# Its out! Virgin Media Tivo



## memememe

Links

http://tivo.virginmedia.com/

http://community.whathifi.com/blogs...rgin-media-s-new-tivo-powered-tv-service.aspx

But the page we have all been watching has not been updated yet.

http://shop.virginmedia.com/tv/tivo.html

Ordering mine as soon as they let me!


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## cwaring

Erm... yeah. Yesterday's news mate 
http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=458539

Oh... okay. The thread was moved into this Forum. My bad  Still old news though


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## memememe

I was over taken by excitement!


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## cwaring

memememe said:


> I was over taken by excitement!


Well that's understandable


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## jodie98deg

memememe said:


> I was over taken by excitement!


I know that feeling  I just wish we had some indication as to pricing for existing VM XL Triple customers.


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## Ovit-UK

jodie98deg said:


> I know that feeling  I just wish we had some indication as to pricing for existing VM XL Triple customers.


Yeah the pricing structure getting confirmed would be good as would a fitting date this side of Xmas but lets be honest if this works as well as it should its gonna be worth the cost and after Murdoch killed off the uk market I honestly thought that short of moving to the states I was never gonna get an update to the S1 machine that still serves me well. 

OVIT


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## cp33

I am hoping that for those of us not in a Virgin cable area that a lower spec box will be available. This could replace our existing TivO with a dual tuner, larger hard drive one..............


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## Milhouse

jodie98deg said:


> I know that feeling  I just wish we had some indication as to pricing for existing VM XL Triple customers.


Check here if you want an indication... they're the "leaked" prices which have been spot on with regard to the "New to Digital TV" price (ie. new customer). Free to you for the first 12 months.


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## jodie98deg

Milhouse said:


> Check here if you want an indication... they're the "leaked" prices which have been spot on with regard to the "New to Digital TV" price (ie. new customer). Free to you for the first 12 months.


Thanks Milhouse. I had already seen that but would absolutely LOVE to hear that confirmed from VM. I guess I'm just getting a little impatient


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## Milhouse

jodie98deg said:


> Thanks Milhouse. I had already seen that but would absolutely LOVE to hear that confirmed from VM. I guess I'm just getting a little impatient


All in good time. 

Hopefully the official prices for existing customers will be close or the same as those leaked prices as I've learned in the last couple of days that there are quite a few Virgin Media customers who are penny pinching moaners and that are never happy!


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## frobozz

Ovit-UK said:


> Yeah the pricing structure getting confirmed would be good as would a fitting date this side of Xmas
> OVIT


Agreed.

Worse case scenario - fitting date week before xmas but more snow and engineer can't get here


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## frobozz

cp33 said:


> I am hoping that for those of us not in a Virgin cable area that a lower spec box will be available. This could replace our existing TivO with a dual tuner, larger hard drive one..............


There was some reference to lower spec machines at the investors meeting IIRC but I've just read this that explicitly reports what you want. Hope is still alive.

"As we understand it from earlier briefings with Virgin the entire thing can be built around a single 10 Mbps broadband line of any type, and later Virgin Media will launch this on appropriate BT DSL lines as an entirely Over The Top offering, but is limiting it to its own broadband lines for now. Virgin has an exclusive with TiVo in the UK and other companies are partnering TiVo in the same way across Europe, so we expect major European traction from TiVo over the coming year."

http://www.unthinkable.biz/home/art...-style-internet-service-in-time-for-christmas


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## Milhouse

frobozz said:


> There was some reference to lower spec machines at the investors meeting IIRC but I've just read this that explicitly reports what you want. Hope is still alive.
> 
> "As we understand it from earlier briefings with Virgin the entire thing can be built around a single 10 Mbps broadband line of any type, and later Virgin Media will launch this on appropriate BT DSL lines as an entirely Over The Top offering, but is limiting it to its own broadband lines for now. Virgin has an exclusive with TiVo in the UK and other companies are partnering TiVo in the same way across Europe, so we expect major European traction from TiVo over the coming year."
> 
> http://www.unthinkable.biz/home/art...-style-internet-service-in-time-for-christmas


That sounds promising for Freeview owners. 

It's a outrage that we can't source our own Sky digiboxes though, not that VM would be interested in supporting this platform but I can see a time where TiVo is powering every platform other than satellite (and it's only the latter that I can receive as the Freeview signal is rubbish, and VM are muppets).


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## baward

Hmm interesting, Virgin seem to be somehow hedging their bets and not committing themselves to anything re. non-cabled areas. In my case, even though (according to broadbandspeedchecker) there are VM customers 3 streets away from us, they just emailed me (from [email protected]) to say "Unfortunately this area is too far from our existing network to be cabled by our infill activity" and "to cable this area would require a major network extension. At this time, there are no immediate plans to extend the network into new areas if this requires main build - as this is very expensive."

