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Old tivo box

Hayls1
Joining in

We have an old tivo box as our 2nd box and it is getting worse with the slowness of everything, streaming is a nightmare whether it loads netflix or if it does whether we get to watch the whole episode. It's got to the point that we don't even attempt the frustration of using it anymore.

It's been like this a while, but with lockdowns and the absolute minefield of trying (and failing) to be able to actually contact someone at Virgin  media, it's getting incredibly frustrating.

 

Any words of advice or help?

 

Thank you.

1 ACCEPTED SOLUTION

Accepted Solutions

japitts
Very Insightful Person
Very Insightful Person

Whilst perfectly servicable and fully supported, the old TiVo boxes are old and well past their prime - there's no escaping that.

You've mentioned having a TiVo as your second box, so I presume you have a V6 as your main box? In which case, your best option by a country mile is to get the TiVo swapped for a V6.

If you're in contract, then there's no cast-iron way of doing this short of asking VM nicely and seeing if they say yes - but there's no incentive on them to do so. If you're out of contract, then you can try to negotiate a box-swap into a new contract bundle conversation and you'll have a pretty good chance.

Be aware that in any such discussion, VM may try to sell you a conversion to the new 360 platform. Whilst there's nothing inherently wrong with this - be aware... this is not TiVo and is substantially different software. Also if you go straight from (what I think is) your current setup to 360, your TiVo will be replaced with a mini-box that doesn't have a hard drive, and will just stream from your master box.

Converting the TiVo to a V6 first, is by far the better option - and if you do decide to convert to 360 later on, both boxes can be migrated by a software drop... but that conversion is entirely voluntary, and you should do so on an informed basis.

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3 REPLIES 3

japitts
Very Insightful Person
Very Insightful Person

Whilst perfectly servicable and fully supported, the old TiVo boxes are old and well past their prime - there's no escaping that.

You've mentioned having a TiVo as your second box, so I presume you have a V6 as your main box? In which case, your best option by a country mile is to get the TiVo swapped for a V6.

If you're in contract, then there's no cast-iron way of doing this short of asking VM nicely and seeing if they say yes - but there's no incentive on them to do so. If you're out of contract, then you can try to negotiate a box-swap into a new contract bundle conversation and you'll have a pretty good chance.

Be aware that in any such discussion, VM may try to sell you a conversion to the new 360 platform. Whilst there's nothing inherently wrong with this - be aware... this is not TiVo and is substantially different software. Also if you go straight from (what I think is) your current setup to 360, your TiVo will be replaced with a mini-box that doesn't have a hard drive, and will just stream from your master box.

Converting the TiVo to a V6 first, is by far the better option - and if you do decide to convert to 360 later on, both boxes can be migrated by a software drop... but that conversion is entirely voluntary, and you should do so on an informed basis.

I'm a Very Insightful Person, I'm here to share knowledge, I don't work for Virgin Media. Learn more

Have I helped? Click Mark as Helpful Answer or use Kudos to say thanks

Thank you.

Yes we have a v6 as our main box. How do I contact virgin to ask about swapping the tivo for a v6? I can't find any details to contact them anywhere.

 

 

japitts
Very Insightful Person
Very Insightful Person

150 from a VM phone, or 0345 4541111 from any other phone.

Just be aware - calling just to ask for a swap with no other reason may not get you the result you want and you're like to come away disappointed. You'll need to give them an incentive to do so. A contract renegotiation is a perfect time to do that, and - to be blunt - you're not entitled to swap your TV box just because you want to.

You're entitled to fault replacements, but not "it's too slow for me" replacements.

I'm a Very Insightful Person, I'm here to share knowledge, I don't work for Virgin Media. Learn more

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