[Archived] Virgin (not a thread about Vinjay)

[adopted scouser]

Just signed tv package with Virgin, everything I get from Sky (all the channels, all the hd).

TWO tivo boxes, one for Alex's room, record three things at once and 60 meg fibre optic broadband, titch can control her own music channel.

First six months £58 for everything, then £88 (what I'm currently paying SKY) thereafter. Plus ESPN for nowt.

Bye Bye Sky.

[he6rt6gr6m]

Well, to be fair, you'll never have as many channels as you would have on Sky, although you can keep your Sky box and still have those numerous free channels accessible when you want.

TiVo is a fantastic piece of kit, and a new update has just been rolled out to increase stability. And obviously, ESPN for nothing is a huge bonus (VM pay around £4.50 per XL subscriber for that to happen, as a random piece of information for you!).

Just gone down to 'M' myself to save cash, but will probably be putting ESPN back on for Serie A. An extra £8 ain't too bad really.

Enjoy it!

[Salgado Is A Hero]

VIrgin internet is a bit dodgy....we used to have it at Uni.....apart from that though you've done well there.

[Paul]

First six months £58 for everything, then £88

Out of interest is that £88 per month or six months worth?

[adopted scouser]

£88 per month for the whole package Paul. Phone, broadband, all the telly etc, exactly what Sky charge now. Aswell as the extras above they have catch up tv, thousands of programmes that don't buffer because of that 60meg connection, and I don't have to put up with a shared dish anymore. See what this led telly can really do

[Biddy]

To be fair, you don't get everything as Virgin don't carry Sky Atlantic. Pretty sure there's some Sky Premium HD channels missing too.

[adopted scouser]

To be fair, you don't get everything as Virgin don't carry Sky Atlantic. Pretty sure there's some Sky Premium HD channels missing too.

Hardly watch Atlantic mate, wouldn't miss that anyway if that's the case.

Won't miss the pixellation when it's pouring down either. It rains a bit in Manchester you now !

[Paul]

£88 per month for the whole package Paul. Phone, broadband, all the telly etc, exactly what Sky charge now. Aswell as the extras above they have catch up tv, thousands of programmes that don't buffer because of that 60meg connection, and I don't have to put up with a shared dish anymore. See what this led telly can really do

I can't get this but just interested. Do you still have to pay BT a line rental? When you say "phone" does that include cost of calls?

We pay £600 pa for phone, broadband and calls. Plus another £48 for BT Vision so probably £700 tops. With BT Vision get Freeview, iPlayer etc. Live pause, record two channels and watch third and access to PAYW films.

To be honest I don't need / want more. Other than football do you really use all the other channels etc?

[adopted scouser]

I told them I don't need a land line, if there isn't one I 'm not bothered Paul. I currently have Sky Talk but honestly never use it. I only had a land line connected because Sky told me I had to have one, these days with mobiles the phone's covered in dust.

Use the film channels a lot, and obviously the footie, Alex loves the music channels. With Virgin you can stack up your favouritr tracks and compile your own music channel (parental gold when you have a 17 year old daughter !)

To be honest I don't watch Al Jazeerah or Choccywoccydooda so it's all good

[koi]

We've been with Virgin for years, it had been faultless, the broadband was solid, the tv worked just fine and our phone never had a blip. In May (I think or June) they phoned offering to change our box for the tivo and install the superhub. Well, on the whole it's been a disaster. The Superhub has been shocking. The wireless rubbish. At one point I was phoning them daily because it wasn't working. I've literally had hours on the phone arguing with customer services over my bill, arguing it should reflect all the trouble we're having, needless to say it's deaf ears. I do have to say that for the last two weeks it's been okay, the laptops pick it up no problem as does my phone. The range is still hopeless but just about usable in most rooms (forget going outside though). The TV service has also been poor. It's hard to say if it's the TiVo box or the actual service but Catch-Up service more than not crashes half-way through a programme, HD programmes break-up (apart from BBC1) and recording often fails. Again, I've has numerous conversations with customer serviced over this and get nothing but bluster about improving the signal. My last conversation with Virgin was ridiculous; when I threatened to finally give up and leave they just said fine, good luck.

I'm loathed to go to Sky but any more trouble and I wont have any choice.

[Biddy]

koi, I had similar problems with the "superhub" but they have just rolled out a new firmware that appears to have made the wifi more stable (still rubbish range though). To be honest, I got fed up with mine so installed the old router in the middle of the house to piggy back off.

With regards to Tivo, my mate had the original standalone Tivo box from way back so got the VirginMedia one as soon as it came out. He told me it felt like they were Beta testing it for Virgin as it had all the faults you describe. He eventually gave up and jumped to Sky for the F1 HD channel. Anyway, it looks like the new software that is currently being rolled out to Tivo boxes should hopefully fix all those issues.

[adopted scouser]

koi, I had similar problems with the "superhub" but they have just rolled out a new firmware that appears to have made the wifi more stable (still rubbish range though). To be honest, I got fed up with mine so installed the old router in the middle of the house to piggy back off.

With regards to Tivo, my mate had the original standalone Tivo box from way back so got the VirginMedia one as soon as it came out. He told me it felt like they were Beta testing it for Virgin as it had all the faults you describe. He eventually gave up and jumped to Sky for the F1 HD channel. Anyway, it looks like the new software that is currently being rolled out to Tivo boxes should hopefully fix all those issues.

Thank christ for that !

Never did understand the furore over Sky F1 though, exactly the same coverage of the race as the BBC with, err adverts.

[koi]

Well I hope the new software does improve things or else I'm offski.

Sky F1 show every race, BBC only a select few. Not that I watch any of it.

[Paul]

Thanks AS. I was a bit taken back by the cost of £1000+ per annum. I guess if I noted every bit of our spend it could come close - might look through the last year's bills.

At £1000 or more per household it's no wonder Pay TV is such a competitive market. I had no idea, thought £40-50 would be the maximum.

[M-K]

We've got Virgin for the broadband and phone, and Sky for the TV. I was considering getting everything from the same provider, but then Virgin offered to give us a bunch of TV channels and a box (not Tivo) for free, which meant we'd be taking three services from them and therefore getting £10 off every month. Very odd. So we have the free-to-air channels and catch-up TV from Virgin in the bedroom and the proper Sky stuff downstairs, for about the same price as either company's all-in-one package.

The Virgin internet is usually fast - downloaded a 2GB game demo yesterday in about 20 minutes - but the Superhub is a piece of crap. Luckily you can disable it and use a decent router instead.

[koi]

Just thinking about it, I could switch the wifi off and attach my old wireless router, that should fix the shocking wifi.

[M-K]

Just thinking about it, I could switch the wifi off and attach my old wireless router, that should fix the shocking wifi.

That's actually what the Virgin tech support guy told me to do!

[roverandout]

have had virgin media for years, i got a tivo box because i bought a 3d tv and they recommended tivo as you need a 3d/hd box which tivo is, have never had any problems with it or broadband or the landline. I AM on virgin media network for my phone which to be honest is pretty ######, can never get a signal in some places