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Amikom's avatar
Amikom
Joining in
2 months ago
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Replacing an old Tivo

like many others I have at least a 12 yr old TiVo box as a second system. Having just upgraded my tv in that room I realise the TiVo does not support UHD channels for which I pay extra. I called Virgin to try and upgrade to a V6 box and was told I would have to pay £40 per month extra on a new contract to change the box!!! £480 per year !!! Obviously I decided to stay with what I have. I thought they were trying to remove old TiVos  - I wouldn’t mind paying a one off charge to buy a V6 but that apparently was not an option. Is it possible to buy a second hand V6 and would it be supported.?

Replacing old Tivo
  • japitts's avatar
    japitts
    2 months ago

    There's something decidedly fishy about what you've been told re changing your package bundle, but it wouldn't surprise me if this was a euphemism for offering conversion to a TV360. All of VM's TV boxes are owned by them & rented under your contract, so anyone selling V6 privately are technically handling stolen goods.

    Providing you have VM home broadband, faulty TiVo's are replaced with V6 as a matter of course. Does your TiVo have any service faults?

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  • japitts's avatar
    japitts
    Very Insightful Person
    2 months ago

    There's something decidedly fishy about what you've been told re changing your package bundle, but it wouldn't surprise me if this was a euphemism for offering conversion to a TV360. All of VM's TV boxes are owned by them & rented under your contract, so anyone selling V6 privately are technically handling stolen goods.

    Providing you have VM home broadband, faulty TiVo's are replaced with V6 as a matter of course. Does your TiVo have any service faults?

  • nodrogd's avatar
    nodrogd
    Very Insightful Person
    2 months ago

    You rent the boxes from VM, you never own them. Also VM is a "closed" TV system. When boxes are sent out to you the serial numbers are pre-linked to your account, so will authenticate when you connect them to the segment of the network you reside on. So VM won't authorise a box that has not been sent out by them, or that is not connected to the correct network segment it is supposed to be used on.

  • jpeg1's avatar
    jpeg1
    Alessandro Volta
    2 months ago

    Are you sure the £40 charge isn't a one-off rather than a monthly increase? 

    Also be sure that you do get a V6 and not a 360 "upgrade". 

    • Adduxi's avatar
      Adduxi
      Very Insightful Person
      2 months ago

      Perhaps the devil is in the detail.  It's not an "upgrade" to a V6, it's a replacement for an ancient old Tivo.  So the extra costs may be due to the wording of the request?  As noted above, it's a pity there are no faults on that old Tivo, for a clean swap out by an engineer to a V6 .

      • japitts's avatar
        japitts
        Very Insightful Person
        2 months ago

        "Upgrade" opens up a whole can of worms though Adduxi... does it just mean "newer" or does it also need mean "better"? The former is pretty easily proven, the latter can be subjective.

        TiVo > V6 is a clear upgrade. Newer hardware with the same software.

  • Amikom's avatar
    Amikom
    Joining in
    2 months ago

    I suspected that all boxes would remain the property of virgin and be tied to my account.
    No it definitely was not a one-off charge as she wanted me to agree to a new contract. Also I was told that it would be to 360 which I don’t want. 

    Apologies for using of the word upgrade - I did request a replacement but was told it would be an upgrade to a new box. Hence I have decided to stay with what I have as unfortunately there are no problems with my old TiVo box.

    Thanks for your responses