What is better about 360 over regular Virgin TV?

[timo91]

We have had Virgin TV for about three years since moved to current house as we cannot get Sky. I really find the UI very poor compared to Sky Q that we had before. Specifically it not showing you if you have watched a recorded episode or not and not being able to view the film/programme when fast forwarding (just seeing the time bar at the bottom and having to guess where you are in the programme).

I have just accidentally stumbled on something called Virgin 360 (why didn't they email me when they launched it I wonder?!) and wonder if it is any better?

Is it any more expensive?

We are currently on Maxit TV and M600 BB. The TV boxes are both Tivo (I read about V6 boxes but don't know what the difference is so maybe we have those. The remotes we have are certainly identical to an old Tivo remote I used to have years ago).

[timo91]

Edit to the above: I see that all the reviews say 360 is available to customers on the "Ultimate oomph" bundle. That doesn't seem to exist! We are on Maxit TV which is described as their "top TV tier". Confused!

[japitts · Accepted solution]

If you've had Virgin TV for 3 years, you'll have one of the existing TiVo or V6 boxes - there's photos here , these both run TiVo-platform software.

360 is the newest software platform which supercedes TiVo, and all new TV installs since Dec 2020 have been to 360. TiVo is now only available to TV-only customers, and if you were having VM broadband installed you could no longer have TiVo. The difference is because TiVo's have an in-built cablemodem for all the online functions, whereas V6 & 360 (which are the same hardware, but just different software & remotes) don't, so need VM broadband to work.

Existing TiVo/V6 customers can keep it for as long as you want it, and conversions to 360 are competely voluntary. Many of the current/recent TV packages heavily promote 360, but you are quite free to move to one of these newer bundles and keep your existing equipment if you want. You can also swap out a legacy TiVo for a V6 if you choose to. But once you've converted to 360, you can't go back to TiVo/V6 - so if you choose to convert, do so on an informed basis.

There's, literally, a thousand and one threads comparing the two platforms if you search around here - but one of the better ones is here 

[timo91]

Thanks @japitts. I will research some more (I only found out it existed this morning!) but it looks like it could be only £24 to upgrade, in which case definitely worth trying before going to Sky Glass, which I was looking at when I found Virgin 360.

Question: people mention that you have to search Netflix separately but that was going to be fixed an update; has that happened do you know?

[G4DDS]

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@japitts wrote:

Existing TiVo/V6 customers can keep it for as long as you want it, and conversions to 360 are competely voluntary. Many of the current/recent TV packages heavily promote 360, but you are quite free to move to one of these newer bundles and keep your existing equipment if you want. You can also swap out a legacy TiVo for a V6 if you choose to. But once you've converted to 360, you can't go back to TiVo/V6 - so if you choose to convert, do so on an informed basis.

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Keeping my V6's as long as possible. I want more features (i.e. wishlists added) and 3 proper boxes with their own hard drives (not minis) before I would even consider a move to 360.

[newapollo]

Hi @timo91 

I suggest that you update your TIVO boxes to the V6 boxes first (providing you have broadband with VM) as that way you will retain the recording function on both boxes as they will both have hard drives.

If you do a straight swap to 360 then you will receive a 360 main box and a 360 mini box. The mini box doesn't have a hard drive. 

Once you've got the V6 boxes have a chat to retentions (thinking of leaving us) and negotiate a new price in exchange for a new contract and a swap to the 360 platform.

Netflix still hasn't been integrated into the Search feature,  and no word yet when it will be available within search.

EDIT  The Ultimate Oomph bundle is now called the Ultimate Volt bundle and includes all TV channels (Max TV), plus Sky Sports in HD, BT Sports in HD and UHD, Sky Cinema in HD, unlimited calls, an unlimited sim (O2) and broadband speeds up to 1Gig dependant on your area

[timo91]

Thanks @newapollo. I have identified that I have the V6 boxes. 

I am confused over thebundle I am on though as it is described  (in My Account) as "TV doesn't get much better than this, you're on our top TV tier" and the bb as "Our broadband doesn't get quicker than this, you're on our top speed broadband tier". I also have an unlimited sim as part of the bundle.  So, that sounds like I can't subscribe to anything higher.

The missus is pretty set on Sky Glass as she hates the V6 functionality/UI but I suggested she tries 360 first. But she wants to sign up to a new 18mth contract just to save on the upgrade fee!! Figure that one out!

[newapollo]

Hi again @timo91 

Your wife sounds exactly like a lot of people I know 😉

If you speak to retentions you might get away with the £25 fee for the new remotes (you are only charged for one) and as I indicated earlier you can probably negotiate a better price at the same time.

I'm on the Ultimate Oomph bundle so have Maxit TV plus the sports channels etc that I indicated. There is a separate Max package which has now discontinued and that's the one you'll be on, the only difference between Max (Full House) and Maxit is unless you take the Ultimate oomph package you would loose the kids channels (although you can add them for an extra fiver a month.

You can compare the channels on each package here ChannelGuide_December_2021.pdf 

Looking at that page the older max package is the same as the older Full House package - so compare colums 4 and 6.

There have been quiet a few negative reviews about Sky Glass - here's one of them https://www.whathifi.com/reviews/sky-glass 

Also issues on the Sky Community forums regarding Sky Glass, eg sound dropouts, the remote (puck) used to have Sky on a second TV not working, the Glass doesn't always work correctly with other ISP's (so you might have to switch broadband to Sky or another ISP and have lower speeds)

The initial Sky Puck is £50 plus a £10 monthly subscription  cost 

https://helpforum.sky.com/t5/Sky-Glass/bd-p/sky-glass 

[timo91]

Thanks Dave, much appreciated. Yes, Glass sounds pretty poor. Missus wants Sky Q back and everything I have read suggests Glass is not comparable to Q at all, on top of issues with the hardware. Plus, we don't need a new TV!

It's her money so she can do what she wants (she will anyway no matter how much research I present her with) 🙂

[NinjaMeerkat]

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@timo91 wrote:

Thanks Dave, much appreciated. Yes, Glass sounds pretty poor. Missus wants Sky Q back and everything I have read suggests Glass is not comparable to Q at all, on top of issues with the hardware. Plus, we don't need a new TV!

It's her money so she can do what she wants (she will anyway no matter how much research I present her with) 🙂

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Bear in mind that the TV provided as part of the Glass package is a low tier model and by all accounts pretty poor.