Having read what the Unthinkable site says, I have slight cause for optimism. Maybe I should change my broadband supplier to Virgin (who we can get.)


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## deshepherd

Milhouse said:


> All in good time.
> 
> Hopefully the official prices for existing customers will be close or the same as those leaked prices as I've learned in the last couple of days that there are quite a few Virgin Media customers who are penny pinching moaners and that are never happy!


Going by previous evidence I'd say price for existing customers will be the same as for new customers ... except they wont get any "free install" or "special discount for new subscribers" offers. I.e. I'm expecting it to be £3/month extra + £199 "acquisition fee" + £40 "install fee" + £49 "HD activiation fee". Maybe, as with V+ offers, there could be some "deal" available if you agree to keep your existing box (and pay £5/month for it)


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## browellm

deshepherd said:


> Going by previous evidence I'd say price for existing customers will be the same as for new customers ... except they wont get any "free install" or "special discount for new subscribers" offers. I.e. I'm expecting it to be £3/month extra + £199 "acquisition fee" + £40 "install fee" + £49 "HD activiation fee". Maybe, as with V+ offers, there could be some "deal" available if you agree to keep your existing box (and pay £5/month for it)


I think you have a more than 50% chance of being correct. The only couple of things I've seen that *might* mean a difference this time is the rumoured existing user pricing - from a a generally reliable source, and the comments from one of the heads of the service at VM that they are looking for a limited initial release to their existing base so they can evangelise the service to their friends and family - that might prompt a lower pricing gate.


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## JonO

Just seen this on stuff.tv site:



> The cost? Well theres an upfront fee of £199 for the box  Virgin Media will repair or replace the box for the duration of your custom  a £40 installation fee and a £32.50 a month subscription if you dont have a Virgin phone line. However, take up a Virgin phone line and the monthly fee is a cheaper £26.50 a month.


http://stuff.tv/News/Virgin-brings-back-TiVo/15327/

apologies if it's already known.

J
Not fair - I'm 100 yds from a cabled area but they won't extend to my house :-(


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## hokkers999

deshepherd said:


> Going by previous evidence I'd say price for existing customers will be the same as for new customers ... except they wont get any "free install" or "special discount for new subscribers" offers. I.e. I'm expecting it to be £3/month extra + £199 "acquisition fee" + £40 "install fee" + £49 "HD activiation fee". Maybe, as with V+ offers, there could be some "deal" available if you agree to keep your existing box (and pay £5/month for it)


It's £26.50 a month as you are REQUIRED to take an XL telly sub.


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## browellm

hokkers999 said:


> It's £26.50 a month as you are REQUIRED to take an XL telly sub.


I already have XL, so shove that up your jumper.


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## cwaring

Exactly. Been trying to tell him that for a couple of days now


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## VirginMediaPhil

You got me excited with the "It's out!" title.  "Released? Already? They only announced it yesterday!"

Well if those XL Triple prices are true I might consider upgrading from phone line only (use a converter box with another company) to XL Phone, but I'm not sure as I really believe VM's phone is the worst value for money.


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## cwaring

VirginMediaPhil said:


> ... but I'm not sure as I really believe VM's phone is the worst value for money.


I'm already on it but still use 18185 for mobile and 084/087 calls.

As I understand it, they're working on changing the call pricing/packs (incl. free 084/087) from early-ish next year. (Mar/Apr I think.)


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## OzSat

We have VirginMobiles - so calss from home to family mobiles are all free - as are mobile to mobile.

Calls to other mobiles are about half price (after a connection charge) with 'Talk Mobile' which they gave us free.


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## ...coolstream

frobozz said:


> Worse case scenario - fitting date week before xmas but more snow and engineer can't get here


http://www.virginmedia.com/myvirginmedia/severe-weather-impact.php



> Due to the current extreme weather conditions, our engineers are experiencing unavoidable delays in some areas of the country. If youre waiting for an installation or other engineer service, well be contacting you as soon as possible to let you know if we need to change your appointment.
> 
> The adverse weather is also having an impact to our call centres, meaning we can't answer your calls as quickly as we normally do. You may find there are longer than usual queues, but remember theres plenty you can do online:


e.g. go here to file a report that your internet connection is down 

Seriously though, was your reply enough to give them the inspiration for their extreme weather message?


