Cable Forum - Tivo V6 Virgin Media V6 - Powered by TiVo(new STB)

I would think so. I was lucky enough to get one for free so why wouldn't I upgrade. So worth a quick review.

My installation didn't go smoothly as I had trouble going through a Yamaha AV, and got the message about HDCP 2.2, but that was soon rectified the day after.

The box is butt ugly, very small, but now at least I can have my Harmony Hub next to it instead of being on top of the old Tivo. The front light is a bit bright but nothing a bit of tape won't fix.

The first thing you will notice is the speed of it, everything is so much quicker, no lag when going through the menus and guides etc. Things like iPlayer and Netflix load up really quick and now have a proper use for such things. I will still use Chromecast for such things personally anyway.

The remote is smaller but feels sturdy, feels better to hold, and the buttons have a satisfying click when used. Not having to aim it at the box is handy too.

Some say they'll never use its 6 tuners, and that is probably true for most, but the big feature of this is that you don't have to worry about any overlaps or clashing with any series links you might have. You can just record what you want without worrying about it and no need to use the +1 channels anymore.

The TV anywhere app for IOS is much better now, being able to watch things that you've recorded on the iPad is a godsend for us.

As for 1TB being enough space, I disagree, you can never have enough space especially if you record a lot in HD.

So compared to the original Tivo, it is much more of a joy to use all round which is the key thing really. I would have gladly paid for the upgrade if I had to.

That's my 2 cents anyway. I hope it's of some use to anyone.

Mr K	11-01-2017 08:14

Re: Virgin Media V6 - Powered by TiVo(new STB)

thanks for that. Apart from the box being quicker, doesn't seem to be much more in it for me. I've got a 500gb Tivo that has never got above 60 percent.
Does it have all the same outputs as Tivo i.e scart & hdmi , and does it output from both simultaneously? Currently use TiVo's scart to output to a video sender which wirelessly sends to another TV.

OLD BOY

11-01-2017 08:38

Re: Virgin Media V6 - Powered by TiVo(new STB)

Quote:

Originally Posted by peanut (Post 35880025)

As for 1TB being enough space, I disagree, you can never have enough space especially if you record a lot in HD.

I agree. Those of us who find that three tuners are insufficient will find that they need more than 1TB.

My plan when my two V6s are delivered this afternoon is to record everything in HD from now on. So one Tivo gives me only about 100 hours of recordings (compared with 500 if everything is recorded in standard definition).

So to get my 500 hours in HD, I need two Tivos (200 hours together) plus my new DVD recorder, which gives me another 300 hours at the HD quality that I want.

I can't see us being able to record in UHD to be honest, and given that the new boxes are only 1TB, I assume that all our UHD programming in the future will be by way of on demand.

denphone

11-01-2017 08:55

Re: Virgin Media V6 - Powered by TiVo(new STB)

Quote:

Originally Posted by OLD BOY (Post 35880047)

I agree. Those of us who find that three tuners are insufficient will find that they need more than 1TB.

My plan when my two V6s are delivered this afternoon is to record everything in HD from now on. So one Tivo gives me only about 100 hours of recordings (compared with 500 if everything is recorded in standard definition).

So to get my 500 hours in HD, I need two Tivos (200 hours together) plus my new DVD recorder, which gives me another 300 hours at the HD quality that I want.

I can't see us being able to record in UHD to be honest, and given that the new boxes are only 1TB, I assume that all our UHD programming in the future will be by way of on demand.

This.

mike_gain

11-01-2017 10:17

Re: Virgin Media V6 - Powered by TiVo(new STB)

Quote:

Originally Posted by OLD BOY (Post 35880047)

I agree. Those of us who find that three tuners are insufficient will find that they need more than 1TB.

Not entirely sure why that is the case. The V6 has more tuners but that doesn't mean more recordings it just means more parallel recordings rather than recordings being rescheduled throughout a given week. However the end result, i.e. total number of shows recorded in a given week, is much the same give or take the odd show that is watched and deleted with the current 3 tuner box before a rescheduled recording is made.

It could also be argued with 6 tuners the non HD +1 channels won't be needed for recording as often but the 3 tuner Tivo is pretty good at finding alternative HD recordings so I can't see the ratio of HD to SD recordings changing much for people either.

I guess what I'm saying is to use even more space than is currently being used more series links will need to be scheduled over an above what is being scheduled at the moment.

OLD BOY

11-01-2017 11:20

Re: Virgin Media V6 - Powered by TiVo(new STB)

Quote:

Originally Posted by mike_gain (Post 35880060)

I agree that (for us, anyway), having six tuners may not increase the actual overall number of programmes we record, but my point was that those who make full use of the three tuners on the old Tivo will find that they still have to record in SD in order to have enough room for all they want to record.

My box was always between 80% and 95% full, which meant that I had to delete some programmes that I wanted to watch in favour of things that were a higher priority at regular intervals.

I am not a telly addict; I only watch about 2-3 hours per night Sunday to Thursday, and 2 or 3 hours more on Fridays and Saturdays, when I have late nights. So my programmes do build up, it's not as if I spend all day watching the TV, as some do!

trickytree

11-01-2017 13:00

Re: Virgin Media V6 - Powered by TiVo(new STB)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mr K (Post 35880044)

It has no scart.
Due to the reason and that reason alone I have 2 boxes in my house and I have kept 1 TiVo so I can continue to use my Slingbox as that uses Scart like your video sender.

