Can't watch recordings on itv

[GR11]

I have a TIVO box which I've had since 2018. I've got a few series links set up. I went to watch a recording the other day, but it said Virgin Media can no longer play this recording. It's only happening on ITV and I don't know if it's to do with the new ITV X service, but I thought when you recorded a programme, you could watch it no matter how much time had passed. I can watch any programmes from 2023 onwards, but no programmes before 2023, and only via ITV X, so there's no point recording ITV programmes on virgin media anymore. Is there a way I can watch the programmes I've recorded without having to go through ITV X, and can I watch TV programmes I've recorded before 2023? My parents also have a TIVO box, but they have no problems watching any of their programmes on ITV. They come up as a recording like mine used to, and their box is older than mine 

[nodrogd]

My guess is these programmes were recorded either from ITV SD or from a different ITV HD region. Early in 2023 all ITV regions went HD, & most of the SD regions were removed. A lot of customers that were receiving the wrong HD region due to rollout restrictions were switched to the correct one. As a result most of the channel ID codes have changed. In this situation Virgin maintains the old region codes in the background for 12 months to allow for any recordings to be viewed, but these have now been removed. As a result you can no longer “unlock” the recordings.

Recording of programmes on Virgin is only licensed for time-shifting purposes only. So they should not be seen as an archive.

[japitts]

---

@GR11 wrote:

there's no point recording ITV programmes on virgin media anymore.

---

The previous reply has beaten me to it, but the point of recording programmes is that you're not reliant on any VoD or streaming services. In the vast majority of cases, there is no time limit on recordings retention, but when there is a technical change such as that described above, then older recordings are given a shelf life.

With pay-channels, that shelf-life is usually 3months, sometimes 6. In the case of the mainstream FTA channels (those which some people would call "Freeview" ones) it's often 12months - which should be more than sufficient, given that VM's TV boxes are not intended for archiving.

Both the older TiVo & the much newer V6 box both run TiVo software, but the V6 is far more capable for both recording & streaming. https://www.virginmedia.com/care/tv-fault/which-tv-box