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## VirginMediaPhil

cwaring said:


> I'm already on it but still use 18185 for mobile and 084/087 calls.
> 
> As I understand it, they're working on changing the call pricing/packs (incl. free 084/087) from early-ish next year. (Mar/Apr I think.)


Thanks for that information. I've been with VM as an ex-Telewest customer since 2002. Used to be on their phone but the prices kept getting higher and switched three or four years ago. But the difference between having Phone XL and not having Phone XL is (rumoured to have) a huge difference on the price of the Tivo - £199 plus £40 installation fee including £3 extra on top of XL TV compared to £0.00, free installation and monthly fee waived for 12 months. It might just be worth it.

I'll wait and see though if the price will go down. But to be honest I really don't want to wait any longer; I've been stuck on this same interface for eight years and I don't want to spend any longer on it! 

_Edit:_ Just been looking on the Cable Forum and noticed this post:



> VM's bosses have just told New York analysts that they'll keep the 1tb tivo box at £199 upfront charge while there is strong demand but they will scale back massively the price as demand decreases. So if you want tivo, WAIT for the prices to drop!


http://www.cableforum.co.uk/board/35132250-post1597.html

Interesting information. I think it might be a good idea to hold on a bit.


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## jaykay74

Since that post the same poster has added more info...



> VM's bosses also made clear that existing customers will get the new tivo box at a discount, but as yet the details are not known, although media boy provided details from his insider of what the prices might be.


http://www.cableforum.co.uk/board/35132313-post1607.html


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## Johncv

Just curious, how large of an area is serve by VirginMedia? How many subscribers do they serve and are they replacing all the boxes with the TiVo box?


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## Milhouse

Johncv said:


> Just curious, how large of an area is serve by VirginMedia? How many subscribers do they serve and are they replacing all the boxes with the TiVo box?


They have about 4m households (Sky are about 10m) - no idea what percentage of the UK they serve, seems to be a fairly limited though.

The plan is for TiVo to become their standard platform eventually (over the next few years), this will involve TiVo boxes with varying sized hard disks.

The current Cisco V HD receiver (which doesn't support a hard disk) may also receive a TiVo firmware update - this would make an ideal viewing box to stream recordings around the house from the main TiVo PVR, and to watch online content.


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## cwaring

Milhouse said:


> They have about 4m households (Sky are about 10m) - no idea what percentage of the UK they serve, seems to be a fairly limited though.


About 50% was the last figure I read somewhere.


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## Horizons

...yep.

VM has passed half of UK homes which is 13 million. They have 5 million customers of which just under 4 million take a tv service.

And as some of my posts from cableforum have been quoted here about pricing, just an extra snippet of info I've picked up elsewhere.

It's been suggested that the initial price of the tivo boxes is being kept high to "manage" demand for the product. ie VM won't have many tivo boxes for a while so they're keen to limit the numbers. Plus of course, they make a lot of dosh too by getting customers to pay for something they are "meant" to be renting!


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## deshepherd

Horizons said:


> And as some of my posts from cableforum have been quoted here about pricing, just an extra snippet of info I've picked up elsewhere.
> 
> It's been suggested that the initial price of the tivo boxes is being kept high to "manage" demand for the product. ie VM won't have many tivo boxes for a while so they're keen to limit the numbers. Plus of course, they make a lot of dosh too by getting customers to pay for something they are "meant" to be renting!


Also, a high initial price makes for an impressive "special offer price reduction" campaign for the summer!

Think V+ started off at £150 then went to a "special offer for new subscribers" £49 offer followed after a bit by a "special limited time £49 offer for existing customers" before settling back to the current (I think) £75 mark.


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## cwaring

Horizons said:


> Plus of course, they make a lot of dosh too by getting customers to pay for something they are "meant" to be renting!


They're not "meant" to be renting, they _are_ renting.  All VM equipment comes with a life-time warranty. Try that with anything you buy from, say, Sky.


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## Fizz

Horizons said:


> ...yep.
> 
> VM has passed half of UK homes which is 13 million. They have 5 million customers of which just under 4 million take a tv service.
> 
> And as some of my posts from cableforum have been quoted here about pricing, just an extra snippet of info I've picked up elsewhere.
> 
> It's been suggested that the initial price of the tivo boxes is being kept high to "manage" demand for the product. ie VM won't have many tivo boxes for a while so they're keen to limit the numbers. Plus of course, they make a lot of dosh too by getting customers to pay for something they are "meant" to be renting!


they are losing so much custom... i've moved 2 miles down the road in the same town and it's not cabled.... now having to pay double for sky


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## AMc

Having paid EDF &#163;3000 to have a length of power cable replaced that goes from one side of my street to the other I can see why Virgin aren't in a desperate hurry to extend their network. Digging up the roads is very expensive!


