Is It worth it?

[pfield]

Just thinking about getting a TiVo but I'm a bit concerned about the feedback on here.

Firstly will I get the FULL functionality of the existing Samsung V+HD box i.e. red buttons,iPlayer, itv Player, download to DVD.

Is the 500gb version stable now?

Has the epg function been sorted i.e. not recording all occurrences of the same programmes (bbc1, bbc1+1, Dave, dave +1.

 The website is confusing about the price. Prices start from £6.50 but table shows cost at £3pm

Is there a trial period for this system to see if it suits my needs.

Does the system fully support the remote record function through the android app?

Given that the cable TV system is a fancy network system is there any way that I can watch the recorded programmes on my second box. 

Hopefully the system is fully matured and I can get my hands on one very soon

[Sarge · Accepted solution]

The only part of your post I can see that the answer is yes to is there is a 28 day "trial period",.

[knitrogen · Accepted solution]

to answer your question no it isnt worth its money since day 1 i have found the box to be laggy prone to rebooting itself or me having to do it and my partner constantly moaning at me cause it doesnt work

[c53204 · Accepted solution]

The Virgin webstie DID at one time claim the TiVo box did 'everything the V+ doea and more'. 

This was removed/amended after many complaints and intervention from the Advertising Standards Agency.

Seems to be two main complaints that some 500gb owners have. One is that it stops recording before a program ends (regardless of 'padding' - which has to added every recording manually). the other one is that it deletes all recordings at random.

I have suffered from the the first fault above, but not the second. I've had my box 10 weeks, so maybe the box has been tweaked, or different batches have different faults.

Either way I would stay clear just now and take another look after/if the promised update appears.

[calluml · Accepted solution]

To me, the fact that you are asking these questions suggests that TiVo is probably not right for you just now.

It's early days for Virgin's TiVo and it's important that potential users do some research into the many things that the box does, and does not, do before buying.

Personally, I followed the threads on this forum for several weeks prior to ordering TiVo and have so far been happy with my decision and not overly surprised or disappointed in any of it's failings.

So save your money.  Better waiting till the answer to your questions is Yes.

[PrinterElf · Accepted solution]

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pfield wrote:

Just thinking about getting a TiVo but I'm a bit concerned about the feedback on here.

Firstly will I get the FULL functionality of the existing Samsung V+HD box i.e. red buttons,iPlayer, itv Player, download to DVD.

Is the 500gb version stable now?

Has the epg function been sorted i.e. not recording all occurrences of the same programmes (bbc1, bbc1+1, Dave, dave +1.

 The website is confusing about the price. Prices start from £6.50 but table shows cost at £3pm

Is there a trial period for this system to see if it suits my needs.

Does the system fully support the remote record function through the android app?

Given that the cable TV system is a fancy network system is there any way that I can watch the recorded programmes on my second box. 

Hopefully the system is fully matured and I can get my hands on one very soon

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From the top:

Red button ✘

iPlayer

ITV Player ✘ (most of the content is available on Catchup TV)

Download to DVD ✘ (not strictly - you have to play it back)

Stable 500GB ✘ (doesn't seem to be so far)

EPG logic correct ✘ (without 100% accurate EPG data it's impossible to tell!)

Price: It's £6.50/box, the TiVo service itself costs £3 per account

Trial: 28 days

Android Remote Record: It works, but for some reason the phone apps, both iOS and Android can't see the sports/movie channels. The mobile website can though.

