TV Go – “Only available at home”

[salaryman]

I’d like to use the Virgin TV Go app to watch my recordings when I’m not at home. I thought this was the whole point of it - “on the go”. Unfortunately this doesn’t work. It only works when I’m on my home network! Surely this is not intended behaviour? I feel it should be able to work over another WiFi or even 5G when away from home (assuming my V6 box is on?). Is anyone else experiencing this and is anyone aware of a fix?

I’m using the latest version of the app on the latest iOS on the latest iPhone 15 Pro. I have tried this with different recordings from BBC, Sky etc. 

 

[japitts]

If you have a V6, then TV Go only provides mobile streaming facilities, it's TV Control that allows in-home streaming & downloading of recordings. Only with a TV360 box are the functions united under TV Go.

VM's licencing agreements with broadcasters - and their T&Cs to you & I - allow for in-home timeshift viewing, hence the requirement to be on the same IP subnet as your STB, to view recordings. That said, quite a few broadcasters allow downloading of recordings at home, for offline viewing whilst mobile.

Thus there are 3 thousand-dollar questions here..

1: Do you have V6 or TV360? The functionality fundamentally differs

2: What content are you trying to view? Recordings or live-streamed broadcasts?

3: And if recordings - which channel(s) & programme (s)?

[salaryman]

Thanks.

• I’m using a V6 as I mentioned in my post. 
• I’m trying to stream recordings not live broadcasts. 
• I’ve tried BBC, ITV, Sky Sports. Same issue. 

[salaryman]

Worth noting that TV Control doesn’t work with the V6

 

[salaryman]

Sounds like if I had a 360 then the streaming of recordings might work?

[japitts]

You have a short time after posting to edit, to save multiple short replies - use the "edit post" option in the top-right corner of your reply.

The first paragraph of my previous reply stated, and was correct - If you have a V6, then in-home control & recording-management is performed by TV Control. Streaming of broadcasts is done by TV Go, and has no in-home requirement. I also have a recollection that a TV360/TV-Go setup doesn't allow for in-home downloads for out-of-home viewing, unlike V6/TV-Control.

I don't believe your issue has anything to do with software version and is likely related to the in-home issue. To download recordings for offline viewing, your V6 & mobile device need to be connected to the same home network as each other, which in laymans terms means the same router.

If you are confident they are, then within TV Control follow Settings > System Info, and on your V6 follow Home > Help & Settings > Settings > Network. The "IP address" should be the same on both. Is it?

Also check in your router, under "connected devices", that the V6 & mobile device are both on the same 192.168.1.xyz block - the xyz should differ, but nothing else can.

[nodrogd]

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@salaryman wrote:

I’d like to use the Virgin TV Go app to watch my recordings when I’m not at home. I thought this was the whole point of it - “on the go”. Unfortunately this doesn’t work. It only works when I’m on my home network! Surely this is not intended behaviour? I feel it should be able to work over another WiFi or even 5G when away from home (assuming my V6 box is on?). Is anyone else experiencing this and is anyone aware of a fix?

I’m using the latest version of the app on the latest iOS on the latest iPhone 15 Pro. I have tried this with different recordings from BBC, Sky etc. 

 

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Virgin Media's agreements with the broadcasters only allow viewing of PVR recordings at the address the account is registered. You may be able to download content from some apps (like the BBC iPlayer) & a few allow downloads of recordings to a portable device. This has always been the case. It is not a new restriction, & also applies to customers with Sky boxes.

[salaryman]

After an hour of immensely frustrating live chat, the person at Virgin said I should be able to watch recordings but there's an issue with my box and they say they need to send an engineer around. This seems nuts to me, but that's what "their system was telling them to do". 

I think @nodrogd is probably correct though, it's a licensing issue but the error message isn't worded very well.

I'm presuming nobody reading this is able to stream recordings to their phone when they're away?

[japitts]

You're absolutely right, the "only available at home" message is pretty clear and self-explanatory. You also implied, and posted a screenshot to the effect of, that you also had general issues with in-home streaming - if so, that would be an in-home connectivity issue.

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@salaryman wrote:

I'm presuming nobody reading this is able to stream recordings to their phone when they're away?

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No, you're not meant to!! As mentioned multiple times, the app is not intended to allow you to. Anything you can in-home stream to a mobile device, you can also download to the same for offline viewing.

[Ashleigh_C]

Hi there @salaryman 

Thank you very much for your post and welcome to the community forums, it's great to have you here. 

I am so sorry that you have faced this issue with your service and thank you to our community team for their help and advise on this so far. 

Are you able to let us know how the engineer visit goes and what they advise? 

Can I also check, are you downloading the programmes as mentioned by our community?