# Gentlemen (and ladies).. Start your engines please



## royfox

Hi all,

Firstly., Happy New Year.

As some may know, I've been in talks with VM to grab all us Series 1 supporters a special offer in January.

They have asked me to gather information of interested parties so they can discuss internally the deal etc.

I have a website up and running where you can register your interest in the new VM Tivo. I'm keeping the website open until the 14th Jan, I will then send all data I've collected to my contact who has advised they should make contact before the end of January.

PLEASE NOTE: Im not an employee of VM or TiVo and I have no interest other than to get myself and everyone else a good deal.

I would encourage anyone with an interest to register.

here we go::::

https://vmtivo-s1registration.co.uk/vmtivo/Home.html

Rules of registration:
Only 1 submission per user
Entry must be made no later than the 1st of Feb 2011
You MUST have your series 1 registered 
You must already be a customer or be willing to be contacted by & sign up to Virgin Media if you aren't one

Please post in as many places as possible so that we can get as much data and interest as we can.

Apologies for the basic site, it's not one of my skills.. i was working till 4am this morning to get it to this stage... It is safe 128bit encryption and full dedicated SSL certificate.

Any questions ask....there is an email address on the site.

VM are telling me that they intend to start shipping to S1 owners end of January, so register quickly please.

I will be in China from the 10th Jan till the 20th Jan, so any questions may be answered with a delay.. but I will close this registration site down on the 14th as planned so you only have 2 weeks to lodge your information.....

Roy


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## Tony Hoyle

Nice.. (Reading between the lines this implies no Tivos before end of Jan?).


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## royfox

I think end of Jan for s1 owners is feasible.


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## mrwhizzard

They are beginning their general staff rollout from end of Jan/early Feb so not entirely unfeasible


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## memememe

I for one, thank you very much for all your efforts, appreciated

I am registering. I have 3 S1's and not sure which if not all are registered with Tivo but will detail, this on the form too.

Can't wait!


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## cwaring

Could you add an "M" option to the TV packs list as that's the one my parent's are on. 

Also, you need to make the form slightly larger as I an only just see the buttons at the bottom of it! (IE8 on Win7Pro)

Thanks.


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## frobozz

Thanks for your efforts. I'll register in a couple of days when I get back home.

S1 Tivo (lifetime sub) is currently in the loft. I assume I will be able to retrieve my Tivo service number by powering it up and searching through the menus, is there any other way (other than searching for a poorly files 10 year old letter!)?


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## mrwhizzard

Will be interesting to see how they handle the tv package bit seeing as having XL package is a pre-requisite for anyone wanting to take a TiVo box from VM initially.


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## mikerr

frobozz said:


> S1 Tivo (lifetime sub) is currently in the loft. I assume I will be able to retrieve my Tivo service number by powering it up and searching through the menus, is there any other way (other than searching for a poorly files 10 year old letter!)?


It's printed on the back of your Tivo box near the PSU. 
- assuming you have never swapped the motherboard of course.

Also in the menu Messages & Setup / System Information


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## childe

Roy

Thanks for sorting this out for us. I have 2 questions which I hope you can answer.

I definitely want the new Virgin Tivo in my main viewing room (to replace my V+ box), but as I have 2 outlets in my house I want to keep using my old Series 1 in the other room as it is more than adequate for the type of viewing in that room. At least until it packs up or Tivo stop supporting lifetime subscriptions...

If I sign up, via your website, to the special deal that Virgin are going to give us will this result in the immediate termination of my lifetime subscription to my series 1 Tivo once I get the new box? I hope not.

Also, my mother is a Virgin customer and has a series 1. If the deal is good she may also want to move to the new Virgin Tivo. Does she need to register on this forum to qualify for the deal? Also, like Carl's Mum, she only has Medium TV - will she be eligible for the new Tivo?

Thanks

Eric


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## katman

Had to type "na" in the Virgin field as I dont currently have Virgin and it wont allow that field to be blank, also as Carl said, only the top edge of the buttons was visible


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## royfox

cwaring said:


> Could you add an "M" option to the TV packs list as that's the one my parent's are on.
> 
> Also, you need to make the form slightly larger as I an only just see the buttons at the bottom of it! (IE8 on Win7Pro)
> 
> Thanks.


Added the "m".. I'm trying to increase the size but struggling.. Will ask my it guy to take a look in a couple of days when I return to work..

Just use a real browser like Safari


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## royfox

childe said:


> Roy
> 
> Thanks for sorting this out for us. I have 2 questions which I hope you can answer.
> 
> I definitely want the new Virgin Tivo in my main viewing room (to replace my V+ box), but as I have 2 outlets in my house I want to keep using my old Series 1 in the other room as it is more than adequate for the type of viewing in that room. At least until it packs up or Tivo stop supporting lifetime subscriptions...
> 
> If I sign up, via your website, to the special deal that Virgin are going to give us will this result in the immediate termination of my lifetime subscription to my series 1 Tivo once I get the new box? I hope not.
> 
> Also, my mother is a Virgin customer and has a series 1. If the deal is good she may also want to move to the new Virgin Tivo. Does she need to register on this forum to qualify for the deal? Also, like Carl's Mum, she only has Medium TV - will she be eligible for the new Tivo?
> 
> Thanks
> 
> Eric


Nope.. This will have ZERO impact on any contracts you have right now.. Please remember this is not Virgin or Tivo supported.. this is little old me trying to get us a bargain..
So sign up and let me submit the data to them.. you can then discuss any issue or concerns with them when they make it clear how this thing will move forward..
As for S1 continuation, like you and everyone else. I have no idea how Tivo / Virgin intend to continue support in the UK..


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## royfox

katman said:


> Had to type "na" in the Virgin field as I dont currently have Virgin and it wont allow that field to be blank, also as Carl said, only the top edge of the buttons was visible


Sort of sorted.. I couldn't find a way to have a drop down choice, so put an information bit underneath. thanks...


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## cwaring

royfox said:


> Added the "m".. I'm trying to increase the size but struggling.. Will ask my it guy to take a look in a couple of days when I return to work..


Should just be a matter of changing the height of the form or something. I did have a quick look at the source code but couldn't make any sense out of it 



> Just use a real browser like Safari


No excuse for sloppy programming


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## royfox

cwaring said:


> Should just be a matter of changing the height of the form or something.
> 
> No excuse for sloppy programming


Fixed I think.. seriously, could you just view it for me as I don't have IE...


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## katman

Looks ok now


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## cwaring

Fine here.


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## childe

Quick request for help please - I'm trying to register my Mum's account and can't tell if the first character of the final string in her tivo service number is a 0 (zero) or a ;etter O. It looks like a 0 zero, but for my Tivo it is a C, so I know it could be a letter O. Does anyone know if it is possible to have a zero as the first character of the final string?

Thanks


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## mikerr

It's hexadecimal ... so no letter Os, just 0123456789ABCDEF


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## sjp

thanks Roy, now I owe you beer as well


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## childe

mikerr said:


> It's hexadecimal ... so no letter Os, just 0123456789ABCDEF


doh!

Thanks


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## childe

In case anyone was wondering, the injunction "Only 1 submission per user" is being enforced. I just tried to register for my Mum, but the web site detected I had already registered once, even though I used a different email address and phone number this time round. Does it recognise my IP address? Or are you using cookies? Crafty... Now I'll have to go round to her place to do it from her PC. No big deal, but I thought I was being clever, and it turns out I was not


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## royfox

childe said:


> In case anyone was wondering, the injunction "Only 1 submission per user" is being enforced. I just tried to register for my Mum, but the web site detected I had already registered once, even though I used a different email address and phone number this time round. Does it recognise my IP address? Or are you using cookies? Crafty... Now I'll have to go round to her place to do it from her PC. No big deal, but I thought I was being clever, and it turns out I was not


A bit of all the above..
Its to stop multi postings.. not so much from people that have multiple boxes but spammers etc... although i'm sure they would quickly work a way around it if they wanted..


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## Ovit-UK

Signed up, thanks.


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## staffie2001uk

I'm on holiday so can't physically get to my TiVo. Does anyone know if I can find the service No. via TiVoWeb? 

Cheers, 

Colin.


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## royfox

staffie2001uk said:


> I'm on holiday so can't physically get to my TiVo. Does anyone know if I can find the service No. via TiVoWeb?
> 
> Cheers,
> 
> Colin.


Colin..
Sign up and I can add your missing detail later.. 
Roy


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## mikerr

You can find it in the tclient logs in tivoweb:

http://tivoip/logs/tclient or http://tivoip/logs/0tclient

Look for a line like this:
01/02:05:27:04 /tvbin/TClient: tcdId: *023000060201234*


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## staffie2001uk

Thanks Mikerr.

Royfox, I've pm'd you with my service No to add to the registration. 

Thanks,

Colin.


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## nektar

Is there a risk for me here entering my TIVO subscription number - I am a lifetime sub and worry that my number could be used on someone else's box?


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## cwaring

In here yes, though highly unlikely as we're all pretty honest and respectible - as far as I know, anyway 

There's no problem using the form linked to in the first post.


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## royfox

nektar said:


> Is there a risk for me here entering my TIVO subscription number - I am a lifetime sub and worry that my number could be used on someone else's box?


Not too sure that could be done anyway. I though the registration number was linked to the actual chip on board the pcb.. I could be wrong..

Anyway.. I'm not here to do things like that.. but I do appreciate your concern..


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## Tony Hoyle

It's relatively easy to subvert (it reads it off the motherboard, then sends it using easily editable TCL), but I doubt there's any particular reason to do so... Subs aren't being charged for anyway at the moment and anyone who wanted an S1 probably already picked up a lifetime subbed one already.

That's always assuming royfox snafu'd and the list of subscription numbers got out, which is presumably unlikely anyway.


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## royfox

Tony Hoyle said:


> It's relatively easy to subvert (it reads it off the motherboard, then sends it using easily editable TCL), but I doubt there's any particular reason to do so... Subs aren't being charged for anyway at the moment and anyone who wanted an S1 probably already picked up a lifetime subbed one already.
> 
> That's always assuming royfox snafu'd and the list of subscription numbers got out, which is presumably unlikely anyway.


Wont be released by me.. the data is very secure.. and as I have advised, once it is moved to VIrgin, the whole site and data will be deleted.


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## Major dude

Just wanted to add my thanks to Roy.
Great initiative on your part even if it does not pay off, it was well worth a try. 
If you do not ask you do not get and we all want TiVo to succeed this time and take it's rightful place as the best gadget of all time in the UK.


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## AENG

Great initiative, Roy. Thank you. I've signed up - it's certainly worth a try. :up:


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## AndyW

Just adding my thanks too Roy - fingers crossed!


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## royfox

Thanks for the praise, but in all honesty there is a little self indulgence, I like you just want TiVo to succeed and have a better option than I currently have.


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## hokkers999

royfox said:


> You MUST have your series 1 registered


Please define "registered" ? All lifetime units are obviously registered with Tivo.

I bought lifetime units for my father-in-law and youngest daughter. Both are interested in upgrading.

F-I-L : is old school and likes to get "everthing from one place" if he can.
Y-D : "likes the look" of the new model.

Both S1's were bought off ebay and like many people we never bothered to ring up Tivo and "change the ownership".

Are those units eleigible for the upgrade (both are on vm, both have M telly).


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## fysmd

Done, fingers crossed for a great offer from Virgin.


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## deshepherd

Can't come quickly enough for me ... returned from 5 days away visitng parents etc last night to discover halfway through first day it botched a channel change and ended on the dreaded 110 "You do not subscribe to LiveHD, phone xxxxx to subscribe, press OK to remove this screen" display which was what the next 4 days worth of recordings all contained as in recent power cyclings of STB to get it restart during the day then I seem to have left the time switch on "always on" rather than the "turn off 2:00-2:01 every day" setting!


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## royfox

hokkers999 said:


> Please define "registered" ? All lifetime units are obviously registered with Tivo.
> 
> I bought lifetime units for my father-in-law and youngest daughter. Both are interested in upgrading.
> 
> F-I-L : is old school and likes to get "everthing from one place" if he can.
> Y-D : "likes the look" of the new model.
> 
> Both S1's were bought off ebay and like many people we never bothered to ring up Tivo and "change the ownership".
> 
> Are those units eleigible for the upgrade (both are on vm, both have M telly).


Just need to show on the registration that you are an owner of a series 1 unit. As the offer we will ultimately get is for current S1 owners and users.

Hope that is a little clearer?


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## nbaker

hokkers999 said:


> Both S1's were bought off ebay and like many people we never bothered to ring up Tivo and "change the ownership".
> 
> Are those units eleigible for the upgrade (both are on vm, both have M telly).


Well I have filled in the details of my ebay Lifetime subbed machine, so I hope so

Bought this machine a few years back replacing my original broken S1.

Once again many thanks to Roy:up:


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## royfox

nbaker said:


> Well I have filled in the details of my ebay Lifetime subbed machine, so I hope so
> 
> Bought this machine a few years back replacing my original broken S1.
> 
> Once again many thanks to Roy:up:


That will be fine


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## deshepherd

Expect its ok but I registered in my name but for "technical reasons" (mainly due to the length of a call to, as was then, Telewest customer support to get our account reinstated when after renting out our house for a couple of years while I was on a work assignment to Silicon Valley we discovered our tenants had transferred our cable connection to their new address and it took them so long to sort out that I had to go somewhere else and hand the phone to my wife) our VM account is actually in my wife's name and Telewest used to refuse to talk to me citing "data protection"


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## dja1971

Help! All of my furniture and possessions - including my S1 Tivo - is currently in storage as I am having my house renovated. Its not due to be completed until the end of March, and I can't get to my Tivo to access the info I'll need until then. Is there a way I can still register? I am after all a current S1 owner...


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## royfox

dja1971 said:


> Help! All of my furniture and possessions - including my S1 Tivo - is currently in storage as I am having my house renovated. Its not due to be completed until the end of March, and I can't get to my Tivo to access the info I'll need until then. Is there a way I can still register? I am after all a current S1 owner...


Hi,

Unfortunately the only way to prove ownership is by a tivo service number.. one stipulation VM gave to me was, it has to be current S1 ownership that is rewarded..

By all means you can add your info to the list but as I've said to about 5 other people today, I'm can't guarantee VM will take the registration.. sorry this bit is out of my hands..


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## childe

Roy - When we reach the registration deadline, would you mind letting us know how many registrations you have had? I'm just curious to know how many of us there are, even if this is only owners in a Virgin area. Do we number in the tens or the hundreds, or possibly the thousands? Thanks.


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## royfox

Yes no problems.


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## EdGillett

I assume that my S1 currently languishing under a desk without an active monthly sub (non lifetime) means I don't get to play? 

I'm still a registered owner, if not currently active user - can I add my details to the list anyway


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## royfox

EdGillett said:


> I assume that my S1 currently languishing under a desk without an active monthly sub (non lifetime) means I don't get to play?
> 
> I'm still a registered owner, if not currently active user - can I add my details to the list anyway


If I were you, I'd power it up and see if there is a service number in the settings. If there is, that seems acceptable to me and I'm sure it will to them.


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## cwaring

Or just look on the back  (Am I wrong? I thought the number was on there. It's been a while )


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## velocitysurfer1

childe said:


> I'm just curious to know how many of us there are, even if this is only owners in a Virgin area. .


I've signed up even though I'm not in a Virgin area. One reason for doing this is to show Virgin that there is interest out there in their product.

Well done to Roy for getting us this far.:up:


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## netnode

Done and thanks for trying to help us all out


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## UncUgly

done - and going to try and talk the MiL through getting the service number so I can register her, as she lives in a Virgin Area it would be IDEAL !


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## qwiki

Done.

Thanks Roy


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## hornist

dja1971 said:


> Help! All of my furniture and possessions - including my S1 Tivo - is currently in storage as I am having my house renovated. Its not due to be completed until the end of March, and I can't get to my Tivo to access the info I'll need until then. Is there a way I can still register? I am after all a current S1 owner...


I'm in exactly the same situation as dja1971. My S1 is in a storage facility in the south of France, and is due to reach me in the UK about the 17th Jan. It's lifetime subbed. Is there no way that we (or VM) can find out the subscription information some other way?
And before you ask, the computer that I used to use for remote admin of the TiVO is also in the same storage!
Paul


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## royfox

hornist said:


> I'm in exactly the same situation as dja1971. My S1 is in a storage facility in the south of France, and is due to reach me in the UK about the 17th Jan. It's lifetime subbed. Is there no way that we (or VM) can find out the subscription information some other way?
> And before you ask, the computer that I used to use for remote admin of the TiVO is also in the same storage!
> Paul


Please remember that S1 TiVo really has nothing to do with Virgin at all.
Unfortunately I have to have a cut off date and the 14th suited me as I'm away in China and will have some spare time to close it all down and send the data to them.

I suggest you register and then fire me an email just to remind me to add a note on the list that you will update your service number later..


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## royfox

UncUgly said:


> done - and going to try and talk the MiL through getting the service number so I can register her, as she lives in a Virgin Area it would be IDEAL !


Just remember that the registration is IP + cookie based so you will ideally have to use a different IP and clear out the cookie... otherwise it won't register


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## hokkers999

royfox said:


> Just remember that the registration is IP + cookie based so you will ideally have to use a different IP and clear out the cookie... otherwise it won't register


What is this obsession with tying an "interest" to a specific ip address? Talk about absolutely pointless crap.

Just proxy it or even better use Tor.

Bloody amateur web apprentices.


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## royfox

hokkers999 said:


> What is this obsession with tying an "interest" to a specific ip address? Talk about absolutely pointless crap.
> 
> Just proxy it or even better use Tor.
> 
> Bloody amateur web apprentices.


If you had any clue how long I have spent setting this up for your benefit you wouldn't make comments like that.

You really are an obnoxious, rude tit. 
Guess who is on my blocked list


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## nbaker

Yes definitely a most unwelcome comment. 

Think hes just sore cause he will be stuck with a S1 when we have shiny new boxes 

I for one appreciate your time & effort Roy and I am certain many others do :up:


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## royfox

nbaker said:


> Yes definitely a most unwelcome comment.
> 
> Think hes just sore cause he will be stuck with a S1 when we have shiny new boxes
> 
> I for one appreciate your time & effort Roy and I am certain many others do :up:


Thanks. It's for people like you I'm doing this. Of course me as well. 
:up: is very appreciated.


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## Zaichik

I want to register and I am comfortable with supplying all the info except my Virgin account number. Can I still register?


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## royfox

Zaichik said:


> I want to register and I am comfortable with supplying all the info except my Virgin account number. Can I still register?


Only supply what you are comfortable with.


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## ghstone

Roy, many thanks for going to the trouble of doing this, but I guess if I'm in a none cabled area I and my friends and relatives can't take advantage ? A pity, as we have 10+ Lifetimes actively being used at the moment, and i have a 'few' others in the cupboard...


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## cwaring

As previously mentioned, add your details anyway. If only to show them that an non-cable Tivo would be a good idea.


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## hokkers999

nbaker said:


> Yes definitely a most unwelcome comment.
> 
> Think hes just sore cause he will be stuck with a S1 when we have shiny new boxes
> 
> I for one appreciate your time & effort Roy and I am certain many others do :up:


1. It's data gathering just for the sake of it. It's quicker & easier NOT to gather the ip addy and tie it to a cookie.

2. I'm in a VM area, so it's my choice to stay on S1. As I said Father-in-Law and Youngest Daughter both want to change.


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## steveroe

Can we clarify please: Do you want those of us with a series 1 who cannot get a Virgin Tivo as we don't live in a cabled area to sign up (without Virgin account details) so they have an idea of interest or not? Will it skew your data?


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## Zaichik

royfox said:


> Only supply what you are comfortable with.


Thanks - I'll sign up tonight. :up:


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## royfox

steveroe said:


> Can we clarify please: Do you want those of us with a series 1 who cannot get a Virgin Tivo as we don't live in a cabled area to sign up (without Virgin account details) so they have an idea of interest or not? Will it skew your data?


You can do that as I can filter the data afterwards. I think it would prove to VM that there could be an install base for non cabled people also.


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## royfox

Ive had talks today with VM.. from those talks I've extended the submit date to the 1st Feb. I've also removed the virgin account number section from the form as they didn't feel this was necessary..

Roy


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## warrenrb

Will the extended submit date mean we'll have to wait longer to find out what the offer is then? (How impatient am I?)


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## Zaichik

I'm having trouble registering. First I tried in IE9 and got an error that "form spam" had been detected and my submission had been aborted. I then tried in Google Chrome and the submit button is completely missing. 

EDIT: Finally managed it using Firefox.


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## royfox

Zaichik said:


> I'm having trouble registering. First I tried in IE9 and got an error that "form spam" had been detected and my submission had been aborted. I then tried in Google Chrome and the submit button is completely missing.
> 
> EDIT: Finally managed it using Firefox.


Sorry about that. I don't use Microsoft so haven't tried it with IE. It did work with osx chrome thou. I will recompile in the site in the morning just in case there is a gremlin.


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## royfox

warrenrb said:


> Will the extended submit date mean we'll have to wait longer to find out what the offer is then? (How impatient am I?)


Yes unfortunately. I've had a few requests from people that are either away on holiday or haven't got there Tivos set up. So I thought the extension would be a good idea. Sorry. 
Just to give you an indication on results so far.

There have been 100 registrations as of 7pm today.

I would have thought there would have been more. What does everyone else think?


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## mikerr

I'll stick a link up on my site & twitter it in a minute

- see if that inflates your numbers


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## royfox

mikerr said:


> I'll stick a link up on my site & twitter it in a minute
> 
> - see if that inflates your numbers


Thanks


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## TCM2007

100 seems like a a very good number, given the number of people on this board and the relative small proportion who live in a Virgin areas. Good job.


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## cwaring

royfox said:


> Sorry about that. I don't use Microsoft so haven't tried it with IE. It did work with osx chrome thou. I will recompile in the site in the morning just in case there is a gremlin.


Worked fine with Win7 and IE8


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## mikerr

TCM2007 said:


> 100 seems like a a very good number, given the number of people on this board and the relative small proportion who live in a Virgin areas. Good job.


Only a tiny minority of TiVo owners read this board - most of us visited when we had a problem and hung around. Far more just pass through, or never even look here.

Wondering whether to send an email to all past customers ?

Much as I hate spam - I'd say many (most!) are unaware even that Virgin are releasing a new TiVo.

A large amount are only just discovering that TiVo can record anything other than the five analogue aerial channels !


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## royfox

mikerr said:


> Only a tiny minority of TiVo owners read this board - most of us visited when we had a problem and hung around. Far more just pass through, or never even look here.
> 
> Wondering whether to send an email to all past customers ?
> 
> Much as I hate spam - I'd say many (most!) are unaware even that Virgin are releasing a new TiVo.
> 
> A large amount are only just discovering that TiVo can record anything other than the five analogue aerial channels !


I know VM are getting a list of current S1 owners from TiVo. So they should cover that side. 
Our / my registration will be smaller, as you rightly say, not everyone will visit the forum. 
Vm are quite happy with the results so far, I suppose it's just my own personal expectations that were dented. Easily done thou lol.


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## AMc

royfox said:


> I know VM are getting a list of current S1 owners from TiVo. So they should cover that side.


I suspect that Tivo owner list will contain a lot of errors for lifetime machines. I only updated my details because I was helping my parents with a problem on their eBay lifetime machine and Sky wanted a valid service number. If I hadn't made that call it would be an old address from 2006.
For a long time the advice on here was to avoid re-registering lifetime subscriptions as the close old account/open new one process was prone to problems that resulted in LT Tivos that reported "account closed".
I'm sure the monthly subs will be a bit more reliable as those people were making regular payments in their names but I can still imagine a lot of old addresses.
I don't think Tivo/Sky collected email addresses when you registered.


mikerr said:


> Wondering whether to send an email to all past customers ?


I wouldn't mind if I got a single email from an old supplier with that kind of information, though I bought my stuff from Tivoheaven.


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## AMc

royfox said:


> You can do that as I can filter the data afterwards. I think it would prove to VM that there could be an install base for non cabled people also.


I'm outside a cable area but I AM a Virgin Media Broadband customer using their ADSL and phone services over a BT rented line - there seemed to be no option to add that but I've registered as a non Virgin customer with my service ID & postcode.

I'd be happy to continue with that and a Tivo based Freeview/Freesat + VOD based box like BT Vision.


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## warrenrb

royfox said:


> Yes unfortunately. I've had a few requests from people that are either away on holiday or haven't got there Tivos set up. So I thought the extension would be a good idea. Sorry.


Oh No! Damn you, out-of-the-country people!


