Virgin 360 Upgrade….why did I bother…?

[hollybob1]

’ve just changed over to Virgin 360 and I’m already finding myself extremely frustrated and have yet to find any real beneficial changes which have made it worthwhile changing. I have 2 boxes and each have a splitter on them which means that the output from each box is visible on two TV’s.   So for example, one box is for the TV in my dining room and our main bedroom….the other box is for our lounge and my ‘man cave’ downstairs.  At the moment I have remote controls for each TV which are all used for the relevant TV. When I was first told about Virgin 360mI was told that ‘the remote control will need pairing to the TV and is UNIQUE TO THAT TV’. So I assumed that when I only received two remote controls in my set up box It meant I would have to buy two more to retain the same set up I had previously. Wrong. Firstly I had the normal problem with Virgin that one of the remotes didn’t even pair with the TV which meant I had to call out an engineer. And despite me having been previously assured my contract gave me the service arrangement that gave a 24th our call out, I had to wait 3 days…and was even told he was doing me a favour making it that quick…!  The remote I HAD paired was for the dining room/bedroom combination and so I went into the bedroom with the new remote control nd found that - without pairing it to the bedroom TV - it actually worked…!  When I raised this with the engineer she said that was right. So it’s unique to the BOX and not the TV.  Which now means if I want to watch TV in my bedroom I will have to keep taking the remote control from my dining room….and vice versa which is an absolute pain.

Then the controls on the TV, particularly the rewind/fast forward buttons. With my old box, if I was watching cricket for example, I could pause the picture and then do a frame-by-frame action by one single press of the fast forward button. That has been removed. Today I started to record the 20-20 cricket final.  When I came to watch it it asks do I want to watch from the start or live. I pressed from the start. I watched it for an hour or so and then had to pop out. But when I go to resume watching the recording I’m asked the same question again so it meant I had to go from the start and fast forward to where I had previously paused it…!  These are just issues I’ve had in the first couple of days and I’m sure I will come up with others.  But so far, to say I’m less than impressed would be an understatement.  Is anyone else having the same issues or come across any others…?

[Cardiffman282]

"And despite me having been previously assured my contract gave me the service arrangement that gave a 24th our call out, I had to wait 3 days…and was even told he was doing me a favour making it that quick…!" 

Where does it say that you have a 24 hour SLA in your contract? 

[hollybob1]

It is Homeworks but the guy I spoke to said this wasn’t covered under that because it was a different type of engineer being called out..! I challenged him by saying what’s the difference between a call out for a broken box to a call out for a new box that doesn’t work….when both would prevent me from watching them. His reply was ‘Do you want the Thursday appointment or not….because I should have been making it Monday…!’

[hollybob1]

Doesn’t say it in the contract - conveniently - but I was told that was the case when I agreed the contract over the phone.

[Cardiffman282]

Aha yes I see. 

"Next Day Priority Service: Priority for available next day appointments vs other cable customers if appointment is required, subject to appointment availability. You must call contact centre during contact centre opening hours to get next day availability. "

[hollybob1]

I couldn’t agree more. With regards to the fast forward button; if I’m watching football or cricket I liked to be able to pause the picture and then move it frame by frame. That helped when looking at run outs in cricket or looking at offside decisions in football. That has now effectively been withdrawn. And unless I’m doing something wrong, I recorded the 20-20 cricket today. A couple of hours in I started to watch it from the start and then an hour later I had to stop it to go out. But when I went back to the recording it doesn’t give you the option to pick up where you previously paused. Sami had to ‘view from start’ and then sit there fast forwarding it until the part of the game I wanted. Looking at other comments….I hadn’t realised there wasn’t a button to recover a previously deleted programme….?  I’ve only had it 3 days and already I’m fed up with it.

