NTL/Telewest experiences. Soon to become Virgin Media - what to expect?

[BUFF]

their system apparently only lets them do it for 3 months at a time so you have to keep calling them up to get it extended.

 

[TC1]

Well, mine is for 12 months as i spoke to a supervisor and she confirmed, 12 months!

 

[stuppy]

Just transfered onto the VIP package for 85 quid a month. Am paying about 110 a month with no TVDrive box so this is an absolute bargin.

 

[megatron]

My email interface has been assaulted with a garish red colour and naff "Virgin media" logo. Is it just me or is Virgin associated with cheap cola and cheap air travel. Has blueyonder really got that bad of a name that Virgin media is better?

 

[schnipps]

I would go back in a flash on there 85 a month if they sorted the EPG out, i simply can not stand how slow and useless it is, prepared to pay the extra for sky+ at the moment.

 

[Duke]

My email interface has been assaulted with a garish red colour and naff "Virgin media" logo. Is it just me or is Virgin associated with cheap cola and cheap air travel. Has blueyonder really got that bad of a name that Virgin media is better?

No but they have a wedge of cash

 

[Avalon]

pfft, virgin sold the name for a decade along with the mobile phone side to NTL:TW, they actually have nothing to do with NTL:TW day to day (13% share holding iirc was part of the payment for v mobile) it's just a cosmetic change to unify the NTL & TW brands following the merger, if anything they now have less cash.

 

[Fr0dders]

I would go back in a flash on there 85 a month if they sorted the EPG out, i simply can not stand how slow and useless it is, prepared to pay the extra for sky+ at the moment.

i was with NTL about 3 years ago, and stood it about 6 months before we got fed up of how slow it was, and how often it crashed

looks like when Telewest switched over to the Virgin package, they've picked up the same traits the NTL boxes had

Definitely sticking with Sky for TV.

 

[sniper007]

Tried that already to be honest and the best they could do was offer me £12.50 4MB broadband for 3 months.

If they could offer that on a permenant basis then fantastic, but somehow I don't think they will.

I'm just really annoyed that the L broadband service (4MB) doesn't feature in any of the bundles.

Whats the likelyhood of the 2MB service getting upgraded to 4MB in the future?

DITTO. In the sam eboat. Im now paying £32 per month for 4mb, tv family pack thing, and phone which im happy with - but only for 3 months. Again could drop to 2mb for £30 per month permanent. But I personalyl also want my 4mb, especially since it mgiht go up soon. If I went down to 2mb, I suppose theres a chance it would double to 4. But I like being on mid package for bb.

 

[Dangerous]

Just phoned up and added the HDTV/V+ service but installation is the 13th March

 

[Avalon]

Yes but it's worth it HD content is still limited but being able to watch one prog and record two others does change the way you watch TV. I keep finding myself hitting the FF button when i'm watching live TV and the adverts come on... 1 hour with adverts, 45ish mins without = more spare time and no missed progs

 

[Dangerous]

Yeah can't wait now

 

[DreXeL]

Yes but it's worth it HD content is still limited but being able to watch one prog and record two others does change the way you watch TV. I keep finding myself hitting the FF button when i'm watching live TV and the adverts come on... 1 hour with adverts, 45ish mins without = more spare time and no missed progs

I completely agree, I love the whole PVR functionality, and I love the fact that it has 3 tuners over the 2 of the Sky+.

I much prefer the layout of the new V+ interface compared to the old TV-Drive interface, but it's a shame it's still quite slow and clunky

I'd really love more HD content too, infact the lack of HD content is tempting me to Sky, the only things stopping me are the cost of the Sky HD box, and the fact that I couldn't live without the TV On demand stuff. True TVOD is cable's best feature IMO, hundreds and hundreds of movies and TV shows ready and waiting at your beck-and-call

 

[Avalon]

I didn't rate TVOD at all when a work mate went down south to test it (i'm a former employee), from the start I could see the attraction of TVD yes but TVOD. Since they bumped up the content i'm a convert, last 7 days isn't an issue as I have TVD but the full series stuff is very handy.

 

[Nogimmix]

TVOD is a godsend for me, gives me the chance to watch programmes which I managed to miss during the week.

I'm impressed with Virginmedia so far, let's hope they give us some nice little extras!!

 

[sniper007]

My mini guide has not changed yet - anyone elses? Also, how much is this V+ thing then? Install fee? Monthly charge?

 

[SexyGreyFox]

Been with NTL/C&W for about 5 years and never had a problem.

For those who say they don't get their full bandwidth speed -
I had the same problem and kept reading people on these forums coming out with the phrase 'How many connections max out your speed'.
This got me thinking and I decided to put my Newsreader downloading two files at a time and the speed went up.
I was still not reaching the speed so I got it downloading four files and thats when I realised that 'Four connections max out my speed'.
Just a thought.

 

[GuruJockStrap]

Oh well, just downgraded our broadband from 4MB to 2MB. Instead of paying £432 a year for phone and broadband, its now £240.

We'd rather take a hit in download speeds and save £192 personally. Shouldn't be too bad. Browsing and gaming will be no different. Just have to wait a bit longer for downloads to finish.

 

[Skii]

Well I'm a brand new Telewest customer, I have an engineer coming round this afternoon to install TV, Broadband and Phone so it will be interesting to see how we get on !

 

[schnipps]

Been with NTL/C&W for about 5 years and never had a problem.

For those who say they don't get their full bandwidth speed -
I had the same problem and kept reading people on these forums coming out with the phrase 'How many connections max out your speed'.
This got me thinking and I decided to put my Newsreader downloading two files at a time and the speed went up.
I was still not reaching the speed so I got it downloading four files and thats when I realised that 'Four connections max out my speed'.
Just a thought.

I use 8 however not through the telewest newsgroups as i think its capped to 4, the more the better tbh.