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## deshepherd

royfox said:


> I know VM are getting a list of current S1 owners from TiVo. So they should cover that side.


In any case given the message a couple of months agao I'm sure there'll be a "TiVo now available from VM" message when its available.

Also, perhaps they might even fire-up "Dossa and Jo" facility to send the VM-TiVo demo to everyone!


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## OzSat

The "Dossa and Jo" situation isn't really any different to the Sky Anytime system where they download unwanted content to your Sky box.


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## laurence

royfox said:


> There have been 100 registrations as of 7pm today.
> 
> I would have thought there would have been more. What does everyone else think?


I haven't got around to registering yet - partly just finding the time to and partly because I was a little apprehensive about entering personal details. But, I'm definitely up for the new tivo. I wonder how many others have delayed for the same reason. Not having to put in the service number certainly encourages me to get on with it!


----------



## laurence

royfox said:


> Ive had talks today with VM.. from those talks I've extended the submit date to the 1st Feb. I've also removed the virgin account number section from the form as they didn't feel this was necessary..
> 
> Roy


Just re-read that. So you do still need us to enter the tivo service number?
Presumably, they could confirm that we are existing customers from the data they get from tivo.


----------



## TCM2007

deshepherd said:


> In any case given the message a couple of months agao I'm sure there'll be a "TiVo now available from VM" message when its available.
> 
> Also, perhaps they might even fire-up "Dossa and Jo" facility to send the VM-TiVo demo to everyone!


Nice idea! Shame they don't own their own channels any more to let them broadcast it.


----------



## abuelbanat

Can I just add my thanks.

I've been a TiVo user since Oct 2002 (ebay 5 minutes after landing from a holiday in Arizona) - and used this forum off and on for a couple of years later. 

I've loyally stuck by my trusty TiVo in the face of advancements everywhere else - the interface and features still imo beating pretty much everything else around.

Lately tho it started to fade, a few reboots here and there and I could swear the pixelation was getting worse, a really noticeable difference between the standard sky picture and the tivo one......more reboots becoming common - and then I came home from work yesterday to find it dead. No picture, no live TV, it still plays recordings and tries to change channels etc but nothing I've tried gets it to a picture.

I thought I'd check on here for any tips and wow - even better, tivo from virgin, and someone's been kind enough to consider us loyal tivo types.

i'm signed up. 

thanks very much.


----------



## Fatbloke

I'll add my details today


----------



## ptruman

Apologies if posted elsewhere, but https://tivo.virginmedia.com/public/interest is now taking pre-registration.

http://tivo.virginmedia.com/ has the adverts.

(for clarity, I've registered on both - can't hurt!)

Only thing I'm miffed about is that I've already paid for an HD box.


----------



## mikerr

ptruman said:


> Apologies if posted elsewhere, but https://tivo.virginmedia.com/public/interest is now taking pre-registration..


Yep - but that's for all potential virgin media customers

The one in this thread is for us existing TiVo customers who'll (possibly) get a special deal if we're on the list:
https://vmtivo-s1registration.co.uk/vmtivo/Home.html


----------



## deshepherd

TCM2007 said:


> Nice idea! Shame they don't own their own channels any more to let them broadcast it.


Yes, that would have been a good idea. I remember when sky+ came out realizing that TiVo would never be able to compete when going on holiday to somewhere with sky and seeing how whenever a channel was off air the simply broadcast a continuous loop of a sky+ promo program.


----------



## ptruman

mikerr said:


> Yep - but that's for all potential virgin media customers
> 
> The one in this thread is for us existing TiVo customers who'll (possibly) get a special deal if we're on the list:
> https://vmtivo-s1registration.co.uk/vmtivo/Home.html


Bzzzzt, I'm afraid you're wrong there. 

I got the email as I AM a VM customer (part of their "Electric" e-mag) and if you subscribe for info, it asks if you are already a customer and to add your area billing code and account number.


----------



## royfox

abuelbanat said:


> Can I just add my thanks.
> 
> I've been a TiVo user since Oct 2002 (ebay 5 minutes after landing from a holiday in Arizona) - and used this forum off and on for a couple of years later.
> 
> I've loyally stuck by my trusty TiVo in the face of advancements everywhere else - the interface and features still imo beating pretty much everything else around.
> 
> Lately tho it started to fade, a few reboots here and there and I could swear the pixelation was getting worse, a really noticeable difference between the standard sky picture and the tivo one......more reboots becoming common - and then I came home from work yesterday to find it dead. No picture, no live TV, it still plays recordings and tries to change channels etc but nothing I've tried gets it to a picture.
> 
> I thought I'd check on here for any tips and wow - even better, tivo from virgin, and someone's been kind enough to consider us loyal tivo types.
> 
> i'm signed up.
> 
> thanks very much.


Welcome back to the site.


----------



## royfox

ptruman said:


> Bzzzzt, I'm afraid you're wrong there.
> 
> I got the email as I AM a VM customer (part of their "Electric" e-mag) and if you subscribe for info, it asks if you are already a customer and to add your area billing code and account number.


The registration at www.vmtivo-s1registration.co.uk is not a Virgin run site. It's independent. Us S1 owners "will" get a special offer from Virgin, that I can say.

I personally have registered on both sites, as I'm sure the majority of people on this forum have.


----------



## Royalflush

Details added, thx :up:


----------



## nbaker

ptruman said:


> Apologies if posted elsewhere, but https://tivo.virginmedia.com/public/interest is now taking pre-registration.


No worries, but I guess most people here registered there interest when that site was lauched, early December if I remember correctly.


----------



## ptruman

royfox said:


> The registration at www.vmtivo-s1registration.co.uk is not a Virgin run site. It's independent. Us S1 owners "will" get a special offer from Virgin, that I can say.
> 
> I personally have registered on both sites, as I'm sure the majority of people on this forum have.


Hopefully everyone has read the posts properly 

I never said the URL at the start of THIS thread wasn't anything to do with Virgin - I posted a new link (emailed out this morning to me) FROM Virgin. Someone in thread stated that was for "new customers only", which it is not (click the tickybox, add your account details).

I'd recommend you add both, in case any details differ - at best we get all the prices available for comparison.

HTH

And back we go


----------



## Fred Smith

Details added. Thanks to Roy for his time and effort.


----------



## abuelbanat

haha - my situation has just become dire!

first TiVo packs in..... although that was on the cards for a few months now. unfortunately the old sky box feeding it has now packed in.....works for an hour or so and then the picture goes, followed by the sound (!). Turning it all off at the wall for half an hour lets you repeat the cycle......checked all the connections etc however it's probably 10 years old so it's probably also had it's chips.

dilemma. got virgin V+ box in back of house and was simply going to get another sooner rather than later for the living room....obviously now going with VM TiVo but need to wait......arrgh.


----------



## Furball

Done and will pass on the link to others 

Furball


----------



## royfox

Hi All...

Jut to advise that I travel to China today, back on the 20th, so I will be out of contact for the next couple of days whilst I settle into my new home in Dongguan province.. 

I will be keeping track of the forum and answer any questions as soon as I can..

roy


----------



## Furball

Not that it matters really but my confirmation e-mail still says a closing date of 14th Jan



> Thank you for taking the time to register your details.
> 
> This information will be redirected to Virgin Media on or before the 14th January 2011. Virgin Media will then be in touch directly with you.
> 
> Once again, thank you.


Furball


----------



## royfox

Furball said:


> Not that it matters really but my confirmation e-mail still says a closing date of 14th Jan
> 
> Furball


Corrected.. thanks for the heads-up..


----------



## EdGillett

And I added my details over the weekend too  and Yes Carl, the sticker on the back had the Service Number on it, thanks for the heads up.

Once again, thanks for your efforts on this royfox - pillar of the community!

And if anyone can enlighten me as to how to block the troll, that would be great - what an ungrateful swine! Hokkers can hok off - pay no mind roy, not worth the effort. 

Remember all - don't feed the admittedly very tempting to feed troll :|


----------



## steveroe

EdGillett said:


> And if anyone can enlighten me as to how to block the troll, that would be great - what an ungrateful swine! Hokkers can hok off - pay no mind roy, not worth the effort.


Just click on this link: http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/profile.php?do=addlist&userlist=ignore&u=132769 :up:


----------



## cwaring

I'm not going to 'ignore' him as he's good for a laugh


----------



## randap

Nice one! Registered my details. Thanks for your efforts...

Paul.


----------



## andyfoxccp

Thanks Roy, and lets look forward to a lovely offer from VM to us all


----------



## deesee

You can get your tivo service number from inside the back page of your tivo viewers guide, simples


----------



## Hornet

Hi Roy,

Just wanted to add my thanks, I don't post here too often but really appreciate your fine efforts in organising this for us S1 owners.


Hornet.


----------



## VirginMediaPhil

Hornet said:


> I don't post here too often


You haven't posted since 2002. That's a bit of an understatement IMO


----------



## cwaring

But factually accurate, none-the-less


----------



## royfox

Hi All,

Im now back in HK and just wanted to let you know that I've sent an email to my contact for an update.. As soon as I know anything, I will post..

Roy


----------



## shozoku

I have a quick question. My non-subbed (yes i know!) S1 Tivo has been retired for 2 years now and while it is registered to me i have never changed my address with tivo/sky/virgin cs. Will this affect me registering for this offer?


----------



## cwaring

I'm sure Roy will correct me if I'm wrong but no, I don't think it will. As long as you have a valid S1 serial number, you'll be fine.


----------



## jonphil

Have registered my details on the site (well both) and hopefully when someone hears what the 'special offer' will be they will post the details.

I'm just concerned that I registered with Virgin too so depending which list they work through first how will we know if it's the special offer we are getting?

I have only had SkyHD+ for a year and getting sick of not being able to find shows to record and worse still it randomly just forgetting to record something or not being able to set a series link.

My other half was always against moving to Virgin, but since discovering how rubbish the Sky HD box is and Virgin getting Tivo we maybe switching.

Our series 1 is still working on freeview in the bedroom


----------



## royfox

cwaring said:


> I'm sure Roy will correct me if I'm wrong but no, I don't think it will. As long as you have a valid S1 serial number, you'll be fine.


Thanks Carl.. yes you are right


----------



## tankstage

Just a quick question, what about multiple TiVo S1 owners who might want multiple Virgin TiVo's ?

(I would like to have 2, to replace my 3 lifetime subbed units).


----------



## DaveMax

Only just found this thread ..... and duly signed up! Not sure how I'd get out of my existing contract though? Let's see what's on offer.


----------



## Tony Hoyle

VM are always happy for people to extend their contracts to upgrade.. the minimum term really only matters if you try to cancel.


----------



## jonphil

I'm just hoping whatever the offer is we can sign up online, as a few sites offer a large cashback amount for signing up to Virgin 
I really can't wait for Tivo to come back to the UK.


----------



## hokkers999

jonphil said:


> ... since discovering how rubbish the Sky HD box ...


I had Sky for 18 years (original sky pioneer contract) in all that time the box just worked.

Only been on vm telly since September, since that time, the vm box has rebooted itself in the evening 5 times...

So this new box

h/w - bog standard off the shelf cisco unit, that should work ok

tv - delivered over cable as has been for years, as good as vm's network is and we all know that it struggles even now to deliver tv reliably. We were watching catch up (SD) this morning - picture froze then message came up - on demand not available! WTF???

Check nthellworld.co.uk and the numerous threads on there about vod being as unreliable as hell. Then factor in the extra traffic of 3 HD channels at the same time...

s/w - well, it was the rock sold Tivo s/w then vm started hacking it around to change the skins, add flash support (christ knows why, pile of crap), add a 3rd tuner - with all the +1 channels now I defy anyone to really NEED to access 3 channels at the same time.

Wonder what bugs vm have introduced INTO the Tivo code???


----------



## cwaring

hokkers999 said:


> tv - delivered over cable as has been for years, as good as vm's network is and we all know that it struggles even now to deliver tv reliably.


No such problems here; ever.



> We were watching catch up (SD) this morning - picture froze then message came up - on demand not available! WTF???


Nothing is ever perfect in this world. Probably just a glitch. These things happen. How much true VOD does Sky have, again?(Clue: none.)



> Check nthellworld.co.uk and the numerous threads on there about vod being as unreliable as hell.


A minority I'm sure. People who are happy with their services will hardly ever post to tell about it.



> s/w - well, it was the rock sold Tivo s/w *then vm started hacking it*....


Really? You sure?



> ...change the skins...


So? Has to *look* like VM product, doesn't it?



> .....add flash support...


*WRONG!! *The Tivo Premier UI is _based_ on it so it was already there.



> ...add a 3rd tuner - with all the +1 channels now I defy anyone to really NEED to access 3 channels at the same time.


Actually it's so that you can record two while watching something else back at the same time. (Sky+ is, of course, only "record one, watch one".)



> Wonder what bugs vm have introduced INTO the Tivo code???


Given that it will be Tivo that has _written_ the code (and made any changes that VM have wanted) then I suspect the answer is "none at all."


----------



## browellm

Stop feeding the troll.

And most of all, stop quoting the troll so I don't have to see its stupid e-face after blocking it.

Cheers.


----------



## CeeBeeUK

Given that the troll has vowed not to take up the offer of a shiny new VM Tivo box, why doesn't he stick to his S1 forum and leave us in peace?


----------



## jonphil

All I will say is SkyHD = missed / clashed recordings non working series links
Never had a problem with Sky itself, but a new HD Tivo box is very tempting
Tivo upstairs = remembering to record things even when we haven't bothered to put anything in to record for MONTHS!! 

That is my book is why Tivo will always be better to anything else on the market 
I'm almost certain that VM won't be allowed to play around with the Tivo code.


----------



## hokkers999

cwaring said:


> Really? You sure? (code has been altered?)"


Yes, none of the existing Tivo code supports three tuners, presumably at least part of the year+ delay in introducing back into the UK is due to the code rewrite.


----------



## hokkers999

CeeBeeUK said:


> Given that the troll has vowed not to take up the offer of a shiny new VM Tivo box, why doesn't he stick to his S1 forum and leave us in peace?


Ho hum - personal insults now is it? A sure sign that you've lost the arhument 

I am sticking to my S1 but as I've stated earlier father-in-law and oungest daughter want one.


----------



## hokkers999

jonphil said:


> I'm almost certain that VM won't be allowed to play around with the Tivo code.


3rd tuner support?


----------



## cwaring

hokkers999 said:


> Yes, none of the existing Tivo code supports three tuners, presumably at least part of the year+ delay in introducing back into the UK is due to the code rewrite.


There has not been any such delay. Was announced as "end of 2010", but then they even hit that with their 500 'soft-launch' last month. So nowhere _near_ a year's delay.


jonphil said:


> I'm almost certain that VM won't be allowed to play around with the Tivo code.





hokkers999 said:


> 3rd tuner support?


Added by Tivo on request; as I already stated. Maybe even as part of the contract.


----------



## CeeBeeUK

hokkers999 said:


> Ho hum - personal insults now is it? A sure sign that you've lost the arhument
> 
> I am sticking to my S1 but as I've stated earlier father-in-law and oungest daughter want one.


What argument, I haven't posted in weeks. I just find you argumentative and irritating. This thread (and forum) is for the people that _want_ to sign up for this service that royfox is providing, _you_ do not; therefore I don't see what you are adding to this thread apart from strife.

I am sure your Father in law and youngest daughter would be welcomed to the discussion with open arms.


----------



## TCM2007

jonphil said:


> I'm almost certain that VM won't be allowed to play around with the Tivo code.


Er, TiVo are writing the code specially for VM!


----------



## jonphil

Royfox do you know if your sign up page will bypass this?

Will TiVo be available to existing customers first?

Yes, TiVo will be offered to existing customers before any new customers are offered the service. We launched it to our staff first, current Virgin Media customers will be next and then we&#8217;ll offer it to new customers. 

I'm not really wanting to sign up to Virgin now without a Tivo box to then have to have another engineer come along a few months later to stick in the Tivo box.
I'm really keen to get the Tivo 

Hmmm topcashback limited time &#163;100 back offer is very tempting to sign up before Tivo is available?


----------



## royfox

A quick update.

The registration on my site has now died in terms of new people, so I've decided to close this down as from tomorrow. 

The next process will be for me to send your data to VM (securely). I know () that all S1 users will receive a message VERY VERY shortly from Tivo via the messaging system on Tivo. This message should be self explanatory.. All I will say is the people that have registered on my site need not do anything about this message, your details are at the front of the queue and you will all be contacted by VM very soon.

I think it terms of dates.. by the end of January you should see the message pop up on your Tivo and then early Feb a phone call from CS... good luck everyone.. I really do not know what the offer is.. I've not been told. All I know, "WE" should be, if not the first, then amongst the first to get the new units and I've been reliably informed, the deal we are getting, really is a very good one.....

Unfortunately for me.. I won't be here in the UK when calls are being made as I'm away in the USA.. so it seems you lot will beat me to it.. let me know how they are....
Roy


----------



## jonphil

Thanks Roy

I'm really looking forward to seeing the message appearing on my Tivo.
I really do hope the offer is a good one, as for Virgin I would be switching from Sky completely so they would be gaining someone for Broadband, Phone, TV and Tivo 
I know it's going to cost me a little more, but it's hard to compare 3.5mb I get for my Sky Broadband to the 20Mb I'm looking at hopefully getting with Sky, plus a dedicated 10Mb connection for the Tivo itself 

It's been a long time coming, but we really can't wait to get Tivo back into our lounge instead of it being stuck recording just freeview stuff upstairs


----------



## okonski_uk

cwaring said:


> There has not been any such delay. Was announced as "end of 2010", but then they even hit that with their 500 'soft-launch' last month. So nowhere _near_ a year's delay.


You're right. It's nowhere near a year's delay. Since the press release it is already 14 months. Any announcement for the 'end of 2010' was certainly not in 2009 when they 'revealed' the TiVo deal. As for this soft launch - staffers don't count I'm afraid - it isn't commercially available, so no clock has started.

Best of all - the bint in the promo flash presentation on Virgin's own website with her "Oh, Hello... we've not even launched yet..." appears not to convince you, despite this video arriving in January 2011! By all means join your equivalent of the 'flat earth' society, but for those who look at the bigger picture are in no doubt of the actual situation. No paying customers = no service launch.

So it might be February if us S1 owners are lucky. Good. My V+ box is OK, but not a TiVo, and I'll not miss it when it goes. The new free Ipad App for controlling your TiVo remotely is stunning so the innovation of 2000 is still with us.

On a tangent, 20Mb BB users were advised on the V site they could upgrade NOW to the 30Gb service for no increase in cost, except for a £30 charge for a new integrated modem/router. My order went in, only for an email to phone them the next day. The 30Mb service won't be launched until March. But strangely, if I selected the 50Mb option, I could!

Nothing changes!


----------



## swanny

royfox said:


> I think it terms of dates.. by the end of January you should see the message pop up on your Tivo and then early Feb a phone call from CS


Hi Roy,

My TiVo is no longer used, I got my service number off the back of the unit. Will I need to get it up and running again to see the message or will the phone call from CS suffice?

Cheers for all your efforts to date


----------



## royfox

No. I will be given a link at the end of Jan by vm for people like yourself. I will post that link on the forum.


----------



## PeteM

Hornet said:


> Hi Roy,
> 
> Just wanted to add my thanks, I don't post here too often but really appreciate your fine efforts in organising this for us S1 owners.
> 
> Hornet.


Just want to echo that :up:.

But as a member of the "don't post much" club, this is really a gratuitous post to get my postcount to 10, so I stop seeing the silly messages!


----------



## swanny

royfox said:


> No. I will be given a link at the end of Jan by vm for people like yourself. I will post that link on the forum.


Thank you sir :up:


----------



## cwaring

okonski_uk said:


> You're right. It's nowhere near a year's delay. Since the press release it is already 14 months.





> Any announcement for the 'end of 2010' was certainly not in 2009 when they 'revealed' the TiVo deal.


Well, they certainly mentioned 2010.

http://pressoffice.virginmedia.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=205406&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=1359178&highlight=


Original VM Press Release said:


> Virgin Media currently anticipates its first TiVo co-branded product in 2010.





> As for this soft launch - *staffers don't count I'm afraid* - it isn't commercially available, so no clock has started.


They do if they're actually paying customers and not beta testing it. Which they are.



> On a tangent, 20Mb BB users were advised on the V site they could upgrade NOW to the 30Gb service for no increase in cost, except for a £30 charge for a new integrated modem/router. My order went in, only for an email to phone them the next day. The 30Mb service won't be launched until March. But strangely, if I selected the 50Mb option, I could!
> Nothing changes!


Yes. I think that was simply a genuine error as the page was pulled rather quickly


----------



## hokkers999

cwaring said:


> There has not been any such delay. Was announced as "end of 2010"


Deal announced in 2009, now 2011 and nothing shipping, I'd call that MORE than a year's delay actually.


----------



## spitfires

royfox said:


> ...and then early Feb a phone call from CS.


That's going to be amusing for all those people who bought a lifetime unit on fleece-u-bay but, following the advice given on here, _didn't_ change their registration details from the original owner! 

I can see it now...

CS: Good evening Mr Bloggs I have a wonderful offer for you to upgrade your Tivo

MrB: I ain't got no Tivo - I got rid of it 5 years ago.

CS: Ok we'll cross that unit off the list. Sorry to have troubled you. Goodbye.

< effects> Lights out.


----------



## cwaring

hokkers999 said:


> Deal announced in 2009, now 2011 and nothing shipping, I'd call that MORE than a year's delay actually.


Lots of companies announce things well ahead of time. The point still stands and is still true.


spitfires said:


> That's going to be amusing for all those people who bought a lifetime unit on fleece-u-bay but, following the advice given on here, _didn't_ change their registration details from the original owner!


Not really because the list they will be using is the one RoyFox gave them  I think the DPA prevents them from seeing the details previously held by Sky of _all_ the S1 box owners.


----------



## Babylon

Too late :-(
Only found this today, still got an S1 in use and looking forward to the new model.


----------



## ixi

Oh No! is it really too late to send you my details! I thought the deadline had been extended to the end of the month. Oh Dear


----------



## mhopley

I was also waiting for the end of the month before registering. As a non cable customer I was wondering if Virgins offer was going to be better than the £100 cash back offered by Quidco.


----------



## laurence

Arghh,
Haven't got round to looking up TiVo service number! Thought I had a few more days!
Is there any way you can add me please? Promise I'll look it up today if you can!


----------



## okonski_uk

I would think anyone who is a non cable customer will have a long wait. Tivo is heavily dependant on VM's IP infrastructure. Trying to make TiVo work as the S1 did (as a stand alone) will not be a good advert for anyone - look at BT Fusion, which is the closest anyone has got, not only does this suck, it is BB intensive for the non-Freeview delivered content. As much as I love TiVo, expecting it to work seamlessly across all platforms is going to create problems for the brand, and VM.

Oh, and Roy - I tip my hat to you for your sterling efforts to date to keep VM and S1 users in the loop. It is very much appreciated!


----------



## hokkers999

okonski_uk said:


> Trying to make TiVo work as the S1 did (as a stand alone) will not be a good advert for anyone


Why? All it needs is a picture signal?

Freeview box - scart - Tivo ??

Please don't assume that this "walled garden" where you only get to run vm approved flash apps is of any appeal to those of us who simply want a Tivo powered pvr.

oh yes, best of luck trying to navigate the internet using the remote control...


----------



## TCM2007

hokkers999 said:


> Awww, SCART, how quaint. Not in 2011,
> 
> It would be perfectly possible to make a great TiVo with twin FreeviewHD tuners. But I can't see Virgin doing it. And they are now the only ones who can.
> 
> Virgin are interested in subscription revenues, and making a FreeView TiVo which did not require a subscription would not benefit them.


----------



## cwaring

TCM2007 said:


> Awww, SCART, how quaint. Not in 2011


Unfortunately, that's how I will be connecting mine. No HD here yet!


----------



## jonphil

just been reading on another forum about scart and hdmi and how Virgin boxes normally only output one or the other.
Is this really the case and hope the Tivo box won't be the same.
I only ever have one TV on at a time lounge TV connected via HDMI and then a scart connected to a video over cat5 to upstairs.
I know it's too soon to tell about the Tivo boxes, but wondering if I will need to get a HDMI over cat5 sender instead as I'm only ever going to be interested in watching what I already have recorded so I don't think I would really want another box for upstairs.


----------



## TCM2007

cwaring said:


> Unfortunately, that's how I will be connecting mine. No HD here yet!


You're still on a CRT TV?


----------



## cwaring

Yes indeed. Unemployed = not much money


----------



## TCM2007

Fair enough.


