Virgin Media Community

[Tenbapps]

Hello Virgin Media Community.

We currently have Virgin Broadband, and Sky TV, but are looking to consolidate our services to one provider.

At the moment, we are paying just over £90.00 per month and it looks like we can pay nearly half that much if we get both from one place.

Being completely honest, I prefer the Sky TV product, but I know that their broadband is nowhere near as fast as Virgin. Sky can only offer 45-60 mbps and I average 200 mbps from Virgin.

This is why we are leaning towards consolidating with Virgin.

I have questions before making a decision and though I have tried to get answers over the phone or on the Live Chat, unfortunately nobody could give me definitive answers, or I was disconnected before the answers came.

A good place to start would be the physical installation of the TV Box.

Please see the photos of our wall socket and what is inside it.

Please also accept my apologies for the embarrassing state of the wall and bad decoration around the box, we moved in nearly four years ago and haven’t got to this room yet!

The cable goes from this wall socket directly to our Hub 3.0 for our internet and wi-fi. I am assuming that the signal for the TV signal also comes from this cable. Or does a second cable need to be fed to my house from the street?

If not, I assume a splitter would be required at this point – one feed to the Hub and one feed to the TV box?

From reading the DIY installation guide on the Virgin Media site, it says that the equipment needs to be within 3 meters of the wall socket. This is true for the Hub, but the TV is approximately 14 meters from the wall socket.

Is this going to be a problem?

If all I need is a splitter and I can be provided with 14-15 meters of the required cable, I would be able install the equipment myself. If this is the case, would I avoid the £35.00 installation fee?

And should the wall socket need replacing to the newer style that I have seen pictures of, I am confident that I would be able to change that too.

Next I would like to ask about the TV packages from Virgin.

From Sky we have what I guess they now call the Signature Package, Sky Movies at half price, no charge for HD services, free box sets and the Formula 1 channel.

Is it possible for Virgin Media to provide us with a like-for-like package?

Saying that though, we have decided that we can do without the Sky Movies as we also have Netflix, I understand that Virgin don’t charge extra for HD services anyway, but the big thing for me is the F1 channel.

Sky let me have this on its own (for a fee) as I have no interest at all in football, cricket, rugby or darts and do not want to have to pay for extra channels I will literally never watch. Is this something Virgin Media can offer too?

Looking at the shop section on Virginmedia.com, it looks like the Big M100 Bundle at £29.99 per month (18-month contract) or the Bigger Bundle at £45.00 per month (18-month contract) would be the ones for us, so long as the F1 channel can be added to either of them on its own.

Is this kind of bundle available to us, or could a custom one be put together like Sky do for us? As mentioned earlier, we are an existing Virgin Media broadband customer and would like to keep our M200 speed internet, can all this be incorporated?

Does the Virgin TV box have Netflix built-in like the SkyQ box does?

And finally, we would have no need for a land line.

I appreciate this is a long post and well done to anyone who has made it this far! It would be useful to know all these answers before committing one way or the other and I thank anyone in advance for their advice and help.

Kind regards,

Ben

[DJ_Shadow1966]

Hello

Regarding the installation of the TV box that would have to be done by the engineer as with the length of cable needed the signal levels will need to be adjusted by the engineer when he installs the box, normally the longest extension that VM will supply is 3m.

Regarding the package you are going to have to speak to the sales team as it isn't something that the forum staff can deal with.

Also to note that the prices that are quoted on the website are for new customers which you are note, you will have to negotiate with the sales team.

Regards Mike

[japitts]

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@Tenbapps wrote:

Next I would like to ask about the TV packages from Virgin.

From Sky we have what I guess they now call the Signature Package, Sky Movies at half price, no charge for HD services, free box sets and the Formula 1 channel.

Is it possible for Virgin Media to provide us with a like-for-like package?

Saying that though, we have decided that we can do without the Sky Movies as we also have Netflix, I understand that Virgin don’t charge extra for HD services anyway, but the big thing for me is the F1 channel.

Sky let me have this on its own (for a fee) as I have no interest at all in football, cricket, rugby or darts and do not want to have to pay for extra channels I will literally never watch. Is this something Virgin Media can offer too?

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As good as anything here, would be for you to use the "build a bundle" site - here - enter any serviceable address, choose "I'm moving to Virgin and am new", and you can play with service & package combinations endlessly.

Virgin only offer Sky Sports as as all-or-nothing setup. The standard price is SD, it's £7 extra for HD - if you choose any bundle with them included (and therefore commit to having these channels for the duration of your contract) they're often discounted.

VM don't charge extra for HD per-se, with an explanatory caveat.. Exactly like Sky, VM have a basic "mixit" bundle that is broadly equivalent to Freeview. At the bottom of this page is a link to the channel guide and the "personal picks". For many channels, the HD equivalent is carried alongside the SD version within the appropriate personal pick, and sometimes there is no SD version. For the Sky-branded channels, the HD version is generally only included in the Maxit TV bundle.

Boxsets are only included in Maxit, and can't be purchased separately. It sounds like you'd need to have Maxit plus Sky Sports as a starter for six. The plus point is that Virgin include BT Sports as inclusive within Maxit.

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@Tenbapps wrote:

Does the Virgin TV box have Netflix built-in like the SkyQ box does?

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Yes, Netflix & Amazon Prime are both included and integrated into the EPG. One caveat here - VM have two TV platforms, the "mature" TiVo-based platform that powers TiVo & V6 boxes, and the new Horizon-based "V360" system that is starting to rollout and currently all new customers are being given.

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@Tenbapps wrote:

And finally, we would have no need for a land line.

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Consider it a freebie. Seriously though - the pricing includes it, and having one gives you extra bundle discounts so you can't "not" have it. What you do with it, is another story.

[Tenbapps]

Thank you for your time in replying, much appreciated.

Not quite as promising as I'd hoped, I did have a go at the bundle builder and to have what I would like came to £119.50 a month, which kind of defeats the object.

Might have to suck it up and make do with the Channel 4 highlights of the F1...

[japitts]

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@Tenbapps wrote:

Thank you for your time in replying, much appreciated.

Not quite as promising as I'd hoped, I did have a go at the bundle builder and to have what I would like came to £119.50 a month, which kind of defeats the object.

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Not sure how you're managing that. You've mentioned M200 broadband, you need Maxit for box-sets and Sky Sports HD. If you include the "free" landline, I make that a tad less than the £119 you've quoted.

[Tenbapps]

Like this:

[japitts]

and if you scroll down?

[Tenbapps]

I'm afraid I don't understand - scroll down what? Where? 

If I scroll the page down, I get to the bottom of the page.

If I scroll the side bar down with the package details it just shows the package details.

Nothing anywhere shows any discounts associated with what I have selected.

[japitts]

On your "build my bundle" page, you've only shown the TV element, not the broadband & landline element.

I suspect you've not added a phoneline. Try doing so, and that reduces your overall bundle price from £119.75 to £85 😉

Whether you use the landline is immaterial. But you'll save £35/month by having one......

[Tenbapps]

That is actually ridiculous... 

The engineers time to install the line, the materials of the line itself, cable, socket etc... what a waste.

And I will never ever use it, but it will save me £35.00 a month.

I wonder if there is some scheme that gives Virgin (and Sky, they've been telling me the same thing) a kick-back or incentive for installing landlines?