Virgin Media Tivo

mudcow007

anyone got it?

my parents got it the other day, now i want it

im hacked off that VM charge you £50 installation though, all it is, is disconnect coax from one box, reattach to another box an swap the hdmi over = 30 seconds max

im still going to pay for it though

is it better-er than Sky+?

Gazzaputt

Call them and tell them you have seen the offer for free install and they'll do this for you.

I ordered 2 weeks back and then noticed last week installation was free for new customers.I called and complained as a long standing customer etc etc. Anyway girl says she'll remove the charge as I mentioned this promotion.

TIVO is the nuts.

keyser__soze

Got it. It's ok. Lots of things it doesn't do, particularly reschedule recordings when things are over-running, and it doesn't have the red button so will be pretty useless for the Olympics. UI is pretty slow too. If we had a reasonable aerial connection and Eurosport was available over Freeview I'd go back to a Freeview+ HD recorder.

rick_chasey

Keyser__Soze wrote:

Got it. It's ok. Lots of things it doesn't do, particularly reschedule recordings when things are over-running, and it doesn't have the red button so will be pretty useless for the Olympics. UI is pretty slow too. If we had a reasonable aerial connection and Eurosport was available over Freeview I'd go back to a Freeview+ HD recorder.

Or get Sky.

mudcow007

Rick Chasey wrote:

Keyser__Soze wrote:

Got it. It's ok. Lots of things it doesn't do, particularly reschedule recordings when things are over-running, and it doesn't have the red button so will be pretty useless for the Olympics. UI is pretty slow too. If we had a reasonable aerial connection and Eurosport was available over Freeview I'd go back to a Freeview+ HD recorder.

Or get Sky.

i hate the menu music in sky its like a worm through my brain

Gazzaputt

Rick Chasey wrote:

Keyser__Soze wrote:

Got it. It's ok. Lots of things it doesn't do, particularly reschedule recordings when things are over-running, and it doesn't have the red button so will be pretty useless for the Olympics. UI is pretty slow too. If we had a reasonable aerial connection and Eurosport was available over Freeview I'd go back to a Freeview+ HD recorder.

Or get Sky.

Honestly it knocks anything Sky can offer out of the water.

Engineer told me red button will be working in April.

As a comparison I called Sky to see what price they'd give for the equivalent services. I have Tivo, V+ and a HD box, 20mg BB (soon to be 40mb), XL, TV, Sky Sports and telephone. I pay £74 per month. Sky for the equivalent services wanted £137 plus I'd only get 5mb BB.

rick_chasey

mudcow007 wrote:

Rick Chasey wrote:

Keyser__Soze wrote:

Got it. It's ok. Lots of things it doesn't do, particularly reschedule recordings when things are over-running, and it doesn't have the red button so will be pretty useless for the Olympics. UI is pretty slow too. If we had a reasonable aerial connection and Eurosport was available over Freeview I'd go back to a Freeview+ HD recorder.

Or get Sky.

i hate the menu music in sky its like a worm through my brain

veronese68

I've still got a CRT telly so I don't think it'll work without an HDMI connector. Is that true?
I'd like to get one, but before I can get a new telly I need to get a new fridge.

Gazzaputt

Veronese68 wrote:

I've still got a CRT telly so I don't think it'll work without an HDMI connector. Is that true?
I'd like to get one, but before I can get a new telly I need to get a new fridge.

Works with a Scart.

the_fuggler

We went over from Sky - no complaints. One or two issues with the UI and getting the recording right (have to add a bit of a buffer to get the whole recording sometimes) but very pleased.

DonDaddyD

Two years ago I tried to join Virgin I got the letter an everything. I'm still waiting for the engineer to turn up or a phonecall from Virgin's class leading customer service team explaining why they thought it was OK for me to waste a days annual leave. I'm still waiting for a response to that complaint.

They still manage to send me junk mail inviting me to sign up though.

rick_chasey

DonDaddyD wrote:

Two years ago I tried to join Virgin I got the letter an everything. I'm still waiting for the engineer to turn up or a phonecall from Virgin's class leading customer service team explaining why they thought it was OK for me to waste a days annual leave. I'm still waiting for a response to that complaint.

They still manage to send me junk mail inviting me to sign up though.

Pick up the phone!

Ikea did that to me once.