----------



## frobozz

jonphil said:


> just been reading on another forum about scart and hdmi and how Virgin boxes normally only output one or the other.
> Is this really the case and hope the Tivo box won't be the same.


From the Virgin Tivo FAQ http://bit.ly/g2rOsU

Does it connect via HDMI/are other connections available?

The STB has 1x HDMI, 1x Scart which will both run in parallel


----------



## hokkers999

TCM2007 said:


> Awww, SCART, how quaint.


and how the vast majority of people in the uk connect up their equipment. Tens of millions of tv's that don't have hdmi, and won't be either until the set breaks as they haven't bought into the hd con


----------



## jonphil

frobozz said:


> From the Virgin Tivo FAQ (http://help.virginmedia.com/system/selfservice.controller):
> 
> Does it connect via HDMI/are other connections available?
> 
> The STB has 1x HDMI, 1x Scart which will both run in parallel


Cheers. I was hoping for an excuse to convince the other half to replace the analogue cat5 sender with a HDMI one  lol The senders have come down in price loads and yes you have to run a cat5 cable between rooms but the picture quality is far better than 'digisenders' that went in the bin due to unwatchable pictures.
Oh well I may get HDMI upstairs eventually


----------



## cwaring

Have attached a text file of the FAQs. Did try a PDF and a JPG but they were both too large!


----------



## TCM2007

hokkers999 said:


> and how the vast majority of people in the uk connect up their equipment. Tens of millions of tv's that don't have hdmi, and won't be either until the set breaks as they haven't bought into the hd con


I suspect you're wrong with "vast majority". Every TV and STB in the shops has been HDMI for what, 5 years, maybe more.

Certainly if you're in the market for cutting edge PVR (which is what we were talking about), no-one will be connecting that with a SCART.


----------



## big_dirk

what is the offer? Have I missed it? I'm a S1 TiVo owner and VM customer...


----------



## cwaring

TCM2007 said:


> Certainly if you're in the market for cutting edge PVR (which is what we were talking about), no-one will be connecting that with a SCART.


Erm....


----------



## okonski_uk

hokkers999 said:


> Why? All it needs is a picture signal?
> 
> Freeview box - scart - Tivo ??


You think? There is no conventional RF input (as far as I'm aware) so how is this 'all it needs' going to work then? It is going to require explicit enablement and its MAC addressed registered on VM's servers. Without which it will be a rather futuristic-looking door stop.

BT Vision has the closest to what you describe, and that ain't no TiVo. As for wanting the web on my TV, no thanks. Perhaps for IPTV, but I'm not going to be surfing the web when I have existing technology that does it better.


----------



## big_dirk

cwaring said:


> Erm....


lol I thought that too, you just told him of someone!

Does anyone know what the details of the offer are yet please? I only visit these parts infrequently and want to know what I have missed!


----------



## mikerr

hokkers999 said:


> Why? All it needs is a picture signal?
> 
> Freeview box - scart - Tivo ??


All modern multi tuner PVRs record the digital stream - the days of re-encoding an input like our S1 TiVos do is long gone.

Yes, it made for a very flexible system at the time, and made it capable of using sky/freeview/freesat even now - but its not the best way to design a system in 2011.

A freeview/freesat PVR doesn't really fit VM's subscription business model 
- they sell channels/services - not boxes.


big_dirk said:


> Does anyone know what the details of the offer are yet please?


Noone knows yet - just that "there will be an offer for registered Tivo owners" - wait and see.


----------



## hokkers999

okonski_uk said:


> You think? There is no conventional RF input (as far as I'm aware) so how is this 'all it needs' going to work then?
> 
> [snip]
> 
> As for wanting the web on my TV, no thanks. Perhaps for IPTV, but I'm not going to be surfing the web when I have existing technology that does it better.


Oh dear CW, looks like without a digital HDMI interface you're SOL for using the new box.

I completely agree about the waste of time & effort into providing a cut down highly vm sanitised "internet" on a pvr.


----------



## hokkers999

TCM2007 said:


> I suspect you're wrong with "vast majority". Every TV and STB in the shops has been HDMI for what, 5 years, maybe more.
> 
> Certainly if you're in the market for cutting edge PVR (which is what we were talking about), no-one will be connecting that with a SCART.


A quick search turns up about 60 million telly's in the UK. Are you seriously trying to claim that the majority of those have been sold in the last 5 years?


----------



## martink0646

jonphil said:


> just been reading on another forum about scart and hdmi and how Virgin boxes normally only output one or the other.
> Is this really the case and hope the Tivo box won't be the same.
> I only ever have one TV on at a time lounge TV connected via HDMI and then a scart connected to a video over cat5 to upstairs.
> I know it's too soon to tell about the Tivo boxes, but wondering if I will need to get a HDMI over cat5 sender instead as I'm only ever going to be interested in watching what I already have recorded so I don't think I would really want another box for upstairs.


Hi Jonphil,

I recently moved into a house with a multiroom system (badly) installed. I got an HDMI over CAT5 sender for about £20.00 & it works perfectly. I haven't got a 1080p tv so I can't vouch for transmission of full HD but 1080i is perfect. The only drawback is that you need 2 CAT5 cables to use it. You can get single run HDMI over CAT5 senders but they start at £80+ pounds on ebay & go up from there. I hope whoever installed your system didn't do something utterly stupid like only run 1 CAT5 cable to the bedrooms & only 3 to the living plus wire the rear speakers into a seperate sub-zone so surround sound is off the menu D*ckheads!!

Martin


----------



## cwaring

hokkers999 said:


> Oh dear CW, looks like without a digital HDMI interface you're SOL for using the new box.


Really? How so?

*ETA:* I'm so glad I un-hid you as you are about to make yourself look really, _really_ stupid; again


----------



## jonphil

martink0646 said:


> Hi Jonphil,
> 
> I recently moved into a house with a multiroom system (badly) installed. I got an HDMI over CAT5 sender for about £20.00 & it works perfectly. I haven't got a 1080p tv so I can't vouch for transmission of full HD but 1080i is perfect. The only drawback is that you need 2 CAT5 cables to use it. You can get single run HDMI over CAT5 senders but they start at £80+ pounds on ebay & go up from there. I hope whoever installed your system didn't do something utterly stupid like only run 1 CAT5 cable to the bedrooms & only 3 to the living plus wire the rear speakers into a seperate sub-zone so surround sound is off the menu D*ckheads!!
> 
> Martin


I tend to do most things myself, I work in IT so tend to be a little confident in things. I already have a single Cat5 cable run and it should be fairly easy to run another cable. I'll go with the double cat5 as it's the only system which seems to give the IR feedback.
Already found the HDMI splitters on Amazon are far cheaper than anywhere else 
Nice to know someone else is using HDMI over cat5 with no problems.

Now the question is how to convince the other half of the need to run the HDMI signal upstairs lol.


----------



## TCM2007

hokkers999 said:


> A quick search turns up about 60 million telly's in the UK. Are you seriously trying to claim that the majority of those have been sold in the last 5 years?


Yes. TV sales are roughly 10m units a year.


----------



## TCM2007

cwaring said:


> Erm....


The exception that proves the rule!

Must say, seems odd to spend all that money and then attach it via analogue to an old TV. I think I'd have spent the money on a better telly instead!


----------



## cwaring

Meh! It's only TV. I'm not a big fan of HD and I'd only be getting the same 32" screen anyway. I'm trying to save up


----------



## TCM2007

Should be some decent second hand HD sets coming round by now.


----------



## hokkers999

TCM2007 said:


> Yes. TV sales are roughly 10m units a year.


Sky & VM between them have waht 14m customers, let's be generous and say 50% have hd.

That's still only about 15% of all telly's. My point stands.

Even it is ALL of them still only 30%.

Next


----------



## laurence

hokkers999 said:


> Sky & VM between them have waht 14m customers, let's be generous and say 50% have hd.
> 
> That's still only about 15% of all telly's. My point stands.
> 
> Even it is ALL of them still only 30%.
> 
> Next


Don't quite understand your logic. Your original argument was that most wouldn't be connecting with hdmi as the majority of tvs in use wouldn't have it. Perhaps I've missed something.

Anyhow, returning to the original thread, does anyone know if there's a way to get myself added to Roy's list? I managed to miss it. But, I'm hoping to get the new TiVo (and connect it with HDMI).


----------



## martink0646

jonphil said:


> I tend to do most things myself, I work in IT so tend to be a little confident in things. I already have a single Cat5 cable run and it should be fairly easy to run another cable. I'll go with the double cat5 as it's the only system which seems to give the IR feedback.
> Already found the HDMI splitters on Amazon are far cheaper than anywhere else
> Nice to know someone else is using HDMI over cat5 with no problems.
> 
> Now the question is how to convince the other half of the need to run the HDMI signal upstairs lol.


Hi Jonphil,

I wasnt trying to suggest you were stupid. You obviously install what you need at the time & have the capacity to add more. The 'installers' who did mine only put in the bare minimum for the sysytem they were installing & then only for analog, composite at that. It is all sealed up now & if I wanted to install anything I would need to rip out the walls in every room - yes, they didn't even rope the ducts!!!!!!!! This wasn't done 5 or 10 years ago it was done in 2009 when HD was already the standard.

I was in the business about 13 years ago & even then I would have flooded the ducts with CAT5e/CAT6 to future proof given the low cost of the cable.

Martin


----------



## okonski_uk

And what about the need to abandon CRT due to the analogue switch off? A look down my street revealed everyone with their curtains open (90%!) had a flat panel ranging from 20-40", possibly more, if the CRT was dumped and not relegated to a second set.

Hopefully, they won't get fooled with the radio equivalent they're trying to foist upon us...


----------



## jonphil

Hi martink0646

I didn't think that at all 
If you ever do decide to have a go at replacing it yourself D-link trunking seems very good... we have cables hidden away that just looks like part of the skerting board or laminate floor edging.


----------



## cwaring

okonski_uk said:


> And what about the need to abandon CRT due to the analogue switch off?


Really? Since when? Or were you referring to the myth that you have to do this?

I've had digital TV since Telewest first launched it in Wakefield; where I was then living, back in .... erm... 2002-ish I think.



hokkers999 said:


> Next


That would be me. I await your answer with interest


----------



## TCM2007

hokkers999 said:


> Sky & VM between them have waht 14m customers, let's be generous and say 50% have hd.
> 
> That's still only about 15% of all telly's. My point stands.
> 
> Even it is ALL of them still only 30%.
> 
> Next


10m a year x 5 years = 50m TVs sold since HDMI was introduced as standard.

So the "vast majority" of the 60m TVs (your figure) in this country are HDMI enabled.

You can (and should) connect SD equipment over HDMI; HDMI has nothing to do with HD.


----------



## TCM2007

okonski_uk said:


> And what about the need to abandon CRT due to the analogue switch off?


The millions the Government have spent on info on the digital switchover clearly wasn't well spent!

CRTs work just fine with digital TV, just as they always have.


----------



## cwaring

TCM2007 said:


> ...HDMI has nothing to do with HD.


Really? Pretty sure it does. Well, in as much as it stands for *High Definition* Multimedia Interface  
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HDMI


----------



## okonski_uk

cwaring said:


> Really? Since when? Or were you referring to the myth that you have to do this?


No myth - the majority of CRT's were not digital - by that I meant no 'Freeview' tuners. I had a Freeview Sony CRT, and was one of the early adopters - but it was limited to scanning for 30 channels (max) and had to have 2 in-house Sony engineer visits to fix (unspecified) issues. If you mean CRTs can be kept going by the addition of a STB, not many can be bothered with 2 remotes and I'm aware of countless pensioners who will not countenance the arrival of two remote controls simpyl to continue to watch TV.



cwaring said:


> I've had digital TV since Telewest first launched it in Wakefield; where I was then living, back in .... erm... 2002-ish I think.


You probably didn't. As an NTL customer my boxes were analogue, even the off-air channels fed through were the analogue feeds and they stayed that way until 2006 or so - this was in tandem with the promotion of the so-called 'red button' services.

The real myth - that Virgin has/had to switch to 'digital' because the Govt ordered them to is laughable. This only affected terrestrial transmissions, a cable co could just as easy keep radiating the basic 1-5 via RF (as they did for the unsupported FM rebroadcast service) but there's little point explaining this to a customer service droid if their middle managers don't know either.


----------



## okonski_uk

TCM2007 said:


> The millions the Government have spent on info on the digital switchover clearly wasn't well spent!
> 
> CRTs work just fine with digital TV, just as they always have.


Not without a conversion box they don't!

And let's not forget, there's no 'digital switchover' it's an analogue shut-off. Even the terminology is designed to make it all feel positive, when in fact you're being strongarmed to change something that wasn't broke. The existing analogue system was enhanced to include colour, teletext, nicam stereo and if you didn;t want to upgrade to it, you didn't have to.

Hopefully the radio equivalent will have a much harder ride - DAB is crap, and the more folk realise this, the better!


----------



## cwaring

okonski_uk said:


> ..arrival of two remote controls simply to continue to watch TV.


That's what multi-remotes are for 



> You probably didn't.


Yes. Sorry. My mistake. I was thinking of my switch to Broadband in 2001. I have the work order here to prove it.



> The real myth - that Virgin has/had to switch to 'digital' because the Govt ordered them to is laughable.


Never actually heard that one. If I had, I would probably agree with you.


----------



## TCM2007

okonski_uk said:


> Not without a conversion box they don't!


And with a Freeview box they do! Took that as being obvious.


----------



## TCM2007

okonski_uk said:


> If you mean CRTs can be kept going by the addition of a STB, not many can be bothered with 2 remotes and I'm aware of countless pensioners who will not countenance the arrival of two remote controls simpyl to continue to watch TV.


I think you undersell the versatility of pensioners. All of the ones I know seem to have coped just fine with two remotes.


----------



## TCM2007

cwaring said:


> Really? Pretty sure it does. Well, in as much as it stands for *High Definition* Multimedia Interface
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HDMI


That's about the size of it - the name. You can connect an SD source via HDMI just fine.


----------



## TCM2007

okonski_uk said:


> And let's not forget, there's no 'digital switchover' it's an analogue shut-off. Even the terminology is designed to make it all feel positive, when in fact you're being strongarmed to change something that wasn't broke. The existing analogue system was enhanced to include colour, teletext, nicam stereo and if you didn;t want to upgrade to it, you didn't have to.
> 
> Hopefully the radio equivalent will have a much harder ride - DAB is crap, and the more folk realise this, the better!


Ten times as many channels and three in HD - that's the kind of strong-arming I can cope with!

Went off here in the south west and where my mother lives in the north west without a murmur.


----------



## royfox

Just to advise, the first Tivo messages should appear on or just after the 27th of Jan.. CS will be calling / contacting people from the 27th onwards..

Please let me know what offer you are getting as I said, I'm away to the USA so won't be in a position to take the offer up immediately. (i think that is called sods law)...

good luck everyone.. I really hope this works for you all and you get a good offer.. if not.. you may not see me on here again..


----------



## jonphil

royfox said:


> Just to advise, the first Tivo messages should appear on or just after the 27th of Jan.. CS will be calling / contacting people from the 27th onwards..
> 
> Please let me know what offer you are getting as I said, I'm away to the USA so won't be in a position to take the offer up immediately. (i think that is called sods law)...
> 
> good luck everyone.. I really hope this works for you all and you get a good offer.. if not.. you may not see me on here again..


I'm hoping it will be a link to a part of the website or something, I would prefer to be able to call them than being called when I'm in the middle of something.
But still this is to get Tivo so I can't wait.


----------



## cwaring

TCM2007 said:


> That's about the size of it - the name. You can connect an SD source via HDMI just fine.


Well yeah, I know that; but SCART works just fine for SD too


----------



## Tony Hoyle

Yeah a discount code or something would be nice.. I've instructed SWMBO to say yes to anything Tivo related if we get called next week.. but not sure VM will allow that as I'm the account holder (or it's even safe.. 'do you want 25 Tivos?','Yes').


----------



## okonski_uk

TCM2007 said:


> I think you undersell the versatility of pensioners. All of the ones I know seem to have coped just fine with two remotes.


I'm on call to 2 neighbours one aged 84 and the other 87. Their biggest problem is with the volume, either the TV volume is down and they cannot hear, or it is where it should be (and showing on screen as such) BUT they have the STB volume down at zero.

Just as I was back for the nth time (with a smile) to explain this, one had a partly removed SCART, that gave picture, but no sound. Push it in and all's well. They don't like this, and it affects their confidence. A TV and 1 volume control is perfect.


----------



## okonski_uk

TCM2007 said:


> Ten times as many channels and three in HD - that's the kind of strong-arming I can cope with!.


What! Ten times the carp? And +1's, and the shopping channels for the brain dead? Quantity was never an assurance of quality, and we certainly don't get much of the latter!


----------



## djb2002

royfox said:


> Just to advise, the first Tivo messages should appear on or just after the 27th of Jan.. CS will be calling / contacting people from the 27th onwards..
> 
> Please let me know what offer you are getting as I said, I'm away to the USA so won't be in a position to take the offer up immediately. (i think that is called sods law)...
> 
> good luck everyone.. I really hope this works for you all and you get a good offer.. if not.. you may not see me on here again..


Is this TiVo message just regarding upgrading existing users to Virgin Media ?? - Or is it related to what options are available (if any) to existing users who cannot get Virgin Media ?

Thanks
Daniel


----------



## cwaring

Seeing as there _are_ no options available to non-VM customers, I'd say the former is more likely


----------



## big_dirk

I hope it's not a TiVo Message only as mine gave up the ghost today (2 days before the message is due!!) stuck on the Welcome. Powering Up screen


----------



## royfox

big_dirk said:


> I hope it's not a TiVo Message only as mine gave up the ghost today (2 days before the message is due!!) stuck on the Welcome. Powering Up screen


Don't worry. If you registered with my site, your contact info you gave is now safely with VM and they will contact you. If you are still worried, i will post the link on here to the site they are creating for the rest of the S1 owners that didn't register with me. Just means your details are ahead if the que.


----------



## TCM2007

okonski_uk said:


> What! Ten times the carp? And +1's, and the shopping channels for the brain dead? Quantity was never an assurance of quality, and we certainly don't get much of the latter!


True, there is much crap, but

BBC HD
BBC three
BBC four
BBC news
Film4
More4
E4
Channel 1
Cbbc 
Cbeebies
Sky News

Plus HD versions of C4 and BBC1 are well worth having.

Plus iirc analogue isn't even 16:9.


----------



## djb2002

cwaring said:


> Seeing as there _are_ no options available to non-VM customers, I'd say the former is more likely


I was thinking of options such as suspending existing services, continuing free of charge, or starting to charge £10 per month again for those on monthly subscriptions....


----------



## jonphil

cwaring said:


> Seeing as there _are_ no options available to non-VM customers, I'd say the former is more likely


Hope not as I'm not with VM but willing to switch in order to get Tivo.
Just hope it's not going to be too complicated canceling Sky phone and broadband while not going days / weeks without anything.


----------



## cwaring

djb2002 said:


> I was thinking of options such as suspending existing services, continuing free of charge, or starting to charge £10 per month again for those on monthly subscriptions....


Sorry. I was referring to the chances (at the moment) of getting a non-cable version of Tivo.



jonphil said:


> Hope not as I'm not with VM but willing to switch in order to get Tivo.


I'm sure there will be offers/prices. There is one at the moment, but VM have said they will be letting non-XL customers (ie those on lower packages) have it in due course.


----------



## TIVO_YORK99

What's happened to your links Carl? Says you've got 0 posts?


----------



## hokkers999

okonski_uk said:


> And what about the need to abandon CRT due to the analogue switch off? A look down my street revealed everyone with their curtains open (90%!) had a flat panel ranging from 20-40", possibly more, if the CRT was dumped and not relegated to a second set.
> 
> Hopefully, they won't get fooled with the radio equivalent they're trying to foist upon us...


Why do you think CRT's won't work when analogue gets switched off? As long as they have a scart input....


----------



## hokkers999

TCM2007 said:


> And with a Freeview box they do! Took that as being obvious.


and a VM box, or a Sky box, or a Tivo box......


----------



## hokkers999

TCM2007 said:


> That's about the size of it - the name. You can connect an SD source via HDMI just fine.


Really?

Come round to my house then and connect up the following with hdmi please

S1 Tivo - SOL
DVD Player - SOL
32" 6 year old telly - SOL



You may be able to send SD pictures over the HD connection, but only if the box and the telly both have them in the first place


----------



## Muttley1900

royfox said:


> Just to advise, the first Tivo messages should appear on or just after the 27th of Jan.. CS will be calling / contacting people from the 27th onwards..


Just wanted to add my thanks for both the update re when messages will be appear and for the work you've put in to get the "deal" what ever it may turn out to be.

J.


----------



## cwaring

TIVO_YORK99 said:


> What's happened to your links Carl? Says you've got 0 posts?


Well I'm seeing "Posts: 7,475" here  Now +1 more of course


----------



## cwaring

hokkers999 said:


> You may be able to send SD pictures over the HD connection, but only if the box and the telly both have them in the first place


Yes. Again that's so bleedin' obvious that there was really no point in mentioning it 

Still no response as to why I will not be able to use the new VM Tivo then?


----------



## okonski_uk

hokkers999 said:


> Why do you think CRT's won't work when analogue gets switched off? As long as they have a scart input....


So a SCART input is all they need? Did you forget to mention they also need a STB, PVR or other gubbins to make it do anytrhing useful? This is the tail wagging the dog!

I'm old enough to remember STB's for the introduction of ITV back in 1956 - all that needed was an RF aerial input, but 2 wall sockets and the ability to remember to turn it on before you get anything.... so nothing new there.


----------



## TCM2007

hokkers999 said:


> You may be able to send SD pictures over the HD connection, but only if the box and the telly both have them in the first place


In the interests of every post not starting "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth" and going on for a few million lines, I tend to assume the blindingly obvious.


----------



## hokkers999

cwaring said:


> Yes. Again that's so bleedin' obvious that there was really no point in mentioning it
> 
> Still no response as to why I will not be able to use the new VM Tivo then?


post #168, where the poster implies it's digital or nothing. Hope he's wrong though else I'm going to have a very disappointed youngest daughter, she's still got a CRT.


----------



## hokkers999

okonski_uk said:


> So a SCART input is all they need? Did you forget to mention they also need a STB, PVR or other gubbins to make it do anytrhing useful? This is the tail wagging the dog!
> 
> I'm old enough to remember STB's for the introduction of ITV back in 1956 - all that needed was an RF aerial input, but 2 wall sockets and the ability to remember to turn it on before you get anything.... so nothing new there.


You do realise that ALL of the services from both Sky & VM come from an external box don't you? 

As for multiple remote controls, for years people have had remotes for tv, sky or vm, dvd player....


----------



## big_dirk

royfox said:


> Don't worry. If you registered with my site, your contact info you gave is now safely with VM and they will contact you. If you are still worried, i will post the link on here to the site they are creating for the rest of the S1 owners that didn't register with me. Just means your details are ahead if the que.


I didn't, I missed it. Therefore I'm in a real pickle (or at least I thought i was).

I contacted VM independently yesterday who told me they'll release their own official micro site/survey thing for S1 owners which the helpful VM chap promised to automatically add my TiVo's details to for me. I'm now a bit gutted that my TiVo has died! Ah well, 12 years later I'll be finally getting it's upgrade just as it's died


----------



## royfox

big_dirk said:


> I didn't, I missed it. Therefore I'm in a real pickle (or at least I thought i was).
> 
> I contacted VM independently yesterday who told me they'll release their own official micro site/survey thing for S1 owners which the helpful VM chap promised to automatically add my TiVo's details to for me. I'm now a bit gutted that my TiVo has died! Ah well, 12 years later I'll be finally getting it's upgrade just as it's died


Yep you are correct. As I said, my list just sticks those that registered at the front. Anyone that missed the registration on my site will still get a chance to register with VM. For those who haven't got a working TiVo. I will post a link to register on this site. Hopefully that covers everyone then.


----------



## cwaring

hokkers999 said:


> post #168, where the poster implies it's digital or nothing. Hope he's wrong though else I'm going to have a very disappointed youngest daughter, she's still got a CRT.


That post mentions *absolutely nothing* about the Tivo being "digital only"! Stop writing a load of nonsense will you please!


----------



## jonphil

Noooooo.... I'm not sure if my Cachecard in my Tivo is acting up.
I'm having trouble getting my Tivo to update and also noticed it's refusing to respond to ping's. Rebooted everything, Tivo router, switched to the wired connection from the wifibridge and still getting problems.
Has anyone else had a Cachecard fail before, or loose the network config.
Any hints and tips on how to get it back again?
It's been so long since I installed the cachecard I can't even remember how I setup the cachecard in the first place (do suspect it was sent already configured) But I'm certain it's not as simple as just plugging in a phone connection to update over the phone again?

