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

[jonathanpye]

I see in this debate there are a few assumptions of behaviour when setting x episode and onwards for a series. Either could be right as a rerun on the same channel for a new episode is still a future episode. It is not clear if it means new airings of that episode only.

[withitnow]

Hey all

Also, on point 7, if you want to jump back to live TV after having rewound back, press the back button. 🙂

Thanks

[JoLo1]

Radio stations only appear to be available for live  play, by means if the special Radio selection. On V6 I used to be able to record a program and listen to at my own convenience.  This I would still like to be able to do! Also, because on demand/live pause is not available, these channels should be listed differently; or,  preferably, the full functionality restored. 

[JoLo1]

Interestingly, I was offered a cheaper deal for  more channels; when I moved from Fun to Maxit with the 360. I did ask several times what was the catch,  but was told there was none! Clearly that was not true! Now not able to recover accidently deleted recordings,  not record radio, and not sure if I can pre- set for my favourite series to be automatically recorded when they return to TV, or if series I now set up will automatically record again in the future when there has been a break in the series. 

[kevin1988]

Its terrible compared to TiVo,  Virgin should just admit that they don't know what they are doing and switch back to TiVO. 

[tafrock]

That's where we differ in our opinions. I wouldn't want to go back to the old v6 software myself. I like 360 and to me it's a vast improvement

[ntlworld21]

Have not read all 16 pages of this thread, but I love my V6 box and have just switched my Mum over to VM so she can also enjoy the V6 box and much faster internet, compared to Sky, who she was with (and had Sky Q). 

I knew she would be getting this new 360 box/software but just assumed it had to be *at least* as good as the V6 Tivo box.....oh how wrong I was.

It looks great at first sight, shiny and slick software, but that's just about where the goodness ends.

After having a good play with it, here are all the things that stand out to me:

1. No Quick View feature?! A selling point of VM TV.
2. Cannot go back to deleted recordings and too easy to delete by mistake.
3. SEVEN clicks on the remote to get to your recordings now, rather than the instant access "My Shows" button. This is pathetic.
4. Multiple clicks to access subs and info compared to dedicated buttons?! And when you click "info" it brings up an entire new screen so you cannot read info about the show you are watching while actually watching it.
5. You can no longer record the radio?? Why lose such a simple bit of functionality? The new radio menu looks great, but bring back the record button!
6. Rewinding and fast forwarding is HORRIBLE. So difficult to see where it is going to stop and takes a second to get going (unless using the back 10 seconds, forward 30 seconds arrows).
7. The volume is just as quiet as the V6 box - the TV was on volume 20 on Sky Q compared to around 40-50 on the 360?! Why can VM not make the volume louder on these boxes?

No doubt loads of other stuff too but this was what stood out the most. I hope I don't have to upgrade to this software ANY time soon. I'm sure it could be so much better with the right software updates, only time will tell. But it just feels totally incomplete atm. Sort it out VM!

[PompeyJohnW]

Had the 360 conversion for a little while now. Whilst some things are fine, there are a number of annoying issues. 

• Sound drops out on channels Inc Netflix and can only be rectified by up/down channel repeated pressing, changing input on TV remote or turning TV off and on.
• Series links. We all know the issue with the lack of "New" only facility but I get many repeated recordings of the same programme (History channels repeat their content a lot) and the info on the recordings page often doesn't show you the series/episode number but just the generic programme info. Therefore you have to watch a bit of each recording to find out whether you are really deleting a repeat.
• Used rewind on mini box yesterday for 1st time as I left room. 1 minute only!! What is the effing point of that? This is a massive step back from the old tivo box it replaced.

The voice control works very well. Even recognises all the swear words when something goes wrong! I'm not overly worried about having the latest high quality vision but would just like to be able to save and watch as easily as I did with V6. My mini box just seems to be the equivalent of the first digital receiver I got with Virgin. Should have waited as it looks, from comments above, that the mini boxes are not even being sent out now.

Edit : TV Go now working on tablet and could download. Removed that bullet point.

[jonathanpye]

I can understand the issues when your viewing habits are primarily via the VM box.

In the last few years our households viewing habits have significantly changed and our main viewing is now Netflix, Amazon Prime and Disney Plus via the TV direct. The quality on these 3 streaming services is far superior to VM. Even BBC consumption is streaming via the iplayer on the TV app rather than OTA channels via the VM box 

The only time we use the VM box nowadays is the odd film on Sky Cinema when we cant find a specific film on the above streaming services, live football on both Sky Sports and BT Sport which are sometimes recorded. I may also download to a tablet sky cinema content when travelling through the GO app or live football  if not at home, Wifi permitting.

At christmas we watch the christmas channels but the quality is awful as they are in Standard Definition.

Therefore, our functionality requirements of the 360 are not as comprehensive as some other users, my main things are standard recording, pause, rewind and Fwd live TV.  Download and remote watching on tablet.  Picture and sound quality on main TV.

The one thing that's always been missing that annoys me  is the ability to access a recording remotely via the go app for direct viewing or download on tablet, not just on demand content.

I like the more modern design but I also want full 4k content, dolby vision and atmos support.

[MrGiles22]

I agree that TV360 is an improvement I have got used to it now since the box was changed from Arries to Humax. I quite enjoy it.