Forum Discussion

Anonymous's avatar
Anonymous
3 months ago

What operating system does the 360 line of boxes run?

Hello! I just had a random thought and I was wondering if anyone on this forum has the answer to it. I was wondering what operating system the Virgin TV 360 box runs on, is it Virgin Media's own so...
  • newapollo's avatar
    newapollo
    3 months ago

    Liberty Global own Virgin Media.  LG have their own inhouse Horizon Entertainment platform which has been in use throughout Europe (with updates/refinements) since it's introduction in 2012.

    The page you linked to shows LG's mini TV box which is the same box as VM's Stream (Flex).

    The boxes are run on the Horizon platform  which is the same as the 360 platform. The major difference is that LG's boxes in Europe use cloud recording as those boxes don't have a physical hard drive, whereas VM UK's main 360 box does have a hard drive for recordings (they haven't yet reached agreement with the UK broadcasters for cloud recording but that will come)

    I would also hazard a guess that in time the main 360 box will be dropped along with the 360 mini box which doesn't have a hard drive, and that VM will switch to using the Stream (Flex) box for all customers. 

    The main reason why I think that is due to VMO2 switching from HFC (Hybrid Fibre Coaxial) to RFOG (Radio Frequency over Glass) and now updating the network to FTTP XGSPON where the fibre optic is used all the way to the router (in VMs case using their latest Hub 5x) with the technology of 10Gbps symmetric upload and downloads  which is used by most altnets building FTTP networks. VM's current TV offering is cable based and so can't run over XGSPON hence currently VM customers in those areas can only be issued with the Stream (Flex) boxes for TV over the internet.

    See also /liberty-global-launches-next-gen-entertainment-platform-horizon-4/  and

    /libertyglobal.com/blog/celebrating-innovation-with-our-horizon-entertainment-platform/ 

newapollo's avatar
newapollo
Very Insightful Person
3 months ago

Liberty Global own Virgin Media.  LG have their own inhouse Horizon Entertainment platform which has been in use throughout Europe (with updates/refinements) since it's introduction in 2012.

The page you linked to shows LG's mini TV box which is the same box as VM's Stream (Flex).

The boxes are run on the Horizon platform  which is the same as the 360 platform. The major difference is that LG's boxes in Europe use cloud recording as those boxes don't have a physical hard drive, whereas VM UK's main 360 box does have a hard drive for recordings (they haven't yet reached agreement with the UK broadcasters for cloud recording but that will come)

I would also hazard a guess that in time the main 360 box will be dropped along with the 360 mini box which doesn't have a hard drive, and that VM will switch to using the Stream (Flex) box for all customers. 

The main reason why I think that is due to VMO2 switching from HFC (Hybrid Fibre Coaxial) to RFOG (Radio Frequency over Glass) and now updating the network to FTTP XGSPON where the fibre optic is used all the way to the router (in VMs case using their latest Hub 5x) with the technology of 10Gbps symmetric upload and downloads  which is used by most altnets building FTTP networks. VM's current TV offering is cable based and so can't run over XGSPON hence currently VM customers in those areas can only be issued with the Stream (Flex) boxes for TV over the internet.

See also /liberty-global-launches-next-gen-entertainment-platform-horizon-4/  and

/libertyglobal.com/blog/celebrating-innovation-with-our-horizon-entertainment-platform/