HELP!!!!  My details are registered and Tivo is up and running, I just can't seem to get Tivo to see the network


----------



## frobozz

jonphil said:


> Noooooo.... I'm not sure if my Cachecard in my Tivo is acting up.(


I don't want to start a conspiracy theory but a lot of people seem to be reporting S1 problems or deaths just as VM are about to launch the new box!


----------



## beara

frobozz said:


> I don't want to start a conspiracy theory but a lot of people seem to be reporting S1 problems or deaths just as VM are about to launch the new box!


I'm sure its a coincidence...but I fired mine up at the weekend after getting it out of the loft, and it just went into a 'nearly there' then reboot loop


----------



## big_dirk

beara said:


> I'm sure its a coincidence...but I fired mine up at the weekend after getting it out of the loft, and it just went into a 'nearly there' then reboot loop


this is the order of events of my TiVo death.

1) Booted up the TiVo for the first time in 2 or 3 years, powered on and booted absoultely no problems at all, I could browse the recorded shows, it showed me my messages etc fine, I could connect to it's static IP and FTP to and from it.

2) left it switched on for 12 hours or so, and rather than the Now Showing screen I saw the grey "Welcome. powering on" screen.

3) Rebooted a couple of times and got *no video output whatsoever*

4) left it for 30 mins and booted up, stuck on the "Welcome. Powering on" screen again

5) left it 24 hours, booted it up and the Silicon Dust cachecard screen stuck part way through the caching process and said "Suspected HDD failure, check kernel log" and didn't get any further.

the HDD sounds in good health, no cilcking or odd noises.

I wonder if perhaps people are dusting off their old TiVos after a long time of not using them, and the HDDs are taking exception?


----------



## jonphil

Yes HDD won't like having been sat for sometime and getting powered up, especially if they have been in the loft and not left to reach room temp. After all they are IDE 'old tech' drives.

I think my cachecard may have just somehow lost it's static IP address for some reason  I think I may have to open the box up and see if I have a connection / activity light. The router itself sure seems to show connection and activity so 'something' looks to be happening.
Whoever gets the message first needs to post it on here


----------



## warrenrb

So this is "TiVo Message Day" right? Everyone doing their daily call once every 30 mins?


----------



## big_dirk

jonphil said:


> Yes HDD won't like having been sat for sometime and getting powered up, especially if they have been in the loft and not left to reach room temp. After all they are IDE 'old tech' drives.


what confused me was how it booted up absiolutely fine first time though, *then* it died a while after it connected to the web.. I'm not trying to fuel a conspiracy theory here lol, but that is how it happened in my case.



jonphil said:


> I think my cachecard may have just somehow lost it's static IP address for some reason  I think I may have to open the box up and see if I have a connection / activity light. The router itself sure seems to show connection and activity so 'something' looks to be happening.
> Whoever gets the message first needs to post it on here


 good luck with your cachecard issue, and yes *totally agreed*!!! Especially seeing as I can't read my TiVo messages now!


----------



## Tavis75

Getting quite excited now! Waiting for the call or for the message to turn up on here (TiVo is not connected up anymore). Wonder how the calls will be organised, hoping for alphabetical order (for purely selfish reasons)! Though guess it could be by Virgin Media region or something, depending on how they're handling the rollout.

Remember back to getting my original TiVo, pre-ordered one from either Currys or Dixons online but the release date came and went without them sending it out, so I took a chance, cancelled the order and headed to the shops. Dixons had an end of aisle display which I pretty much went straight up to, grabbed a member of staff and said "I want one of those!". Then had a nervous wait while he went to see if they actually had any in stock. Think I must have been amongst the first few owners, still reckon it's the best &#163;400 quid I've spent (plus several years of &#163;10 per month!)


----------



## okonski_uk

hokkers999 said:


> You do realise that ALL of the services from both Sky & VM come from an external box don't you?
> 
> As for multiple remote controls, for years people have had remotes for tv, sky or vm, dvd player....


Be as obtuse as you like - it was you who stated ALL you needed was a SCART, without mentioning you needed something else.

As for multiple remotes - when you're less able-bodied, multiple remotes will be not just the bane of your life, but possible a real barrier to you seeing the entertainment you require. You'll not be 'young' forever, as my 85 year old neighbours remind me...


----------



## jonphil

Been in touch with Virgin via Twitter and they have said the message may not arrive until tomorrow.
Website should be up and running sometime this evening though, so it does sound like we will just be asked to register directly with Virgin. Would be so nice if the same page was actually the order page


----------



## sjp

jonphil said:


> Been in touch with Virgin via Twitter and they have said the message may not arrive until tomorrow.
> Website should be up and running sometime this evening though, so it does sound like we will just be asked to register directly with Virgin. Would be so nice if the same page was actually the order page


OK, so now I might have a use for Twitter - excuse my laziness... what's their hash tag thingy?

tia


----------



## cwaring

Site: www.twitter.com/virginmedia
Contact: *@virginmedia*
hashtag: #virginmedia (Use of hashtag is optional and is only used for searches)

See here for general help: http://support.twitter.com/groups/31-twitter-basics


----------



## sjp

Thanks Carl


----------



## jonphil

jonphil said:


> Noooooo.... I'm not sure if my Cachecard in my Tivo is acting up.
> I'm having trouble getting my Tivo to update and also noticed it's refusing to respond to ping's. Rebooted everything, Tivo router, switched to the wired connection from the wifibridge and still getting problems.
> Has anyone else had a Cachecard fail before, or loose the network config.
> Any hints and tips on how to get it back again?
> It's been so long since I installed the cachecard I can't even remember how I setup the cachecard in the first place (do suspect it was sent already configured) But I'm certain it's not as simple as just plugging in a phone connection to update over the phone again?
> 
> HELP!!!!  My details are registered and Tivo is up and running, I just can't seem to get Tivo to see the network


Weird this morning as I left the house it seems the update worked? Still not got Tivoweb for some reason though. But at least I can now ping Tivo and get updates so next thing is to investigate why Tivoweb has failed me


----------



## royfox

Ok the official virgin website for any S1 owners that haven't already registered with me (or you want belt and braces) is now live. Please spread this link. 

virginmedia.com/tivoupgrade


----------



## Tavis75

Well, that's my interest registered three times now! Just wish the actual installations would start!


----------



## jonphil

Disappointed 
I was really hoping for an order page. Do Virgin sales people work weekends, i.e. any chance of a phone call this weekend?
I'm at work and it's the first time I have ever put down my mobile number as a contact as I really don't want to miss them calling. 
No hint of a special deal though  maybe getting it before anyone else is the 'deal'

Surprised they are not asking for any details to verify Tivo ownership as anyone could fill in that form, unless they have a list from Tivo of S1 owners to cross check with?


----------



## royfox

Patience. It will be very soon.


----------



## jonphil

royfox said:


> Patience. It will be very soon.


I'm like a child waiting for Christmas


----------



## Tavis75

jonphil said:


> I'm like a child waiting for Christmas


Yep, don't think I've been this excited about the launch of a piece of AV equipment since, well, probably TiVo, the first time round!


----------



## warrenrb

There's lots of 'soon' and winky emoticons over on the cable forum too, from VM staff. I understand they can't say anything, but it is getting a little infuriating.

Anyway, are people who signed up on Roy's form gonna do this one too? It seems like it might confuse matters to me. I've done Roy's and the first VM one already. It would be great to just get a price and see if I can afford the damn thing after 14 months of waiting.

I'm on the 'M' TV package at the moment (not even 'M+'; it's basically Freeview), and my TiVo ToDo list currently has 10 programmes to record for the next two weeks (2 of which I could live without), so I'm now wondering if I watch enough TV to suddenly start paying 36 quid a month or whatever it will be to upgrade to XL+TiVo, regardless of what the box costs us up front.

It seems a particularly lean time for decent telly just at the moment, and I dearly love my TiVo, and would love HD, but it's a tricky call. Is everyone else around here (who are on VM) already on XL?


----------



## John McE

If we've registered already via Carl's list on here, do we need to re-register on the Virgin site, or will that simply confuse them?


----------



## jonphil

warrenrb said:


> Is everyone else around here (who are on VM) already on XL?


I'm not even with VM yet. not wanting to sign up until I can get the lot installed at the same time.


----------



## Major dude

warrenrb said:


> I'm on the 'M' TV package at the moment (not even 'M+'; it's basically Freeview), and my TiVo ToDo list currently has 10 programmes to record for the next two weeks (2 of which I could live without), so I'm now wondering if I watch enough TV to suddenly start paying 36 quid a month or whatever it will be to upgrade to XL+TiVo, regardless of what the box costs us up front.
> 
> It seems a particularly lean time for decent telly just at the moment, and I dearly love my TiVo, and would love HD, but it's a tricky call. Is everyone else around here (who are on VM) already on XL?


I am in a similar position and very price sensitive when it comes to monthly subscriptions. I am confident that my current VM package is the best value I can get, but if I am forced onto the XL package to obtain a VM TiVo I will certainly be doing the sums to find out if it is worth the ongoing extra monthly charge. It amazes me how much people are willing to pay out if what they are buying is packaged as a monthly charge rather than a one off payment.


----------



## Tavis75

I'm on the XL TV package. Seem to remember that when I looked at the VM TV packages that although the extra TV channels weren't a huge bonus (though glad to have a few of them), the fact that you got the V+ and HD free of charge with the XL package meant that the actual increase in cost was pretty small. That coupled with the fact that some of the on demand stuff was charged for on lower packages but free on XL, pretty much made the XL package a no-brainer (plus, it still worked out about &#163;15 a month cheaper than I was paying at Sky).


----------



## Major dude

Tavis75 said:


> I'm on the XL TV package. Seem to remember that when I looked at the VM TV packages that although the extra TV channels weren't a huge bonus (though glad to have a few of them), the fact that you got the V+ and HD free of charge with the XL package meant that the actual increase in cost was pretty small. That coupled with the fact that some of the on demand stuff was charged for on lower packages but free on XL, pretty much made the XL package a no-brainer (plus, it still worked out about £15 a month cheaper than I was paying at Sky).


Good to hear,
Maybe it will not be as painful as I thought to get VM TiVo. At the moment I shell out on average £35 @ month, that is for:-
10mb Broadband;
Basic TV package;
home phone line rental;
and home phone call charges
(but no mobile phone).

How much extra per month would I have to pay for VM TiVo if I had to go for XL TV?


----------



## warrenrb

About &#163;40 p/m gets me 20Mb BB, M TV, line rental for Phone, with anytime calls. I'm thinking of dropping the anytime calls (8 quid a month I think), and maybe dropping to 10mb BB to subsidise my XL TV upgrade.

I find the way they do pricing really frustrating. For example, their website says 20mb BB is &#163;10/m for 6 months, and then &#163;20/m. OK, the 10 a month is new customers, fine, so I take their BB to be &#163;20 a month. Fair enough?

Except on my bill they charge me &#163;37/m for BB, but then give me "Phone, BBand XL & TV Discount" of &#163;17.

It makes working out what things will actually cost really tricky - I've had arguments with CS about what it says on the website vs what things will actually cost me. I'd rather they did away with all this 'discount' crap and just told me straight what things cost.

So, if I upgrade to XL tv, or downgrade my Broadband, will my 'discount' stay the same, or change? 

eg. It says &#163;23.50/m for XL TV, but I'm sure when I called CS and asked, it was going to add 33 quid to my bill.


----------



## Tavis75

I'm on 10MB broadband, basic phone (line rental and free weekend calls) and XL TV with V+ and HD and my bill is around &#163;45-&#163;47 per month (with a few phone calls). Sounds like TiVo will add &#163;3 to that.

Do find the website frustrating as well, been thinking of upgrading my broadband but there's no way to find out exactly how much it would cost me using the website, think it would be &#163;7.25 to go to 20MB or &#163;12.25 to go to 50MB based on the differences of the prices, but don't know if my discount would change if I went to a bigger BB package.


----------



## okonski_uk

There was a tweet last night from VM confirming Roy's statement that 27th was 'the day' - but after the usual 1000 call, there were no messages, BUT instead of the time of next call being at the same time tomorrow, it tells me it is calling for an update at 1715hrs today.

I wonder why?


----------



## warrenrb

Tavis75 said:


> I'm on 10MB broadband, basic phone (line rental and free weekend calls) and XL TV with V+ and HD and my bill is around £45-£47 per month (with a few phone calls). Sounds like TiVo will add £3 to that.
> 
> Do find the website frustrating as well, been thinking of upgrading my broadband but there's no way to find out exactly how much it would cost me using the website, think it would be £7.25 to go to 20MB or £12.25 to go to 50MB based on the differences of the prices, but don't know if my discount would change if I went to a bigger BB package.


Exactly.

Do you mind if I ask if you currently get the same £17 discount as me, or something different?

This 'discount' stuff is BS. I'm surprised some consumer group hasn't called them out on it by now. I cant stand all this "phone up and threaten to leave, transfer to disconnects and then get offered a 'deal'" stuff. Why can't we just have straight prices and that's that?


----------



## Tavis75

warrenrb said:


> Exactly.
> 
> Do you mind if I ask if you currently get the same £17 discount as me, or something different?
> 
> This 'discount' stuff is BS. I'm surprised some consumer group hasn't called them out on it by now. I cant stand all this "phone up and threaten to leave, transfer to disconnects and then get offered a 'deal'" stuff. Why can't we just have straight prices and that's that?


I'm afraid I don't know off the top of my head, but it wasn't some special deal I got from CS, just a general thing on the website when I signed up as far as I remember. Think it's a standard thing that they give discounts if you have multiple services from them.


----------



## Major dude

Tavis75 said:


> I'm on 10MB broadband, basic phone (line rental and free weekend calls) and XL TV with V+ and HD and my bill is around £45-£47 per month (with a few phone calls). Sounds like TiVo will add £3 to that.


So the bottom line (after paying the £149 + £40 installation) is that VM TiVo is going to cost me an extra £15 @ month and I get more channels. I think I can live with that. I just hope Roy's efforts help to spice up the deal a bit


----------



## deshepherd

Tavis75 said:


> I'm on 10MB broadband, basic phone (line rental and free weekend calls) and XL TV with V+ and HD and my bill is around £45-£47 per month (with a few phone calls). Sounds like TiVo will add £3 to that.


I'm on the XL x3 package (i.e. XL TV, XL BB==20MB, XL phone==all standard calls free) which is £63.34/month + any extra calls (to mobiles, 08xx etc) (actually there's £2 in there for caller display which may be an optional extra we have). N.b. think we ugraded from something more like you had in response to a "special limited time offer" from VM a couple of years back (basically giving the same deal that new subscribers got I think to exisitng ones) and not sure whether this is available generally without going down then "I'm about to go to Sky because you charge too much ... anything you'd like to say to me?" route.

N.b. have some friends who managed to blag a free upgrade to V+ this way who are convinced that they'll be able to do the same to get a free V-Tivo ... secretly hoping VM say "sorry you've decided to leave - just put your closing bill in the post and the engineer will be around in a couple of days to collect the V+ box"!


----------



## cwaring

warrenrb said:


> I'm surprised some consumer group hasn't called them out on it by now.


Have they ever tried; or even commented on it? Not that I know of.



> I cant stand all this "phone up and threaten to leave, transfer to disconnects and then get offered a 'deal'" stuff.


And once again, no "threats" are necessary 



> Why can't we just have straight prices and that's that?


Not a point I completely disagree with 


deshepherd said:


> ...secretly hoping VM say "sorry you've decided to leave - just put your closing bill in the post and the engineer will be around in a couple of days to collect the V+ box"!


Indeed. It will serve them right too! Like I said, no empty threats are even necessary.


----------



## jonphil

royfox said:


> Ok the official virgin website for any S1 owners that haven't already registered with me (or you want belt and braces) is now live. Please spread this link.
> 
> virginmedia.com/tivoupgrade


If this is the same link that will be sent to the Tivo's I'm pleased I'm not waiting as still not got a message on the tivo box and been checking every few hours to be sure.


----------



## hokkers999

jonphil said:


> [snip]
> 
> Surprised they are not asking for any details to verify Tivo ownership as anyone could fill in that form, unless they have a list from Tivo of S1 owners to cross check with?


Or when they turn up they simply ask you to show them your old box


----------



## hokkers999

royfox said:


> Ok the official virgin website for any S1 owners that haven't already registered with me (or you want belt and braces) is now live. Please spread this link.
> 
> virginmedia.com/tivoupgrade


That's exactly the same "I am interested" page that's been up since the beginning of December


----------



## Muttley1900

John McE said:


> If we've registered already via Carl's list on here


Carl has a list too?


----------



## cwaring

It's news to me!


----------



## John McE

Sorry, I thought it was Carl, when it was Royfox. At any rate, I meant the list I signed up to on this board for existing TIVO owners. So should we sign up at the TIVOupgrade page as well, or not?


----------



## cwaring

John McE said:


> So whoever is running that list...


That would be Roy Fox then


----------



## John McE

Oh blimey, I corrected it to say Royfox within seconds - but you were too damn quick, Carl


----------



## Muttley1900

John McE said:


> So should we sign up at the TIVOupgrade page as well, or not?


Royfox gave us all an update on this in this thread



royfox said:


> I know () that all S1 users will receive a message VERY VERY shortly from Tivo via the messaging system on Tivo. This message should be self explanatory.. All I will say is the people that have registered on my site need not do anything about this message, your details are at the front of the queue and you will all be contacted by VM very soon.


And as Royfox has been the one in contact with VM and suggesting them doing a deal etc and been much on the money when it comes to what will happen next etc, I'm more than happy to go along with what he says on this.

J.


----------



## PeteM

My TiVo received "The Message" this morning :up: Basically it just invites you to visit the previously mentioned virginmedia.com/tivoupgrade.

Bit disappointed actually, as I was hoping for a little more detail!



The TiVo Team said:


> Subject: {TiVo's changing. Here's what you should know.}
> From: {The TiVo Team}
> Date: Fri 28th Jan 2011
> Expire: Fri 4th Feb 2011
> 
> TiVo's hooked up with Virgin Media. To celebrate you can get Virgin Media's top
> TV package and a brand new TiVo box at a very special price.
> Find out more and be one of the first to get this offer at virginmedia.com/tivoupgrade.


----------



## cwaring

John McE said:


> Oh blimey, I corrected it to say Royfox within seconds - but you were too damn quick, Carl


LOL! That's what can happen when you sit at your PC all day 

(And no, I'm not just playing games  Currently working on a new syndicated hospital radio quiz show )


----------



## hokkers999

PeteM said:


> My TiVo received "The Message" this morning :up: Basically it just invites you to visit the previously mentioned virginmedia.com/tivoupgrade.
> 
> Bit disappointed actually, as I was hoping for a little more detail!


or perhaps ANY detail?


----------



## maxwells_daemon

Interestingly, I got the message on both TiVos - even though I think I gave royfox's web site the SN of only one of them. Could it be that all S1 TiVos (or all S1 TiVos in VM areas) are receiving the message?


----------



## staffie2001uk

maxwells_daemon said:


> Interestingly, I got the message on both TiVos - even though I think I gave royfox's web site the SN of only one of them. Could it be that all S1 TiVos (or all S1 TiVos in VM areas) are receiving the message?


I seem to remember one of royfox's posts saying that TiVo were going to supply VM with all TiVo S1 owners details. One quick postcode sort and they can send the message to everyone in a VM cabled area. Of course, they might just have messaged every TiVo in operation.


----------



## Queb

The registation page seems to be down ! Was going to fill in my details .. hope its back up soon


----------



## Muttley1900

Queb said:


> The registation page seems to be down !


Which one?

The one created by Royfox has now been closed (21st of this month), so the only one available to you is the VM one at virginmedia.com/tivoupgrade

J.


----------



## royfox

Hi All. 

I'm just about to set off for the USA. I will be out of touch now for at least the next week. 

I'm not 100% certain of the VM strategy with regards to the link I posted. It does look like anyone can register. I know they have a current subscribers list for S1 owners. So perhaps a quick x ref to this list puts you on the call list. I'm not sure. Sorry. 

I know the vm TiVo unit exists. AND it retains the good S1 features we have come to love and adds to them. How do i know??? I just do. 

My internal contact at VM is telling me that you will get calls soon. Sorry I can't be any more specific than that. I think the interest in this roll out has 
beaten all of VMs expectations. Short term this could mean slower install dates. But long term, this has to be brilliant news to get TiVos interest back 
into the UK. Ultimately, I'm sure this is what we all want. 
From what I've seen else where, VM are cherry picking a select customer base
to roll out the initial units too. My educated guess would be, who better to 
fully test this unit in real life situations than current S1 customers. 



So anyway. I'm sure all of you that go ahead and jump into the pool, will enjoy the experience of VMTiVo.


----------



## Muttley1900

royfox said:


> Hi All.
> 
> I'm just about to set off for the USA. I will be out of touch now for at least the next week.
> <snip>
> I know the vm TiVo unit exists. AND it retains the good S1 features we have come to love and adds to them. How do i know??? I just do.


Look after your VMTivo for you guv, whilst you're away?


----------



## royfox

Muttley1900 said:


> Look after your VMTivo for you guv, whilst you're away?


I've seen and played. Not necessarily owned. Lol.


----------



## childe

I've just called customer service and they said there was no way I would receive the Tivo box before March, and they seemed unaware of any special offer. So fingers crossed that was just an uninformed CSR.


----------



## royfox

With respect. CS will probably be the last to know about any deal for S1 owners. (No disrespect to CS, but they will be made aware once all data etc has been sorted) 
I'm looking forward to getting back to the UK so I can hopefully sort out a TiVo for myself.


----------



## jonphil

childe said:


> I've just called customer service and they said there was no way I would receive the Tivo box before March, and they seemed unaware of any special offer. So fingers crossed that was just an uninformed CSR.


You get the same sort of response from the chat thing that sometimes appears on the order page for VM services.
I'm getting the sales staff don't have a clue what's going on. The people on the Twitter page seem to be more knowledgeable about what's happening.

Though it does depend as maybe orders will be taken, but install dates may mean it's March before we get our hands on the boxes.


----------



## DamienB

Well our S1 didn't get any message that I know of... but this morning it was sat there showing "Powering up" and after a long wait and a reboot, it won't power up at all now (fan is running, light is on, no HDD noise). My other half informs me it was making grinding noises yesterday... bugger. Still, nearly 10 years of being on 24/7 was a pretty decent life. Just hope we don't have to tolerate the awful UI and general sluggishness of the V+ box for too long and VM roll out their Tivo boxes quick!


----------



## Muttley1900

Just adding up the hints&#8230;



royfox said:


> Unfortunately for me.. I won't be here in the UK when calls are being made as I'm away in the USA.. so it seems you lot will beat me to it.. let me know how they are....


And&#8230;



royfox said:


> Just to advise, the first Tivo messages should appear on or just after the 27th of Jan.. CS will be calling / contacting people from the 27th onwards..
> 
> Please let me know what offer you are getting as I said, I'm away to the USA so won't be in a position to take the offer up immediately. (i think that is called sods law)...


And...



royfox said:


> I think it terms of dates.. by the end of January you should see the message pop up on your Tivo and then early Feb a phone call from CS... good luck everyone..
> <snip>
> Unfortunately for me.. I won't be here in the UK when calls are being made as I'm away in the USA..


And...



royfox said:


> I'm just about to set off for the USA. I will be out of touch now for at least the next week.
> <snip>
> My internal contact at VM is telling me that you will get calls soon.


And...



royfox said:


> I'm looking forward to getting back to the UK so I can hopefully sort out a TiVo for myself.


So, erm, as it is early February next week, and you are in the USA then, I'm guessing those of us who were able to register our interest via your work will get a call sometime next week&#8230;


----------



## TCM2007

staffie2001uk said:


> I seem to remember one of royfox's posts saying that TiVo were going to supply VM with all TiVo S1 owners details. One quick postcode sort and they can send the message to everyone in a VM cabled area. Of course, they might just have messaged every TiVo in operation.


If TiVo's messaging system can do anything but a broadcast to all TiVos they've never demonstrated that on 10 years.


----------



## royfox

Muttley1900 said:


> Just adding up the hints
> 
> So, erm, as it is early February next week, and you are in the USA then, Im guessing those of us who were able to register our interest via your work will get a call sometime next week


you made me smile. Now I know what it's like to he stalked. Lol


----------



## Pete77

DamienB said:


> My other half informs me it was making grinding noises yesterday... bugger. Still, nearly 10 years of being on 24/7 was a pretty decent life. Just hope we don't have to tolerate the awful UI and general sluggishness of the V+ box for too long and VM roll out their Tivo boxes quick!


