Do Virgin's new V6 boxes require Internet connectivity?

[Vertigo]

Bit confused here. Was talking to my parents at the weekend who have a couple of Tivo boxes at present. These are both connected solely to the incoming coax - there's no separate connection to the Internet via either Ethernet or Wifi.

They've been offered free upgrades to V6 boxes but have apparently also been told that these now require Internet connectivity. Firstly, they were told that this was because all content was now delivered via the Internet but I don't believe this for a second and think this was just some hopeless misinformed rep spouting nonsense.

The question is, assuming the V6 boxes still connect to the coax as the old Tivos did, do they now rely on an Internet connection for any additional on-demand services? At present the current Tivo allows them to access on-demand and catch-up stuff directly over the co-ax and without an Internet connection. My fear is that the V6 boxes have changed this and now rely on a separate Internet connection for some stuff.

If this is the case then this is a non-starter as there's no Internet available for the main living room box to connect to (without major hassle) and would thus result in reduced functionality compared to their current Tivo.

Can anyone clarify the situation? Cheers.

 

[Vertigo]

Thanks for the responses.

The V6 may be a "much better bit of kit" in some ways but this is a backward step IMO. The old Tivos work perfectly well without an Internet connection and now the new boxes require one to provide the same services?

Internet connectivity in the living room of my parents house isn't available, either via Ethernet or Wifi. To provide it would require something like a powerline set up which is more hassle.

 

[Vertigo]

Virgin's new Hub & V6 box uses a splitter to split one coax into two... you plug one into the V6 box and one into the router, which then gets internet... Can you not connect the router in the living room?

No, because then I'd just have the opposite problem where the Wifi wouldn't reach back upstairs. It's a 100+ year old house with very Wifi-unfriendly walls.