Question about becoming a Virgin+
 

Hi everyone, I'm new to this forum and have limited techy knowledge in the realms of satellite telly. My HDD recorder has recently packed up and rather than spend a load of cash on a new one I was looking at the idea of obtaining a V+ box (EBay, etc). Can anybody tell me whether I need to have a subscription to use the box just for recording FTA channels?

Hope this makes sense!

Re: Question about becoming a Virgin+
 

Virgin Media operates a closed system whereby you rent the box and pay the tv subs. There are no FTA channels as such on cable other than in their "cloned" freeview sense of getting M television package with something else for free. Unfortunately 160Gb V+ is what you're stuck with and whatever tv package you subscribe to.

If you want to spend cash on a box that's your own you're best off going the satellite route where you will get FTA channels.

Re: Question about becoming a Virgin+
 

yes you do it won't work
buy a freeview box they are also capable of recording live tv hd tv ect

Re: Question about becoming a Virgin+
 

Not until November 2009+ they aren't. Nor do DVB-T2 boxes physically exist yet.

Re: Question about becoming a Virgin+
 

Current Freeview boxes are not capable of receiving HD - when it does go 'public' you will need to get a new box.

<edit> already picked up, I see

Re: Question about becoming a Virgin+
 

Thanks all for clearing that one up! I'll probably opt for some kind of package with V then - would go for freeview, but have very poor reception where I am.

Re: Question about becoming a Virgin+
 

What sort of channels do you watch/want to watch? If you're interested in subs channels it's obviously virgin or Sky. If you're not there's no particular reason to go with either of those.

Re: Question about becoming a Virgin+
 

Scince you dont partically want pay channels have you thought about freesat? http://www.freesat.co.uk/ same idea as freeview but via satalite (so more channels + HD channels )and much better reception (for the most part)

Re: Question about becoming a Virgin+
 

my mistake sorry they upscale to 1080p
they also have a 160gb hard drive sony do a good one

Re: Question about becoming a Virgin+
 

For full PVR function you will need the Freesat+ box, which is around £300.

---------- Post added at 18:36 ---------- Previous post was at 18:26 ----------

but if you spend money on a freeview box, now, you will need to buy a new one when the 'proper' HD transmissions start.

Re: Question about becoming a Virgin+
 

Not to mention the twin installation of over £100, if you don't already have a dish with a dual LNB (pointing in the right direction, most are). If you switch your phone line to VM, take TV M and V+ then it would take 5 years (99+(5*12*5)=399) before it had cost you £400!

Sam

Re: Question about becoming a Virgin+
 

This (probably) is partly due to the box being manufactured by Humax. My Humax freeview PVR was around £200. They are very good boxes, but Humax is one of the more expensive manufacturers. I would expect cheaper alternatives to become available in the (near) future.

Off-topic: There are so many potential gags in this thread title :D

Re: Question about becoming a Virgin+
 

hopefully so, it was just that the OP seemed to require recording as a priority so I wanted to point out that a 'standard' box wouldn't do that :)

Re: Question about becoming a Virgin+
 

Thanks again for all your useful replies!:D

I do already have a freesat box and am very pleased with the channels - i really just need something to replace my hdd - it's a shame the freesat hdd machine is so pricey (you can probably tell - i'm on a tight budget!) perhaps it will soon come down in price.

The only channel that is not on freesat which i sometimes watch is Virgin1 - so, perhaps i'll keep the freesat box and get a new hdd/dvd recorder with inbuilt freeview - that would probably solve a lot. The original idea of the V+ box would have been good because it's all in one machine (the recorder and all the channels i watch.

Re: Question about becoming a Virgin+
 

You need a subscription for V+, £5 on top of TV:M or TV:L, free if you have TV:XL
You need a subscription for Sky+, either any Sky channel mix, or a subscription to maintain recording capability if you are only on FTA channels.

Freesat may be expensive to begin, but no further charges other than insurance/repair.

Re: Question about becoming a Virgin+
 

Thanks Matth - I didn't realise you need a subscription to be able to use the recording capability on sky+.

Re: Question about becoming a Virgin+
 

Yes, you need a subscription to maintain much of the core functionality of a box you actually bought!

To clarify, if you want Sky+ without a subscription to Sky TV, it's £199 to buy the box with an additional £10pcm to maintain the recording features, and £30 setup (perhaps more, their website isn't very clear on that). Also, Sky advertise the Sky+ as only being able to store 40 hours of programmes, as opposed to the V+'s 80 hours.

Cost of Sky+, without a Sky TV subscription, over 5 years (199+30+(10*12*5)) is £829!! Non-sub Sky+HD is either the same, or £30 less - again, their website is vague) due to the Sky+HD box also costing £199.

Sam (who hopes he's been informative if not interesting!)

Re: Question about becoming a Virgin+
 

---------- Post added at 17:29 ---------- Previous post was at 17:26 ----------

Yes - have now decided to rake in the pennies and buy a humax foxsat pvr, it sounds as though it's worth the investment (I didn't realise it had twin tuner functionality) although I will also need to get a twin LNB - it sounds as though it's fairly straight forward to fit it.

Re: Question about becoming a Virgin+
 

Humax boxes certainly seem to be worth the extra - after my mum had a year of hell with a Thomson Freeview recorder, I decided to spend a bit more money and get her a Humax (via some awful Goodmans thing from Tesco's, which we only had for about 12 hours because it missed 3 recordings out of 5!).

The interface is really, really idiosyncratic - there seem to be two ways of doing some things, and I'm buggered if I can figure out how to work the editing features - but it can search the guide and is (almost) as solid as a rock, which is obviously the most important thing about a recorder!

Twin tuners seem to have become the de facto standard for digital recorders - I wouldn't buy a single tuner hard drive recorder, if I could even find one (although, in fairness, I haven't looked).

LNBs are supposed to be fairly easy to change (although I seem to remember that the LNB fits onto a Sky dish's arm differently than it would to any other dish, but I can't really remember - perhaps ask on Digital Spy) - but remember that you'll need to run another cable. Also, depending on how high up the dish is, it might be safer to get an installer to do it - even the professionals can have accidents!

Sam

Re: Question about becoming a Virgin+
 

---------- Post added at 17:55 ---------- Previous post was at 17:46 ----------

Thanks for the word of caution on installation - poor guy! Luckily my dish is only halfway up, so should be pretty safe to do!

Re: Question about becoming a Virgin+
 

maybe not free'view' but free'sat' boxes do

as far as OP is concerned it just semantics


you'll also need a free sat dish but no monthly sunsbscription, uposcaled via HDMI, 400 gig HDD, series links and ability to record H/Def channels (as per V+)