If it has a Lifetime Sub and might still be useful for the kids or to bring your maiden aunt up to speed with the world of the PVR then you can get a 500Gb or 1TB replacement drive kit that you just plug in after taking the lid off your Tivo at www.tivocentral.co.uk or www.tivoland.com A new hard drive is all it requires. There almost certainly won't be anything else wrong with it if grinding noises were the symptoms displayed just before it went belly up.

Its good to see you finally post in the forum by the way after all these years of loyal Tivo use and previously silent forum membership.


----------



## pengbo

Damn wish I had found this site when Roy's site was still open 

Our Tivo is still going strong after 10 years but would love one that could do HD and all the other great things this one sounds capable of...

Guess I will be at the back of the queue like all other none Virgin customers.

We did get the message today though.


----------



## Muttley1900

royfox said:


> Now I know what it's like to he stalked. Lol


See, when you say it like that, you make it sound like a bad thing.


----------



## John McE

Sorry if this has been covered before, but the TIVO message from Virgin refers to getting "the top TV package". Does this mean that in order to get the special discount for exisiting TIVO users, we will have to upgrade to the VIP package (and get a whole of sports channels I have zero interest in) or is XL considered the top package, as far as this offer is concerned?


----------



## Pete77

I live at least 7 miles away from the nearest Virgin cabled street and I use my Tivo in conjunction with an unsubscribed Sky Digibox but Tivo have still sent me their message saying that they have "hooked up with Virgin Media" and that "To celebrate you can get Virgin Media's top TV package and a brand new Tivo box at a very special price". 

I will certainly be interested to see how they plan to run their new 7 mile long cable to my front door

This message was delivered on Friday (28th Jan) but oddly my Tivo did not show the normal new message waiting indicator in the Live Tv display to show that it had arrived. Instead I had to go to Messages & Setup manually to find it waiting there but showing as having already been read.


----------



## cwaring

John McE said:


> ...is XL considered the top package, as far as this offer is concerned?


Yes.


Pete77 said:


> I live at least 7 miles away from the nearest Virgin cabled street and I use my Tivo in conjunction with an unsubscribed Sky Digibox but Tivo have still sent me their message saying that they have "hooked up with Virgin Media" and that "To celebrate you can get Virgin Media's top TV package and a brand new Tivo box at a very special price".
> 
> I will certainly be interested to see how they plan to run their new 7 mile long cable to my front door


And, once again for the hard of understanding  This is a generic, delivered-to-everyone message and _not specifically and only_ for people in VM cabled aread. Such individual messages are simply not possible.

So..  .. right back at ya


----------



## Pete77

cwaring said:


> And, once again for the hard of understanding  This is a generic, delivered-to-everyone message and _not specifically and only_ for people in VM cabled aread. Such individual messages are simply not possible.
> 
> So..  .. right back at ya


Then to avoid confusion the message ought to have said "great news for those of you who live in an area where Virgin Media cable tv is available".


----------



## John McE

Wouldn't it be nicer if all the carping could stop and we could all just concentrate on the imminent arrival of the new TIVO? And if those that know that they won't be able to get it could stop acting like children and try to be happy for those that can.


----------



## Muttley1900

John McE said:


> Wouldn't it be nicer if all the carping could stop and we could all just concentrate on the imminent arrival of the new TIVO? And if those that know that they won't be able to get it could stop acting like children and try to be happy for those that can.


Well said.


----------



## cwaring

+1

(He said somewhat smugly . I know how I'd feel if I were not able to get one )


----------



## spitfires

You smug b'stards - Animal Farm it is then.


----------



## okonski_uk

What remains confusing, is why did we provide our TiVo S/n in the first place? I would assumed with this this would permit the creation of an explicit hit list of machines to message. After all, you;re not going to get a channels updated message if you're on VM and only the Sky delivered channels changed (unless the changes affected VM too). These messages are then created locallyt in the machine, not sent out by Tribune, who will have no idea what bundle of channels are being recieved.

Are there any 'community' TiVo messages due - or is that our lot until VM phone...?

I'm glad I'm not holding my breath.


----------



## nbaker

Seems to me the offer is being given to anyone with a S1 tivo not just those on Roy's list.


----------



## TCM2007

I assumed the serial numbers were to restrict access to an ultra generous upgrade offer


----------



## Pete77

TCM2007 said:


> I assumed the serial numbers were to restrict access to an ultra generous upgrade offer


I think its more likely that Roy just assumed they would be useful to Virgin only for Virgin to turn round and say "what would we do with a Tivo S1 Service Number".

To Virgin its just another way to expand the initial hardware test group to a bunch of competent users who will provide sound feedback on actual firmware faults compared to a random selection of hapless members of the ordinary Virgin customer base who will inevitably initially be totally confused about how to do the simplest of things on a Tivo.


----------



## hokkers999

Pete77 said:


> [snip]
> 
> To Virgin its just another way to expand the initial hardware test group to a bunch of competent users who will provide sound feedback on actual firmware faults ...


Yep, it's brand new hardware never before mated up to brand new software. Anyone buying (sorry - allowing themselves to be gouged for £200 up front) before this time next year could be in for a lot of err, fun.

and please don't bleat on about "it's not knew software", large parts have been custom written for VM, how else do you explain the 15 month delay between announcement and so far complete lack of shipping to the public with no real dates even being announced?


----------



## spitfires

Pete77 said:


> To Virgin its just another way to expand the initial hardware test group to a bunch of competent users who will provide sound feedback on actual faults [...]


Yes, well said - if anyone is going to break it it will be us lot! .


----------



## spitfires

hokkers999 said:


> how else do you explain the 15 month delay between announcement and so far complete lack of shipping to the public?


Hardware delays? Do we know who is making the box? Obviously it's neither Virgin nor Tivo.


----------



## jonphil

Pete77 said:


> initially be totally confused about how to do the simplest of things on a Tivo.


I agree, I gave up trying to explain to some people how Tivo worked years ago, normally it wasn't until they actually saw it used did they actually understand.
For some people Tivo maybe just too much and I image lots of people who will eventually get Tivo would never use at least half the features because they either don't understand them or just think it would be too complicated to setup.


----------



## Milhouse

hokkers999 said:


> Yep, it's *brand new hardware* never before mated up to *brand new software*.
> ...
> and please don't bleat on about "it's not knew software", *large parts have been custom written for VM*, how else do you explain the 15 month delay between announcement and so far complete lack of shipping to the public with no real dates even being announced?





hokkers999 said:


> I've pointed out that it's taken 15 months since the original announcement to *skin it for vm* and *add 3rd tuner support (not even there yet)* and FAIL TO LAUNCH it.


My emphasis, highlighting your contradiction - in one post you suggest a lot of development has taken place on new hardware, while in another you condescendingly suggest it's nothing more than a skinning effort.

If you're going to troll, at least be consistent (otherwise you end up looking a prize knob).


----------



## cwaring

Indeed. I was just going to make a similar point; ie that it's neither new hardware nor new software.

And as for Pete77


Pete77 said:


> To Virgin its just another way to expand the initial hardware test group....


You think this is the _*initial*_ testing of the product? Seriously?


----------



## hokkers999

spitfires said:


> Hardware delays? Do we know who is making the box? Obviously it's neither Virgin nor Tivo.


It's a Cisco box, the exact model number was given on here the other day.


----------



## Pete77

cwaring said:


> You think this is the _*initial*_ testing of the product? Seriously?


Initial testing of the product with real customers is what I meant. Obviously it was no doubt tested a lot internally before that began happening.


----------



## hokkers999

Milhouse said:


> My emphasis, highlighting your contradiction - in one post you suggest a lot of development has taken place on new hardware, while in another you condescendingly suggest it's nothing more than a skinning effort.
> 
> If you're going to troll, at least be consistent (otherwise you end up looking a prize knob).


If you are going to quote me then get them in the correct order 

The first quote was made a week (?) ago, the second AFTER it was revealed it was new Cisco h/w.

Personal insults again? Clearly you know you have lost the argument. A sure sign of desperation.


----------



## TCM2007

spitfires said:


> Yes, well said - if anyone is going to break it it will be us lot! .


Has Fred signed up for it? he had lots of experience at beta testing software.


----------



## mike0151

Under the non-disclosure agreement, Fred cannot reply hahaha


----------



## jonphil

mike0151 said:


> Under the non-disclosure agreement, Fred cannot reply hahaha


Try telling that to a VM member of staff who posted on the open Virgin forum asking questions about Tivo.
I test software for a company and have to sign a NDA for every new test, sometimes it can be so hard to not tell people about fancy new things. 
Not been beta testing Tivo BTW


----------



## cwaring

Pete77 said:


> Initial testing of the product with real customers is what I meant.


No. If anything, that was the 500 staff last month. They were, apparently, 'real customers'; ie had to pay for it, etc.

This is the _released_ product 



hokkers999 said:


> If you are going to quote me then get them in the correct order


The order is and was irrelevant to the point being made.



> The first quote was made a week (?) ago, the second AFTER it was revealed it was new Cisco h/w.


Except it has been known for certainly more than the last week that Cisco were producing the new box. In fact, Cisco have been involved with VM since back in 2009. They also produce VM's standard HD box; onto which a version of the Tivo software will, eventually (according to VM themselves) be downloaded.

So, basically, you're completely and utterly wrong; again. You're just going to have to live with it


----------



## BobBlueUK

Spam reported


----------



## Pete77

BobBlueUK said:


> Spam reported


Annoying though they can sometimes be I'm sure that's an unjustified description of Carl's posts.


----------



## cwaring

Jeez. I go off to wash the floors and play some NeedForSpeed while they dry and I miss all the action


----------



## okonski_uk

Here's the deal - after getting my call at 1540 today.

Usual price in parenthesis; 'Purchase'* &#163;149.00 (&#163;199.00)
Installation Price &#163;0.00 (&#163;40.00)
For those already on the XL package, the additional cost will be &#163;3 per month. If you already have a V+ and wish to retain this, this will incur a charge of &#163;5 per month (&#163;8 total)

There is a 12 month minimum term on TV services.

The discounts above are all that are available - and reflect the cost of whether you Pre Registered on VM's site, Are an S1 user, or on Roy's list. Only one discount will apply, they are not cumulative.

The call arrives from 0800 052 0980

Finally, they require a card payment on the phone to clinch the deal - it is NOT added to your account.

*It isn't a purchase, but a facility/activation fee. The box will not be yours.


----------



## warrenrb

At last! Information! 

First off, did you go for it?

Not an *amazing* offer, but better than nothing I suppose. Good to have some mulling time ahead of my own call. Thanks for the info.


----------



## okonski_uk

I don't use plastic! I use electronic banking and they won't take a payment direct to my account. So I'll need to borrow one. Talk about financial exclusion! They're calling me back tomorrow.

By then I can work out whether the &#163;5pm for the extra box I'm already paying (standard V Box) can be swapped for my existing V+ at no extra... in which case, I'll go for it.


----------



## andyc_uk

I signed up ... installation 19th Feb. Woo yay!


----------



## AENG

My deal (a non-VM customer) seems identical to Raymond's. I've agreed installation 18 Feb. Initial payment was via debit card, subsequent ones will be by DD (it's more controllable that way).

Alan


----------



## nbaker

Damn they tried to call me at 16:30 at work till 5:00pm, hope they call back later.

Was hoping for a slightly better deal but still grateful for this discount:up:


----------



## velocitysurfer1

Like others I got my call today (17:20).

When the guy confirmed what services I could get at my address he became very apologetic and said that I couldn't get the service in my area (which I knew). He said that they checked all postcodes before calling but I had slipped through the net.

So...no VM TiVo over adsl (i'm in a virgin llu area) as we had all suspected.


----------



## maxwells_daemon

I just received The Call. The chap mentioned that most people he'd talked to had gone straight online and posted the fact (he even saw his name mentioned, but unfortunately I missed it), so keeping with the trend...

I had to upgrade from L to XL, but got a cheaper (and faster!) broadband package, so with the &#163;3/m TiVo change, I had to pay &#163;17.25/m extra. Plus the &#163;149 "activation charge". New TiVo on 15 Feb!


----------



## okonski_uk

Try 0161 614 6000 - that might just work....


----------



## jonphil

Has anyone tried to call that number back? I'm just thinking if they are going to keep calling me around the same sort of time each day (most places seem too) I'm always going to be out at work.
To speed things up I have signed up online for standard V box with XL TV as it doesn't sound like the offer is against the TV packages at all.
Suppose it's still nearly &#163;100 less than what price was first given (box and install) and bonus is we do seem first in the queue to get it.


----------



## Tony Hoyle

Mine came from an 08000 number.. calling it back just got 'you got a call from virgin media, we'll call you back'.

No call back  and the first call was apparently a really confusing recorded mesage.


----------



## RichardJH

okonski_uk said:


> By then I can work out whether the £5pm for the extra box I'm already paying (standard V Box) can be swapped for my existing V+ at no extra... in which case, I'll go for it.


Just had the same thoughts and on my callback opted to keep V+ instead of the V HD box and it is the same pricing


----------



## okonski_uk

See message #323. The call centre making the outbound calls is the Liverpool centre, at the number I provided.


----------



## Tony Hoyle

Why would a liverpool call centre be calling from a manchester number?


----------



## John McE

Are the people making these calls more intelligent that the usual call centre employees that Virgin use (i.e. more like retentions staff that the Calcutta ones?)

Congrats to those that have received their calls. Lucky swine! (grin)


----------



## Muttley1900

Tony Hoyle said:


> Why would a liverpool call centre be calling from a manchester number?


Liverpool not in a Cabled area?


----------



## AENG

I was phoned by Andy, who said he was on from 11.00 a.m. to 7.00 p.m. He'd had his TiVo for a month or so, BTW.


----------



## Pete77

For those who have had calls from Virgin what are the install dates being quoted, especially if you actually signed up when you were called.


----------



## okonski_uk

For my area (Glasgow) earliest date quoted was 14th February, BUT no appointment windows after 19th, which I thought strange.


----------



## andyc_uk

I got three calls in the same day due to registering on three sites!

I went for the 18month contract and got the first 6 months discounted. Free install and Tivo box for £149.00.

This is a brand new contract for them as I have been FreeSat up until now, waiting for the Tivo to launch since moving into my new house.


----------



## Furball

Interesting................ so newbies do get a better deal than us folk who have paid our bills religiously for xx years 

Not that I'm bitter and twisted 

Furball


----------



## Fatbloke

Are people still getting calls? I've been patiently waiting with my VM bill in hand and the phone's not rung all day


----------



## mikerr

I've heard from various people this batch is only 500 tivos (but one person said 5000 ),
and it will be end of March/April for the full public offering.

@royfox - how many did your list total in the end?


----------



## okonski_uk

Yep, I had another call today and signed up. You won;t need your bill - they work backwards from your postcode, and will ask your 'secret' password. Hope they call you soon.


----------



## andyc_uk

Furball said:


> Interesting................ so newbies do get a better deal than us folk who have paid our bills religiously for xx years
> 
> Not that I'm bitter and twisted
> 
> Furball


I think the additional offer was because we took the broadband and telephone package as well. Sorry if you feel the offer is not as desirable. IMO anything is better than nothing.


----------



## smokie

Pete77 said:


> For those who have had calls from Virgin what are the install dates being quoted, especially if you actually signed up when you were called.


I was the guy's first call (yesterday)

Originally quoted this Wed.

Then received call back saying his manager subsequently told him NO installations before 11 Feb.

I expressed my disappointment in the traditional way and he spoke to his manager again who said OK, go with Wednesday (tomorrow)


----------



## cwaring

Furball said:


> Interesting................ so newbies do get a better deal than us folk who have paid our bills religiously for xx years


Well yeah. Which bit of "new customers *always* get things cheaper" did you not understand the last time I mentioned it?


----------



## deshepherd

Furball said:


> Interesting................ so newbies do get a better deal than us folk who have paid our bills religiously for xx years
> 
> Not that I'm bitter and twisted
> 
> Furball


This is absolutely standard for VM ... and it can even be the case that long standing customers pay more than new customers do after their initial discount period ends.

The interesting point here though is that it seems "new to VM" TiVo upgraders are having to take out an 18 month contract ... so they get their 6 month discounted period as a new VM customer then another 12 month tie whereas existing VM customers only get the 12 month tie.


----------



## pengbo

Just got my Call. Price is to die for considering the original cost of the tivo.

Damn shame I am not cabled up although we are in a cabled area. There is light at the end of the tunnel though. He gave me some details for me to hunt down to get our street cabled as the main road it is off already has cable and the box is 50 yards from my front door. 20 year old estate so it's BT ducted. Now to see if I can get them to "fill-in" as they call it.

BTW I have never needed to know this before but is it possible to get a fixed ip-address from Virgin on their cable broadband?


----------



## cwaring

pengbo said:


> ...is it possible to get a fixed ip-address from Virgin on their cable broadband?


Whilst an _actual_ fixed IP is not something VM offer, what you get is as good as. In other words, you could well have IP for months if not years. It only generally changes if you disconnect your modem for an extended period of time.


----------



## pengbo

Ahhh what is known as a sticky ip  Since I hardly ever reboot my ADSL router I can't see me needing to do it for cable much either.

Thanks for the info Carl.


----------



## TIVO_YORK99

Is there any particular reason you need a static IP?, won't ddns do?, or are you connecting somewhere that only accepts exact IP addresses?


----------



## spitfires

You need a fixed IP e.g. if you're running a website from home, or use rDNS or SPF records to verify your e-mail.


----------



## Tony Hoyle

Still no call back since the confusing recorded message yesterday.

I was one of the first to sign up on the website, too..


----------



## Tim L

OMG OMG OMG OMG!

Okay, slight over-reaction but I've been away and only just caught up with all this. In fact my Tivo's been out of action for a couple of months since moving house, but this is all quite exciting stuff.


----------



## hokkers999

Fatbloke said:


> Are people still getting calls? I've been patiently waiting with my VM bill in hand and the phone's not rung all day


Called this afternoon for my father-in-laws box (he's 77). When we found out that to have the xtra 100 channels (M->XL) that he doesn't want - if he did he'd have them now - plus the £3 surcharge for god know what, his pocket was going to be lighter by £15/month...

...the answer was "no thanks." End of conversation.

For 180 a year we expect to be able to buy several lifetime subbies of bay in the next few weeks 

Daughter not had her call yet, but as she's even tighter with money....


----------



## Fatbloke

Did they sign up online or are Tivo using a different list? Bet they are surprised to get told No by people expressing an interest!


----------



## jonphil

mikerr said:


> I've heard from various people this batch is only 500 tivos (but one person said 5000 ),
> and it will be end of March/April for the full public offering.
> 
> @royfox - how many did your list total in the end?


I really hope that they are at least going to contact people on Roy's list again first before all the boxes are gone, otherwise they can hold off installing until I actually have a Tivo box.


----------



## warrenrb

Fatbloke said:


> Did they sign up online or are Tivo using a different list? Bet they are surprised to get told No by people expressing an interest!


To be fair, my Dad asked me to put him on the list (he's got an S1 too), just to see what the offer would be.

Now that we know what it is, he'll be saying No too.


----------



## Tony Hoyle

The requirement for XL was known ages ago - that can't be a surprise to anyone.


----------



## hokkers999

Fatbloke said:


> Did they sign up online or are Tivo using a different list? Bet they are surprised to get told No by people expressing an interest!


Signed up using the list organised on here by Roy.


----------



## hokkers999

Tony Hoyle said:


> The requirement for XL was known ages ago - that can't be a surprise to anyone.


For new customers yes, but the implication given by the insider at VM that Roy was dealing with was that there was going to be some mega special deal for S1 owners.

If you remember on Roy's sign up from there was a box to select which TV package you were currently on and "M" was definitely a choice. Implying (but not stating grant you) that this may be able to continue.


----------



## cwaring

hokkers999 said:


> For new customers yes, but the implication given by the insider at VM that Roy was dealing with was that there was going to be some mega special deal for S1 owners.


I'd say £90 off is rather special 



> If you remember on Roy's sign up from there was a box to select which TV package you were currently on and "M" was definitely a choice. Implying (but not stating grant you) that this may be able to continue.


More BS; but I suppose that no-one can stop you from reading something into something that simply wasn't the case


----------



## ColinYounger

Actually, the "M" was added by request and wasn't on the original form:


cwaring said:


> Could you add an "M" option to the TV packs list as that's the one my parent's are on.


----------



## Peter Hunt

I registered on Roy's site some time back and on VM's site and haven't had the call yet


----------



## Pete77

Peter Hunt said:


> I registered on Roy's site some time back and on VM's site and haven't had the call yet


So did I and I also haven't had a call from Virgin but then I don't live at a postcode served by Virgin Media cable tv (either digital or analogue) so it doesn't entirely surprise me.

Where do you live?


----------



## John McE

Can I ask a tech-type question? I hardly ever use the red button text service on BBC, because it takes way long to load. Is there any chance that it might load a bit quicker with the TIVOs dedicated modem, or is the long delay nothing whatever to do with bandwidth?


----------



## Fatbloke

Finally got the call this afternoon!

Installation on the 18th


----------



## okonski_uk

I could be wrong, but all VoD (even BBC) is cached by VM. Any slow startup is unlikely to be any faster for programming not held locally.


----------



## swanny

Got the call :up:

Install on Feb 16th AM.

cheers again Roy


----------



## Zaichik

I got the call - installation on 16 Feb. The chap mentioned that my name had been picked from Roy's list - thanks heaps for organising that for us.


----------



## nbaker

I got called back today after missing my first call on Monday.

Installation booked for Feb 15th 

Many thanks Roy.:up:


----------



## Pete77

I just received a call from Virgin on my mobile phone from their 0800 0520980 number.

The guy calling said that he understood I was interested in the Virgin Tivo and asked me to confirm that. I said I was interested in having one.

He then went on to confirm my postcode and only at that point realised I was not in a Virgin Media cabled area. He then said that this unfortunately meant it was impossible for me to have a Virgin Tivo box.

He then suggested that I send an email to [email protected] when I asked if Virgin had any plans to cable my area after I pointed out that due to our village winning a BT competition we are due to have BT Infinity Fibre To The Cabinet broadband installed here in January next year (2012).

He didn't seem at all interested in the fact that I currently had an S1 Tivo that I could use with Sky or Freeview or the fact that I was a fan of the Tivo product. Although he seemed cheerful and outgoing he just seemed like a typical salesman only interested in closing as many deals as possible in the evening to earn as much commission as possible. I received this call at 5.43pm today (Wednesday 2nd February) but my mobile today has been on all the time.

Anyhow this obviously suggests that they have rather more than 500 Virgin Tivo boxes in stock given that they are still trying to sign up new customers from the registered interest list of Tivo S1 owners. I also wonder if people on this S1 Tivo customer calling list aren't meant to check the postcode given against Virgin's coverage of the area before they call and this guy forgot to do so even though any of his other colleagues had done so when they previously came to my name and address on the list and hence why nobody from Virgin Media had called me earlier?


----------



## Peter Hunt

Pete77 said:


> So did I and I also haven't had a call from Virgin but then I don't live at a postcode served by Virgin Media cable tv (either digital or analogue) so it doesn't entirely surprise me.
> 
> Where do you live?


I live in Brighton. Got my phone call at 5pm. I was out but my wife gave them my mobile number and they called me on that.

I asked if I could upgrade both of my V+ boxes to TiVo and the guy said that I could only do one of them in this (special!) tranche but that they would honour this special pricing to me when they move to non-S1 owners. He said that they'd call again when they go to the next phase and I could upgrade the second box.


----------



## Pete77

Peter Hunt said:


> I asked if I could upgrade both of my V+ boxes to TiVo and the guy said that I could only do one of them in this (special!) tranche but that they would honour this special pricing to me when they move to non-S1 owners.


So it seems that Virgin have decided to use Tivo S1 owners as a final expert tester group before moving on to the rest of the ordinary Virgin customer base who take their most expensive channel packages.

One thing I haven't seen covered here is whether you can unsubscribe from Virgin pay tv channel packages after a year or 18 months (depending on the minimum contract period you have to sign up for) but then keep your Tivo box to record only the FTA channels so long as you continue to have phone or broadband service with Virgin? I believe this is possible with the existing non Tivo Virgin models?


----------



## Ovit-UK

Peter Hunt said:


> I live in Brighton. Got my phone call at 5pm. I was out but my wife gave them my mobile number and they called me on that.
> 
> I asked if I could upgrade both of my V+ boxes to TiVo and the guy said that I could only do one of them in this (special!) tranche but that they would honour this special pricing to me when they move to non-S1 owners. He said that they'd call again when they go to the next phase and I could upgrade the second box.


