Virgin Media Tivo Box

Had Tivo a few years ago, they were the first PVR/DVR company around. Their products and software are very stable and user friendly. I am presuming its 500 hours of standard def. Tivo usually supports external hard drives but Sky may have disabled that feature. It looks a pretty good unit with three tuners.

I would definitely considered it. Can you get standalone Tivo over there? Compare it with that because you can add hard drives when you own the unit.
 
A lot depends on the resolution and compression they use. I think it says 4:1 on the Wiki site, which is pretty good.

My PVR only holds one hour of HD to every hour of SD, which is pathetic. Can't even add an external drive because they have disabled it.
 
WeasteDevil said:
Why would they compress further a signal that has already been compressed for broadcast? Makes no sense.
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To save storage space I presume. My DVR just leaves it as is but it only holds about 12 hours HD.


edit - I get you. Sky send a compressed signal so it takes a loss less space. FIOS do not compress their broadcasts.
 
stubie1234 - thanks for this thread! It made me do a little research and I discovered my provider have a new box coming with 500GB and it also allows for a 1TB external drive.

Have both ordered and will have 1,500 hours SD and over 200 HD capacity in a couple of weeks.
 
Have registered interest via Virgin website for one. In with a chance of winning one free of charge for a year :cool:

Found this clip on youtube

 
Looked into this and it looks like a really good piece of kit.

It's quite expensive though so I passed. When I renew in 12 months i'll think about it more seriously when the bugs have been ironed out and the price has come down.
 
cw1984 said:
Looked into this and it looks like a really good piece of kit.

It's quite expensive though so I passed. When I renew in 12 months i'll think about it more seriously when the bugs have been ironed out and the price has come down.
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Their staff have been testing it over the last few months to iron out any bugs with it. I agree with the price as its a bit too much for a box that you are only renting.

But overall it does look good
 
stubie1234 said:
Their staff have been testing it over the last few months to iron out any bugs with it. I agree with the price as its a bit too much for a box that you are only renting.

But overall it does look good
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That's hardly an extensive test though and i'm not prepared to pay through the nose to be part of their Q&A department. I've no doubt there will be lots and lots of bugs.
 
Plan M said:
I want one of these, how much is it to rent though?
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£149 for the box
£49 Install
£3 per month

I would wait 6 months until they lower the price and hopefully scrap the £3 p/m charge.
 
Well in took longer than a couple of weeks to get my new FIOS DVR but finally got it last month. They rolled out the software that supports an external HD a couple of nights ago so we now have 1.5gb of storage. No more deleting every show and constantly pissing around trying to manage the measily HD capacity.
 
stubie1234 said:
£149 for the box
£49 Install
£3 per month

I would wait 6 months until they lower the price and hopefully scrap the £3 p/m charge.
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3 quid per month? I was expecting it to be something like a tenner. I am definately going to order it soon!
 
Had an e-mail off Virgin offering me a 500gb Tivo box with 250 hours SD recording and 50 hours HD for £49 one off payment with free installation.

Think I may take them up on this offer
 
mjs020294 said:
Well in took longer than a couple of weeks to get my new FIOS DVR but finally got it last month. They rolled out the software that supports an external HD a couple of nights ago so we now have 1.5gb of storage. No more deleting every show and constantly pissing around trying to manage the measily HD capacity.
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Just to ask MJ how much did you pay? Dad bought a Tivo last year for $600 aud and then a 1tb hard drive for $100 aud. From what i've been told, TIVO has certainly come along way but we record in HD and have mammoth amounts of stuff built up that we don't watch or will watch later, although we don't have pay tv.
 
Rung up a few days ago to switch back to Sky, and they offered me TiVo with no other charges monthly. It's being installed on the 15th. Looks pretty good.
 
Having a 500GB Tivo box installed later on today. By replacing my V HD box upstairs with my current V+HD box downstairs (Tivo going downstairs) Virgin are waving my £6.50 p/m multiroom.
 
It's brilliant. Definitely better than Sky+ HD in my opinion.

The only problems I have with it is the HD picture quality isn't perfect, the speed when scrolling through the menu's has a split second delay, but it's enough to annoy you! and typing in text (when searching) has to be done letter by letter, not the 'mobile txting' method - Virgin say they're working on all three issues.
 
Virgin phoned me yesterday to offer me a free Tivo box and free installation because I have been a premier customer for a long time or something along those lines. I thought they were pulling my leg at first. Getting installed on Wednesday :drool:
 
Plan M said:
Virgin phoned me yesterday to offer me a free Tivo box and free installation because I have been a premier customer for a long time or something along those lines. I thought they were pulling my leg at first. Getting installed on Wednesday :drool:
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cnuts haven't called me. How long have you been with them?
 
GE said:
It's brilliant. Definitely better than Sky+ HD in my opinion.

The only problems I have with it is the HD picture quality isn't perfect, the speed when scrolling through the menu's has a split second delay, but it's enough to annoy you! and typing in text (when searching) has to be done letter by letter, not the 'mobile txting' method - Virgin say they're working on all three issues.
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Did you have it with Anytime+ ? Sky that is.
 
Stobzilla said:
Did you have it with Anytime+ ? Sky that is.
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When I had Sky? yeah I had Anytime.

Plan M said:
Virgin phoned me yesterday to offer me a free Tivo box and free installation because I have been a premier customer for a long time or something along those lines. I thought they were pulling my leg at first. Getting installed on Wednesday :drool:
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It's been 'free' since last year, just needed to phone up and ask.
 
Just installing my2nd Tivo on Fios. If you can get Tivo it is well worth it. They are rock solid. Try to get the XL version if you like to record a lot if HD. The Fios box has come a long way but still not as good as Tivo. Buy a lifetime subscription and you should get all your money "back" too.
 
mjs020294 said:
Had Tivo a few years ago, they were the first PVR/DVR company around. Their products and software are very stable and user friendly. I am presuming its 500 hours of standard def. Tivo usually supports external hard drives but Sky may have disabled that feature. It looks a pretty good unit with three tuners.

I would definitely considered it. Can you get standalone Tivo over there? Compare it with that because you can add hard drives when you own the unit.
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I think replaytv were really the first but they got screwed in court. Never had one but even some of the biggest Tivo fans preferred the replaytv.
 
Yeah, I've only been with Virgin for around 2 years to date. Last year I rung them to switch back to Sky and they offered me the TiVo box for free, with no installation fee. They also swapped the old box in the bedroom for a V+ one when I questioned them about having an ancient looking box.

Ring them up and ask, or say you want to leave. The most they'll probably charge you is the installation fee.
 
GE said:
It's been 'free' since last year, just needed to phone up and ask.
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I didn't know that though, did I?

I'm glad I'm getting Tivo now though, getting fed up of my Samsung box - I'm now on my 4th one!

Considering getting Virgin box for my gaming room/office as well, I've got an LED tv in there but never watch anything on it because Freeview is a bit shit.
 
Tivo is good but it needs more apps and Channels if it is to compete with Sky.
 
GE said:
Yeah, I've only been with Virgin for around 2 years to date. Last year I rung them to switch back to Sky and they offered me the TiVo box for free, with no installation fee. They also swapped the old box in the bedroom for a V+ one when I questioned them about having an ancient looking box.

Ring them up and ask, or say you want to leave. The most they'll probably charge you is the installation fee.
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Thanks man, I'll definitely be giving that a go!
 
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