Setup of BB, TV and phone

[Rad1o]

Hello,

I returned to Virgin from BT after a few years as the BT price was going up and Virgin threw in a good offer.

However the setup with Virgin now is quite different and arkward.

We had been with NTL years ago and had phone lines upstairs and downstairs, and for years our router has been upstairs in the study, even when Virgin went to fibre a coax cable was pulled threw the floors and we had high speed BB with the old hub 3 being upstairs. I signed up 4 weeks ago and agreed to connect the kit myself to the existing sockets - or at least that was my assumption. I received the kit yesterday and connected the router and it is up and running o.k. I was surprised about the amount of wiring that came with it. So carried on with the TV today.....

The problem - for me - is, that the router is upstairs and there to stay, the TV and thus the TV box will be in the sitting room downstairs, and the main phone socket is in the dining room. Virgin seems to assume, that everything - router, TV, phone - is all concentrated in one place in every house.

I connected the TV box to the TV and set up the Wifi on the TV box which states a very good connection and speed. As the router TV cable cannot plug straight into the TV box I thought I would be clever and connect the TV cable from the router to the house coax TV socket and another coax cable in the sitting room from the wall socket to the TV box. I keep getting a CS2004 error. BUT the TV box is able to give me a programme guide and display catchup TV but strange enough it will not show live TV of different sources, i.e. Freeview or BT Sport , Surosport, which would come in via the fibre, i.e. Wifi anyway. I have rebooted the router and the TV box with the same result.

I did look up the error, and my question is, whether there is a work around the most simple and cheapest of connections - the coax - to get the TV box to work?

[-tony-]

you decided to use the house coax - wrong - you cannot just use any old coax - it has to be to VM spec and they need to install it - so ring them tell them its not working - turn the hub3 off - its easier to argue its not working and book a tech

dial 150 or 0345 454 1111 and follow the prompts to - 'thinking of leaving us' - dont worry about that they do much more - open 8am -10pm 7 days a week - should take you to a UK call centre

talk to the UK if you can its easier

as to the phone - i assume you now have voip so the phone or a line will plug into the hub - you can use extensions but you must start at the hub

if and when you get a tech visit ask for a cable and wall box for the phone that plugs into the hub - once you have that you can add your old extension circuit back in

and again its not working so dont let them charge you £99 to sort it

[nodrogd]

All the apps, firmware update & the EPG run off your hub. The live channels are broadcast services, so won’t work without the coax.

VM use specialised coax that is designed to keep Freeview, DAB radio & 4/5G mobile phone signals, all of which use the same frequencies as cable services, out of the network. So using normal coax risks injecting noise onto the local segment. These signals can be amplified by the cabinet & disrupt the services of everyone connected to it. Also adding a further length of coax to an existing install changes the power levels. This is more likely the reason your TV does not work.

If you contact VM within 30 days of your self-install they should come out FOC to make the required changes in the house & adjust the levels in the cabinet.

[Rad1o]

Thanks for the replies.

What are the required changes to the house?

I do want major building works just for coming back to Virgin.

Going through some treads I saw a link to TV boxes and the old TV V6 box. That did not require the fancy new coax and was happy with a standard one. Are they still available?

I have already spoken to 150 and told / asked them that the hub is o.k. and the TV is not and they are going to send an engineer out.

We still have the option of going back to BT..... for less speed, working TV and more money.

I also wanted to ask about the purpose of the thin patch lead that runs in a loop to both coax ends.

[nodrogd]

You will have been given three lengths of coax, a splitter, an Ethernet cable to connect the TV box to the hub for the Apps/Updates/EPG as previously described, & an RJ11 to BT adaptor for the phone line.

The tech will split the incoming coax, either inside wiring internally or if feasible outside the house, creating a new entry point into the room required from an outside wall.

[Rad1o]

Actually a splitter does not sound too bad as the virgin media cable runs through the garage, but behind insulation, kind of past the TV.

What kind of socket does the coax cable need? Is it a femal RF socket? Does it have to be isolated as in the link?

https://www.hamilton-litestat.com/decorative-wiring-accessories/eurofix/television-coaxial-sockets-m...

[nodrogd]

This is the type of isolated outlet VM now installs:

New Euro outlet

[Z92]

BT use your existing TV aerial and broadband to provide TV services. You can do this with virgin as well if you don't want to provide the necessary coax to the TV box. Just remove TV from your package and use your existing aerial and acquire suitable packages from bt/sky over your broadband.