I already had a 1Tb TiVo so the storage part to me is no difference but it was a joy to use iPlayer finally with fast access and the whole 1 hour programme worked with no buffering or cutting out completely.
I know that could be due to location etc but it is connected wirelessly and hand no issues at all.

---------- Post added at 12:00 ---------- Previous post was at 11:44 ----------

Quote:

Originally Posted by OLD BOY (Post 35880071)

I'm with you completely here my box is currently 88% full and this is 1TB and I record all HD if possible.
I watch a fair amount of tv and the wife says we should get more selective as we do watch what you could call trashy tv like Big Brother etc.
Anyway once the kids have gone to bed and we are settled down it's typically 8pm and we go to bed at 10pm to wake at 6am for work the next day. Therefore always steadily building a collection of peak time viewing material we can't watch in front of the kids typically.

I am currently using my new V6 to record HD versions of Sky Cinema films as they are not stored on demand in HD but don't get me started on that one.

simon125

11-01-2017 14:17

Re: Virgin Media V6 - Powered by TiVo(new STB)

Quote:

Originally Posted by PtolemyIV (Post 35875800)

So I had a little bit of a dramatic install today... not great when wife at home trying to deal with virgin media install guy herself!

Our basic setup is virgin media superhub 2c in modem mode connected to a netgear r7000 router that runs dd-wrt and connects to uk vpn itself to route all traffic through such

So at some point I get a call from the install guy saying "it's not working" - I ask why.. all he claims is "it has to be plugged in directly to the hub" - I ask if that is really true - "yes it is - hub only and other one has to connect to virgin wifi only". I complain and say that I'll cancel the order then since I refuse to be restricted to virgin's all-in router given its limitations etc. Then I wonder if the VPN is confusing the V6 box - so I get the wife to switch off the VPN.. box then seems to connect / install and the guys promptly leave (in the interim his manager turned up as well after the original install guy disappeared from the property for half an hour).

So I now get home - both boxes are showing the tv. The secondary V6 box is connected to the internal wifi on my own router and seems to be working okay. However both boxes are showing "On demand is temporarily unavailable. Please try again in a few minutes."

I ask the wife if she knows anything and apparently the guys made some claim that there is still a few things to be set up in the background... and that it should all be working by tonight! Seems a bit odd to me..

Has anyone else experienced similar after an install?

And, also, does anyone else run a VPN on their router and verified if they can re-enable it and actually use the V6 behind such?

Thanks

yes, i am running vpn on my router

dodgem22

11-01-2017 15:06

Re: Virgin Media V6 - Powered by TiVo(new STB)

I wonder if some time in the future this box can be cloud enabled? There is little technical information about the specification of this box in the public field so perhaps it is only 1Tb as later down the line Virgin plan a cloud function to be activated on it perhaps??

OLD BOY

11-01-2017 17:03

Re: Virgin Media V6 - Powered by TiVo(new STB)

Quote:

Originally Posted by dodgem22 (Post 35880113)

Well, that would certainly be a good development, but only if our access to the programmes we wanted to retrieve through the Cloud were not time limited. If we could access them at any time (for at least two years after bookmarking them), this would certainly provide an answer for UHD programmes that you want to see at a time that is convenient to you.

Mr K	11-01-2017 17:51

Re: Virgin Media V6 - Powered by TiVo(new STB)

Quote:

Originally Posted by trickytree (Post 35880082)

It has no scart.
Due to the reason and that reason alone I have 2 boxes in my house and I have kept 1 TiVo so I can continue to use my Slingbox as that uses Scart like your video sender.

Probably a no go on the V6 for me then.

Seen a pic of the V6 connection and it does seem to have some sort of scart out. However its a round connection so guess it would need some sort of adapter. Question is does it output from this the same time as the HDMI ?
https://goo.gl/images/wrRKPm

carbon60

11-01-2017 18:05

Re: Virgin Media V6 - Powered by TiVo(new STB)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mr K (Post 35880138)

That port has been disabled.

Mr K	11-01-2017 18:07

Re: Virgin Media V6 - Powered by TiVo(new STB)

Quote:

Originally Posted by carbon60 (Post 35880142)

That port has been disabled.

Spoilsports, still it looks a lovely port !

Guess they don't want folks using it for another tv, they want them to get an extra box. Capitalist swine.

OLD BOY

11-01-2017 21:08

Re: Virgin Media V6 - Powered by TiVo(new STB)

My two new Tivo boxes were installed today. It took just over an hour and they appear to be working perfectly. The two boxes communicate with each other and I can see all recordings on both boxes from each individual box. The only thing I am disappointed about is that you cannot see the planned recordings of both boxes from each box as well!

The speed is very good and well up to the standard you would expect. Straight into the Netflix and BBC i-Player apps, and no buffering!

The V6 is a seriously good box and I would certainly recommend it from my experience of this afternoon.

The installer changed my superhub to a more appropriate model and so I've had to change the passwords for all my i-phones, tablets, the smart TV, Netflix, Amazon and Now TV, but it was worth it!

If anyone gets stumped with the pin number for access to programmes after 9pm and certain channels, VM have pre-set this as 1234. It's very easy to change this in the settings to a pin no of your choice.

Raider999

11-01-2017 21:36

Re: Virgin Media V6 - Powered by TiVo(new STB)

Quote:

Originally Posted by OLD BOY (Post 35880174)

I assume the 2 V6 boxes are connected to each other?

Is this hard wired or by wifi?

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