[hollybob1]

I’ve got two boxes each of which are split between two TV’s. Although I haven’t had the issues you are experiencing what I have realised is that, despite being told the remote controls were ‘unique to the TV’ they clearly aren’t.  For example I have a TV in the dining room that is served from the same box as the TV in my bedroom. I paired it to the TV in the dining room but the remote automatically works with the TV in the bedroom…without being paired to the TV. The pain with that though - and it was acknowledged by the engineer - is that if I want to watch TV in bed I have to remember to take the remote from downstairs….and vice versa…which is a pain because previously I had a remote in each room. Do you have those issues as well…?

[Roger_Gooner]

A remote will pair with one 360 and a connected TV via the Settings > audio & video menu..

[japitts]

TV360 is no more an upgrade from V6 than Apple is an upgrade from Android, or vice-versa. It's fundamentally a completely different TV software platform, with many substantial differences from TiVo-firmware.

TiVo-firmware is designed around the recording world first, with a good streaming product added on. TV360 operates the other way around - it's an online product first & foremost, with recording added.

[newapollo]

Hi @hollybob1 

With  a recording you can press "Pause" then "OK" and then press the Live TV button. Then when you go back to the recording it gives the option to Continue watching.  If you select that option then the recording  playback will resume from the point you paused it.

With your recording for the 20-20 cricket (or any other recording), you can also use the voice button on the 360 remote and say for example, 'Fast Forward 50 minutes', or "go back 15 minutes" or whatever time you want to skip forward or rewind.

Agreed the 360 doesn't have the pause the picture and then do a frame-by-frame action by one single press of the fast forward button.  That won't come to the 360 as it's a tivo copyright.

There are other ways to control the playback on the 360.  The left and right arrow buttons either side of the OK button skip forward 30 seconds and back 10 seconds.

If you press the fast forward button above the '3' key, you have 4 speeds depending on how many times you press the button. 

When fast forwarding press the TV button and that will switch off the fast forward arrows etc. For Stop press the back button or pause button, TV button also stops and puts you back to TV.

To play back in slow motion press pause then Fast Forward

You can use the TV Go app (available on ios and android devices) as an additional/replacement remote (as well as watching the TV service on tablets and mobiles) 

The info below is from https://www.virginmedia.com/help/tv/how-to-use-virgin-tv-go-app 

How to use the mobile app as a remote control

You can control your Virgin TV 360 box from your device with the TV Go app. Here’s how:

• For iOS, tap the Connect to TV icon at the top right hand side of the screen.

• For Android, go the main menu > Guide > My Shows > Manage > Info > Remote Control

You can also watch TV using TV Go via a web browser on a Windows or MAC desktop or PC

To use the browser version go to https://virgintvgo.virginmedia.com/en.html 

You can use some third party remotes to control 360. For example the OneForAll URC7125 - use the SimpleSet setup process and choose Ziggo manufacturer. There's also the OneForAll1240 - if you enter code 1582, It's not as expensive as the 7125 and has 4 selects for tv/sat/amp/dvd

Also the Logitech Harmony remote works.  You need to set them up as a "Ziggo Mediabox Next" 

Some TV's smart remotes also work with the 360 box. I have an LG and can set it up to control my 360.

Some TV's recognise the box as Virgin, with others you may need to search for Ziggo, or Ziggo Mediabox Next.

Regarding engineer appointments and Homeworks it doesn't include next day appointments for TV issues

Info below from https://www.virginmedia.com/help/broadband/homeworks 

 What does Virgin Media HomeWorks include?

Next day technician service 

Having HomeWorks rushes you to the top of our engineer’s list for an appointment the next working day, if you’ve called up about a broadband issue that can’t be fixed over the phone. 

Terms and Conditions

Next Day Priority Service: Priority for available next day appointments vs other cable customers if appointment is required, subject to appointment availability. You must call contact centre during contact centre opening hours to get next day availability.

You should purchase a multi room subscription for 4 TV set top boxes and not be using splitters to pass the service to two other TV's.  It's £10 a month extra for the first additional set top box, and then a further £5 per month for each subsequent additional box.