Virgin Media Community

[dcumbrian]

Hi People,

I had my Virgin Tv service discontinued over 3 years ago. but use apps on a smart TV and/or Amazon 4k HD Firestick.
On 'My Media' there is an offer to double my broadband speed and add the lowest Tv package for a very modest increase in price, such that I'm tempted.
I noticed on the V6 set-top that it had to be within 3 metres of the router. My router (Superhub3) is upstairs at the back of the house and the Tv is downstairs at the front. My PC is next to the router
and is not wifi enabled so the router isn't going to be moved.
I contacted a chat agent, explained the situation and asked if the V6 to router connection could be by wifi. Told 'No, must be by wire to give reliable connection'. I thought maybe the V6 was not wifi capable. I then found a V6 spec (Virgin website) that stated V6 was dual-band wifi capable.
Checked the community pages and saw other people had in-deed enabled their V6 wifi.

Originally my set-up was router bridged to a second router but found it becoming increasingly unreliable. My present set-up is router in modem mode, connected to 3-node mesh network. Each node has two ethernet ports.
One of the nodes is next to the Tv. The Tv is wired to the node and the Firestick connected to the same node by wifi. The configuration delivers4k quality content from Youtube and Prime Video.

Again. contacted chat agent... can I connect V6 to ethernet on the node.
(And yes, I realise there is still a wifi element in the circuit) but, as stated, the network is very stable delivering 4k quality content).
Again, told 'No, must be to the router'.

I would have thought that it would be an internet connection that was critical for the V6 to function rather than a connection to the router.

Can some techy person explain why the router connection is so important?

If it is, then Virgin will never sell me a TV package. I'm not moving the router and I don't want 100ft of ethernet cable going round/through the house. If I decide to have a Tv service in the future and another supplier can offer broadband good enough to provide 4k TV content, then sadly after many, many years Virgin Media will be history.

Thank you in advance for any explanation.

[apcyberax]

the V6 is used for the OD and updates including the epg. it won't work without a internet connection.

The v6 can be wifi but you still need a coax connection as well

[dcumbrian]

Thanks for the superfast reply.

When I had the Tv service disconnected I just had to cap off the cables (had Tivo and HD boxes) so assume those are the coax you mean and one would be upcapped to connect to the V6?

My concern is will the engineer insist on a router connection rather than to the node or will commonsense prevail. Don't want to book an installation just to tell the engineer to go away lol.

[apcyberax]

correct. you can connect to wifi for the wireless but if the streaming is unstable they will not do anything about it

[dcumbrian]

Hi, again thanks for the quick reply.
I'll give it some thought, I've usually found the engineers are good.
I have a network monitoring device that shows the mesh delivers a strong and stable signal (I watch 4k content) between the nodes and I would connect the V6 by ethernet to the node.

Again, thanks for your help, it's much appreciated.

[apcyberax]

sounds like that would be fine.
The engineers know how the system works. Offshore.... not so much 🙂

[dcumbrian]

Having thought about it,  I logged on today to purchase the upgrade. Noticed that the activation fee was now £84.95

In future, when I'm stopped in the street and asked who provides my internet and tv services with a view to selling their own package......  I'll be listening to what they have to say.

[japitts]

I'd do my own research and comparisons rather than listening to anything that street sellers (with financial incentives) say, but each to their own 🙂

[dcumbrian]

Understand what you're saying. Always do lots of research, just wanting Virginia Media to know about I think about their activation fee.
Recently, a neighbour has sky phone, TV and broadband. They decided they would get rid of the TV part. I did a little research and pointed out that they could have phone, TV and a better broadband with Virgin and with a new customer introductory offer could save OVER £700 on their present annual cost.
They spoke to a few other friends and decided against the offer, stating I was the only one recommending Virgin. I'm now starting to think along the same lines.