Told me there was no problem switching over both my V+HD boxes but there was no discount, would be £300 - so if you want two call back and ask again. 

As always, it depends who you get on the phone (although to be fair, maybe there is a high uptake in your region and less spare boxes available).

Ovit


----------



## mikerr

Pete77 said:


> One thing I haven't seen covered here is whether you can unsubscribe from Virgin pay tv channel packages after a year or 18 months (depending on the minimum contract period you have to sign up for) but then keep your Tivo box to record only the FTA channels so long as you continue to have phone or broadband service with Virgin? I believe this is possible with the existing non Tivo Virgin models?


Remember you only rent the boxes from VM - if you unsubscribe from the TV, you no longer have a TV box - they'll come and collect it.

I think you get a basic TV package for free with broadband and phone though.


----------



## cwaring

mikerr said:


> Remember you only rent the boxes from VM - if you unsubscribe from the TV, you no longer have a TV box - they'll come and collect it.


On the other hand, you could request that they put you onto the M pack, which is (well, was) free with a phone line. It's now a legacy product, but they may let you have it as you're keeping your other services.


----------



## Ovit-UK

Pete77 said:


> One thing I haven't seen covered here is whether you can unsubscribe from Virgin pay tv channel packages after a year or 18 months (depending on the minimum contract period you have to sign up for) but then keep your Tivo box to record only the FTA channels so long as you continue to have phone or broadband service with Virgin? I believe this is possible with the existing non Tivo Virgin models?


To be honest, in todays conversation there was not a mention about contracts at all which was surprising, it was "you've been selected - do you want it?"

Dare say we will find out a lot of this stuff as we go along.

Ovit


----------



## abuelbanat

Pete77 said:


> So it seems that Virgin have decided to use Tivo S1 owners as a final expert tester group before moving on to the rest of the ordinary Virgin customer base who take their most expensive channel packages.


reports over on the cable forum of a few people getting install dates who aren't (never have been) TiVo owners.


----------



## mikerr

Well mine's an 18 month contract, not 12
Maybe that's why my bill went _down_ by a few quid with TiVo...


----------



## Pete77

mikerr said:


> Remember you only rent the boxes from VM - if you unsubscribe from the TV, you no longer have a TV box - they'll come and collect it.


But I presume you could downgrade to the M+ channel package at £6.50 per month (possibly plus the £3 per month Tivo surcharge unless that has been abolished by that stage) unless Virgin have some contractual stipulation saying you can't. That seems a pretty damn good deal compared to paying £10 per month to keep an old S1 going for anyone who didn't have a Lifetime Sub (in fact its also less than Sky's £10 per month recording charge for a non subscribed Sky+ or Sky HD box).

I note that the M+ channel package also includes Eurosport 1 and 2 SD (although sadly not Eurosport HD), which seems a damn good deal compared to Sky's minimum £19 or so per month to subscribe, just to get British Eurosport.

A pity therefore that I don't live in a Virgin cabled area.


----------



## Pete77

cwaring said:


> On the other hand, you could request that they put you onto the M pack, which is (well, was) free with a phone line. It's now a legacy product, but they may let you have it as you're keeping your other services.


That was what I meant when I said I understood they let you keep the Virgin box as long as you still kept your phone line with them. What is the betting that the M package is only actually offered to customers who want to cancel all their pay tv but is not offered to new customers at sign up.


----------



## cwaring

Pete77 said:


> ... is not offered to new customers at sign up.


No bet because it's true. The bit where i said it was a "legacy service" should have been the clue


----------



## mike0151

When I got my call, I was told that the deal between VM and TiVo insisted that it include the full (i.e. XL) package. It was mooted that I might possibly be able to downgrade at sometime later, but not definitely.


----------



## Pete77

So by my calculations the cost for an M+ subscriber of upgrading to Tivo is &#163;401 over the first year (&#163;149 + &#163;216 + &#163;36). After that they can downgrade to M+ and only pay &#163;36 a year extra to have a Virgin Tivo instead of a regular Virgin box.

But the hardware in effect does cost you &#163;365 if you are only an M+ subscriber. If you are an XL subscriber the Tivo hardware cost is only &#163;149 and you just pay the same &#163;3 per month rental for the Tivo service (the fee for the upgraded EPG data and/or Tivo's licensing royalties) that the M+ upgraders pay.

So for XL customers it is surely an easy choice to go for Tivo but for M+ customers still probably worth it so long as they can downgrade again to M+ after 12 months. If they can't then the issue of affordability does begin to raise its head.

For an M customer the cost of the hardware is effectively &#163;443 and the other question they also have to face is if they will ever be able to get back on to the M package after 12 months with a Virgin Tivo as their hardware.


----------



## mikerr

Anyone else end up paying less per month with TiVo than before ?
I've ended up paying &#163;149 like everyone else - but saving &#163;8 pm on my VM bill,
As the operator "re-jigged" my packages (oo-er!)


----------



## Zaichik

Nope, my bill has gone up to &#163;62 per month from &#163;45. I'm currently on XL phone, L BB and L TV. My new package will XL TV with TiVo, XL phone and XL BB (30 Mbps).


----------



## Pete77

mikerr said:


> I've ended up paying £149 like everyone else - but saving £8 pm on my VM bill, As the operator "re-jigged" my packages (oo-er!)


Did you actually remove any channels you were currently watching as a result of these changes though? I believe that there are certain special interest channels (not all of them Adult in nature) that are not part of even the XL package.

If you didn't then I would carefully check your next bill to make sure that the promised price reduction has actually materialised. These call centre operators often give customers inaccurate information in my long suffering experience of the breed.


----------



## hokkers999

Pete77 said:


> So by my calculations the cost for an M+ subscriber of upgrading to Tivo is £401 over the first year (£149 + £216 + £36). After that they can downgrade to M+ and only pay £36 a year extra to have a Virgin Tivo instead of a regular Virgin box.
> 
> But the hardware in effect does cost you £365 if you are only an M+ subscriber. If you are an XL subscriber the Tivo hardware cost is only £149 and you just pay the same £3 per month rental for the Tivo service (the fee for the upgraded EPG data and/or Tivo's licensing royalties) that the M+ upgraders pay.
> 
> So for XL customers it is surely an easy choice to go for Tivo but for M+ customers still probably worth it so long as they can downgrade again to M+ after 12 months. If they can't then the issue of affordability does begin to raise its head.
> 
> For an M customer the cost of the hardware is effectively £443 and the other question they also have to face is if they will ever be able to get back on to the M package after 12 months with a Virgin Tivo as their hardware.


Bingo - give that man a cigar. Someone else who gets it over being reamed a new arris'ole to get a new untried and untested box.

£443 and you never even own it, buy an awful lot of spare hard drives for the S1 for that.


----------



## cwaring

I think someone might be going back on the 'ignore' list very shortly 

Those on XL are obviously serious TV viewers and will appreciate the new Tivo. If you only have the M pack (like my parents) then you probably don't watch enough telly to justify getting one.

It's not like anyone's being held over a barrel or anything. We're all getting it _by our own choice_.

Oh, and the software has been "tried and tested" for the last however many years that Tivo Premier has been available in the US. And the box is made by CISCO who make, among other things, Tivo boxes for the US; and also the VHD Box for Virgin Media themselves. So they're hardly "untested" too. Not to mention the fact that _this very box_ has been "tried and tested" internally by VM for _at least_ the last six months - to my knowledge - if not more.

On second thoughts, I'm gonna keep your posts in view as I love it when you come out with a load of bollox and expect people to actually take you seriously


----------



## Pete77

hokkers999 said:


> £443 and you never even own it, buy an awful lot of spare hard drives for the S1 for that.


The ethics of charging a one off £149 fee to rent something you then pay a large monthly sub for anyway do seem extremely questionable.

My bet would also be that if Virgin XL customer waited another year or so and then threatened to cancel due to boredom or dissatisfaction with the product that they would be offered Tivo as a free upgrade. This might even happen in 18 months or two years time with an M+ customer if by then Tivo had been rolled out to all subscription levels offered by the company. You only have to look at what has happened with fees charged by Sky for its Sky+ box to realise that this is hardly unlikely.

So for an M+ customer waiting until Tivo has been rolled out to the whole Virgin customer base (which may take another 18 to 24 months) could turn out to prove an awful lot cheaper than signing up now.

I suppose a particularly underhanded Virgin marketing person might therefore also feel inclined to badger Tivo to cancel the UK Tivo S1 service so that Virgin customers do not have any alternative to retain Tivo service other than to sign up with Virgin regardless of the significant additional costs of doing so.


----------



## abuelbanat

hokkers999 said:


> £443 and you never even own it, buy an awful lot of spare hard drives for the S1 for that.


and yet curiously none of the improved features that the new one carries over the S1. You always conveniently only provide half an argument in your frequent glass-half-empty-pessimistic-as-f**k-i-hate-almost-everyone-and-everybody posts don't you hoks?

I was told that I must remain on XL for my 12month contract - so a not unreasonable assumption would be that I could trade down after 12months should I wish.


----------



## Pete77

cwaring said:


> Those on XL are obviously serious TV viewers and will appreciate the new Tivo. If you only have the M pack (like my parents) then you probably don't watch enough telly to justify getting one.


What evidence do we have that your parents watch any less telly than you do.  All we actually in fact know is that they just aren't willing to pay for a very expensive way to watch it. For instance do you have any evidence that people who drive Ford Escorts or Opel Corsas drive any less miles per annum than people who drive a Ferrari, Porsche or Rolls Royce? No of course not. All that is in fact true is that they have less money available to spend on each mile of driving that they do.



> On second thoughts, I'm gonna keep your posts in view as I love it when you come out with a load of bollox and expect people to actually take you seriously


Strangely enough it is the frequent nonsense that you so often come out with in your posts that is the main reason that I also find it useful to keep any eye on them.


----------



## cwaring

Pete77 said:


> The ethics of charging a one off £149 fee to rent something you then pay a large monthly sub for anyway do seem extremely questionable.


You might want to go back to the 70s and tell Radio Rentals that the renting model is "questionable". Or maybe BrightHouse. And £3 isn't "large" by rental standards. (Okay, they might not charge the 'upfront fee' but the principal's the same/



> My bet would also be that if Virgin XL customer waited another year or so and then threatened to cancel due to boredom or dissatisfaction with the product that they would be offered Tivo as a free upgrade.


Oh please  If I were that bored or dissatisfied then nothing would make me want to keep paying out. Of course, it sounds like you would mean it as an 'empty threat'; a bluff which really _should_ be called.



> This might even happen in 18 months or two years time with an M+ customer if by then Tivo had been rolled out to all subscription levels offered by the company.


If that did happen then one would be available anyway. Of course the price will come down over time. Look at the the V+.



> So for an M+ customer waiting until Tivo has been rolled out to the whole Virgin customer base (which may take another 18 to 24 months) could turn out to prove an awful lot cheaper than signing up now.


Well done on stating the bleedin' obvious.



> I suppose a particularly underhanded Virgin marketing person might therefore also feel inclined to badger Tivo to cancel the UK Tivo S1 service so that Virgin customers do not have any alternative to retain Tivo service other than to sign up with Virgin regardless of the significant additional costs of doing so.


Oh I do love a good conspiracy theory.  I'm sure you can do better than that if you _really_ put some thought into it!


----------



## laurence

It is expensive. I really don't need all those channels and the S1 with all the hacks and a decent freeview box does everything I need. Obviously the thought of a brand new version of my favourite gadget was hard to resist.
My new TiVo arrives in 2 weeks.


----------



## Pete77

[email protected] said:


> It is expensive. I really don't need all those channels and the S1 with all the hacks and a decent freeview box does everything I need. Obviously the thought of a brand new version of my favourite gadget was hard to resist.
> 
> My new TiVo arrives in 2 weeks.


Fortunately those of us living outside Virgin cable tv land do not have to face this financial dilemma.

We might however face a similar dilemma of whether to put up with Freeview+ HD, BBC/ITV Freesat+ HD or Windows MCE if the Tivo S1 service is ever axed. I'm pretty sure it will be Windows MCE in my case as the only way to be able to record all of the satellite and DTT FTA channels. I don't like the walled garden concept of BBC/ITV Freesat.


----------



## Pete77

cwaring said:


> Oh please  If I were that bored or dissatisfied then nothing would make me want to keep paying out.


It seems strange then that Sky manage to successfully retain many of their customers who had intended to cancel by offering them their current channel package at half price for the next 6 months.


----------



## cwaring

[email protected] said:


> It is expensive.


The original Tivo was (IIRC) £400 + £200 LT or £10 pm sub. 

So the new one's actually quite cheap


----------



## Pete77

cwaring said:


> The original Tivo was (IIRC) £400 + £200 LT or £10 pm sub.
> 
> So the new one's actually quite cheap


Haven't you noticed how the price of most other technology items like satnavs and laptop PCs has fallen by a massive amount in the last 10 years.

So the Virgin Tivo is still expensive, especially compared to a Sky+ HD box.


----------



## RichardJH

mikerr said:


> Anyone else end up paying less per month with TiVo than before ?
> I've ended up paying £149 like everyone else - but saving £8 pm on my VM bill,
> As the operator "re-jigged" my packages (oo-er!)


Yes I have. By giving up my 2 standard STB's which at the moment are feeding my 2 S1 Tivo's but keeping my existing V+ I will be saving £2.50 a month


----------



## Pete77

RichardJH said:


> Yes I have. By giving up my 2 standard STB's which at the moment are feeding my 2 S1 Tivo's but keeping my existing V+ I will be saving £2.50 a month


But now you will have one less cable tv box than before on subscription and presumably were already also an XL customer so not exactly entirely surprising.

Will you be using these Tivos at all now? Perhaps by feeding them with a Freeview signal instead?


----------



## laurence

cwaring said:


> The original Tivo was (IIRC) £400 + £200 LT or £10 pm sub.
> 
> So the new one's actually quite cheap


In the short term anyway! I found it easiest to justify by only taking into account first year's cost. Then I changed the subject.


----------



## Milhouse

Pete77 said:


> So the Virgin Tivo is still expensive, especially compared to a Sky+ HD box.


Have you included the £10/month Sky sub in your calculation? After a couple of years the VM TiVo will start to come out on top, and of course will still be serviced by VM whereas your increasingly expensive and increasingly likely to fail Sky box will be up a creek without a paddle.


----------



## Pete77

[email protected] said:


> In the short term anyway! I found it easiest to justify by only taking into account first year's cost. Then I changed the subject.


Hopefully if you can switch to their M+ package after a year or 18 months then the cost will only be £6.25 per month + £3 per month Tivo fee.


----------



## teresatt

I paid &#163;300 for my Sky+ HD box and it failed just after the end of it's guarantee. Thankfully by then Virgin had a crop of HD channels so I came back.

So &#163;149 for TiVo with a lifetime guarantee is going to be far better value for money for me.

I know Sky+ Hd is a lot less now, but I always seem to buy just before the price drop. So this time I'm going straight in.


----------



## Pete77

Milhouse said:


> Have you included the £10/month Sky sub in your calculation? After a couple of years the VM TiVo will start to come out on top, and of course will still be serviced by VM whereas your increasingly expensive and increasingly likely to fail Sky box will be up a creek without a paddle.


I think my comparisons were all against the cost of continuing to run a Lifetime Subbed SD S1 Tivo (i.e. zero) so I don't see where the £10 per month Sky HD recording charge enters the picture?


----------



## Milhouse

Pete77 said:


> I think my comparisons were all against the cost of continuing to run a Lifetime Subbed SD S1 Tivo (i.e. zero) so I don't see where the £10 per month Sky HD recording charge enters the picture?


You specified "Virgin Tivo" in your comparison with Sky+HD and no mention of S1 TiVo. Also, if you exclude the £10/month for SkyHD your comparison is utterly pointless (even more so than it already is/was).


----------



## cwaring

[email protected];8358982]In the short term anyway![/QUOTE]
Well I had my original Tivo for 8 years.

Year 1: £199 + (£10 x 12) = £319
Years 2-8 = (12x10) x 8 = £960

New Tivo
Year 1: £149 + (£3 x 12) = £185
Years 2-8: (£3 x 12) x 8 = £288

So yes, much cheaper over the same period 

And yes, before anyone else mentions it, I realise it's going to be more expensive for those who have had to upgrade to the XL pack! I was only calculating _my_ spend.


----------



## Fatbloke

Getting away from the financial bickering... 

Has anyone any thoughts about how the T4 will handle the HiDef channels? For instance, BBC1 is simulcast to BBC1HD, so how will Tivo choose wishlist programs. I saw no mention of 'HD preference' settings or anything similar.

I assume for series links (season passes) we'll just choose the channel we want to record from, but Wishlists are a different story.


----------



## RichardJH

Pete77 said:


> But now you will have one less cable tv box than before on subscription and presumably were already also an XL customer so not exactly entirely surprising.


I agree but all the same a saving and still the same number of channels I can record 2 on V+ and 2 on VM Tivo with the option of all in HD



Pete77 said:


> Will you be using these Tivos at all now? Perhaps by feeding them with a Freeview signal instead?


One at least will have a Freeview attached the other will possibly be given to one of my daughters. I intend to keep one just in case I need to archive from either the VM Tivo or V+. The good thing about the S1 Tivo is it doesn't care about DRM and other modern oddities that stop copying from the more modern technology just feed it something and it records and then with it networked whatever is on the Tivo can be put on to my server


----------



## Pete77

Fatbloke said:


> Has anyone any thoughts about how the T4 will handle the HiDef channels? For instance, BBC1 is simulcast to BBC1HD, so how will Tivo choose wishlist programs. I saw no mention of 'HD preference' settings or anything similar.
> 
> I assume that for series links (season passes) we'll just choose the channel we want to record from, but Wishlists are a different story.


As BBC1 HD is a simulcast surely you will just have it selected in Channels I Receive and will not have BBC1 (SD) selected in Channels I Receive? However I take your point that a Wishlist on an S1 Tivo would still record a program even on a channel that was not one of your "Channels I Receive".

Personally I always saw this as being a bug as it means on my Freesat Sky box running in conjunction with my Tivo I get regular recordings on the Tivo for programs with the word "Dakar" in them when all I can view is a blue screen telling me how I could subscribe to British Eurosport with Sky if I paid them some money. I would have hoped that the new Tivo would have fixed this so that Wishlists do not pick up programs from channels you do not have selected in Channels I Receive and/or so that Wishlists only record off your Favourite channels if that is your preference and there is hopefully a further preference option for this that you can set?


----------



## Pete77

RichardJH said:


> The good thing about the S1 Tivo is it doesn't care about DRM and other modern oddities that stop copying from the more modern technology just feed it something and it records and then with it networked whatever is on the Tivo can be put on to my server


Indeed that is a significant advantage of an S1 Tivo.

Also do programs recorded on a Sky+ or Sky HD box that are still on the box ever expire due to not being watched after a certain time compared to Tivo recordings from five years ago that I can still go back to and watch again If I ever want to.


----------



## okonski_uk

Pete77 said:


> It seems strange then that Sky manage to successfully retain many of their customers who had intended to cancel by offering them their current channel package at half price for the next 6 months.


To be fair, VM cannot move the goalposts. If you switch to a non-cabled area, there is absolutely nothing you (or they) can to to provide TV service. Sky will always have the upper hand in this, with only a very few locations where the siting of a dish is impossible.

Secondly, Sky may offer a discounted deal, but impose a minimum term. Does your reduction span the duration of your commitment? No, of course it doesn't - the pain is just delayed. It would be foolish to trhink otherwise. They then expect lethargy to take over and you'll continue paying.

For all its faults, cable BB is impossible to beat - and the ADSL service they offer remains a technology kludge, nothing more. If I get good service, I don't mind paying for it. Getting a discount for a carp service is hardly a benefit!


----------



## cwaring

Pete77 said:


> Also do programs recorded on a Sky+ or Sky HD box that are still on the box ever expire due to not being watched after a certain time compared to Tivo recordings from five years ago that I can still go back to and watch again If I ever want to.


I do know that you can't (or at least couldn't) watch any Sky Movies if you weren't subscribed to the channels; even if the films were still on your box


----------



## jonphil

Once Sky is canceled all recordings are locked too.


----------



## deshepherd

Pete77 said:


> Personally I always saw this as being a bug as it means on my Freesat Sky box running in conjunction with my Tivo I get regular recordings on the Tivo for programs with the word "Dakar" in them when all I can view is a blue screen telling me how I could subscribe to British Eurosport with Sky if I paid them some money. I would have hoped that the new Tivo would have fixed this so that Wishlists do not pick up programs from channels you do not have selected in Channels I Receive and/or so that Wishlists only record off your Favourite channels if that is your preference and there is hopefully a further preference option for this that you can set?


Did the S1 ever choose channels that weren't in your "channels I receive" list ... we're not big wishlists users but I don't recall this ever happening.

The only experience like the above we have is the way the combination of our TiVo, dongle and V-box conspire on a regular basis to interpret a channel change to 10x (which is where a lot of our recordings come from BBC1-4, ITV, C4, C5) as 110 which is LivingHD - as we don't have HD we just get the "phone this number to subscribe" and until you press OK on the cable remote the STB is locked on that display. Did this while we were away over new year on the first evening so we came back to 3 days worth of recording all of which were of this screen. Anyway, V-TiVo arriving in 8 days time and this problem will be in the past!


----------



## warrenrb

Yes, I've fallen victim to this on many occasions. I'll be glad to see the back of those type of recordings!


----------



## mikerr

deshepherd said:


> Did the S1 ever choose channels that weren't in your "channels I receive" list ... we're not big wishlists users but I don't recall this ever happening.


No it doesn't. Wishlists always use "channels I receive".

I think the right honourable gentleman is mistaken 

Season passes *are *tied to a channel though - so they *will* continue to try to record from that channel even if it is no longer in "Channels I Receive".


----------



## TCM2007

cwaring said:


> Those on XL are obviously serious TV viewers and will appreciate the new Tivo. If you only have the M pack (like my parents) then you probably don't watch enough telly to justify getting one.


I assure you you can watch lots of excellent TV armed only with a Freeview box, and would benefit massively from a TiVo. Liking to watch a lot of American imports does not make you a serious TV viewer. Arguably the opposite.


----------



## Cableguy1927

Fatbloke said:


> Getting away from the financial bickering...
> 
> Has anyone any thoughts about how the T4 will handle the HiDef channels? For instance, BBC1 is simulcast to BBC1HD, so how will Tivo choose wishlist programs. I saw no mention of 'HD preference' settings or anything similar.
> 
> I assume for series links (season passes) we'll just choose the channel we want to record from, but Wishlists are a different story.


First post here. I believe when you create a WishList you can specify the category as HD. So you could do a WishList for CSI and category HD and you would only be presented with HD episodes.


----------



## TCM2007

Fatbloke said:


> Getting away from the financial bickering...
> 
> Has anyone any thoughts about how the T4 will handle the HiDef channels? For instance, BBC1 is simulcast to BBC1HD, so how will Tivo choose wishlist programs. I saw no mention of 'HD preference' settings or anything similar.
> 
> I assume for series links (season passes) we'll just choose the channel we want to record from, but Wishlists are a different story.


FWIW (not much) WC7 has a "Prefer HD" option, but unfortunately does not recognise BBC 1 HD as being in HD, so it only works for stuff which is shown on BBC 2 and BBC HD. Hopefully TIVo will be smarter.


----------



## TCM2007

Pete77 said:


> Indeed that is a significant advantage of an S1 Tivo.
> 
> Also do programs recorded on a Sky+ or Sky HD box that are still on the box ever expire due to not being watched after a certain time compared to Tivo recordings from five years ago that I can still go back to and watch again If I ever want to.


Recordings of encrypted shows don't survive Sky issuing a new card, which happens every few years. Otherwise, so long as you still have a subscription, they last forever.


----------



## TCM2007

Pete77 said:


> As BBC1 HD is a simulcast surely you will just have it selected in Channels I Receive and will not have BBC1 (SD) selected in Channels I Receive? However I take your point that a Wishlist on an S1 Tivo would still record a program even on a channel that was not one of your "Channels I Receive".


It's not quite that easy as BBC1 HD is not yet regionalised, and goes to a test card when regional programming is shown.


----------



## Pete77

TCM2007 said:


> It's not quite that easy as BBC1 HD is not yet regionalised, and goes to a test card when regional programming is shown.


A very poor solution indeed. You would think they could at least show BBC1 London's output during the regional opt outs on BBC1 HD.

