SkyHD to Virgin V+HD

PhillyDee · 31 Dec 2010 at 16:27

I am looking to move from my existing SKY HD to Virgin HD, I already have VM in the house for broadband and TV. I have had a look at prices, but how does the service compare?

Has anyone moved this way, and how did you find the quality, useability etc in relation to the SKY HD Boxes?

I also currently use a magic eye for my Sky, does such a thing exist for Virgin?

Cheers!

lucid · 31 Dec 2010 at 17:03

Have a look at the Digital Spy forums. They have dedicated sections for VM, Sky et al... More chance of finding people who have done what you plan :-)

NuclearWinter · 31 Dec 2010 at 20:13

I've been a Sky customer for about 14 years and am in the process of making the move, with an installation date of Feb 3rd. I don't currently use any Virgin services though and am moving everything to them.

I'll be getting one of the new TiVo boxes as soon as possible, so hopefully wont be using the V+HD box for long. The general impression I've seen from people with the current boxes is that the hardware is more stable than Sky HD (which wouldn't be hard) and it has better SD picture quality, but the software/EPG is pretty slow and dated.

There's also no remote record functionality with Virgin (though it will come with Tivo), but you do have a third tuner.

I'm somewhat disappointed that I'll miss out on Sky Atlantic though (and that Virgin still doesn't have Sky Arts 1&2 in HD) and it's caused me some hesitation. Other that that I'm looking forward to it.

Anewbe4u · 1 Jan 2011 at 12:40

Used to be sky, now virgin. Cheaper but I hate it. I've gone from watching a fair amount of TV to never turning it on and downgrading my package to the lowest of the low. It just seems clunky to me.

I'll have a look at the new Tivo boxes and maybe get one, they look decent.

dbmzk1 · 2 Jan 2011 at 04:24

NuclearWinter said:
The general impression I've seen from people with the current boxes is that the hardware is more stable than Sky HD (which wouldn't be hard)

NuclearWinter said:
and it has better SD picture quality

The Sky HD platform is near perfect stability wise, should you have one of the newer boxes. The current Virgin boxes are slow, the EPG is ugly, poorly organised and unstable. It's only redeeming feature is on demand, but then Sky have Anytime, Player and Player+ soon. Hopefully the new TiVO boxes will fix these issues, but I would wait and see before you change.

The SD picture quality is also, in my experience, better on Sky HD - though there is not much in it to be honest. But it depends on the channel, type of program and your TV too.

Also for HD at the moment Sky is the only real option.

PhillyDee · 2 Jan 2011 at 11:26

Cheers for that. I think I will wait then! Im not changing if its going to annoy me! That said, if th box gives up, I will move!

j_walsh · 3 Jan 2011 at 09:58

Have recently moved all services from virgin to sky, cant comment on the internet yet as doesnt go live till feb but the tv is a lot better. Picture on standard channels is a million times better, box is faster and doesnt seem to crash like my V+ did!

mlbtheshow · 3 Jan 2011 at 10:47

V+ here, never had a problem with the box i got tbh... faster and more stable than when we had Sky but then thats about 2yr + ago.

Best thing about Virgin imo is the deals they wil give you to keep you. Sky offered me a mug or a mousemat something like that... Virgin basically shaved 25/30 quid off what the monthly should be by published rates.

j_walsh · 3 Jan 2011 at 10:54

mlbtheshow said:
V+ here, never had a problem with the box i got tbh... faster and more stable than when we had Sky but then thats about 2yr + ago.

Best thing about Virgin imo is the deals they wil give you to keep you. Sky offered me a mug or a mousemat something like that... Virgin basically shaved 25/30 quid off what the monthly should be by published rates.

yes they seem to offer good deals once you put in cancellation request. Virgin was ok but in my area the internet at peak times was awful! you post on the forums and they just say they will monitor usage for a week then nothing comes of it

Participant · 3 Jan 2011 at 11:07

V+ HD here, I find it excellent. The newer Samsung boxes are much better than the SA boxes they used to deploy. Friend has Sky and I find the V+ much slicker. Three tuners is great. The V+ does a great job of upscaling SD.

Stanners · 3 Jan 2011 at 13:54

I went from Sky HD to V+ HD and have to say i am very happy i swapped, Picture wise are people saying they can honestly see the difference? because i struggle, sure they SKY box is a tad more responsive but the anytime TV available on Virgin is a million time better than anything Sky offer.

Also who ever it was who mentioned Sky arts, they are coming to virgin. If you have a look on cable forum there is a thread listing the up and coming services.

Fr0dders · 3 Jan 2011 at 14:02

anybody heard anything about Virgin Media's new Tivo boxes ?

