Virgin TV 360 Mini Boxes

[Kiki2]

I am considering moving from BT Broadband with an old style Sky+ box to Virgin Broadband and Virgin TV 360 with the Sports package. Connectivity of the Broadband router and main TV 360 box is fine as in my lounge. My house was wired with coaxial cables running to all rooms when built which I use now to push TV signals and Sky. 

Can I use this existing coaxial cabling to push to Virgin TV 360 Mini boxes or is it 'special' Virgin cabling needed?

[newapollo · Accepted solution]

Hi @Kiki2 

VM use their own coaxial cabling, which is specially shielded to avoid signal issues.

They will place the cabling where you require.

[Kiki2]

Thanks Dave for the quick reply which wasnt quite what I wanted to hear but hey ho

Do you know what outputs the TV 360 box has. I think it has HDMI to connect to a TV but how many HDMIs does it have and are there any other ways of outputting the TV + sounds signal?

[newapollo]

Hi again @Kiki2 

The main 360 has a 1TB hard disk drive - the mini's don't have hard disk drives.

Both the main 360 and the mini 360's have one HDMI 2.0 output, an optical audio outlet, one Ethernet port, and one 3.5mm jack

They also have one usb port (this works as a charging point on some boxes but not on others) and a non working scart out.

EDIT - Both boxes are able to display 4K content.

[roy247]

Hi Kiki2,

You have 1 HDMI out and an optical out for the sound if needed, do you need any other outputs for some reason.

Or more to the point what do you want to connect.

[Kiki2]

hi Roy247 thanks for the reply. Our house has coaxial cabling throughout and coax points in each room. I have a Sky+ box currently which has an output I use to push out into the coaxial cabling which then provides a signal throughout the house for both terrestrial TV and whichever Sky channel the Sky+ box is on.

I am wanting the VM TV 360 box to do similar but sounds like it wont. I can get a couple of Mini 360 boxes but if they cant use the existing cabling could be a bit of a mess to run new cabling.

I want to use the VM TV 360 but seems limited to one room only for me.

[roy247]

Hi Kiki2,

You do need Virgin coax connections to each box and also a network connection, that can either be ethernet cable or wifi. It might be possible to run the coax around outside walls to where you want the mini boxes depending on your property and the mini box locations.

[nodrogd]

If you want to distribute the output from the V360 boxes to coax you need both a HDMI to Composite Video converter plus a modulator. A lot of kit for what is now sub-standard video (HD looks dreadful on a Composite connection).

What you cannot do is use your own coax system to distribute Virgin’s network. The frequencies used will actually conflict with Freeview/DAB radio if used on the same system. VMs coax is designed to keep these signals out as any ingress will corrupt the entire network segment, resulting in all the Virgin customers in the street getting disruption to or loss of their services.

[Kiki2]

Thanks all for the feedback. I am now much wiser about what my options are. I will have a think.

Do you know if Virgin offer a site survey type service where someone could come out and tell me where they will run the cables etc before I order?