangerous!

I only watched part of the final night, but I did see the experiment where they had positioned a gallows at the suspected position where hundreds of people would have been hung hundreds of years ago. Karl then pretended to be hung in an attempt to kick off paranormal activity by repeating a past event. I’m very sceptical that doing this will genuinely kick off paranormal activity any more than for instance, ‘asking out’, but it would certainly be good for entertainment value.

The show tried to say how dangerous the experiment was and mentioned beforehand that things could go wrong, well it certainly couldn’t. Firstly Karl had a strong harness attached which prevented the loose tugging on his neck, but secondly we discovered after the experiment that the loose was designed to fall apart should there be any tension (E.g. if the harness broke), so it was literally impossible to really hang Karl and he wasn’t in the slightest bit of danger.

Final Conclusion & Summary:

This show was in my opinion a disappointing 8 nights of unprofessionalism where every single night they apparently found one of 8 ‘faces of evil’ as planned, how very convenient. The locations chosen weren’t even in my opinion the greatest, except perhaps for the final location where they rigged up the gallows.

None of the experiments were in my opinion truly dangerous like they claimed, yet they were all dramatically played out as if they were, making the very most out of them for viewing figures. They even initially advertised the show saying that they would conduct the most dangerous experiments EVER, well they in my opinion certainly didn’t. If one wanted to conduct a truly dangerous experiment, then they would attempt to conduct various full trance experiments without much security until a person become very violent (I don’t recommend it).

If any spirits were in fact present, the team would have insulted them, they showed no compassion or understanding throughout.

The webcams were the worst sham in my opinion, people often were seen wandering around shining torches all over the place and they certainly weren’t locked off. The quality on the webcams was also terrible with masses of camera noise, far too poor to conclude you’ve possibly seen any genuine evidence. What was even worse was the numerous viewers who all allegedly witnessed amazing apparitions that simply weren’t there, often with words of warning for the team. There was absolutely no evidence shown on air that went with any of the viewers claims. I suspect most reports were simply made up to get mentioned on the show, while most or all of the rest were camera noise (there was a lot of it), torch light reflections or in fact real people. There were some viewer reports that I even knew were explained as I actually witnessed them, yet they still read them out as probably paranormal. I noticed that what they read out on air was extremely one sided too, for instance, they didn’t read out any constructive criticisms what-so-ever or even when I tried to explain to the team the logical reason for what they’d passed as probably paranormal in cause. There worst I saw was a real person hiding on one webcam as if he was trying to make people believe he was an apparition.

There was so many flaws in the investigation it was ridiculous and whenever there was a possible serious opportunity to discover genuine paranormal evidence, at least one member of the team would start screaming instead of investigating properly every time. Extremely unprofessional screaming started after every slightest occurrence whether possibly paranormal or often not, Kath was the worst for this followed by Yvette herself. One can’t investigate properly when scared and certainly not when screaming. Numerous so called unexplained occurrences could possibly be explained, but the show didn’t consider them. There was in my opinion no hard evidence that they really actually found any of the ‘faces of evil’ they claim and there was no certain proof of the existence of spirits as foul play couldn’t be ruled out. I say this as an experienced paranormal investigator myself who has come across some amazing evidence in my time since I started in 1996 (well before Most Haunted), but I’m still very sceptical of Most Haunted. Please remember that a genuine professional paranormal investigation IS NOTHING LIKE Most Haunted and the show is in my opinion more of a light hearted entertainment show than a serious paranormal investigation. No truly independent parapsychologist who isn’t on their payroll would praise Most Haunted and their evidence would be ripped to shreds.

PLEASE ALSO SEE MY COMMENT INCLUDING A VIDEO!

Legal Disclaimer:

The above document is entirely my own personal opinion and cannot be declared as definite fact. It’s without prejudice to Most Haunted, Derak Acorah, Yvette Fielding, Dr. Ciaran O’Keeffe, anyone else in the crew or anyone other persons or organisations. The intention of this article is to do no harm. The TV programme, Most Haunted is the property and copyright of Living TV, all rights reserved! My full legal disclaimer applies to this article, it’s comments and all other articles on this website.

