Sky or Virgin Media?

jonno.co.uk said:
so what HD channels are on VM? E.g Sports?
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This is easy:

**** NONE ****

You get BBC HD which runs about 6hours a day (evenings) and shows whatever sport BBC1 has, if you're lucky. That's it.

If you want HD, stick with sky. No contest. If you're not bothered about HD and want to save some money, then VM is an option. But if you're looking to watch e.g. the premiership in HD then Sky is the only option.
 
Sky any day of the week.

I like a couple of the features of the VM guide (PIP and the mini guide) but IIRC these are coming to Sky HD in the not too distant future anyway with a complete redesign of the guide.
 
You would have to be mad to get VM TV in, the epg is a joke and its like trying to jog through marmelade, its that bad its worth any extra a month to get rid. Overall pricing for Sky though isnt great.
 
Posted from someone who had VM HD for 2 years as part of a staff deal and has just (2months ago) moved to Sky + HD

For HD, it has to be Sky, with about 20 channels of HD content if you subscribe to the Sports and Movies channels as well. VM as stated above only has the one channel of HD. Though VM has a number of pieces of HD content on the replay service and pay per movie service.

I felt the EPG on VM was a better system, especially as the remote is designed for the EPG, whereas I find the sky remote a bit more fiddly to get to the recorded programs.

I also find I have to reboot the sky HD box more frequently than the VM box.

The VM box allows you to record 2 programs and watch another channel or recorded program, whereas the Sky box allows you to record two but you must watch one of the ones being recorded or one from the recorded list.

The VM box, has the replay and Video on demand function, which is really good for watching those programs you missed and didn't record, or watching old series, it has all the old episode of lots of things like planet earth and comedies.

The Sky HD box for me has failed recording many more times than the VM box did.

Also prior to having VM I had the standard Sky +, rather than Sky + HD that I know have, and went through 3 box failures, though the new box seems quite a different beast.

All in all, if HD content, movies and sports is what you want as stated in your initial post then the Sky + HD box is the way forward.



Hope that helps.

Taff
 
Taff, if you have one of the Gen 1 Sky HD boxes (All made by Thomson if memory serves) and not a very recent Gen 2 box (Gen 2's come without the component output) and you are getting failed recording/ input 2 losing signal/weaker signal than expected when compared to the + box signal, then you are showing all the sings of the standard Gen 1 pants PSU syndrome (and breathe...). On AVforums there is a huge thread about this, which have posted in too with my experiences. I will take a gamble and link to my original post: http://www.avforums.com/forums/showthread.php?p=6501961#post6501961

Our 2nd box was awful almost from the start as that post will show. Instead of paying Sky £65 to get a second hand box which would most likely have the same problem I got a modified PSU from Satcure. Although you could get Sky out free, you will still get a second hand box and they will walk away with your new one! Personally I would take a gamble on the beefed up PSU and keep your new box but that is just me :)

http://www.satcure.co.uk/accs/page12.htm#rebuilt is the link to the improved PSU. It is a doddle to fit and if you keep your original PSU for warranty purposes it will cost about £60 if memory serves. From the very day that I replaced the PSU with the modified one we have not had one single failed recording, lockup, lnb signal failure, power down or anything. It has been bulletproof for 4 months and I cannot recommend it highly enough. Just so you know, none of the caps were showing signs of bulging like the psu was still the cause of all the problems I had.
 
Sorry to jump in on this but i have a questions.

We currently pay £31 a month with Sky and dont have a sky+ box. Whats the best way to obtain one ? And how much would it cost to buy a box and run it ?

Any usefull tips when phoning up ?
 
Snakedoctor said:
VM, you can usually watch your TV when it rains, you cant with Sky. VM had poor billing systems, which seemed to have improved a bit. VM Broadband is subject to traffic shaping. VM's EPG is clunky and slow, only same day listings availible at any reasonable speed. VM have less channells. VM has awful customer service.

I would get Sky myself, given the choice.
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Virgin Media do not traffic shape. They traffic manage.

They are two separate things and should not be confused.

Obviously I'll come across as a pedant but they really shouldn't be confused.

Oh and I quite like the V+ service although the menu could be a lot quicker.

They have improved it quite a bit and it isn't "painfully slow" anymore - although not as quick as Sky's.
 
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Get through to the retentions dept and say that you want to downgrade your package. Keep trying till you get a good deal.
 
Ry@n said:
Sorry to jump in on this but i have a questions.

We currently pay £31 a month with Sky and dont have a sky+ box. Whats the best way to obtain one ? And how much would it cost to buy a box and run it ?