Or is a worse service offered in the name of political correctness so as not to offend the cantankerous Scots. You will recall that we now have to have extensive coverage of their weather first on all national UK weather forecasts after previous complaints that they were being discriminated against despite having only about 6% of the UK population compared to the 90%+ of it living in England.


----------



## Pete77

TCM2007 said:


> Recordings of encrypted shows don't survive Sky issuing a new card, which happens every few years. Otherwise, so long as you still have a subscription, they last forever.


A pretty terminal problem then at the time of a card changeover (which has only just happened in the last few months). I would hope there are no such equivalent problems with a Virgin PVR in general or especially with a Virgin Tivo PVR?


----------



## cwaring

Pete77 said:


> I would hope there are no such equivalent problems with a Virgin PVR in general or especially with a Virgin Tivo PVR?


Absolutely not. All programmes remain whether you are still subscribed to the channel or not. I would also assume programmes survive a card change. No reason for them not to.


----------



## okonski_uk

Pete77 said:


> Or is a worse service offered in the name of political correctness so as not to offend the cantankerous Scots.


As a member of that fratenity, I can assure you the English weather is of no interest to us either, and I remain amazed at the oft-repeated scenario when we get out own weather forcast (no doubt regions are doing the same), yet when complete we then get another 3 minutes of 'UK weather' basically offering the same, but skimping greatly on areas affected due to the 'inclusive' nature of the forecast.

I'm all for the SE having its own forecast, as it never reflects we get up here, but even though we pay the same licence fee, I doubt whether the Scots really want to sit through 3 mins of UK weather to get to their 20 second segment, instead of their full Scottish weather lasting 3 minutes....


----------



## Pete77

cwaring said:


> Absolutely not. All programmes remain whether you are still subscribed to the channel or not. I would also assume programmes survive a card change. No reason for them not to.


Of course if you unsubscribe from Virgin completely they take your whole cable box away including any unwatched recordings.


----------



## okonski_uk

cwaring said:


> I would also assume programmes survive a card change. No reason for them not to.


My last change (from an NTL to VM branded card) did nothing to affect my pre-recorded shows on the V+, so I assume TiVo would similarly be unaffected.


----------



## Fatbloke

deshepherd said:


> The only experience like the above we have is the way the combination of our TiVo, dongle and V-box conspire on a regular basis to interpret a channel change to 10x (which is where a lot of our recordings come from BBC1-4, ITV, C4, C5) as 110 which is LivingHD - as we don't have HD we just get the "phone this number to subscribe" and until you press OK on the cable remote the STB is locked on that display. Did this while we were away over new year on the first evening so we came back to 3 days worth of recording all of which were of this screen. Anyway, V-TiVo arriving in 8 days time and this problem will be in the past!


Indeed - with internal tuners, missed channel changes will be a thing of the past. :up:


----------



## Pete77

Fatbloke said:


> Indeed - with internal tuners, missed channel changes will be a thing of the past. :up:


Shouldn't that be more like a case of :up::up::up: rather that only the one :up:


----------



## Furball

TCM2007 said:


> I assure you you can watch lots of excellent TV armed only with a Freeview box, and would benefit massively from a TiVo. Liking to watch a lot of American imports does not make you a serious TV viewer. Arguably the opposite.


Totally agree with you and main reason we've put the brakes on the new TiVo  
I'm just not willing to pay for something I'm not going use or want.

Furbal


----------



## Pete77

TCM2007 said:


> I assure you you can watch lots of excellent TV armed only with a Freeview box, and would benefit massively from a TiVo. Liking to watch a lot of American imports does not make you a serious TV viewer. Arguably the opposite.


As someone who was historically renowned here as one of Sky's most prominent evangelists and stoutest defenders of their pricing structure I must say that I never thought I would hear such a comment from your quarter.

It seems that having finally been cut off from your monthly Sky fix that you have finally belatedly realised that there are plenty of perfectly good alternatives for watching television that don't cost nearly as much money.

Clearly its my good fortune that Bernie has been determined to keep F1 out of the clutches of Sky in the UK and that even viewing F1 in HD is also to be an FTA experience.:up::up::up:

Returning to the subject matter of this thread if I was in a Virgin cable area I would undoubtedly be on the M+ package and my conclusion on the new Virgin Tivo launch would therefore be to wait until I was allowed to have it on the M+ package plus whatever modest fee for the new hardware (say only £79) was by then being charged by Virgin to upgrade.


----------



## hokkers999

abuelbanat said:


> and yet curiously none of the improved features that the new one carries over the S1. You always conveniently only provide half an argument in your frequent glass-half-empty-pessimistic-as-f**k-i-hate-almost-everyone-and-everybody posts don't you hoks?
> 
> I was told that I must remain on XL for my 12month contract - so a not unreasonable assumption would be that I could trade down after 12months should I wish.


From *my* point of view there are ZERO improved features, indeed I would actually LOSE functionality.

1. HD - yawn, don't have hd telly.
2. Multiple tuners - we actually have a life outside watching the tv
3. Internet - yeah right, vm's interpretation of what you are allowed to see
4. Youtube - yawn
5. Flash (adobe) games - suitable for 6 year olds right.

LOST

1. Can't download programmes to my pc
2. Can't UPLOAD programmes to the Tivo

Of course YMMV, but that's MY opinion.


----------



## hokkers999

cwaring said:


> You might want to go back to the 70s and tell Radio Rentals that the renting model is "questionable". Or maybe BrightHouse. And £3 isn't "large" by rental standards. (Okay, they might not charge the 'upfront fee' but the principal's the same/


Err, Brighthouse is good old HP, nothing to do with renting.

If it was only £3 fair enough, but it isn't. It's £15 extra for XL PLUS another £3 on top

so it's really £18/month.

Before you come out with the guff about "I've already got XL", that's irrelevant, just means you're already paying through the nose.

To get a Tivo, the T's&C's are XL + £3 = £18/month extra (max)


----------



## hokkers999

Pete77 said:


> Fortunately those of us living outside Virgin cable tv land do not have to face this financial dilemma.
> 
> We might however face a similar dilemma of whether to put up with Freeview+ HD, BBC/ITV Freesat+ HD or Windows MCE if the Tivo S1 service is ever axed. I'm pretty sure it will be Windows MCE in my case as the only way to be able to record all of the satellite and DTT FTA channels. I don't like the walled garden concept of BBC/ITV Freesat.


I've just compared Freeview with VM's M pack, the only channel we wouldn't get that we watch is Eurosport.

and we can stream that off the internet.

This price gouging over the new Tivo has made us take a look at what we are currently paying and with the increases in April we'll be dropping tv at the earliest opportunity.

Roll on Freeview plus the REAL Tivo


----------



## cwaring

hokkers999 said:


> Err, Brighthouse is good old HP, nothing to do with renting.


Fair enough. My mistake.



> If it was only £3 fair enough, but it isn't. It's £15 extra for XL PLUS another £3 on top


No. For me, and anyone else *already on the XL pack* (and have been since the start) then it *really is* only £3 more 



> Before you come out with the guff about "I've already got XL"...


Too late 



> ..that's irrelevant, just means you're already paying through the nose.


Not to me and those already on XL it isn't.



> To get a Tivo, the T's&C's are XL + £3 = £18/month extra (max)


At this point in time, yes.



hokkers999 said:


> This price gouging over the new Tivo ...


Such perjoratives are not really required, wanted, nor actually relevant nor realistic.



> Roll on Freeview plus the REAL Tivo


This _is_ a "Real" Tivo


----------



## hokkers999

cwaring said:


> Well I had my original Tivo for 8 years.
> 
> Year 1: £199 + (£10 x 12) = £319
> Years 2-8 = (12x10) x 8 = £960
> 
> New Tivo
> Year 1: £149 + (£3 x 12) = £185
> Years 2-8: (£3 x 12) x 8 = £288
> 
> So yes, much cheaper over the same period
> 
> And yes, before anyone else mentions it, I realise it's going to be more expensive for those who have had to upgrade to the XL pack! I was only calculating _my_ spend.


Let me fix your maths for you

New Tivo

Y1 : £149 + (£18 x 12 ) = £365
Y2-10: £18 x 12 x 9 = £1944

total for 10 years = £2,309

TWO THOUSAND THREE HUNDRED POUNDS

Old tivo (when new)

H/W - £400
Lifetime - £200

total for 10 years = £600

so the VM ripoff Tivo is FOUR TIMES as much as an S1 over 10 years. that's progress for you. 

going forward

S1 for 10 years = ZERO


----------



## cwaring

hokkers999 said:


> Let me fix your maths for you...


Well, seeing as I was talking about my personal circumstances and outlay, I think my maths was absolutely spot on, thanks all the same. 

And a basic, un-hacked S1 is nothing like the new VM Tivo. Yes, some people have added certain extra functionality and recording space but there are no figures whatsoever to support any claim that they are either in minority _or_ majority so it's a moot point. Especially give that any such mods automatically broke the Agreement you... erm... agreed to when you bought it.

ETA: 
Your figures also do not account for someone who did not take the LT sub and has paid £10 per month for the last ten years.


----------



## nektar

I'm not sure if this has been posted here already but here's a link to the Virgin Tivo user guide. My install date is the 15th


----------



## davidthornton

Peter Hunt said:


> I live in Brighton. Got my phone call at 5pm. I was out but my wife gave them my mobile number and they called me on that.
> 
> I asked if I could upgrade both of my V+ boxes to TiVo and the guy said that I could only do one of them in this (special!) tranche but that they would honour this special pricing to me when they move to non-S1 owners. He said that they'd call again when they go to the next phase and I could upgrade the second box.


That'll be interesting because I've paid to upgrade all three of my V+ boxes to TiVo's on 15th. The caller went to ask if I could have more than one and returned to say it seemed that I could, however if for some reason that changes then they will refund me for two of the three. So I'll see in just under two weeks. I am hoping I get the three because otherwise I won't be able to decide which of the three V+ boxes to swap out. Probably my bedroom! Also, doing it under the S1 offer means I save £40 x 3.


----------



## TCM2007

hokkers999 said:


> From *my* point of view there are ZERO improved features, indeed I would actually LOSE functionality.
> 
> 1. HD - yawn, don't have hd telly.
> 2. Multiple tuners - we actually have a life outside watching the tv
> 3. Internet - yeah right, vm's interpretation of what you are allowed to see
> 4. Youtube - yawn
> 5. Flash (adobe) games - suitable for 6 year olds right.
> 
> LOST
> 
> 1. Can't download programmes to my pc
> 2. Can't UPLOAD programmes to the Tivo
> 
> Of course YMMV, but that's MY opinion.


Indeed, and that's up to you, although 2 doesn't make sense. The usefulness of multiple tuners is nothing to do with the volume of TV you watch. You might have a wonderful social life ( winding people up on net forums say) and only record two things a week; but if they are both on at the same time then you need twin tuners.

You may be able to do your lost things; the codes to allow it seem to be there.


----------



## cwaring

Of course, those things he has supposedly lost weren't even actually officially there in the first place


----------



## warrenrb

TCM2007 *PLEASE* stop responding to him. It's no good blocking people on the forum if other people keep quoting him and responding.

I have really enjoyed visiting this forum over the years, but I'm seriously considering stopping visiting it, because the troll has absolutely turned it to sh1t. It's busy enough with all the launch buzz without the extra noise he is generating (and then people responding to him).


----------



## browellm

warrenrb said:


> TCM2007 *PLEASE* stop responding to him. It's no good blocking people on the forum if other people keep quoting him and responding.
> 
> I have really enjoyed visiting this forum over the years, but I'm seriously considering stopping visiting it, because the troll has absolutely turned it to sh1t. It's busy enough with all the launch buzz without the extra noise he is generating (and then people responding to him).


This. I'm going to start blocking anyone that quotes him from now on. I don't expect any of you to lose any sleep over it, but I'm sick of the poisonous little turd and I can't get away from him even on he's on ignore.


----------



## Ianl

i don't know what to do  i was really excited , now i'm not so

i have had 2 tivo since day 1. one is on virgin M+ package and the other on terestial analogue old fashioned aerial thingy

i use tivo because most of the telly i want to watch is on in the evening when i'm at work and not on in the early morning when i get home. i dont think i could survive without a tivo

i don't think i've ever missed a program i wanted to record, what with repeats and +1 channels it all works out nicely recording about 3 to 4 hours a day which is about alli get time to watch

i've looked at the XL package and honestly there is only 1 extra channel over M+ that i would be interested in watching.

so it would cost me £149 +£18/month just to swap my s1 tivo for a vm tivo
(yes carl i know it will cost you less, but i dont care unless youre going to invite me round your house at 1am each day to watch yours)

*what i need is people to tell me why the vm tivo will be better for me*
as far as i can tell the better features are........

HD...i'm not too fused, happy watching SD

dual or tripple tuners.....i rarely get clashes and very rarely am watching tv when the tivo is recording

remote seting of recordings....i've never wanted to do this yet

bigger hard drives....i've never filled either of my expanded tivos

and on the down side.........

on a s1 if you come in half way through a program and hit record it records the buffer and onwards. i heared the new tivo doesnt do this?

no RF out..... my bedroom tv is rf off the tivo so i can select 1,2,3,4, cable or tivo

i also heared the scart out and hd out may not work together???

i considered the going back to M+ after the 12 month contract is up, but as i understood it the 12 month minimum contract for the tivo with xl. after 12 months i can only go back to m+ if i give back the tivo???

so come on guys, justify the purchase to someone in my position.

#my biggest worry is saying no , the S1 service ending and not being able to get a new one cos theyve run out or something


----------



## AdamInKent

Ianl said:


> i considered the going back to M+ after the 12 month contract is up, but as i understood it the 12 month minimum contract for the tivo with xl. after 12 months i can only go back to m+ if i give back the tivo???


I have had to upgrade from M to XL. I don't really need the extra channels either - I don't get to watch everything that my TiVo records as it is - so I consider the monthly increase to be a set of additional payments for the new box. However, since the TiVo software will eventually be rolled out to everyone, it should not be too long before it ceases to be a premium product and becomes available to customers on smaller packages. At that point, I plan to switch back to a cheaper package with fewer channels. The chap I spoke to when ordering my new box pretty much confirmed that this would be the case and even implied that it would happen within the 18 month minimum contract period.

BTW, big thanks to Roy for organising the list and seemingly getting us to the head of the queue.

Adam
(First time poster, long time TiVo owner. Install date: 16th Feb.)


----------



## Ianl

but what if i don't like it?

will the s1 tivo be able to control the vm tivo?


----------



## mikerr

Ianl said:


> will the s1 tivo be able to control the vm tivo?


Haha - but yes - as it seems the remote codes are the same as v+, and the S1 can control that okay.


----------



## royfox

Fatbloke said:


> Getting away from the financial bickering...
> 
> Has anyone any thoughts about how the T4 will handle the HiDef channels? For instance, BBC1 is simulcast to BBC1HD, so how will Tivo choose wishlist programs. I saw no mention of 'HD preference' settings or anything similar.
> 
> I assume for series links (season passes) we'll just choose the channel we want to record from, but Wishlists are a different story.


Exactly that. You just pick which source you want to record. Hd or sd


----------



## Fatbloke

mikerr said:


> Haha - but yes - as it seems the remote codes are the same as v+, and the S1 can control that okay.


My S1 will sit (for a while at least) right next to the V4. I just hope they don't use the same remote ID codes as each other or it'll be impossible to use one system whilst not affecting the other box


----------



## cwaring

Ianl said:


> so it would cost me £149 +£18/month just to swap my s1 tivo for a vm tivo
> (yes carl i know it will cost you less, but i dont care unless youre going to invite me round your house at 1am each day to watch yours)


No need to take that tone with me.  You do what you want to do. I couldn't care less.



> what i need is people to tell me why the vm tivo will be better for me


It obviously won't so I don't know why you're worrying about it 



Ianl said:


> on a s1 if you come in half way through a program and hit record it records the buffer and onwards. i heared the new tivo doesnt do this?


Where from? It's a Tivo. _Of course_ it does that.



> i also heared the scart out and hd out may not work together???


Then you heard wrong.


----------



## Fatbloke

In fairness, you won't get a HD picture over scart - only HDMI. The T4 will work over scart of course, just no HD pictures.


----------



## Major dude

davidthornton said:


> That'll be interesting because I've paid to upgrade all three of my V+ boxes to TiVo's on 15th. The caller went to ask if I could have more than one and returned to say it seemed that I could, however if for some reason that changes then they will refund me for two of the three. So I'll see in just under two weeks. I am hoping I get the three because otherwise I won't be able to decide which of the three V+ boxes to swap out. Probably my bedroom! Also, doing it under the S1 offer means I save £40 x 3.


Do you hope to stream content between the three TiVos?

This would mean once you set up one TiVo to record all your programmes you could stream them to the other two maybe.


----------



## warrenrb

Ianl said:


> i don't know what to do  i was really excited , now i'm not so
> 
> ...
> 
> so come on guys, justify the purchase to someone in my position.
> 
> #my biggest worry is saying no , the S1 service ending and not being able to get a new one cos theyve run out or something


I've been in a very similar boat to you Ian. I have wrestled with justifying the extra cost since the prices were announced.

I was on 'M' package - so my TV was free, (but also equivalent of Freeview in channels). One thing I was aware of was if I upgraded to anything above 'M', I wouldn't be able to get back onto it again, as they have done away with it, and made 'M+' the base package.

I've also found that I don't really need a lot of the other channels. We get by very well with the channels we have, and supplement that with the odd box-set from LoveFilm for series we don't get.

I don't watch a lot of TV personally (I'd rather play xbox) - my wife and kids watch more. To that end, the kids will be over the moon at getting all the different kids channels on XL (although, again, I feel they probably have plenty as it is). The wife will get her Grey's Anatomy, House, True Blood (early, anyway), and other stuff she likes that I don't care about.

As well as these gains, I see the following benefits:

- HD. This DOES matter to me, with a 40" 1080p telly, and I almost went for V+ in the summer while waiting patiently for TiVo, to get the world cup. YMMV. 

- Two/three tuners. We don't watch loads, but the stuff we do watch is generally 'prime time' so clashes are reasonably frequent. iPlayer helps get around this to a certain extent (we have iPlayer on our Sony TV), but the extra tuners will be great.

- No channel change fails. How annoying to sit down to watch MOTD after avoiding the scores to have a big 'Click OK to close' box over the recording? Or the wrong channel altogether? Glad to see the back of this. Which leads to...

- One less box under the telly. Nice to minimise the wiring and save on electricity. Once I get a 'superhub', another box will go, and it'll start getting pretty tidy back there...

- Being able to use the onDemand functions. Since our current Virgin box 'belongs to' TiVo, the remote is put away, and we can't take advantage of any of the VM additional features. It'll also be nice to not have to tell babysitters "Don't touch this one!" 

- Extra storage. My TiVo is on 250Gb at the moment I think. Over Xmas, with lots of kids movies etc. we were losing stuff off the bottom, trying to keep up.

- ESPN. Nice for some live footy now and again.

- Still having all the nice features of TiVo. When my brother and sister got V+ boxes, I coveted their HD and single box, so it's nice to get that without giving up everything I love about TiVo.

- TiVo desktop, if it comes, will be really useful.

So that's my, very personal, rationale. Is it worth 20 quid a month extra, plus 149 up front? Still not sure, but I've decided to give it a year, and see what I think (I got a 6 month discount on my XL upgrade by committing to VM for another 18 months, so that softens the blow a little). I'm hoping like another poster above, that come 12 months in, when they are treating TiVo as the standard PVR option, that I will be able to maybe downgrade my package and hang onto it. Or maybe we'll be too hooked on the XL channels by then to give them up! 

Basically, I'm looking at it as a treat. I've decided I deserve one.

The above may not have convinced you, but writting it all down has gone some way to convincing myself I've done the right thing!


----------



## AMc

Ianl said:


> i don't know what to do  i was really excited , now i'm not so
> 
> *what i need is people to tell me why the vm tivo will be better for me*
> 
> #my biggest worry is saying no , the S1 service ending and not being able to get a new one cos theyve run out or something


In your position I would wait. The first round of installations are going to be at a premium price - Sky & Virgin have both done this with their new hardware in the past. Virgin are offering an incentive to S1 users to upgrade - then there will be full price installs to non Tivo owning early adopters then [I predict ] the price of the installation will drop and become available on the lower channel packages over time.

If you miss out on the S1 upgrade offer you can probably offset it against the increased channel costs you've saved in the interim.

Virgin and Tivo have a 4 year (?) agreement in place. 
If the S1 EPG stops soon there are some people who are convinced they can set up a replacement and as you're in a cabled area you can always call Virgin and get a Tivo - some of us won't get that option.

Relax!


----------



## Ianl

cwaring said:


> No need to take that tone with me. etc.......


apolagies for being not very good at the quoting thing and probably my spelling....

it was meant to be slightly humerous, in nearly every thread you tell us how its only really £3 for you. i am told i have a strange sendse of humour that needs getting used to

the not recording the buffer may have been me misunderstanding a post - i cant find the one now

the HDMI /scart was a post by Smokie after he got his:

"Also, like V+, if you are using HD output the SCART is disabled."

which he has since corrected:

"SCART and HD output work at the same time just fine, sorry for earlier misleading. HD is therefore available for install. (unlike V+!)"


----------



## Fatbloke

Ianl said:


> "SCART and HD output work at the same time just fine, sorry for earlier misleading. HD is therefore available for install. (unlike V+!)"


Mmm, hope this is true as I can then use my scart to connect up to the digi-sender that's currently on my S1 box.


----------



## smokie

Fatbloke said:


> Mmm, hope this is true as I can then use my scart to connect up to the digi-sender that's currently on my S1 box.


Definitely true.


----------



## The Wishlist

browellm said:


> This. I'm going to start blocking anyone that quotes him from now on. I don't expect any of you to lose any sleep over it, but I'm sick of the poisonous little turd and I can't get away from him even on he's on ignore.


+1

I was happy to find and become a member of this forum but its being trolled to death, and worse still, certain posters keep on feeding the troll and quoting his posts which I'm trying to ignore.


----------



## cwaring

Ianl said:


> it was meant to be slightly humerous, in nearly every thread you tell us how its only really £3 for you. i am told i have a strange sendse of humour that needs getting used to.


Yes. The Tivo sub is only £3. _Your_ extra cost is the XL pack.

I have no problem with that. What I do have a problem with is that it is not £26 (or £18, or whatever). It's £3 + XL pack


----------



## TCM2007

The marginal cost of having a TiVo is different depending on what pack you are on now. So while it's &#163;3 for you, for others it might well be &#163;26. This is not hard to understand!


----------



## cwaring

Only the TV pack costs extra. The sub for a Tivo is still only &#163;3  (But of course I take your point. I never disputed that either.)


----------



## Major dude

warrenrb said:


> I've been in a very similar boat to you Ian. I have wrestled with justifying the extra cost since the prices were announced.
> 
> Basically, I'm looking at it as a treat. I've decided I deserve one.
> 
> The above may not have convinced you, but writting it all down has gone some way to convincing myself I've done the right thing!


Brilliant post WarrenB, I agree that we have made the right choice and you have now convinced me as except for the not watching a lot of TV bit I am in exactly the same position.


----------



## big_dirk

good grief i'm excited.

Tomorrow morning I get my S4 TiVo and I can't wait.

Havn't brought the wife around to the idea of parting £149 for what she describes as the V+ HD box with a different interface. I hope she'll submit after hearing the bloops and getting her hands on the ergonomic wonder of a remote again.


----------



## Zaichik

I know it's probably sacrilege round these parts, but can you turn the bloops off on the new TiVo?


----------



## cwaring

Probably, but who would want to; right?


----------



## smokie

Zaichik said:


> I know it's probably sacrilege round these parts, but can you turn the bloops off on the new TiVo?


If you mean the sound effects I saw something in the menus to adjust the volumes - not sure Off was a choice though.


----------



## big_dirk

cwaring said:


> Probably, but who would want to; right?


RIGHT!

Funnily enough the VM employee I was quizzing about the new TiVo today said he finds them a bit annoying now, but his girlfriend loved them so he's keeping them on.


----------



## davidthornton

Major dude said:


> Do you hope to stream content between the three TiVos?
> 
> This would mean once you set up one TiVo to record all your programmes you could stream them to the other two maybe.


It's one of the things I hope to be able to do in time, but who's to say that you would only be able to do this between TiVos? I assumed you would only be able to do this between TiVo boxes but I've heard enough "rumours" to suggest that it may work between TiVo and standard boxes.

From what I have read so far, the Ethernet port on the TiVo isn't enabled. Personally I hope it will be because I can easily wire all of them into my CAT6 network. I hope they don't decide to only allow streaming between boxes via the coax broadband connection/Internet. However, if they do, it wouldn't surprise me because I doubt many people have a wired home network in place. 

