back to article Virgin preps step-down Tivo box

Virgin Media will release a lower-capacity version of its Tivo-based cable box next month. The current model, which the company has been teasing its £30.50-a-month XL TV subscribers with, packs in a 1TB hard drive and three separate tuners. Virgin Media TiVo box The new version has three tuners too, but only 500GB of …

COMMENTS

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  1. BoldMan

    No thanks

    I'm on the TV XL package and 20MB broadband and I won't be upgrading - its expensive enough already and I've already got a PVR that comes with that plan that does the job well enough. Okay so it doesn't "know" me and record stuff just in case I might want to watch it, but then I'm quite happy to check out the listing mag once in a while and if I've missed something, so be it - someone will repeat it soon enough on one of the other channels and if I still miss it, so what, its not the end of the world...

  2. dotdavid
    Thumb Down

    Monthly fee

    I have no interest as long as there's an *additional* monthly fee. If I'm paying up-front for the box anyway, I'd like to be able to use the box without an additional subscription. What is the subscription for anyway, all the hard work is done by the box itself with the exception of the TV guide and I can't imagine that costs as much as [monthly fee] * [number of subscribers] to provide.

    Plus I bet it doesn't have an Android app like the Sky+ box does...

    I wish there was an open standard for cable TV that meant you could buy your own hardware to plug in.

    1. Tom Chiverton 1

      Doesn't need an android app

      You can just go to the Virgin web site and set up remote recordings there...

    2. John70

      Text Below

      I'm with you dotdavid. I will not be getting one as long as there are "additional" fees for using the extra features on the box.

      I won't even be paying up front. When my existing box "malfunctions" I'll demand a replacement for free or I'll cancel my subscription.

  3. Tavis

    No need for 50Mb

    Currently, if you have the 1TB TiVo the only requirement is to have the XL TV package, there's no requirement to take any broadband at all. So I can't imagine there will be any requirement to have 50Mb broadband in order to get the version aimed at the lower end of the market.

  4. Daniel Voyce
    Thumb Down

    Good! £200 is way too expensive for the 1TB box

    Virgin just seem to be taking the p*ss more and more with various things lately - the price for the 1TB TiVo box is just stupid - why not invest some more money in some of Sky's offerings / technology that people want? (Remote recording / remote viewing for instance) - for a supposedly superior network they are p*ss poor at utilising it.

    I would be tempted with this cheaper version 500GB is plenty for what I need - but mainly because my V+ box is so sh*t at doing anything faster than 1mph and loves resetting mid recording.

    Not to mention even thinking about using your box after midnight as it is completely unusable.

    1. ZillaOfManilla
      Unhappy

      Pi$$ taking alright

      If they offered a discount to "loyal" customers, not the crappy one they offer at the moment. and gave me back the money I already coughed up for the XL HD box then I would consider the 1TB box, if the only way they can drop the price is with a 500GB box I'd rather have Sky's 1TB box, at that is saying something as I hate Sky.

  5. Subliteratus
    WTF?

    Pfff

    I still can't get a new Virgin package with the 1Tb TiVo anyway - all I seem to be able to sign up for is the V+ HD box. Seriously, they've only been bigging up the damn TiVo for nearly a year now and only celebs and triallers seem to be able to get their mitts on them. If they even exist at all. So who cares about a non-existent 500Gb version?

    Sweet merciful Jeebus, given how long it take these muppets to get a product to market, we'll all have the Alzheimer's before we see it. At least all our shows will seem like new again.

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    @Daniel Voice

    Remote recording - if you mean being able to schedule a recording on your VM-TiVo from a webpage then that's there already.

    Remote viewing - the equivalent US box (TiVo premiere) supports this - watch programs on one TiVo from another on same network and there's an iPad app which allows remote viewing. These aren't available on VM-TiVo yet but I think VM have made statements to investors that these are coming.

    N.b. as far as I'm aware it doesn't need 50MB broadband ... think only requirement at present is XL TV - no broadband needed as TiVo use its own dedicated internal broadband modem for any the IP related connections.

    Having had a S1 TiVo for 10 years its been a joy to move to the VM-TiVo as it retains all the good points of TiVo and avoids some of the "issues" involved with one box trying to manage the channel changes of another!

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