Any usefull tips when phoning up ?
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I did this for my folks just last week. It is a total gamble and you may get a good deal or not. First of are you in an area where you you can get Virgin? If you are you could consider my example if you want and adjust to suit ;).

I rang up and spoke to the cancellations department (Originally phoned the channel alteration/sales team and they only gave me a £150+£60 deal) and when being asked for the reason we were cancelling I said that as existing VM customers (they have old cable boxes too!), they had been offered a V+ box with free installation and were told that the HD would be great. I told the Sky lady that I didn't want them going anywhere near VM for HD and wanted to get them back on to the movies package (they were on just the Sky basics) and upgrade them to HD too but the price had to be right.

I didn't get the £75 box +£30 installation (Yes, they have to send a monkey over to plug it in lol) but I got them a £100 box + £30 installation deal. No taking out Sky BB or talk, just going back to the movies package and the HD sub that is contracted for 12 months. There are still murmurings about that charge being scrapped like the + charge was back in the day but who knows.
 
Can I just say regarding the slowness of Vm supposely, watching SKY today ive noticed that yes it does change channel faster but you dont get a picture instantly. There is at least 1second pause before recieving picture so I dont know how that can be used as a valid arguement.

*edit*

And to who ever was moaning about the crashes of the VM box, someone has just said he has issues with SKY and someone said there is a HUGE thread on avforums with the common problems, so yet again an invalid arguement imo. Of course people are going to get troubles with it nothing is fault free and it appears both can be as bad as each other.

It really does just come down to how important HD content is for you. My parents have it and they havent watched anything in HD because nothing really interests them!

Sports in HD or Sentanta sports (which are getting a lot of content now, most england friendlies, darts, UFC rights).
 
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SDK^ said:
Unless it rains :p ;)
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I've had problems with both Sky and Cable when it's rained.

Sky was my flat in Greenwich and Cable was with Telewest in Newcastle. As far as I'm aware the old cable companies still beamed the signal to base stations for distribution by satellite so if it rained heavily all the channels went off. Used to happen all the time.

Never had a problem with sky anywhere else (dodgy dish installation I reckon) and I've not had VM so I don't know if it's improved or not.
 
I got Virgin when I moved into my new house and am regretting it rather a lot.

It could depend on the area but the EPG is slower than Teletext used to be, broadband isn't broadband at all due to the amount of capping they do, plus it's randomly crap and cuts you off for a minute every so often even after multiple resets.

Not all they hype it up to be anyways....for broadband I was happier with ADSL, for TV Freeview was better even if it had less channels.
 
Snakedoctor said:
VM, you can usually watch your TV when it rains, you cant with Sky. VM had poor billing systems, which seemed to have improved a bit. VM Broadband is subject to traffic shaping. VM's EPG is clunky and slow, only same day listings availible at any reasonable speed. VM have less channells. VM has awful customer service.

I would get Sky myself, given the choice.
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I watch my sky all the time when it rains, infact even in thunder and lightning! :confused:
 
During particularly bad weather we can get artifacts watching sky and on the rare occasion channel dropouts. This does happen pretty rarely though and I think your dignal strength/line of sight will also play a large part in this during nasty waether.
 
Mr Footlong said:
Taff, if you have one of the Gen 1 Sky HD boxes (All made by Thomson if memory serves) and not a very recent Gen 2 box (Gen 2's come without the component output) and you are getting failed recording/ input 2 losing signal/weaker signal than expected when compared to the + box signal, then you are showing all the sings of the standard Gen 1 pants PSU syndrome (and breathe...). On AVforums there is a huge thread about this, which have posted in too with my experiences. I will take a gamble and link to my original post: http://www.avforums.com/forums/showthread.php?p=6501961#post6501961

Our 2nd box was awful almost from the start as that post will show. Instead of paying Sky £65 to get a second hand box which would most likely have the same problem I got a modified PSU from Satcure. Although you could get Sky out free, you will still get a second hand box and they will walk away with your new one! Personally I would take a gamble on the beefed up PSU and keep your new box but that is just me :)

http://www.satcure.co.uk/accs/page12.htm#rebuilt is the link to the improved PSU. It is a doddle to fit and if you keep your original PSU for warranty purposes it will cost about £60 if memory serves. From the very day that I replaced the PSU with the modified one we have not had one single failed recording, lockup, lnb signal failure, power down or anything. It has been bulletproof for 4 months and I cannot recommend it highly enough. Just so you know, none of the caps were showing signs of bulging like the psu was still the cause of all the problems I had.
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Brilliant, theres a reference to me somewhere in that thread :p
 
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