I also dislike the V+ user interface and TiVo has to be better.


----------



## Ianl

cwaring said:


> Yes. The Tivo sub is only £3. _Your_ extra cost is the XL pack.
> 
> I have no problem with that. What I do have a problem with is that it is not £26 (or £18, or whatever). It's £3 + XL pack


ahh, but i dont have any "XL packs" in my wallet right now , so i'm going to have to give the man 18 of my hard earned gold nuggets instead every month right up until my boss starts paying me XL packs


----------



## AndyW

Ianl said:


> ahh, but i dont have any "XL packs" in my wallet right now , so i'm going to have to give the man 18 of my hard earned gold nuggets instead every month right up until my boss starts paying me XL packs


Ffs, both of you (and others going on about the £3 + XL blah blah cost) give it a rest, please. You both know what each other means, we all do, so can you stop going back and forth saying the same thing over and over and over...

Thank you.


----------



## TCM2007

AndyW said:


> can you stop going back and forth saying the same thing over and over and over...
> 
> .


You're new to the internet then?


----------



## AndyW

TCM2007 said:


> You're new to the internet then?


 fair point, but there are limits!


----------



## Fatbloke

big_dirk said:


> good grief i'm excited.
> 
> Tomorrow morning I get my S4 TiVo and I can't wait.
> 
> Havn't brought the wife around to the idea of parting £149 for what she describes as the V+ HD box with a different interface. I hope she'll submit after hearing the bloops and getting her hands on the ergonomic wonder of a remote again.


I'm keen to find out whether the 30 second FORWARD skip is still working on these V4 machines. Let us know will you Big_Dirk?


----------



## smokie

Fatbloke said:


> I'm keen to find out whether the 30 second FORWARD skip is still working on these V4 machines. Let us know will you Big_Dirk?


What's the keypress for that?


----------



## TCM2007

The manual has a button labeled 30se nod skip.


----------



## Fatbloke

Go into LIVE TV then do the following:

SELECT
PLAY
SELECT
3
0
SELECT

At the end you should hear a couple of bongs if the code has been entered correctly (and you still have the bongs turned up).

Code is reset if the device reboots.

This works for the S1... hope it does on the new version too as it's the best way to skip through ads.


----------



## smokie

Fatbloke said:


> Go into LIVE TV then do the following:
> 
> SELECT
> PLAY
> SELECT
> 3
> 0
> SELECT
> 
> At the end you should hear a couple of bongs if the code has been entered correctly (and you still have the bongs turned up).
> 
> Code is reset if the device reboots.
> 
> This works for the S1... hope it does on the new version too as it's the best way to skip through ads.


Nope, that doesn't appear to work on the new one. Tried twice...


----------



## Fatbloke

TCM2007 said:


> The manual has a button labeled 30se nod skip.


Yes - I just went and had a look and you're 100% correct. It appears the skip forward button no longer will take you to the next tick on the buffer bar. It'll mean no speedy shooting through a long film, but personally I find the 30 second skip much more useful.

Excellent!


----------



## OzSat

Fatbloke said:


> Yes - I just went and had a look and you're 100% correct. It appears the skip forward button no longer will take you to the next tick on the buffer bar. It'll mean no speedy shooting through a long film, but personally I find the 30 second skip much more useful.
> 
> Excellent!


Looking at how the US machine works - I think it will 'skip to tick' only when in FF or REW - otherwise it is 30 second forward or 8 back.

It maybe on US machine only as it doesn't seem to be in UK manual.

The UK manual does say it does 8 seconds back and 30 seconds forward.


----------



## big_dirk

Fatbloke said:


> I'm keen to find out whether the 30 second FORWARD skip is still working on these V4 machines. Let us know will you Big_Dirk?


yep i will. let you know asap mate.


----------



## mike0151

AndyW said:


> Ffs, both of you (and others going on about the £3 + XL blah blah cost) give it a rest, please. You both know what each other means, we all do, so can you stop going back and forth saying the same thing over and over and over...
> 
> Thank you.


I think it was Ben that called me. He said that it was a TiVo stipulation that the new box could only be supplied on the top (XL) package as they wanted the TiVo eperience to be special. 
I was in 2 minds at first as most of the channels above my current M+ are of no interest. Then I decided that as next Wednesday is my 56th birthday and that a one week wait for the new TiVo would be a late birthday present from me to me, WTH? So I agreed and paid up.

I'm guessing that if the extra channels are without worth then by the time the new contract has expired, I should be able to downgrade again. Meanwhile, I'll try and get the benefit of recording loads more stuff that I'll probably never get round to watching LOL.

Unlike the $ky+ box it sounds like I'd still be able to view progs I record even if I don't subscribe to those channels any longer.

Less than 2 weeks to wait to see if it is as good as I hope, fingers crossed.


----------



## jonphil

Don't forget Tivo may find programs you like on the channels you didn't think you would like


----------



## dmeldrum

mike0151 said:


> He said that it was a TiVo stipulation that the new box could only be supplied on the top (XL) package as they wanted the TiVo eperience to be special.
> I was in 2 minds at first as most of the channels above my current M+ are of no interest.


It occurs to me that we are overlooking that not only does the XL pack give extra channels, but it also gives access to the full on-demand offering. VM seem to be making that key differentiator, so I can understand why they don't want to offer TiVo on lower packages. Plus of course it is an easy way to upsell.

Has anyone experience of whether you can hide unsubscribed channels from the guide? I assume there is option to hide adult channels?


----------



## Cableguy1927

dmeldrum said:


> Has anyone experience of whether you can hide unsubscribed channels from the guide? I assume there is option to hide adult channels?


Unsubscribed channels are greyed out but you can't remove them. You can hide adult channels.


----------



## jonphil

I assume Tivo will know those channels are not included and won't attempt to record anything from them.


----------



## Cableguy1927

jonphil said:


> I assume Tivo will know those channels are not included and won't attempt to record anything from them.


Correct. It wont return search results from channels you don't subscribe to either


----------



## jonphil

sort of makes it easier than having to add them yourself and know what you do and don't get. I assume Virgin have some way of telling the box what you get or it looks at the viewing card.


----------



## smokie

You can also have "favourite" channels. I think this means other don't appear in you Guide, could be wrong though. Mrs is hogging it at the mop so can't check...!!


----------



## jonphil

lol... lost control of the Tivo remote already 

I really can't wait to have mine installed. I know a lot of people are moaning about the costs and such and VIP50's getting them free. I don't care, I see I'm getting a Tivo possibly weeks before anyone else and still saved at least &#163;40 install fee 

The 15th can't come soon enough


----------



## big_dirk

Got mine installed this morning, initial thoughts:

not had a great play yet.....but *my word* this is a good machine.

The look and feel of the actual unit oozes quality.

I feel privileged to to have such a good quality, thoughtful user interface at my selection again.

MAN it feels good to be holding a TiVo remote again.


----------



## cyril

Pete77 said:


> Haven't you noticed how the price of most other technology items like satnavs and laptop PCs has fallen by a massive amount in the last 10 years.
> 
> So the Virgin Tivo is still expensive, especially compared to a Sky+ HD box.


If you have multi room HD , Virgin is quite a bit cheaper as it's £8.50 per month extra per box compared to sky's £20.25.

So if you have 3 HD boxes you save about 100quid per year moving to Virgin


----------



## warrenrb

Hey Cyril - I think you can probably change your sig now. We're sorted for a UK Series 4.


----------



## cwaring

LOL! I was going to post the exact same thing earlier


----------



## cyril

I might be moving outside of Virgin Cable in a few years time (depends on the little one's schools) so a series 5 TiVo for Freeview and Freesat would be nice


----------



## Pete77

cyril said:


> I might be moving outside of Virgin Cable in a few years time (depends on the little one's schools) so a series 5 TiVo for Freeview and Freesat would be nice


It appears that some of the smugger cable land dwellers are really not too bothered about the 50% of us who live elsewhere and so who still need a Tivo that can work with Freeview or Freesat (either the Sky or BBC/ITV channel lineup and channel number variants) and so hence failed to pick up on the fact that your new strapline related to new a non cable Tivo variant (and hence why it would be an S5 and not an S4 model).


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## cwaring

Pete77 said:


> It appears that some of the smugger cable land dwellers....


Insults are not really necessary, Pete. Never have been  

I for one was merely having a bit of fun. I'm sure warrenb was too.

Not sure which bit of "Tivo working *exclusively* with Virgin Media" you're not actually getting though


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## Pete77

cwaring said:


> Not sure which bit of "Tivo working *exclusively* with Virgin Media" you're not actually getting though


Still as smug about it as ever then I see.


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## warrenrb

Pete77 said:


> It appears that some of the smugger cable land dwellers are really not too bothered about the 50% of us who live elsewhere and so who still need a Tivo that can work with Freeview or Freesat (either the Sky or BBC/ITV channel lineup and channel number variants) and so hence failed to pick up on the fact that your new strapline related to new a non cable Tivo variant (and hence why it would be an S5 and not an S4 model).


At the time of my post his Sig said "UK Series 4 HD" with no mention of Freeview. He's since changed it to the S5 with Freeview bit.

He had that sig way before the VM TiVo was announced.

But you are right, I am not bothered about the 50% of you.


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## John McE

I've just watched the video someone has posted on Youtube, showing the Virgin TIVO in action - must admit I'm a bit disappointed with the very noticeable response delays to each command. One of the great things about my Series 1 TIVO is that most commands have almost instant response.


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## M_at

According to IHS analysts there's a chance that S4 is the end of the road for TiVo hardware. They reckon that from here on in TiVo is a software firm.

http://www.isuppli.com/Media-Research/MarketWatch/Pages/Virgin-Media-Launches-TiVo.aspx



> Virgin's deployment appears to be another nail in the coffin of Tivo's standalone, retail hardware business. Over the past year, Tivo has secured no fewer than six major middleware deals with pay operators and device manufacturers: Technicolor and Samsung will incorporate the software in their STBs; Insignia will port the software to its connected TVs; and cable operators ONO and Virgin Media and satellite operator Canal Digital have all selected Tivo as their exclusive middleware for future deployments.


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## Pete77

warrenrb said:


> At the time of my post his Sig said "UK Series 4 HD" with no mention of Freeview. He's since changed it to the S5 with Freeview bit.
> 
> He had that sig way before the VM TiVo was announced.
> 
> But you are right, I am not bothered about the 50% of you.


Hmmm. I thought that you had Ignored my posts.

Also given your Northern Ireland location I think I had better not start down the road of asking why it is you don't care about about what happens to the other 50% of us............


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## Steve5424

John McE said:


> I've just watched the video someone has posted on Youtube, showing the Virgin TIVO in action - must admit I'm a bit disappointed with the very noticeable response delays to each command. One of the great things about my Series 1 TIVO is that most commands have almost instant response.


Remember though that VM will probably still be testing further software updates and the speed issues will probably be addressed sooner rather than later.


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## cwaring

Pete77 said:


> Still as smug about it as ever then I see.


One thing I am not, and never has been, is smug; thank you very much. No matter how many smileys you add!


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## Pete77

cwaring said:


> One thing I am not, and never has been, is smug; thank you very much. No matter how many smileys you add!


Evaluating smugness is usually a subjective and not an objective matter.


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## John McE

Steve5424 said:


> Remember though that VM will probably still be testing further software updates and the speed issues will probably be addressed sooner rather than later.


I certainly hope you are right. But isn't it more likely that the latency is unavaoidable with a cable system as opposed to an over-the-air analogue one?


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## VirginMediaPhil

If it is slower than expected, I think I'll put the blame on the basis they have built the interface upon Flash, notorious for being really slow on devices.


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## Steve5424

John McE said:


> I certainly hope you are right. But isn't it more likely that the latency is unavaoidable with a cable system as opposed to an over-the-air analogue one?


Check my sig for a clue that I know what I am talking about 

Honestly when using the box myself I did not find it too slow.


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## ColinYounger

Crikey, Pete77 - the NI comment is a little off.


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## okonski_uk

Just got back with playing with one in the Glasgow store. The peanut feels less substantial, but the biggest shock was the size of the STB. I wasn't expecting a grey S1, but this thing makes even the TVD/V+ look massive.

Playing with the remote, I found the menus fast and responsive, shame HOME #0 doesnt bring up any animation... what a disappointment! Looking forward to playing for real. The staff were not up to speed and said they understood the engineers were to brief the customer on issues concering interactivity with your home network, and couldn't assist.

And to my old pal AJ who PMed me - I can't reply to you, as you have disabled inbound personal messages!


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## Andy C

After another callback today from VM today following an email I sent it appears no more calls will be made until the March/April full launch. If there's a contractual agreement between Tivo and VM for S1 owners then shouldn't that extend to all of us?


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## okonski_uk

One would have assumed... but then IS there (an 'agreement')? We don't know for sure, but an email to TiVo Inc might be useful...


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## Tony Hoyle

Andy C said:


> After another callback today from VM today following an email I sent it appears no more calls will be made until the March/April full launch. If there's a contractual agreement between Tivo and VM for S1 owners then shouldn't that extend to all of us?


So.. both royfox's list and VM's S1 list didn't mean anything except for the privileged few, and the rest of us will be paying full price, 2 months later..

Frustrating isn't the word.. What *are* VM playing at.


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## Andy C

Tell me about it... just been one big carrot dangling wind up since early December!


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## Queb

Shocking treatment from VM ! All ex-series 1 kit users should be treated the same !


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## Tony Hoyle

Well.. if they'd said 'a lucky 50 S1 users will get a deal' then that would be fine.

Implying everyone would get the deal, then changing their mind, somewhat sucks.


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## M_at

John McE said:


> I certainly hope you are right. But isn't it more likely that the latency is unavaoidable with a cable system as opposed to an over-the-air analogue one?


Short answer: No.

Long answer: The video demonstrated shows interface delays within the TiVo interface without changing channel. It's been a while since I last used TiVo but I was surprised by the video a little.

Regarding channel changes it doesn't matter that it's over the air and analogue - the channel change is still by a software controlled tuner headend - if the channel is a different TS within the currently tuned frequency then it's possible that a digital channel change could be quicker depending on when the first I-frame is received.

It's not Switched digital video so all channels are broadcast constantly rather than uni/multicast across the cable infrastructure according to demand/requirement.


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## Brangdon

Andy C said:


> After another callback today from VM today following an email I sent it appears no more calls will be made until the March/April full launch. If there's a contractual agreement between Tivo and VM for S1 owners then shouldn't that extend to all of us?


If that's true, then I imagine they have run out of boxes. Presumably those of us who haven't been called yet will be offered the same deal in March/April.

I do think it's strange that they should repeat the system message last Friday if they were going to stop making calls today.



Tony Hoyle said:


> Implying everyone would get the deal, then changing their mind, somewhat sucks.


Is there any reason to think we won't get a deal? It could just be a few months later (and we could still be front of the list then).


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## okonski_uk

None. Ans seeing how they've handled it so far, the supposed RRP will be a 'notional' benchmark, and have no relation to the real world.


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## Plaiter

They are still calling. I got called back today after missing a call last week.


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## AndyW

I got a missed call on my mobile today too, and I already placed my order last week!


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## BrianHughes

ColinYounger said:


> Crikey, Pete77 - the NI comment is a little off.


Yep, that got my back up straightaway. It's just not funny.


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## Andy C

Yes, whoever I spoke to on the phone from the CEOs office was talking rubbish as I had a call today and have the same &#163;149 deal.


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## okonski_uk

It appears VM haven't finished with their meddling - XL customers are now promised a deal (better deal?) as part of the 1000 VIP program. I have to admit, this appears to be crisis management, reacting to the holes they appear to be digging themselves.

It would seem that Tivo is being seen as a 'silver bullet' and their ace card when there is a choice for cabled streets Vs satellite delivery. This would drive a considerable customer update, and by making this the defacto standard for HD home entertainment, the requirement to make customers 'pay' for something they will never own - once dispensed with - will make it a no brainer.

For those of us used to Tivo, once installed, my VHS was in the bin. Getting back into the groove (as it were) I was perhaps too willing to pay £149, but if VM are making policy 'on the hoof', the quicker they stop using us as guinae pigs and come up with the REAL pricing plan, is it too much to ask?

It's not as if they haven't had time to work it all out, is it?


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## geekspeak

okonski_uk said:


> It appears VM haven't finished with their meddling - XL customers are now promised a deal (better deal?) as part of the 1000 VIP program. I have to admit, this appears to be crisis management, reacting to the holes they appear to be digging themselves.


Does sound like some XL and non S1 users are getting it for £149, no monthly extra and no install fee.


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## Zaichik

geekspeak said:


> Does sound like some XL and non S1 users are getting it for £149, no monthly extra and no install fee.


Oh, FFS. I know it's only £3 a month, but I'm cheesed off that people are getting offered a better deal before the installation programme has even started properly.


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## big_dirk

that *is* very annoying


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## ptruman

Does anyone have CONFIRMED details of what these other offers are?
I am aware of the "1000" (no, I'm not one), and I'm signed up to the &#163;149, &#163;3pcm and no install fee deal.

I am an XL TV customer with an S1, and L broadband and "normal" telephone. If there is another (better) deal, I'd obviously like it - and having been a customer with Telewest, then NTL:Telewest then VM for 10 years+, and NOT yet having the box and thus *still* having a cooling off period, I've still got room to move - if there is any


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## big_dirk

What they have done to me is charge me for the TiVo twice  once on my debit card, once on my bill


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## ptruman

big_dirk said:


> What they have done to me is charge me for the TiVo twice  once on my debit card, once on my bill


Thumbs down! 

I've had a charge to my debit card, and a letter confirming the £149 fee (with free install) and revision to service contract, but haven't seen my bill yet. I shall keep my eyes on that, ta! Hope you get it back soon!


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## big_dirk

ptruman said:


> Thumbs down!
> 
> I've had a charge to my debit card, and a letter confirming the £149 fee (with free install) and revision to service contract, but haven't seen my bill yet. I shall keep my eyes on that, ta! Hope you get it back soon!


thumbs down indeed! :down:

As do I, I shall ring them today or tonight I think.


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## deshepherd

big_dirk said:


> What they have done to me is charge me for the TiVo twice  once on my debit card, once on my bill


It probably appears on your bill ... but you will probably also find that there's a £149 under "payments received" ... though this might to make it to the bill till next month.

When I read this I went to my online bill to take a look - this months bill isn't up there yet but under "payments received" there's the DD amount from last months bill + the £149 they took via CC.

So, I think the situation is that they've billed you and you've paid the bill already. N.b. its quite possible that if the TiVo payment was made sufficiently close to the date of your bill that the amount to pay made it to the bill but the incoming CC payment didn't - if the bill is indicating they indend to take the £149 by DD then I'd give them a call and ask them to reissue the bill. I've just had to do this with my gas/electric bill where the Eon computer decided to recalculate my DD using an outstanding balance that only included 2 out of the 3 DDs in the last quarter (turns out bill issuing was triggered by my sending in a meter reading in response to a request - and as I was "too quick" it meant bill went out before DD arrived)


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## big_dirk

deshepherd said:


> It probably appears on your bill ... but you will probably also find that there's a £149 under "payments received" ... though this might to make it to the bill till next month.
> 
> When I read this I went to my online bill to take a look - this months bill isn't up there yet but under "payments received" there's the DD amount from last months bill + the £149 they took via CC.
> 
> So, I think the situation is that they've billed you and you've paid the bill already. N.b. its quite possible that if the TiVo payment was made sufficiently close to the date of your bill that the amount to pay made it to the bill but the incoming CC payment didn't - if the bill is indicating they indend to take the £149 by DD then I'd give them a call and ask them to reissue the bill. I've just had to do this with my gas/electric bill where the Eon computer decided to recalculate my DD using an outstanding balance that only included 2 out of the 3 DDs in the last quarter (turns out bill issuing was triggered by my sending in a meter reading in response to a request - and as I was "too quick" it meant bill went out before DD arrived)


never thought of that, thanks very much. I'll ring them and check.


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## Madraven

Hi,

So should I be worried that i've not yet recived a call from Virgin, even though I signed up both on here and on Virgins own page?

Cheers


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## okonski_uk

No. They'll call when you least expect them - unless you had a typo in the number field!


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## Madraven

ok.. anyway i can check that number.. just in case.. not that i'm eager/desprete for the new box you understand


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## Tony Hoyle

deshepherd said:


> It probably appears on your bill ... but you will probably also find that there's a £149 under "payments received" ... though this might to make it to the bill till next month.
> 
> When I read this I went to my online bill to take a look - this months bill isn't up there yet but under "payments received" there's the DD amount from last months bill + the £149 they took via CC.


Where's that section? I have a 'payment summary' but it doesn't have anything since december (doesn't even show the january DD yet).


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## deshepherd

Tony Hoyle said:


> Where's that section? I have a 'payment summary' but it doesn't have anything since december (doesn't even show the january DD yet).


Misremembered ... sign into "My Virgin Media" and its under "billing overview" on the "my account" menu on the left. I'd never looked in here until yesterday when I was seeing if anything indicated that I was in the process of upgrading service. Also found that in there you can get a log of all recent charged phone calls (and I assume any other "out of package" charges) .... something I'd be wanting to find in the past.


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## Tony Hoyle

deshepherd said:


> Misremembered ... sign into "My Virgin Media" and its under "billing overview" on the "my account" menu on the left. I'd never looked in here until yesterday when I was seeing if anything indicated that I was in the process of upgrading service. Also found that in there you can get a log of all recent charged phone calls (and I assume any other "out of package" charges) .... something I'd be wanting to find in the past.


Totals are all zero, one pane says "You're new here, aren't you? We haven't billed you for anything yet." and another says "It looks like there's an outstanding balance on your account."

Which is odd, because I've had several bills and I'm paid up...


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## FemiH

Madraven said:


> ok.. anyway i can check that number.. just in case.. not that i'm eager/desprete for the new box you understand


 Was called yesterday afternoon twice after night shift so was in bed catching up with some kip so almost didn't answer the phone! Installation due on Saturday P.M. and the Virgin CS guy asked if I minded as a football game was going to be on then (football may be a matter of life or death to some but TiVo is far far more important than that  ). 
At back of last week was going to call them myself but then heard rumour that there weren't any TiVo's left so presumed I'd be waiting a few months until the next batch are released. Feel like a little boy tho now counting down days, hours, minutes & seconds!


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## deshepherd

big_dirk said:


> What they have done to me is charge me for the TiVo twice  once on my debit card, once on my bill


Well, just had my latest ebill ... this has been dated after I paid the £149 over the phone but the day before my TiVo was installed ... thus it includes the £149 credit but not the £149 charge for the box thus I've ended the bill ~£75 in credit! Just means I'll get a big bill next month.

Aren't automated billing systems wonderful!


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## Tony Hoyle

They've accepted my payment for &#163;298, billed me next months charges of &#163;40 leaving me &#163;258 in credit.

Took me a while to work out what was going on!


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## okonski_uk

On my bill, I'm showing a credit of &#163;149.... of course my install date is the same as my billing date so I expect the 'split' billing to be negligible due to the billing and install dates being the same, but of course, anything is possible!


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## nektar

The short wait was worthwhile, had my Tivo installed today and it is magic. The engineer who installed it said the 'public' go live is 01/04/11.


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## alextegg

Very disappointed about the S1 announcement though, I was going to take the 2nd STB for £5 deal and use the old TiVo for it.

Now there's little point in me doing that, so won't be taking the 2nd box


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## deshepherd

nektar said:


> The short wait was worthwhile, had my Tivo installed today and it is magic. The engineer who installed it said the 'public' go live is 01/04/11.


Might be an unfortunate choice of date


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## Tony Hoyle

Slightly scary moment.. got the new contract through and it only listed 1 Tivo. A quick call to VM showed it was just a snafu when they produced the contract and I'm definitely all set for 2.


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## Mr Fell

Still no sign of `the call'. I popped into the local VM shop and they said it could be as late as April before they get round to all existing customers !!


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## ghstone

well, I've had the call - 3 of them in fact- but as we aren't in a cabled area, and there are no official plans for an IP based service then there's nothing they can offer...

I suppose I could offer my Liefetime subbed Tivos to others in Cabled areas, but I don't konw what the deal is - how much does this make a lifetime Sub worth ? 

Only joking, already looking at options to get a guide data into the family & friends fleet of tivos (around a dozen at last count) using some other method...


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## Madraven

Still no call .. just messages on my tivo about the service ending soon...


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## °Keir°

Word is if you hadn't pre registered the install dates are in May


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## Brangdon

They're getting later and later.


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## cwaring

That was probably just another internet rumour


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