Can’t Play Recordings on Second Box

[GuyMal]

When I try to play a recording on the second box I get the following message; “Virgin TV1 is offline, or not connecting. Turn it on to watch your recordings”.

I have tried various combinations of rebooting the boxes, and I can play recordings on box 2 after just rebooting box 1 (using the 0/1 switch on the back of the box). This works even if I don’t turn box 1 on using the remote. But after an hour or two it becomes impossible to play recordings on box 2, and when I try I get the message quoted above.

It’s been like this for ages. Can anyone help?

[roy247]

Is the 360 main box set to fast start or active start and connected to your hub using an ethernet cable.

[GuyMal]

Hi Roy

It’s set to Eco start and is not connected to the hub by an Ethernet cable. The hub and main box are in different rooms.

[GuyMal]

The hub is connected to the second box by an Ethernet cable.

[roy247 · Accepted solution]

The main box needs to set to fast start or active start so the mini box can wake it up to watch recordings, if it's set to eco start it's like having the box turned off as far as the mini box is concerned.

Active start is the best compromise between economy and usability, ethernet cable is always the preferred connection but if you have a strong wifi signal it should be OK, 2.4ghz connection will give the strongest signal.

[GuyMal]

Thanks Roy
That sounds really helpful. I generally turn the boxes off - using the remote - when we’re not watching TV. Would it be better to leave the main box on all the time?
When I first got the 360 box I worked out the electricity saving from Eco start and it was negligible, so have switched to active. 
Virgin recently persuaded me to upgrade my WiFi, though it isn’t performing as promised (neither was the former setup), but it’s never quite bad enough for me to do anything about it. If I still get the problem after following your advice then I’ll ask Virgin about the WiFi. 
Thanks again.

[roy247]

Turning the boxes off with the remote will just put them in standby and is the best option, if you turn them off at the plug then if there are any overnight updates to the box you won't get them until you power the box back on and it will be slow to start up, same with the TV guide updates.

[Sabrina_B]

Hi @GuyMal 👋.

Thanks for reaching out to us and welcome to the Community Forums. Apologies for the issues that you have been having with your TV boxes, has this now been resolved and can I ask the issues that you have been having with your WiFi?

Sabrina

[GuyMal]

My second box won’t play back recordings. I phoned 150 (this afternoon) but it wasn’t working so I phoned 03454541111 and went through the automated checklist. I said everything was fine and they sent me a link and did a hard reset on the hub. The second box still won’t play - Virgin said they’d chat online but when I clicked the link to do this it wasn’t functioning so I came here.

This has been an intermittent fault since we joined Virgin in April 2023. They recently sent us a pod, which I’ve plugged in, but there are no ‘internal’ walls between the hub (which is next to the primary box) and the second box, which is only about 5 metres away (albeit on a different floor). I think the second box is faulty. Previously the positions of the 2 TV boxes were reversed (because we mostly watch TV in the bedroom where the second box currently is), but swapping them hasn’t helped long term. I have tried switching the 2nd TV box off and on but that didn’t help - I am about to try rebooting it at the plug, but even if that works I still need a permanent fix.

My broadband upload speed has been a consistent 192 today.

[GuyMal]

Rebooting the second TV box didn’t work.

I meant to say, I can still access (at least) 2 streaming services using the second TV box.