Samsung V+ box
 

I was having a online chat earlier today about my bundle. I have 3 boxes, V6, TiVo and Samsung V+. When agent checked it she said that the the v+ would be discontinued in February. If I wish to keep 3 boxes I would have to upgrade to TiVo or V6 otherwise it would automatically be removed. Is this correct?. I would expect to have been sent a letter by now if this is right.

Re: Samsung V+ box
 

No, it's not correct that all V+ HD boxes will stop working. The Samsung V+ HD itself will continue to work, but there are some circumstances where customers may be asked to swap it due to the TV services they have.

But, as you say, any required swaps are notified well in advance of the switch off date.

Re: Samsung V+ box
 

Thanks Ben. Always the most reliable person with the correct information, shame not all agent's you speak to have this.

Re: Samsung V+ box
 

Does this mean, if they start decommissioning the V+ boxes, that the final hurdle to switching to MPEG4 only will be gone?

IIRC the samsung supported MPEG4 but the SciAtlanta only did MPEG2.

Apols if I am totally out of date on this.

Re: Samsung V+ box
 

Think it will be a while yet.
I'm still seeing posts on the community board from customers still using standard Pace V boxes that VM started swapping out several years ago.

Re: Samsung V+ box
 

You are correct that the Samsung V+ supports MPEG4. The last of the Scientific-Atlanta ones were decommissioned a few months ago. VM hasn't switched to MPEG4 yet simply because there hasn't been any need to.

The Pace boxes are SD-only, so switching the HD channels to MPEG4 wouldn't affect them. There is little benefit in switching the SD channels to MPEG4.

Re: Samsung V+ box
 

You say that, but given the more efficient encoding wouldn't it help some of the more excessively compressed channels, like food network?

Is it just the case there is enough bandwidth for the TV channels in existence and therefore they don't need to swap to MPEG4 or is it that the costs outweigh the benefits for the timebeing? I'd have thought it'd be harder / more expensive to source MPEG2 encoding hardware these days compared to MPEG4.

Re: Samsung V+ box
 

Channels such as Food Network are already compressed whan VM receive them. There is nothing that VM can do to improve the quality. (Must admit I hadn't noticed a problem on FN).

Yes.

MPEG2 is basically a subset of MPEG4, and all the current encoders can do both.

Re: Samsung V+ box
 

I'm sure I read somewhere that moving to MPEG4 will considerably increase recording capacity on TiVo. If correct then surely that is reason enough to do it

Re: Samsung V+ box
 

I think I saw that as well, it was a justification of Virgin dropping the idea of a 2Tb V6 box - although that was rumoured to be back on the cards recently.

Re: Samsung V+ box
 

I thought the reason for offering only 1TB was a possible move to cloud recordings, but no sign of that yet. It's a shame, because HD looks so much better than SD, and the number of recordings you can make in HD is severely limited with 1TB.

Given that the V6 is capable of showing UHD channels, offering only 1TB is inexplicable.

Re: Samsung V+ box
 

If VM was directly leasing space on their muxes to the broadcasters for their channels then, as with Freeview space on MPEG4 muxes would no doubt work out cheaper to lease than MPEG2 muxes due to the smaller data stream required for SD.

But as VM is a closed system there is no advantage to this.

Re: Samsung V+ box
 

BEWARE CONTROVERSIAL STATEMENT
1TB is more than enough for those who use the box to record and watch programs.
For those that see it as an archive box - WHY?

Re: Samsung V+ box
 

For my purposes the 500Gb Tivo is big enough, barely gets past 70% full.

Re: Samsung V+ box
 

Not at all controversial.

If you are away for 2 weeks, the number of football and rugby matches to record will more than fill a 1Tb box in HD recordings.