V6 box recordings - recover/back up recordings?

[Mr_Nerv]

As the title suggests, we're due an engineer today as our V6 box is seemingly dying, is there any way to recover/back up recordings?

This happened previously 3 years ago with a former box, lost hours of unique unwatched sporting events, and seemingly gonna happen again, can anyone on the Virgin Media side help, as I assume it'll just be binned, much to our disappointment again...

Picture attached of the label if it helps.

 

Thanks!

[MOD EDIT: Subject title changed for clarity]

[japitts]

The short answer is no. VM's TV boxes are designed for short-term timeshift viewing, not long-term archiving and retention.

[nodrogd]

1) Virgin's agreements with the broadcasters only allow recording on a single device for "time-shifting" purposes.

2) Virgin owns the box & the recordings you make on it, you just rent it.

3) Any copying of content is effectively a "pirate" copy, & is in breach of copyright. You can still source some kit that will copy content in 240 line VCR standard quality, but it's getting very rare & expensive for the less than standard definition copies it produces.

[Mr_Nerv]

I have seen multiple threads previously mentioning 4K pass through boxes and dvr recorders, this was many a moon ago, hence the ask.

But why offer a service to record programmes if it's seen as a throwaway situation in the event of failure, I don't see any difference that the whole vcr recording to vhs in decades gone, since it's for home purposes I'm of the understanding that it was legal, guessing because you owned the recording device? Happy to be corrected on that.

But yeah, second time it's happened, box has now been swapped today, everything's lost as no help is at hand, and we're leaving at the end of the contract, as you pay for a service that doesn't live to any standard of support for the customer.

[japitts]

---

@Mr_Nerv wrote:

I'm of the understanding that it was legal, guessing because you owned the recording device? Happy to be corrected on that.

---

If this were the case, you would have to pay for all VM's equipment up-front, before installing. Recording programmes is perfectly legal, and provided for in your agreement with Virgin Media. The equipment is rented - and by the same argument, when your subscription to an individual channel or the platform ceases, so does your access to that content.

Your equipment has been replaced free of charge within your subscription cost.

---

[nodrogd]

---

@Mr_Nerv wrote:

I have seen multiple threads previously mentioning 4K pass through boxes and dvr recorders, this was many a moon ago, hence the ask.

But why offer a service to record programmes if it's seen as a throwaway situation in the event of failure, I don't see any difference that the whole vcr recording to vhs in decades gone, since it's for home purposes I'm of the understanding that it was legal, guessing because you owned the recording device? Happy to be corrected on that.

But yeah, second time it's happened, box has now been swapped today, everything's lost as no help is at hand, and we're leaving at the end of the contract, as you pay for a service that doesn't live to any standard of support for the customer.

---

Home recordings have always been a “hot potato” as far as content owners are concerned. The VCR was originally intended as a time-shift device, but quickly became a home archive. Hence when digital technology was adopted the content owners started to fight back. Firstly, they forced manufacturers to remove component video terminals, which cannot be encrypted. With the advent of HD, all connections therefore became HDMI only, where they can enforce content protection as they don’t want you making lossless copies. I have one of the few remaining (and rare) Freeview Blu-Ray recorders that ever made it to the market. This allows me to record in HD to the units hard disk, & then make one copy in HD to Blu-Ray if I want to. You will still find pass through boxes, but the recording outputs are all composite video at 240 lines VHS quality, as this is all the copyright owners will allow to be sold. All the recordings on your V6 hard disk are HDCP encrypted & only decrypt able via a TV.

The only true solution is to move all short term recording to the cloud, which is what Virgins parent company does with the V360 system in the rest of Europe. If the content owners ever decide to allow it here, then you will end up with a disk less box & no loss of recordings. The downside is the content owners then control the time limit you can keep the recording.

[Roger_Gooner]

Good luck in finding another Pay TV provider who will enable you to back up your recordings. In fact it's only VM which provides this facility by the SCART socket of its TiVo box which enables SD recordings to a VCR or DVD recorder, and those boxes are heading for the scrap heap.