Bring back TIVO!

[Planetcandyflos]

Forced to 'upgrade' to 360 just over a month ago and it is diabolical. I'd read reviews and put off upgrade for as long as possible, in the hope the awfulness would have been outweighed by continued improvements but it hasn't and its truly awful. No stop feature, no auto record of channel it was on, poor user interface, slow sluggish unresponsive system, just a massive step back so the system is as bad as customer service. Roll on October 2025 and I can leave this ridiculous contract 

[docmac21]

Thank you for your reply japitts.

The BBC1 Breakfast programme gave me Hampshire local news and weather up until the change from V6 to TV360 - now I get a choice of London or Wales!

[japitts]

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@docmac21 wrote:

The BBC1 Breakfast programme gave me Hampshire local news and weather up until the change from V6 to TV360 - now I get a choice of London or Wales!

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Where in the country are you? And what do you mean by "get a choice"? - are you choosing 101 vs an alternative region under the 85x positions? Fellow VIP @nodrogd might have a theory on this - I don't follow BBC Breakfast but suspect there may be a quirk with the opt-outs here

[docmac21]

I am in Hampshire. I have been trying BBC1 on channel 101 with London local news and on channel 864 (I now see this is for Wales). I see now that there are 4 'extra' BBC1 channels 861, 862, 863 and 864 but none of them give me Hampshire. It must be that they used to stream a non-HD BBC1 channel that gave me local news but the HD ones do not do this. So the  channels have not  changed, it's just that I cannot get non-HD BBC1. It is still a loss.

V6 also used to let me do 'manual recordings (I could set the exact start and end times) so that I could pick out the local weather at 8:45 in the morning.

[nodrogd]

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@docmac21 wrote:

I am in Hampshire. I have been trying BBC1 on channel 101 with London local news and on channel 864 (I now see this is for Wales). I see now that there are 4 'extra' BBC1 channels 861, 862, 863 and 864 but none of them give me Hampshire. It must be that they used to stream a non-HD BBC1 channel that gave me local news but the HD ones do not do this. So the  channels have not  changed, it's just that I cannot get non-HD BBC1. It is still a loss.

V6 also used to let me do 'manual recordings (I could set the exact start and end times) so that I could pick out the local weather at 8:45 in the morning.

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If the channel banner at the bottom of the screen differs from the region you are getting then it is a BBC problem & is temporary. Northern parts of Hampshire are fed from the Guildford headend, so get London programmes on 101 & 103. In the overlap area you should get alternate regions on 858 for BBC & 870 or 871 for ITV. The national regions in the 861-865 range are seen by all customers.

V360 Horizon does not have a manual record option, mainly due to it being developed for cloud recording where you cannot overlap programmes.

[Mr_K]

Are we sure this is an 'upgrade'?  Seems to be lots of functions the V6 has, that the 360 doesn't.     

Could they mean it's an upgrade to VMs profits, saving on Tivo licences for the extra functionality, and replaced it with their own cheap as chips downgraded system  ? Maybe that's what they mean? 

[Red_Wimp]

Have you looked at channel 858?

[Red_Wimp]

I wish we could hear something from the VM hierarchy that they are listening and that they are looking to develop the software to answer some of the criticisms (or should I phrase suggestions for improvement).  I accept that not everything could come at once but if customers could see some path forward it might stave off a lot off dissatisfied customers. 

[nodrogd]

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@Red_Wimp wrote:

I wish we could hear something from the VM hierarchy that they are listening and that they are looking to develop the software to answer some of the criticisms (or should I phrase suggestions for improvement).  I accept that not everything could come at once but if customers could see some path forward it might stave off a lot off dissatisfied customers. 

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The scope for "development" is limited as the core firmware is not VM property but that if it's parent company. Horizon has been going for 10 years now across the rest of Europe as a cloud recording medium. It has had to be heavily modified to plicate the broadcasting agreements in the UK & Ireland, which restrict recordings to being stored at the address the account is held. Furthermore, the traditional cable services used by V360 are being abandoned by VM over the coming years where V360 will be replaced by diskless Flex/Stream boxes across the entire network. I am now hearing the first hints that cloud recording may be on the way, but it will be broadcaster dependent & some will still force you onto catch-up services to impose advertising on you whether you like it or not.

[Roger_Gooner]

Liberty Global has had a team developing Horizon 4 for several years, and TiVo licence-paying will come to an end. It would be madness to do otherwise. Futhermore TiVo is not being developed but we do get Horizon releases. Some people grumble about Horizon but the 360 performs all the key functions of a STB perfectly well, and has voice control which I find a substantial benefit.

[Tavis75]

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@Roger_Gooner wrote:

Some people grumble about Horizon but the 360 performs all the key functions of a STB perfectly well

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As does every other PVR, but you can get most of those without a subscription. Although I'd argue that some of the missing things like Undelete and a Series Link manager are pretty key functions.