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## Milhouse

AMc said:


> Having paid EDF £3000 to have a length of power cable replaced that goes from one side of my street to the other I can see why Virgin aren't in a desperate hurry to extend their network. Digging up the roads is very expensive!


All the more reason they should cooperate with other service providers and utility companies to minimise disruption and cost by updating/extending their network whenever the roads are opened up.


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## Horizons

cwaring said:


> They're not "meant" to be renting, they _are_ renting.  All VM equipment comes with a life-time warranty. Try that with anything you buy from, say, Sky.


Rental charges are included in the packages. Charging £200 upfront for a box is making customers pay for a box they do not own. So they're not renting it, they're buying it for VM. Which is all well and good if customers stay with VM, but if they leave, they have paid for something which VM keeps. I don't call that renting.

Radio Rentals (do they still exist??) et all, didn't charge £200 to purchase a tv, you paid them rental charges. VM are doing both. Charging rent and upfront for the equipment.


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## Horizons

cwaring said:


> They're not "meant" to be renting, they _are_ renting.  All VM equipment comes with a life-time warranty. Try that with anything you buy from, say, Sky.


Rental charges are included in the packages. Charging £200 upfront for a box is making customers pay for a box they do not own. So they're not renting it, they're buying it for VM. Which is all well and good if customers stay with VM, but if they leave, they have paid for something which VM keeps. I don't call that renting.

Radio Rentals (do they still exist??) et all, didn't charge £200 to purchase a tv, you paid them rental charges. VM are doing both. Charging rent and upfront for the equipment.


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## Horizons

cwaring said:


> They're not "meant" to be renting, they _are_ renting.  All VM equipment comes with a life-time warranty. Try that with anything you buy from, say, Sky.


Rental charges are included in the packages. Charging £200 upfront for a box is making customers pay for a box they do not own. So they're not renting it, they're buying it for VM. If customers then leave VM, they have paid for something which VM keeps. I don't call that renting, or for "lifetime."

Radio Rentals (do they still exist??) didn't charge £200 to purchase a tv, you paid them rental charges. VM are doing both. Charging rent and upfront for the equipment. Doubly whammy.

With Sky, you don't pay them rental charges, so have to pay for the equipment. There's no comparison between the two.


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## AMc

Milhouse said:


> All the more reason they should cooperate with other service providers and utility companies to minimise disruption and cost by updating/extending their network whenever the roads are opened up.


In principal I agree - however my experience with EDF was one contractor to dig the holes, another one to replace the cable, a 3rd to fill the holes again - then 6 months later a different contractor came to dig out the road again and replace the surface where it had subsided (doing just as rubbish a job).
I can't imagine they'd have been capable of organising a 3rd party to do something else at the same time


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## Zaichik

ozsat said:


> We have VirginMobiles - so calss from home to family mobiles are all free - as are mobile to mobile.
> 
> Calls to other mobiles are about half price (after a connection charge) with 'Talk Mobile' which they gave us free.


Which packages are you on? I have VM phone and Virgin mobiles, but I don't get any of that.

Back on topic, I really want to get the new Virgin TiVo but I am worried that, if I cancel my sub for the old series 1 TiVo, I won't be able to reinstate it if I decide to leave Virgin.


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## Zaichik

ozsat said:


> We have VirginMobiles - so calss from home to family mobiles are all free - as are mobile to mobile.
> 
> Calls to other mobiles are about half price (after a connection charge) with 'Talk Mobile' which they gave us free.


Which packages are you on? I have VM phone and Virgin mobiles, but I don't get any of that.

Back on topic, I really want to get the new Virgin TiVo but I am worried that, if I cancel my sub for the old series 1 TiVo, I won't be able to reinstate it if I decide to leave Virgin.


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## AMc

Zaichik said:


> Back on topic, I really want to get the new Virgin TiVo but I am worried that, if I cancel my sub for the old series 1 TiVo, I won't be able to reinstate it if I decide to leave Virgin.


If you're on monthly then I suspect you're not currently being charged?
When the Virgin Tivo launches I expect there will be a glut of lifetime subscribed series 1 on popular auction sites at knock down prices (as there was when Sky+ and Sk+HD launched). If you decided to go back to an S1 I think you'll be able to pick one up for the equivalent of a few months subs.
I can't see why Virgin would cut off monthly subs and leave lifetimes alone - so if the worst were to happen we'd all be in the same boat if we're out of cable regions - seems improbable to me.

In your position I would register your interest with Virgin and hold fire until they work out the offer to TivoCommunity members.


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