V6 has died, should I get it repaired or switch to a 360?

[andrewilley]

My main V6 box seems to have died (not getting past the initial welcome screen and nasty noises when the HDD tries to seek) so will most likely at least need the HDD replacing.

I asked about 18 months ago if the 360 was worth 'upgrading' to, and the feedback at the time was that it was missing a lot of features we regularly use (see https://community.virginmedia.com/t5/Virgin-TV-360/Do-I-want-a-360-or-is-it-too-much-of-a-step-back-... ). However perhaps in the intervening period there have been lots of great updates to bring it at least into line with the original V6 feature set (I know one update went out recently)? But yeah, I know, this is Virgin Media so this might be wishing thinking. 

Anyway, I thought I'd ask again to see what the current state of affairs is, as the two biggies (restoring our existing recorded shows and re-populating 400+ Series Links) will obviously have been decided for me in this instance.

1) Does the 360 have the skip-back 10s / skip-forward 30s feature (not just FastForward/Rewind)? I use that all the time for quick jumps in preference to the coarse control of fast winding .

2) Does the fast-wind feature now have a reaction-time allowance when you finish winding - where when you press Play after 32x winding, it logically jumps back slightly so you don't find yourself 15 seconds into the material you wanted to watch. Once you've used it on the V6, it's pretty much an essential.

3) I always use a Universal Remote, does the 360 support IR commands? And if so where do I find the full command set - ideally with discrete On / Off commands, not just a Power toggle, for use in macros.

4) Are the Series Links still only specific-channel based? The V6 could either do specific channel recordings, or general series searching in case a show popped up elsewhere.

5) Similarly, we use the 'New only' option a lot in our Series Links, does the 360 support that, or only series numbering? So for example we don't end up recording every repeat of Pointless but only episodes that are flagged as 'New'.

6) Can the series display ordering be controlled per each series - so for example Midsomer Murders which pops up fairly randomly might be listed by series order, while other series might be listed by recording date.

7) I hate the Sky Q style system which uses a grid of poster/thumbnail images for its recordings list, I would hope there is an option for a nice tidy scrolling plain text list of shows/folders, as per the V6 interface.

8 ) While we never use "suggestions" (just turn them off completely) I do have several Wishlist phrases set to auto-record any shows that pop up in the guide which match specific user-defined terms (say for example, "Star Wars" or "Harry Potter").

9) The FAQ says the 360 has no Recycle feature, so you can't recover a recording that you or a household member accidentally deleted, or which you later realise you wanted to show to a friend? This is incredibly useful, and we find ourselves using it a surprising amount.

10) I read about enforced parental PIN codes? We have no children in the house so we have ALL parental controls turned off. It would drive us bonkers if every time we went to watch a recording which might have been made after 9pm, it asked for a PIN code.

11) Do the local streaming mini-boxes cover ALL regular channels (we're not interested in sports of movie channels). And can I now finally stream my recordings to my Windows PC as well as to a mobile phone/tablet? I have two 32" screens on my computer, so it's a nonsense to be forced to use a 6.5" phone screen if I just want to casually play something in the background while I'm working.


Sorry for the lengthy post, but if you did get this far, many thanks for any feedback. If the answers are still mostly no, then the 360 would clearly still be a downgrade compared to the V6, not an upgrade, which is a shame.

Andre

[mjpartyboy]

Question 2, I believe is a patented TiVo feature.

[andrewilley]

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@mjpartyboy wrote:
Question 2, I believe is a patented TiVo feature.

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Ah, thanks for the info.

At least if there is a simple -5 secs or -10 secs button, I can still get effectively the same result when dropping out of FastFoward. And those options are pretty ubiquitous in media players, so can't be TiVo patented.

Andre

[japitts]

If your V6 has a diagnosed fault, it will be replaced with a V6 without issue - if you then choose to ask for a TV360 conversion, that can be a separate thing entirely. But to answer some of your points... Others who use TV360 will be more familiar with some...

3: Yes, TV360 series-links are channel-specific whereas TiVo-software allows multi-channel.

5: TV360 has the option of recording "from this episode on", but I think TiVo-software still allows more customisation & control.

8: TV360 doesn't have wishlists.

9: TV360 doesn't have a recycle bin - once a recording is deleted, it's gone.

10: Not quite sure what you're getting at here TBH - time-protected content behaves the same on all TV platforms as regards needing a PIN during the day.

11: Multiroom on TV360 is exactly the same as multiroom on V6 as regards what channels are available. The only difference is that any multiroom install on TV360 is a mini-box without hard drive. Existing V6 will convert into TV360 masters.

[andrewilley]

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@japitts wrote:

If your V6 has a diagnosed fault, it will be replaced with a V6 without issue - if you then choose to ask for a TV360 conversion, that can be a separate thing entirely.

10: Not quite sure what you're getting at here TBH - time-protected content behaves the same on all TV platforms as regards needing a PIN during the day.

11: Multiroom on TV360 is exactly the same as multiroom on V6 as regards what channels are available. The only difference is that any multiroom install on TV360 is a mini-box without hard drive. Existing V6 will convert into TV360 masters.

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Yes, I'm fully expecting our existing V6 to be repaired (it will need a new HDD given the nasty sounds coming from it) or even replaced. I was just thinking that if we are ever going to make the jump to a 360, this would be an ideal time to do it while there are no recordings to catch up on. Thankfully our V6 was only at about 5% when it died (we caught up a lot during the recent sports events hijacking normal telly) as it has been as high as 50% at times.

Re: (10) the V6 never prompts for a PIN for any recordings at all - I'm not even sure I know what it's set to if I'm honest - not for any time of recording nor any time of playback. We've got all parental controls turned off as the house is all adults, and I have no wish to regress into a nanny state.

Re: (11) So any recordings, and/or any live programmes, can be streamed via any mini-box - just like you can with two V6s. Not like some of the limitations of watching programmes via the clunky Android app. Excellent. Can recordings be watched on a PC too, as that would be ideal for me and the V6 does not currently do it - it can't even mirror/stream the phone screen in the Virgin app. So it'd be really nice if this new-fangled 360 actually did something useful, and at the moment I just can't see its USP - or indeed much point all, it seems a very retrograde step in most areas; not to have something as similar as a recycle bin after having been used to one for 10+ years seems bonkers.

Andre

[nodrogd]

The V6 will be replaced. VM don’t do any on-site repairs to their equipment. They just swap out with another unit from the van (either new or a refurb) & the replaced unit gets taken off your account & sent back for refurbishment to go out as another repair replacement.

Only Sky channels are currently broadcasting out of watershed content during the daytime. These channels are subject to Mandatory Daytime Protection under the OFCOM broadcasting code, so PIN protection is locked on irrespective of the settings on the customers box.

https://www.ofcom.org.uk/consultations-and-statements/category-2/mandatory-daytime-protection 

[japitts]

And no, TV360 recordings can't be viewed on a PC.

TV360 uses the TV Go app for all recording functions that a V6 uses TV Control for.