One can pick-up a suitable PC base unit at the time of writing for less than £100 second hand. I’ve been using an old PC with an AMD Athlon 2Ghz processor, 1GB of memory, an NVIDIA Quadro4 380 XGL graphics card (Using an old AGP x4 slot) and Windows XP. The machine is old, but is more than enough to run Internet TV services perfectly. I have however tried running Internet TV on a very old PC with a Celeron 1Ghz Processor, 256MB of memory and a 32MB Intel 82810 on board graphics controller, but it’s too slow to run these Internet TV services in full screen and the Joost application doesn’t work at all so be warned.

The only problem with Internet TV is it uses a considerable amount of bandwidth (Internet usage). Different qualities of service use varying amounts of bandwidth, but if you watch any service for a few hours a day, you will soon notice that your Internet usage goes up considerably. One has to watch your usage limits as you can reach them sooner than you think. If you using an ‘unlimited’ broadband service, you are usually bound by the Internet Service Provider’s ‘Fair Usage Policy’ which allows them to either cap the service or even ban very heavy users from their so called ‘unlimited’ service. If you are suddenly going to watch lots of Internet TV, I recommend you speak to your Internet Service Provider first for advice.

Top Quality Totally FREE Internet TV Services

BBC iPlayer – On-line. Catch up on most BBC TV or Radio programmes broadcast during the last week on demand. Good quality and quite heavy bandwidth.

TV Catch Up – On-line. Sign up and watch most of the main Freeview channels on-line live (don’t know why they call it TV catch up?). The system comes complete with a TV guide. At the time of writing they are still Beta testing, it works, but sometimes channels are saying temporarily unavailable. Right click on the picture and select full screen, low or high quality. High quality uses a lot of bandwidth and low quality is fairly heavy.

ITV Catch Up – On-line. Catch up on popular ITV programmes broadcast during the last 30 days on demand. Good quality and quite heavy on bandwidth.

Joost – On-line. Sign up and watch lots of shows, films, general entertainment, music, sport and much more. Thousands of hours of totally free entertainment with programs for everyone. Superb quality and fast stream start up, but uses a lot of bandwidth.

Joost – Download. Download a snazzy front end to the above Joost TV service. I’m not sure if this application is being fazed out as one has to download it elsewhere from the official website, I hope it continues as the service is brilliant and this makes it my favourite Internet TV service. Superb quality and fast stream start up, but uses a lot of bandwidth. (DISCONTINUED LATE DECEMBER 2008)

Zatto – Download. Watch BBC1, BBC2, ITV, CHANNEL 4, CHANNEL 5, BBC3, CBBC and more live. Ideal if you want watch standard UK TV using your PC. Reasonable quality, uses a fair amount of bandwidth.

Veoh TV – Download. Sign up and download VeohTV. Watch various on demand TV channels. Search for and watch videos from an enormous database of entertainment and full length TV programs. Varying quality from low to reasonable, uses a fair amount of bandwidth.

Channel 4OD – Download. Sign up and catch up on most Channel 4 programmes broadcast during the last 30 days and some classic episodes on demand. Channel 4 mix paid programmes amongst the free services which is a bit annoying, it also installs a new service called Kservice which downloads in the background along with windows start-up items that uses memory permanently, this makes this application my least liked out of top quality Internet TV services. Good quality and quite heavy on bandwidth.

Demand Five – On-line or download. Sign up and enjoy Channel 5’s on demand service and catch up on most programmes broadcast within a few days. Many programmes are free, but they also have paid programmes. The optional downloaded player installs a new service called Kservice with downloads in the background like Channel 4 along with a windows start-up item that uses memory permanently, so I personally prefer watching on-line only. Good quality and quite heavy on bandwidth.

wwiTV – On-line. A huge selection of over 2800 TV channels at the time of writing from all over the world. Unfortunately not every channel works all of the time and when different channels play in different media players, it can become quite messy. Most channels are extremely low budget with poor programme quality. Despite the disadvantages, your still bound to find something that works you enjoy watching. Varying quality and bandwidth usage from very low quality, low bandwidth to very good quality, heavy bandwidth usage.

There are literally hundreds of other Internet TV channels and on demand services across the Internet of varying quality, above are my personal favourites.

I’m living an a ground floor housing association flat near the centre of Birmingham and the person living above me has at the time of writing nailed through my TV aerial cable that leads to the shared loft Freeview aerial. She used the offending nails to put pictures up on the wall (very unlucky). The housing association has so far messed me about for 2 weeks and it looks like it’s going to be at least a few weeks more before they actually fix the problem as since an independent aerial company came out and gave them a quote, they are currently only promising a visit from a surveyor (yes, they could have fixed it for the same cost by running a cable outside – but my Housing Association, Trident Housing are useless when it comes to maintenance).

