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Mr_Nerv's avatar
Mr_Nerv
Tuning in
2 years ago

V6 box recordings - recover/back up recordings?

As the title suggests, we're due an engineer today as our V6 box is seemingly dying, is there any way to recover/back up recordings?

This happened previously 3 years ago with a former box, lost hours of unique unwatched sporting events, and seemingly gonna happen again, can anyone on the Virgin Media side help, as I assume it'll just be binned, much to our disappointment again...

 

Picture attached of the label if it helps.

 

Thanks!

 

 

[MOD EDIT: Subject title changed for clarity]

recordings
V6

6 Replies

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

    The short answer is no. VM's TV boxes are designed for short-term timeshift viewing, not long-term archiving and retention.

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

    1) Virgin's agreements with the broadcasters only allow recording on a single device for "time-shifting" purposes.

    2) Virgin owns the box & the recordings you make on it, you just rent it.

    3) Any copying of content is effectively a "pirate" copy, & is in breach of copyright. You can still source some kit that will copy content in 240 line VCR standard quality, but it's getting very rare & expensive for the less than standard definition copies it produces.

    • Mr_Nerv's avatar
      Mr_Nerv
      Tuning in
      2 years ago

      I have seen multiple threads previously mentioning 4K pass through boxes and dvr recorders, this was many a moon ago, hence the ask.

      But why offer a service to record programmes if it's seen as a throwaway situation in the event of failure, I don't see any difference that the whole vcr recording to vhs in decades gone, since it's for home purposes I'm of the understanding that it was legal, guessing because you owned the recording device? Happy to be corrected on that.

      But yeah, second time it's happened, box has now been swapped today, everything's lost as no help is at hand, and we're leaving at the end of the contract, as you pay for a service that doesn't live to any standard of support for the customer.

      • japitts's avatar
        japitts
        Very Insightful Person
        2 years ago
        Mr_Nerv wrote:

        I'm of the understanding that it was legal, guessing because you owned the recording device? Happy to be corrected on that.

        If this were the case, you would have to pay for all VM's equipment up-front, before installing. Recording programmes is perfectly legal, and provided for in your agreement with Virgin Media. The equipment is rented - and by the same argument, when your subscription to an individual channel or the platform ceases, so does your access to that content.

        Your equipment has been replaced free of charge within your subscription cost.

  • Roger_Gooner's avatar
    Roger_Gooner
    Alessandro Volta
    2 years ago

    Good luck in finding another Pay TV provider who will enable you to back up your recordings. In fact it's only VM which provides this facility by the SCART socket of its TiVo box which enables SD recordings to a VCR or DVD recorder, and those boxes are heading for the scrap heap.