Real world experience of Virgin 360 after 4 weeks

[johnau]

Overall, I'm really liking the new service and I believe it stacks up well against Sky.

Pros:
Is it just me or has the picture quality improved significantly now that my V6 boxes have received the software update?
Voice commands.
Fast response times.
Much improved and colourful user interface.
Access to some Sky UHD content - sadly, still no UHD Sports.

However there are a few areas where I believe the experience has gone backwards in useability.

Cons:
EPG no longer shows which programmes are "new"(or when they were first aired).
EPG no longer gives star rating for movies which now means a visit to IMDB to determine if a movie is worth watching.
Multiple key presses required to get to my recorded shows - no dedicated button.
No option to record only new episodes of shows.

The cons may be just ignorance on my part. In which case I'm willing to be corrected.

[japitts]

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@johnau wrote:

Access to some Sky UHD content - sadly, still no UHD Sports.

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Sky UHD OnDemand is available on V6 & 360 boxes.

The EPG issues you mention are indeed a current shortcoming of the 360 platform, although I believe it has an option to record programmes from "series x onwards"

Otherwise, TiVo/V6 is much more functional than 360 in the recording & metadata department.

[golden86]

Overall I am happy with the Virgin 360 software. We need to be concious that the previous TiVo platform was a very mature platform with many years of history, it had time for increment updates to add all those extra  features.  Whilst the expectation might be for the 360 to be feature parity with TiVo but it's not always possible due to patented features or features still in development, we should give it some time. 

[g4hdu]

This downgrade to 360 is the biggest mistake I have made. I have asked for a back rev to V6 but told that is not possible. Seems like I'm now stuck with an inferior system.

Like the Op says, the recording facilities are dire :

No new only, so I now have to get a TV mag every week to identify which programmes are repeats and not rely on series link.

The remote is not ergonomically designed for those with sensory impairment. No stop button just pause/play. Asked for a second remote for my disabled wife to keep by her wheelchair but told not technically possible to use 2 remotes. 

No 'record in HD if available' option

No skip back 15 seconds when fast forwarding. I know I can use left button to go back 10 seconds but that means two more button presses, hardly an improvement.

Pictures on HD go blocky/pixellated so have to watch in SD wasting my money on HD sports. Hardly an upgrade.

I appreciate that it is a new platform but it can hardly be described as an upgrade. Can't wait to be able to leave virgin. Off topic but would love the equivalent of bt's 1572 call protect, another reason to leave virgin and go down the free sat and bt route and save £1,200 per year. 

[japitts]

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@g4hdu wrote:

Pictures on HD go blocky/pixellated so have to watch in SD wasting my money on HD sports. Hardly an upgrade.

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@g4hdu 

That's a fault, if you could ideally start a brand new thread to report this, the staff can pick it up.

Or call into faults on 150 (or 0345 4541111 from a non-VM phone).

[Anonymous]

As much as the [Removed] VIPs try to justify Virgin being such a [Removed] company, there's no excusing that Virgin's products are absolute [Removed], and their customer service is the worst I have ever experienced!

[MOD EDIT: Inappropriate language removed, please review the Forum Guidelines]

[g4hdu]

Thanks for the advice, I phoned 150 and a very helpful person is arranging a technician to call me back. 

[BenMcr]

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@g4hdu wrote:

No 'record in HD if available' option

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The 360 does an 'HD swap' on most channels where both exist, so you'll only ever get either SD or HD depending on your subscription, not both. So there is no real need for that option.

[g4hdu]

I wasn't aware of the HD v SD swap, I will note that for future. Thank you for taking the time to respond

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@BenMcr wrote:

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@g4hdu wrote:

No 'record in HD if available' option

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The 360 does an 'HD swap' on most channels where both exist... 

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[unisoft]

How does that work if you only want to record the SD version?

So UK GOLD HD has a programme, but as it was originally made in SD, I want to save limited disk space and record the SD version only (via UK GOLD + 1 which is SD only)? Minimal difference between 4:3 content on UK Gold HD and UK Gold +1 for example. I'd like to keep a copy of well known comedy programmes on my TIVO, but SD only, not HD.

I could be another channel where there is HD and SD version of the channel and you have subscription rights for both but you record from ANY CHANNEL in series link but want HD Record as "Never".

The Tivo v6 had an option to say "Never" to recording an HD version.