Suffice to say, they had enough phone calls the day after than I got what I wanted for free, delivered on a Saturday...

redvee

I was after one since I saw them in the local VM shop but at the time they were asking for £199 upfront :shock: More recently I saw offers for new customers that appeared better then for existing customers so went into the VM shop and they were able to do the deal but still wanted the £50 install con/fee which is more than unplug a few cables as the engineer shows you how to operate the box and also he gets the downloads for the data started. The boxes arrive dumb, so to speak and the channels etc need to be downloaded to your box initially.
I ended up phoning up VM with a story of bull saying I had a PVR that was on it's last legs and I relied on it heavily so needed to replace it and explained the options available to me were cancel the VM contract and buy a new PVR or stay with VM and get a Tivo. After some discussion I ended up with a deal with 10mb BB, Tivo, M+ TV and phoneline that I don't use but have to take which ended up costing less than I was currently paying. The install fee was discussed but when I said if I had to pay I told them the cancel option was still available so a minute on hold whilst she spoke with her manager and I had the fee waived I've just upped the BB back to 20mb and now paying £1 more than I was without a Tivo.
If you haggle over the install fee they will usually back downl, especially if your monthly fee is quite high. It makes more sense to lose a one off £50 than £50+ every month.

veronese68

Gazzaputt wrote:

Veronese68 wrote:

I've still got a CRT telly so I don't think it'll work without an HDMI connector. Is that true?
I'd like to get one, but before I can get a new telly I need to get a new fridge.

Works with a Scart.

Great, thanks. I think I'll be on the phone soon then. I'm not prepared to pay installation, especially after the recent problems with their broadband and being unable to contact customer service.

Mr Sharky

We're having it "fitted" later this month... the installation fee is free (woohoo!) but now they've just changed tack and charge for an "activation" fee which is (you've guessed it) the same price as installation is/was/should be. It used to be the activation fee that they waived. :roll:

Robbing b*stards! :evil:

Still, we got £45 cashback from buying an insurance policy via Quidco... but with the same company that we were already with. I contacted them to see about a "price match" (or reduction given we could get the cashback) but they told me they couldn't... but were perfectly happy for me to cancel the policy (well, not auto renew it) and then rebuy it via Quidco to get the cashback. Bizarre! So anyway, that's what's paying for the activation of TiVo so it it is sort of free.

MonkeyMonster

Sky friends and family means with all in costs for HD, movies, entertainment, phone and bb is 40 quid. So that will become 60 somthing once year bonus comes off but still...

il_principe

I may (or may not) have some knowledge of this provider. If I did (and I'm not saying I do, because I clearly don't) I'd advise holding off in case they radically change their offering in the next few months...

Also be aware that you have to have a virgin phone line and that the line rental is charged extra.

Oh, and I'd go with Sky - you don't get all the Sky channels with Virgin - e.g Atlantic and really do you need 40mb broadband? I play MW3 online and DL and stream movies via Sky broadband without any trouble at nowhere near those speeds.

walkingbootweather

I had a good look at the various Sky v Virgin Media offerings last year and decide to plump for...


... Neither!

In theory TIVO is the better option, but it apparently still doesn't work quite right and VM customer service sucks big time (I won't bore you with the details but my experience with them was dreadful). I couldn't bring myself to contribute further to the Murdoch empire.

In the end we bought a couple of Freesat boxes which connected fine to existing satelite dish. For £170 one off payment each we get over 150 channels of which at least 20 odd are 'watchable', digital radio, iplayer, 500GB recording capacity. Unless you must have sky sports, sky one etc. Freesat is IMHO the way to go.

DonDaddyD

40mb broadband is the proposed figure, it all depends on how close you are to the exchange and some other stuff. 'Fibre optics' help, but I'm not sure you really get 40mb download/upload speed.

rick_chasey

walkingbootweather wrote:

I had a good look at the various Sky v Virgin Media offerings last year and decide to plump for...


... Neither!

In theory TIVO is the better option, but it apparently still doesn't work quite right and VM customer service sucks big time (I won't bore you with the details but my experience with them was dreadful). I couldn't bring myself to contribute further to the Murdoch empire.

In the end we bought a couple of Freesat boxes which connected fine to existing satelite dish. For £170 one off payment each we get over 150 channels of which at least 20 odd are 'watchable', digital radio, iplayer, 500GB recording capacity. Unless you must have sky sports, sky one etc. Freesat is IMHO the way to go.

Murdoch may have his problems, but his 39% stake in sky isn't one of them.

Sky TV is brilliant. Best out there.

Sky news, sure, awful.

But don't throw the baby out with the bath water. It's great.

Had all other TV settups at some point, and Sky TV p!sses on all of them.

noodles71

As I already had a V+ box I just decided on extending the recording capacity instead of spending the money with Virgin. This was before Thailand went under water when it was a lot cheaper. I can only find a 1.5tb available at the moment for £98. I bought a 2 terabyte Western Digital AV hard drive (WD AV-GP WD20EURS) that only cost me £30 more than the "Activation" fee for the Tivo and now I get similar features and never run out of space. I also get to pull it out and keep it when I get rid of the V+ box too which is a bonus so the £50 activation fee saved is for me and not Virgin.