Anyway, to the point. I live in a reasonable to weak signal area near the centre of Birmingham and live around 8 to 10 miles from the Sutton Coldfield transmitter. I have tried 3 different indoor aerials, 2 were quite expensive models with boosters, all to no avail. After ages of positioning and aligning, I managed to just about get a very weak Freeview signal on just 1 mux out of 6, thus I only managed to receive a few channels from the BBC on Mux 1. I then watched limited digital TV for around an hour and it was so sensitive, I kept losing the picture completely without even touching the aerial, this was then followed by more painful aerial positioning and aligning just to get the very weak signal back for a little longer. Also whenever a car went by, it kept breaking the signal temporarily. I spent hours and tried everything, including positioning foil in various places around the aerial with short and very limited success. I even tried making my own aerial, but this was unsuccessful too. I will note however that I used to live in a flat on the 2nd floor very close to the flat I’m currently living in about the same distance from the Sutton Coldfield transmitter. In this flat an indoor aerial was more effective, although the signal was still interrupted occasionally and I still had to keep messing with the aerial position and alignment every now and again.

Because I’m not allowed to attach an outdoor aerial outside my property because of the housing association who I rent the property off, I thought then I had little choice but to keep complaining to Trident Housing until they actually fix the loft aerial cable. I then remembered I still had a lower to middle end outdoor aerial which was suitable for moderate signal areas in storage. I’ve connected it up and positioned it in my window (remember I’m only on the ground floor). After messing about, positioning and aligning, I’ve managed to get 5 out of 6 mux’s and therefore most Freeview channels. Using with my aerial amplifier has now given me a reasonable signal on most channels. The problem is because the aerial is positioned on the ground floor, when a car goes by, I sometimes still lose the signal temporarily and unfortunately cars go by often and even parked vehicles have adverse effects as the road runs close to my window. I’ve tried to no avail to get all 6 mux’s along with all channels, even though I used to get all channels from the loft aerial. I’ve tried for hours trying to get a totally stable signal, but have found this impossible on the ground floor, although saying this the outdoor aerial is much better than any indoor aerial. I will continue to chase up Trident Housing to get them to fix my internal aerial cable that runs to a decent aerial in the loft on the top floor as this will fix my problem properly. At least I’ve got some TV in the meantime, but it’s far from ideal as a permanent solution. If I used an outdoor aerial designed for weak or even very weak signal areas, I’d most likely get an even better signal and probably all Freeview channels, but I’d still almost certainly get interruptions by passing cars unless it was positioned high up.

It’s also interesting to note that some Freeview set top boxes are more tolerant at picking up poorer signals than others. Some of the older set top boxes have poorer receivers. I am using a fairly cheap Onn digital set top box and I find it reasonable. My friend had trouble receiving Freeview using a budget receiver and managed to receive better using the Freeview receiver on a BT Vision box.

In summary, unless you have a good Freeview reception and the signal isn’t blocked by a nearby roads or other objects, indoor aerials aren’t effective. Even a lower to middle end outdoor aerial is far more effective at receiving Freeview than even the higher end indoor aerials. Outdoor aerials can be used indoors, but the signal is poorer and effected by nearby objects or cars unless it’s installed at a higher level, E.g. on the roof. Nothing compares to a good outdoor aerial, properly aligned and installed at a high level. Don’t be fooled that an aerial booster will fix all your reception problems, it may help somewhat, especially if the signal is about to travel along a long cable to your Freeview box, but it needs a reasonable signal in the first place to be able to amplify it, otherwise you will just have amplified interference.

Please click here for an example of an outdoor aerial designed to work in very weak signal areas, it costs £49.99 from Maplins at the time of writing. There are various cheaper outdoor aerials that are still designed to work in weak signal areas and are far better than indoor aerials.

To check Freeview reception in your area, please visit http://www.digitaluk.co.uk and use the postcode checker or visit http://www.freeview.co.uk/availability and use the coverage checker. Alternatively, if you are an advanced user, please check http://www.wolfbane.com/cgi-bin/tvd.exe? for a more detailed coverage check.

An alternative to Freeview is Internet TV, please see my article on Top Quality Totally FREE Internet TV Services for more details.