Limited Offerings

[tommy_boi]

Hi there I’ve been waiting for virgin media to come to town for years now and finally the services become active on my road yesterday, but it seems when I check what I can get on the website it’s only offering me the stream service and doesn’t seem to be the full box/recording package, why is this, are there some areas that can only get the internet side of things and the stream, confused? 

[nodrogd]

You are in one of the new full fibre XGS-PON areas. These are the start of Virgins transition away from traditional cable services. The V360 service is a RF based broadcast service, so is only available on the traditional cable network, which is for the most part copper coaxial cable, not fibre.

With future expansion & rule changes Virgin may offer both cloud recording & multi-room Stream boxes, but for the time being there are no recording facilities with stream (it currently has to be classed as a Broadband add-on, not a TV product under the rules Virgin operates under). Most channels offer a streaming catch-up facility.

[tommy_boi]

Seems rather stupid that so im in a new technology network area yet they have restricted the main features like a proper box that allows recording, would of thought they should be improving things not taking back features when my Sky Q box does all of that, well it doesn’t seem like I’ll be ditching the dish for virgin media anytime soon then, very disappointing, there’s a service from Sky called Sky Stream and I don’t like that, doesn’t allow recording either, seems strange as my sister who’s a few rounds away can get the box in her area but yet not here, but anyway doesn’t seem like a leap in the right direction cutting away recording/series link etc, daft that. 

[nodrogd]

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@tommy_boi wrote:

Seems rather stupid that so im in a new technology network area yet they have restricted the main features like a proper box that allows recording, would of thought they should be improving things not taking back features when my Sky Q box does all of that, well it doesn’t seem like I’ll be ditching the dish for virgin media anytime soon then, very disappointing, there’s a service from Sky called Sky Stream and I don’t like that, doesn’t allow recording either, seems strange as my sister who’s a few rounds away can get the box in her area but yet not here, but anyway doesn’t seem like a leap in the right direction cutting away recording/series link etc, daft that. 

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As far as TV services go, Virgin is chasing a diminishing audience. Linear TV is contracting, not expanding & will continue to do so. The money is in Broadband provision. SkyQ’s days are also numbered. For many channels the cost of leasing satellite transponders is becoming too high & they are dropping them in favour of streamed services. At the moment you have the option of the broadcast or the stream product (but not both, as you cannot mix SkyQ & Sky Stream the same as you can’t mix V360 & Virgin Stream). With more & more people switching to the streaming products it will come to the point where broadcast TV will end due to lack of demand.

So Virgin Stream is the future for Virgin as Sky Stream is for Sky. Customers like me on the traditional network will also have to make a decision between now & 2028, as XGS-PON fibre is replacing all connections going forward.

[tommy_boi]

I understand that but when they are bringing new things out that are worse than the current services that’s where the problem lies for me, the main feature people use most is the recording and series link feature and to take that away on virgin stream, I also don’t think sky stream has it either is ridiculous and will never work for customers, it’s not the streaming aspect it I have a issue with it’s the none recording and series link which the traditional virgin boxes can do, I couldn’t really care less where the channels come from I don’t mind the streamibg part of it at all, it’s the loss of features. 

[newapollo]

BT have a box which streams some TV channels over the internet and which also allows the recording of some of those freeview channels.  /bt-tv-streaming-freeview-channels-full-list/ 

[Roger_Gooner]

You can always record broadcast channels but streaming is different as permission is often not granted to record (which is why Sky's Stream compares very poorly with Sky's Q) and in some cases you'll get directed to a third-party app such as BBC iPlayer or My5 for streaming. This will most likely not get better when VM is able to offer its IPTV box.

[Stephen93]

I’ve got VM Stream & really like it, you have a Watchlist which you can add programs you watch, as soon as a new episode lands you can watch it, also on ch5 you can fast forward through adverts, sometimes there aren’t any, that’s better than Apple TV but the Stream box is not as fast as the Apple, I still have Sky Q but very rarely use it, I’m only paying them £5 a month for a year, tried Sky Stream box when it first came out it was buffering all the time, you could watch a program without it doing that even though my broadband speed was 57mps, no such issues with VM Stream

[tommy_boi]

There’s a watchlist with sky stream too which I didn’t mind so much but it was the fact you couldn’t record and then skip through adverts which I’m guessing is the same issue with virgin stream, I just don’t understand why they have taken this route as it definitely seems like a backward step, do you have to be in a virgin media network area to get virgin stream then or can anyone get it, or do you have to be able to get the broadband to get the virgin stream, I think I’ll probably end up sticking with Sky Q as you can still record and all that lovely stuff on that, quite disappointed as been waiting for virgin media to come to town for several years too. 

[Stephen93]

Yes you have to have VM Broadband to get Virgin Stream, it won’t work with any other ISP, you can’t take the stream box to another VM home & only 1 box per household which to me seems ridiculous