TV 360 - A Step Backwards

[Libanese]

I've now had the TV 360 for a week and a half and, although there are a couple of good things, such as voice control, too many things are just a step backwards from Tivo 6 -

1. No quick TV guide available, just the full guide or single channel display at the bottom of the screen
2. Features that used to be one or two button presses away now need 4 or 5 presses. Accessing recordings being a case in point
3. Not being able to specify new recordings only. After 10 days, my hard drive (single, see next point) is 23% full, mainly with repeats I didn't want after setting up series links
4. On that note, my storage space has been reduced by half, thanks to there being no drive in the mini box
5. Not being able to pause live TV on the mini box for more than 2 minutes. Then, once it starts playing, you can't pause again until you've caught up to Live TV. I mean, what is the point of that?
6. No quick access to programme info. Even when you do access it, you get a full screen promo image which completely covers what it is you're watching
7. With Tivo 6, after rewinding it was easy to go straight back to Live TV by pressing the Stop button. With 360, you have to fast forward until it tells you you're watching Live TV
8. Speaking of the remote, the shapes and textures for main buttons are nowhere near pronounced enough. It's almost impossible to use without looking directly at it

Before answering, assuming you are so inclined, please consider this. I do not accept "it's early days" as an excuse. The software is v4.26, which implies it's been through 3 major revisions and dozens of sub-versions. Basically, it should be much better than it is. I don't see Virgin reducing my monthly cost if they are considering me a beta tester. I also don't see them reducing the cost after giving me a botch job of a second box when I had 2 fully functioning Tivo 6 boxes up to last week.

I suppose I should expect Virgin to have made a pig's ear of it, just like they always do, but I thought that, maybe this time, they had it right. I should have known better

[nodrogd]

A lot of the current features of the V360 system are similar to SkyQ, & there are plenty of complaints on Sky’s forums about their current firmware. To me the V6 in its current form beats Sky+ & SkyQ hands down, & to release a similar system with half the capacity of a 4K SkyQ equivalent box is not going to please customers.

It seems more & more with the rise of streamed content that providers are downgrading the recording kit that is more expensive in favour of apps offering catch-up content. It’s not the same, as invariably when you do miss something it’s never available on these catch-up services.

[Libanese]

I suspect you're right about them putting all their eggs one streaming basket. They're assuming the general TV viewing public are all streaming everything, when this absolutely isn't what's happening in real life.

Frankly, they're making a very good case for IPTV

[DJ_Shadow1966 · Accepted solution]

Hello

On point 7, what you can do is use the Voice Command, Live TV or alternatively using voice command Stop.

Regards Mike

[Libanese]

That's helpful, thanks. It is information that is probably in the instruction booklet that we also didn't get, and which isn't available online.

The engineer who installed it literally said he didn't know anything about any of it, other than you could use voice commands. The only voice command he actually knew about was saying the name of a programme.

[newapollo]

Hi Libanese,

This post by @paul0363 should prove useful to you 360-voice control info 

[DJ_Shadow1966]

Hello

As the box isn't released for everybody in the UK at this time there is no manual, there is some really using useful info on the IE website https://www.virginmedia.ie/virgintv360support/ as IE are using this box for the their services. Beaware some content us specific for IE and may not be available in the UK.

Regards Mike

[Libanese]

Much appreciated, thanks

[Libanese]

This is the point, though. I appreciate all the pointers being given, but it just magnifies how half-**bleep** the whole thing is

[BlueLou]

There is definitely a manual and you should have got one.  I'll get someone to contact you about it. 

A lot of the shortcuts you're looking for can indeed be found using voice control