Those are due any time now.

*edit* still says Due Early 2011

http://tivo.virginmedia.com/

I'm waiting for that before i switch.

MissChief · 3 Jan 2011 at 14:45

Dont forget that on most, if not all VM packages you're paying for a box that will never be yours! I've heard prices from 'Free' to £250 for the Tivo based box yet the box will never be your property. Biggest swizz by Virgin ever.

Participant · 3 Jan 2011 at 14:55

MissChief said:
Dont forget that on most, if not all VM packages you're paying for a box that will never be yours! I've heard prices from 'Free' to £250 for the Tivo based box yet the box will never be your property. Biggest swizz by Virgin ever.

On the other hand if something goes wrong with your Sky box out of warranty, they charge you a fortune to fix it. With VM, since you rent it, it's totally free and they just repair or replace straight away.

In any case, if and when you leave Virgin Media, they never ask you for it back because they've long since written it off and it's not economical to get it shipped back to them, etc.

Two sides to most stories

.

Glaucus · 3 Jan 2011 at 15:01

Moved from virgin to sky to virgin to sky and now back to virgin.

Virgin is much better, 3 tuners, cheaper, on demand stuff. Overall a much better package.
I don't know why someone says clunky? for normall tv it is all very slick and fast. On demand stuff is pretty slow, but this isn't really a issue, for every day use.

Also the new Virgin TIVO boxes look great and should be far superior to current sky+HD or V+, but will be an extra £3 a month.

There is bno slick magic eye solution, you would require a video/remote sender. Or just get a second box.

Only reason to go sky, is if you will get the sports or movie packages, then the HD for them means sky wins, other than that I can cope with out skyarts HD or living HD and the numerous other silly channels used to increase the numbers.

TripleT · 3 Jan 2011 at 15:07

Parents have Virgin and I have SkyHD.

I find Virgin utter ****e. It's slow as hell, clunky and just generally rubbish. Yer the 3 tuners is a bonus but after all they need to offer something extra to try and make up for the boxes

The whole renting rather than owning the boxes is good as Sky will fleece you out of warranty (but then you just resign up as a new customer anyway).

Sky all the way, Virgin don't offer all the HD channels either.

Participant · 3 Jan 2011 at 15:21

TripleT said:
Parents have Virgin and I have SkyHD.

I find Virgin utter ****e. It's slow as hell, clunky and just generally rubbish. Yer the 3 tuners is a bonus but after all they need to offer something extra to try and make up for the boxes

Do you parents have the Scientific Atlanta or Samsung? The newer Samsung box is excellent, very far from slow and clunky with decent upscaling of SD.

I agree that Sky have a better selection of HD channels, but then they should - they charge an extra sub for HD.

NuclearWinter · 3 Jan 2011 at 15:42

MissChief said:
Dont forget that on most, if not all VM packages you're paying for a box that will never be yours! I've heard prices from 'Free' to £250 for the Tivo based box yet the box will never be your property. Biggest swizz by Virgin ever.

Actually I think I would prefer this to paying £250 for a box with 12 month warranty which could go wrong after 14 months and has a £65 fee to have an engineer come and look at it. Then become the owner of an often dodgy refurbished box with 3 month warranty. Repeat when refurb dies.

My understanding is that you don't own the Virgin box but because of that you effectively get a lifetime warranty on it as long as you're a customer, with no engineer fees and free replacements whenever it goes wrong.

Moving to Virgin's VIP50 package I'm getting two HD boxes for the total sum of £0 with free installation, so I'm not going to complain about having to pay for the TiVo box when it comes out.

Also who ever it was who mentioned Sky arts, they are coming to virgin. If you have a look on cable forum there is a thread listing the up and coming services.

Yeah, but Sky Arts HD has been "coming to Virgin" for 7 months now and still hasn't arrived. So I'm skeptical.

Sky is definitely king as far as content is concerned, but there are other factors involved for me.

asim18 · 3 Jan 2011 at 18:27

We've had Virgin V+HD for about 14 months now. Started off with an SA STB, which was garbage, but they swiftly replaced it with a shiny Samsung STB.

People claiming it's "clunky" or "slow" are probably still on the old SA STB. The Samsungs are much faster.

Another advantage of Virgin is their on demand stuff. It's packed with some great HD stuff and their 7day catchup is also very useful. It can take a minute or two to find what you're looking for, but once you've pressed play, the quality is excellent, fast, and it also lets you FF & Rewind smoothly while streaming.

PhillyDee · 3 Jan 2011 at 19:05

Hmm, think I will wait to see what becomes of the TiVo service then! Have just signed up for updates/notifications. I do like my Sky, but do not use sports/movies at all.