Share recordings ✘ (Not yet, but has been alluded to for a future update)

[zimmergirl · Accepted solution]

To anyone considering TIVO, forget it and save your money.  Like other people commenting on it, mine regularly sticks and I have to give it the thumbs up/down play 3 times but why should I have to do this. My last complaint call I made last week had me speaking to a very unhelpful woman who merely told me that the issue with the sticking screen won't be resolved until 31 October at the earliest! The issue with the PIN drives me nuts and I had to put a PIN in when I wanted to watch Coronation Street!  I've had three people come to look at the TIVO box and all of them have said they won't have it. It's slow, there's no picture-in-picture when viewing any Sky channels, no red button, no facility to set a reminder for a channel and no dedicated fault line to ring to contact someone from TIVO, to name but a few. What I can't understand is why did Virgin launch TIVO when clearly faults were present and had not been cleared.  A couple of weekends ago, I lost TV coverage from Saturday lunchtime to Sunday afternoon and I didn't get one word of apology or refund on my bill.  I pay enough for the facility and still have a V+HD box in the bedroom which is much better than TIVO.  Come on Virgin, get these problems sorted out.

[PrinterElf · Accepted solution]

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zimmergirl wrote:

To anyone considering TIVO, forget it and save your money.  Like other people commenting on it, mine regularly sticks and I have to give it the thumbs up/down play 3 times but why should I have to do this. My last complaint call I made last week had me speaking to a very unhelpful woman who merely told me that the issue with the sticking screen won't be resolved until 31 October at the earliest! The issue with the PIN drives me nuts and I had to put a PIN in when I wanted to watch Coronation Street!  I've had three people come to look at the TIVO box and all of them have said they won't have it. It's slow, there's no picture-in-picture when viewing any Sky channels, no red button, no facility to set a reminder for a channel and no dedicated fault line to ring to contact someone from TIVO, to name but a few. What I can't understand is why did Virgin launch TIVO when clearly faults were present and had not been cleared.  A couple of weekends ago, I lost TV coverage from Saturday lunchtime to Sunday afternoon and I didn't get one word of apology or refund on my bill.  I pay enough for the facility and still have a V+HD box in the bedroom which is much better than TIVO.  Come on Virgin, get these problems sorted out.

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The only two points I would make on your post are that I'm not even sure VM know when this update is coming (despite the CEO proclaiming October), and if they do they're keeping schtum about what updates/fixes are in it. As far as the Picture in Picture on Sky channels, it's a licensing issue - every device which Virgin supply has to be licensed to display Sky channels in the PiP window, and understandably Sky being Sky are dragging their heels on approving it.

Did you actually get a reason/explanation for the TV outage? Did it affect just TiVo or V+ too?

[pfield]

Thanks very much for all the feedback.

As I suspected, Virginmedia have launch a product that is not ready for general release (Perhaps it should be given free to a number of people to beta test rather then charge £50-£100 for a card to be swiped!).

This is very disappointing from a company that I have been recommending to friends and family and really annoying that yet another company can't be bothered to employ the right skill sets in their organisation that ends up giving poor service to their customers.

Interesting they use Marc Warren to advertise TiVo, it looks like a real Hustle!!

[PrinterElf]

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pfield wrote:

Thanks very much for all the feedback.

As I suspected, Virginmedia have launch a product that is not ready for general release (Perhaps it should be given free to a number of people to beta test rather then charge £50-£100 for a card to be swiped!).

This is very disappointing from a company that I have been recommending to friends and family and really annoying that yet another company can't be bothered to employ the right skill sets in their organisation that ends up giving poor service to their customers.

Interesting they use Marc Warren to advertise TiVo, it looks like a real Hustle!!

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I'm not sure how much of the pressure to launch when they did was financial, and how much was public from leaked knowledge of the closed trial. I knew VM were releasing a 1TB box long before it was announced it was TiVo, and wanted it from that point onwards.

I agree there are a lot of bugs, but at the same time there's a philosophy change between V+HD which mimicks a VCR, and TiVo which allows you to search and time-shift content without even knowing when/where it's on to start with. Granted all this would be a lot better with some accurate EPG data.... I flicked the box on before leaving for work this morning (to check that Sky weren't going to screw me over and move the channel the cricket was on again!!) and happened upon Judge Judy which the Info dialogue proudly told me was from 1996, just as Judy made a point about the case being related to an incident in 2005....

Even with all the bugs/issues in the system, fixing them means nothing without a perfect EPG database, which we most definitely don't have...