I've got stacks of stuff recorded and I still have 79 hours out of 80 hours space left. The only thing that goes weird is the space remaining counter seems to have very very long hours. It will eventually get down to 78 hours soon The other advantage is I was able to make the scratch area of the disk bigger so it can hold more pause/rewind history before it forces you to hit the play button or automatically unpauses itself.

walkingbootweather

Rick Chasey wrote:

Sky TV is brilliant. Best out there.

I bow to your superior knowledge. To be honest I don't watch enough TV to care if one provider is a bit better than another. Saving £60 a month however does matter.

Rick Chasey wrote:

Sky news, sure, awful.

+1. Bring back Naked News

Blacktemplar

noodles71 wrote:

As I already had a V+ box I just decided on extending the recording capacity instead of spending the money with Virgin. This was before Thailand went under water when it was a lot cheaper. I can only find a 1.5tb available at the moment for £98. I bought a 2 terabyte Western Digital AV hard drive (WD AV-GP WD20EURS) that only cost me £30 more than the "Activation" fee for the Tivo and now I get similar features and never run out of space. I also get to pull it out and keep it when I get rid of the V+ box too which is a bonus so the £50 activation fee saved is for me and not Virgin.

I've got stacks of stuff recorded and I still have 79 hours out of 80 hours space left. The only thing that goes weird is the space remaining counter seems to have very very long hours. It will eventually get down to 78 hours soon The other advantage is I was able to make the scratch area of the disk bigger so it can hold more pause/rewind history before it forces you to hit the play button or automatically unpauses itself.

How does that work? Do you just plug into a USB/SATA port and the V+ box detects it as an external HDD or something? I have 2 x 1tb drives for my PC but only use one of them, although they're not an 'AV' HDD.

rick_chasey

walkingbootweather wrote:

Rick Chasey wrote:

Sky TV is brilliant. Best out there.

I bow to your superior knowledge. To be honest I don't watch enough TV to care if one provider is a bit better than another. Saving £60 a month however does matter.

Rick Chasey wrote:

Sky news, sure, awful.

+1. Bring back Naked News

I think we all underestimate how much TV we watch. I can easily get through 2-3hrs in an average evening (especially when the GF doesn't want me to play my xbox), and I like my sky+'d family guys over breakfast - let alone the cycling, F1, and football seasons...

rick_chasey

My only gripe with sky TV is the extortionate price of sky sports.

Mr Sworld

DonDaddyD wrote:

40mb broadband is the proposed figure, it all depends on how close you are to the exchange and some other stuff. 'Fibre optics' help, but I'm not sure you really get 40mb download/upload speed.

Fibre doesn't work like that. It's fibre to the box in your street and copper to the doorstep. The max speed is 130MB at the moment.

Never had anything less than what Virgin has promised me. The 1MB upload speed is a bit shite however.

And as for a Tivo.... HTPC with twin Freesat decoder for me, I am thinking about Tivo as XBMC will work with it apparently...

rick_chasey

walkingbootweather wrote:

Rick Chasey wrote:

Sky TV is brilliant. Best out there.

I bow to your superior knowledge. To be honest I don't watch enough TV to care if one provider is a bit better than another. Saving £60 a month however does matter.

Rick Chasey wrote:

Sky news, sure, awful.

+1. Bring back Naked News

A poem:

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/10-o ... witch-hunt

mudcow007

sha - ting!

guess who is getting Tivo installed for free yes me!

plus when the prices go up at the end of the month i will be paying a tidgy bit cheaper than i was before the price rise muhahahah

redvee

Blacktemplar wrote:

How does that work? Do you just plug into a USB/SATA port and the V+ box detects it as an external HDD or something? I have 2 x 1tb drives for my PC but only use one of them, although they're not an 'AV' HDD.

I'm lead to beleive that with the V+ boxes you could. There is an option to set the recording destination.

Paul E

Love my Tivo Box and as for getting all 50mb of my BB connection, yes I do get all of it as I have ran test after test and due in April for it to be doubled at no extra cost. If I am doing a lot online and not the only one using it it's just not noticeable.

il_principe

Rick Chasey wrote:

mudcow007 wrote:

Rick Chasey wrote:

Keyser__Soze wrote:

Got it. It's ok. Lots of things it doesn't do, particularly reschedule recordings when things are over-running, and it doesn't have the red button so will be pretty useless for the Olympics. UI is pretty slow too. If we had a reasonable aerial connection and Eurosport was available over Freeview I'd go back to a Freeview+ HD recorder.

Or get Sky.

i hate the menu music in sky its like a worm through my brain

Erm, there is an option hidden somewhere in the settings to turn the menu music off. I've not had it for years. Anyway, with the new pip EPG I guess you'd not have music anyway...