Forum Discussion

kevcopp99's avatar
kevcopp99
On our wavelength
4 days ago

360 upgrade?

Hi, I am still 50/50 on accepting this upgrade or not? Before I do, some advice & a bit of information would be much appreciated, so thanks in advance. At the moment I have 2 Virgin TiVo V6 boxes in different rooms.

  1. will they still be able to communicate with each other. Stream from one to the other?
  2. will I lose/still have all my recordings that I've not watched yet. But would like to save until I do? 
  3. will my series links & wish lists be saved too?
  4. Lastly is it really worth the trouble? various different options from good to bad?

Honest review needed here, I think. thanks again. 

21 Replies

  • nodrogd's avatar
    nodrogd
    Very Insightful Person

    The first thing to point out is that V360 uses Liberty Globalโ€™s Horizon platform. It is a totally different animal to TiVO & is built around streaming rather than recording. Installing it involves a reformat of the hard drives, so you will lose your recordings. Horizon is a central server based system (that is used outside the UK for cloud recording), so although you will initially have two hard drive boxes, all your recordings are pooled into one list. When you set each recording you will need to specify which box you want to record on, otherwise the request will just default to the last box used for recording. When one of your boxes fails it will be replaced by a streaming box (no HDD or coax connection), so you lose half of your recording capacity. You will have to set up series links again, but you can only do this if the series is currently showing. Wishlists are unfortunately a TiVO patented feature, & therefore not available on Horizon.

    • kevcopp99's avatar
      kevcopp99
      On our wavelength

      Far too many negative comments about this ?

      Enough said . I think Horizon?? Omg the same as the the horizon that made such a mess of the the post office ? If thats the case no way am i having this needless upgrade 

      • Mr_K's avatar
        Mr_K
        Knows their stuff

        It isn't the same 'horizon' as the post office, but its inferior and much cheaper software for VM to provide, hence their keenness and misleading "upgrade" terminology. 

  • Adduxi's avatar
    Adduxi
    Very Insightful Person

    The other question is - what do you think the 360 will give you that you don't have at the minute?

    • kevcopp99's avatar
      kevcopp99
      On our wavelength

      After a great deal if research it appears to be the case that there is NO benefit whatsoever?

      Like most people you hear the word upgrade and yiu think of better faster etc etc .but as I've been finding out this simply not the case here ? Far too many negative comments for me ๐Ÿ˜ž 

  • jpeg1's avatar
    jpeg1
    Alessandro Volta

    "If it isn't bust, don't try to fix it." 

  • japitts's avatar
    japitts
    Very Insightful Person

    will my series links & wish lists be saved too ?

    As has already been mentioned, TiVo-software (which drives TiVo & V6) is fundamentally different to Horizon (which drives TV360). There are many functional differences, but they are different in the same way that Apple is different to Android, and Windows is different to Apple Mac.

    The conversion process includes a reformat of your box's hard drive - everything is lost. Series links, recordings, the lot. Horizon-firmware quite possibly wouldn't recognise anything setup under TiVo-software.

    Wish-list searches are a TiVo-specific feature and are not available on TV360. It offers keyword-searching, but my understanding is that this is similar to the keyword-searches already available on TiVo-firmware.

    • kevcopp99's avatar
      kevcopp99
      On our wavelength

      Enough said . I think Horizon?? Omg the same as the the horizon that made such a mess of the the post office ? If thats the case no way am i having this needless upgrade  far to many negative comments for me ๐Ÿ˜ž 

      • japitts's avatar
        japitts
        Very Insightful Person

        I think Horizon?? Omg the same as the the horizon that made such a mess of the the post office ?

        Not the case. Different software, different company.

  • abuelbanat's avatar
    abuelbanat
    On our wavelength

    Don't do it. 

    I'm genuinely baffled as to how regressive this update was. I was an early adopter of Tivo - went on holiday to Arizona in 2002 and seen it and on my return bought a tivo box that I could use with UK sky. I simply can't fathom how bad this 360 experience is in comparison - the inability to control live TV, the clunky UI - I've been loyal to virgin for years - this will 100% see me leave upon contract renewal

    • nodrogd's avatar
      nodrogd
      Very Insightful Person

      As has been stated many times, itโ€™s not an upgrade, itโ€™s a migration to VMs parent company platform. They are a Europe wide cable operator & want their own in-house platform to be used across all their operations. Progress for them, but not necessarily for us.

      • kevcopp99's avatar
        kevcopp99
        On our wavelength

        Certainly it appears this way .hardly an upgrade then .so  at this time am staying with my Tivo V6 .far too many negative feedbacks about this.did also hear a rumour that thru time we'll all have this new system anyway? As gradually phasing out the tivo box may or may not be true ?? Thanks ๐Ÿ‘ 

    • kevcopp99's avatar
      kevcopp99
      On our wavelength

      Definitely looks more and more like a non starter for me . I'm very happy with my existing tivo V6 box . does all i need .? The advertising blurb makes it look better .thats what an upgrade means to me.but going by all the negativity.am not going to bother now. Thanks ๐Ÿ‘ 

  • Roger_Gooner's avatar
    Roger_Gooner
    Alessandro Volta

    The V6 is probably better developed for broadcast TV but the 360 is continually being developed by LG and with more apps from content owners. These apps for the 360 but not for the V6 include Apple TV+, DAZN, Disney+, Paramount+ and U. (And when the HBO Max app comes to VM it will be on the 360 and Stream boxes but not the V6.) If I were offered the choice I'm not sure I'd go back to the V6 as I use the 360's voice control all the time as it beats having to make multiple button pushes. For those 360 users with large households who want multiroom you can get up to five Stream boxes, so six in total, which isn't possible with a V6 which has a limit of three boxes. 

    And just bear in mind that VM's forums aren't swamped by people like me saying how smoothly their V6 to 360 migration went or that the 360 works well for them.

    • japitts's avatar
      japitts
      Very Insightful Person

      These apps for the 360 but not for the V6 include Apple TV+, DAZN, Disney+, Paramount+ and U

      The V6 has the "U&" app.

    • kevcopp99's avatar
      kevcopp99
      On our wavelength

      use my virgin media tv for viewing the paid for channels in my existing package .not got any use for streaming services like Netflix and the rest? So i guess its not for me .heard about too many people with issues and various problems ๐Ÿ˜ž losing series links and so on ?

      • japitts's avatar
        japitts
        Very Insightful Person

        Netflix & Amazon Prime are available on the V6, it's the (arguably) less popular ones such as Paramount, Disney & co that aren't.

        Roger is right to point out that forums such as these tend to attract either experienced users who post regularly, or users with problems seeking help. Casual users tend not to post reporting good service.

        Losing series links & recordings is by design and openly stated by VM - that's not a fault.

    • Tavis75's avatar
      Tavis75
      Super solver

      If you want those extra streaming apps (and many others that will never come to VM) then a streaming stick of some sort costs peanuts these days (and even a high end streaming device is not massively expensive) and will likely offer a better streaming experience.