Is 360 comparable to TiVo?

[deltaflyer]

I rang Virgin the other day to ask if they could better the price of my bill and they said that they were going to upgrade everything that I had.  I assumed it was just newer TiVo boxes, but the Virgin 360 boxes arrived instead.  I just rang Virgin, because I thought there had been some mistake and they told me that TiVo was coming to an end in the next couple of months.  I am extremely confused now, because there was TiVo, V6 and now 360...and the guy on the phone said that the 360 will do exactly what the TiVo did, but unless I plug the boxes in, I just don't know.  Can anyone confirm for me whether TiVo really is going, if V6 remains and is comparable, or if 360 is the way forward, the only way and whether it really can do all that TiVo has...pausing live tv, recording, having a planner, etc.

[deltaflyer]

I rang Virgin the other day to ask if they could better the price of my bill and they said that they were going to upgrade everything that I had.  I assumed it was just newer TiVo boxes, but the Virgin 360 boxes arrived instead.  I just rang Virgin, because I thought there had been some mistake and they told me that TiVo was coming to an end in the next couple of months.  I am extremely confused now, because there was TiVo, V6 and now 360...and the guy on the phone said that the 360 will do exactly what the TiVo did, but unless I plug the boxes in, I just don't know.  Can anyone confirm for me whether TiVo really is going, if V6 remains and is comparable, or if 360 is the way forward, the only way and whether it really can do all that TiVo has...pausing live tv, recording, having a planner, etc.

[deltaflyer]

I rang Virgin the other day to ask if they could better the price of my bill and they said that they were going to upgrade everything that I had.  I assumed it was just newer TiVo boxes, but the Virgin 360 boxes arrived instead.  I just rang Virgin, because I thought there had been some mistake and they told me that TiVo was coming to an end in the next couple of months.  I am extremely confused now, because there was TiVo, V6 and now 360...and the guy on the phone said that the 360 will do exactly what the TiVo did, but unless I plug the boxes in, I just don't know.  Can anyone confirm for me whether TiVo really is going, if V6 remains and is comparable, or if 360 is the way forward, the only way and whether it really can do all that TiVo has...pausing live tv, recording, having a planner, etc.

[deltaflyer]

Right now, I have two TiVo boxes in my house.  One upstairs for me and the other downstairs for my parents.  They're totally independent of each other.  Virgin have just upgraded me to 360, after telling me that TiVo is coming to an end.  I haven't installed the 360 boxes yet, but I read a few things that have made me unsure.  The mini box apparently has no hard drive and someone said that a feature was to be watching something on one box and be able to pick it up on another...that's not what I'm after.  My parents and I watch/record different programmes and I don't want their programmes on my planner and vice-versa.  So, are boxes basically just one box, with one planner and are we going to have to share it?  I notice that the main box also requires an ethernet cable, which is in my room with the router, so even if it was possible to have two of the main boxes, I would have no means of connecting the other one downstairs.  Can someone tell me if my worst fears about this are true?

[japitts]

First thing, forum guidelines do ask you to only post your query in one forum and not "spam" across threads - I've tidied these all up for you. And sorry, my reply will be lengthy.

TiVo-software, that drives V6 & TiVo-boxes, is still live and fully supported but is now ringfenced. Existing customers can keep it and conversions to 360 are completely voluntary, but CS quite often offer to change your TV software at the same time as you re-contract your bundle. The two transactions are different & separate, but often done at the same time. These conversions are voluntary, but irreversible - once you've gone to 360, there's no going back to TiVo/V6.

360-software is totally different to TiVo-software, and the two platforms do have some fundamental differences. One that you've come across is the multiroom setup. In TiVo/V6-land, all multiroom boxes are fully functional with recording and pausing facilities, and multi-room streaming in both directions. In 360-land, multiroom boxes (except for converted V6) are minis that don't have hard drives. You can set and watch recordings on minis, but you're slaving from the master to do so. The onboard memory allows for approx 4-5 minutes of live pause - so if you want to pause for longer on a mini, you need to set the programme to record on the master and then "stream" the recording instead.

There's photos of the boxes here - any V6 that you had, would software-convert into 360-masters, any additional TiVo's would be hardware-swapped into 360-minis. Anyone that's told you that 360 does everything TiVo-does, is telling a porkie-pie, the two platforms are fundamentally different. They do many of the same things for sure, but many are done differently. Both have pros & cons. Take a read of this thread which covers some of the more glaring differences.

[deltaflyer]

Thank you for that and genuinely...no spam intended, but it was a question I felt appropriate for all three subdivisions and I wasn't sure which one might get me the answer I needed.

[Akua_A]

Hi @deltaflyer,

Welcome back to our community forums. We are glad to see you are interested in upgrading your TV box with us. 

We want to do our best to bring clarity in order to best help your decision. Was the great advice given by @japitts useful? Do you need any further help?

Thanks,