Tivo

[mark st1]

Anyone got any experience of this service from Virgin ? Im getting a bit peeved of handing over £70 odd to Sky each month on paper the tv side of there stuff looks preety good 2 digi boxes etc just wondered if anyone else has had it installed ?

Thanks
Mark

 

[MacB]

Been with NTL which then became Virgin for about 15 years for phone, broadband and tv. Tried one brief foray into Sky about 8 years ago and swapped back inside a year. Though Sky were a pest for a couple of years after that.

To be honest my main decider was, and remains, broadband, I've had very few outage issues and it copes very well with working from home. The TV and phone are almost coincidental as the best deals are for the bundled package.

Sorry should have added we have a V+ box and a second standard box, neither has ever given a problem and the V+...goodbye adverts....is great.

 

[subaqua]

we have Tivo and it is truly stunning. we kept the old V+ hD box in the package and they installed thaty in the master bedroom for us. we discovered Bones, body of Proof and several other good series through the boxs' recomends . it learns what you like and what you don'tr and records suggestions .

never had any issues with it and virgin have always given me great service.

 

[Norm]

we have Tivo and it is truly stunning. we kept the old V+ hD box in the package and they installed thaty in the master bedroom for us. we discovered Bones, body of Proof and several other good series through the boxs' recomends . it learns what you like and what you don'tr and records suggestions .

never had any issues with it and virgin have always given me great service.

Well, that saved me some typing, thanks. Piece of cake to use too, whether to set up a recording or pause / rewind 'live' telly.

I'd only add that no one else can provide us with anything like the 100mb broadband service that we now get.

 

[marinyork]

Tivo is a huge step forward from Telewest/Virgin's previous PVRs. The TVDrive/V+ is very old now (still one downstairs). It is just like many other Sky and other legacy PVRs very lethargic and sluggish (although this is mostly due to software and the backend and how it does things like vod of which you can get the same problems on tivo). It was launched in 2006! That said if you can overlook the very paltry 160Mb drive it always annoyed the smeg out of some sky customers that it had 3 tuners and not 2.

The Samsung V+ launched in 2009 was a lot sleaker and performed slightly better, but unfortunately the main upgrade to it was MPEG-4 compatibility that was never realised.

In December 2010 the Tivo was launched. It's nothing like even Sky's rejigged high definition EPG (which is a lot better than virgin's in some ways for res and look/feel for non-vod stuff). The Tivo is a dream - fast, modern looking EPG that's totally different from the Sky/Virgin BBC computer style EPGs of the past. The vod system works so much better on tivo it's unreal (actually it's what you should expect), especially in terms of 'search'. There are problems, some problems with tivo using on demand, but these aren't actually the TIVO's fault and the same on the V+ box because of what I said earlier.

The biggest problem with virgin PVRs is that you rent them and don't own them outright like Sky. So you aren't allowed to modify them and put in a bigger hard drive. Back in the day this wasn't so much of a problem, but as time went on and the years rolled by 160Gb even in MPEG-4 (which of course most programmes aren't broadcast in) looked extremely stingy. Of course this isn't the whole story because sky wasted sod loads of space on anytime which you may or may not think is a good idea.

 

[subaqua]

Tivo is a huge step forward from Telewest/Virgin's previous PVRs. The TVDrive/V+ is very old now (still one downstairs). It is just like many other Sky and other legacy PVRs very lethargic and sluggish (although this is mostly due to software and the backend and how it does things like vod of which you can get the same problems on tivo). It was launched in 2006! That said if you can overlook the very paltry 160Mb drive it always annoyed the smeg out of some sky customers that it had 3 tuners and not 2.

The Samsung V+ launched in 2009 was a lot sleaker and performed slightly better, but unfortunately the main upgrade to it was MPEG-4 compatibility that was never realised.

In December 2010 the Tivo was launched. It's nothing like even Sky's rejigged high definition EPG (which is a lot better than virgin's in some ways for res and look/feel for non-vod stuff). The Tivo is a dream - fast, modern looking EPG that's totally different from the Sky/Virgin BBC computer style EPGs of the past. The vod system works so much better on tivo it's unreal (actually it's what you should expect), especially in terms of 'search'. There are problems, some problems with tivo using on demand, but these aren't actually the TIVO's fault and the same on the V+ box because of what I said earlier.

The biggest problem with virgin PVRs is that you rent them and don't own them outright like Sky. So you aren't allowed to modify them and put in a bigger hard drive. Back in the day this wasn't so much of a problem, but as time went on and the years rolled by 160Gb even in MPEG-4 (which of course most programmes aren't broadcast in) looked extremely stingy. Of course this isn't the whole story because sky wasted sod loads of space on anytime which you may or may not think is a good idea.

we have the 1Tb version and its over 50% full. there is a way to get the stuff off that you can archive for ever at home but i am not that bothered. the best bit about renting them is that if they play up you get a new one, no aggravation.

 

[marinyork]

we have the 1Tb version and its over 50% full. there is a way to get the stuff off that you can archive for ever at home but i am not that bothered. the best bit about renting them is that if they play up you get a new one, no aggravation.

You can get stuff off, but it's a pain as it is with many Sky/Virgin PVRs. Some freeview PVRs it's a not too bad getting off.

Didn't really mean the archiving as such. Just meant people tend to record loads of stuff and leave it for ages or may want to watch it more than a day/couple of days later. 1Gb is absolutely fine, but the original two generation PVRs are now very dated, especially the SA. Well the SA is quite literally dated as due to the constraints of the hardware I've had 21hrs of the guide chopped off and there are big problems if any new channels launch as the EPG is near capacity.

Disagree about the renting being an advantage. PVR outright failure is generally more rare than people think (well more specifically with virgin). You normally get other problems instead and then find that Sky and Virgin Media can get very, very arsy indeed about replacing it. On the other hand there are complete tossers out there who complain about the slightest glitch and demand a new box, so I have some sympathy with them. There are other customers who seem to get boxes replaced at the drop of a hat when it is actually a serious problem.

Philosophically there's no particular reason why you should 'own' a virgin PVR or STB though. Virgin is a closed network. It's just it got very irritating on the SA V+ where sky customers were putting in beefier and beefier hard drives and one was stuck with a prehistoric 160Gb .

I would say the biggest 'confidence' in tivo is the subs figures. HD take up for virgin was traditionally much poorer than Sky this was because of many reasons - poor channel line up, not advertising it much, the SA V+ being the only show in town and dated unfortunately (compared to later sky boxes) and so on. I think Tivo is now 25% of tv customers which really shows how good it is and how much better than the previous ones it was.

And a few other things to come. I'm hoping the rumour mill stories about ITV 2/3/4 HD (which I find deeply implausible) are true (for the cycling). We'll have to see what TV Anywhere is like.

Biggest problem with Tivo is imho the lack of apps. But then there are reasons why they aren't too keen on that. And apps on some smart tvs and other smart devices are full of complete rubbish.