sky vs virgin media
 

Re: sky vs virgin media
 

The didn't mention their awful broadband and £10.25 HD charge.

13p for better broadband is somewhat worth it.

Re: sky vs virgin media
 

yeah i noticed that also they mentioned that you own the box !! but when it goes wrong or breaks down after 12 months they only fix it if you have cover !! or i found in the past they not intrested !! also they dont mention that in bad weather some people find that signal goes down !

Re: sky vs virgin media
 

OK forget it, it clearly says its over 1 year.

Re: sky vs virgin media
 

Sky also forgot to mention that their average speed on 20Mb is less than 10Mb
Up to 20Mb 7.4 to 9.2Mb

Re: sky vs virgin media
 

exactly not a like for like compare typicial sky more sky lies

Re: sky vs virgin media
 

Edit: Just seen your edit too.

Re: sky vs virgin media
 

i was just being nosey looking at the sky website and i spotted glad your all enjoying it !! lol

Re: sky vs virgin media
 

Sky also miss out the £30 installation fee in the final figure (it's mentioned in the list, but not counted into the total -£19.50+£11.25=£30.75x12= £369).

It does mention it in the small print at the bottom, but still a little sly, imho.

Re: sky vs virgin media
 

looking forward to see what the virgin media staff on these forums have to say about it !! lol

Re: sky vs virgin media
 

Is there a site where you can compare everything from each provider bit by bit?

i.e. The boxes and services all broken down (so it shows what you get, and what's available)
Broadband and speeds etc.

Just wondering :p:

Re: sky vs virgin media
 

sky would not like that they would lose ;)

Re: sky vs virgin media
 

Hmm ;)

Re: sky vs virgin media
 

Also they make it look like you cant port your number to virgin

Re: sky vs virgin media
 

Not getting involved in this one lol

I'll let you guys decided ;)

:D

Re: sky vs virgin media
 

Same old SKY, there's a positive spin for everything. I'd be more impressed if they actually had the balls to openly compare Virgins VIP50 package with their own equivalent. That's when we'd see who does actually offer the best value in terms of broadband, HD multiroom etc. There will be a time, in the very near future, when the HD channel gap closes and SKY's ageing technology is exposed.

SKY, believe in better? Is it just me or is anyone else getting tired of SKY trying to blow smoke up our tail pipes?

Re: sky vs virgin media
 

I've never understood 'believe in better' just seems a strange thing to say after the name of your product.

Re: sky vs virgin media
 

Maybe the believe in better is a subliminal message referring to 'Believe in Virgin, it's better' ;)

Re: sky vs virgin media
 

I had to laugh at the BB comparison! We wont slow you down....no matter how much you use. With a FUP of 2GB!! wotta con!

It even has a * next to the VM BB and says FUP applies! VM dont charge extra, unlike sky

Re: sky vs virgin media
 

It is down to personal choice nothing more.:)

Re: sky vs virgin media
 

A nice try from Sky to compare like for like but you can clearly see it isn't the case.

I wonder why they didn't compare Vm's 20Mbps to their Unlimited package?

At the end of the day its about choice, for me who has recently signed up for Sky's services due to Vm failing to resolve outstanding issues with my broadband and TV its good to try and alternative ISP and compare like for like.

I've not had the Sky broadband installed yet so can't comment on that too much, but the TV picture quality knocks spots off VM so far, In standard definition on my 40 inch Toshiba I don't see any pixelation and blocky issues on sky yet some of VM's channels are borderline unwatchable at times, in particular ITV2+1. I can't comment on HD yet because I'm not paying extra for the privilege (one of the downsides with Sky as VM give you this for nowt)

Just getting back to the broadband, speaking with next door and running some tests on their Sky Unlimited Broadband, they only get about 5 to 6 Mbps download speed (due to our distance from the exchange) but the Jitter is nice and low at 1 to 2 ms at Peak times.

Vm's Jitter is anywhere from 4ms to 40ms but generally for me over 20ms which coupled with an upstream packet loss issue makes gaming extremely laggy and frustrating even on 50Mbps.

I've asked my neighbour over the last 6 months how many times have they had drop outs on their Sky BB and the answer was none, and he also replied with "we have 3 laptops on 24/7 in our house, and the lad is upstairs playing Black Ops on his PS3, all with no issues so far".

Personally I cant play Black Ops on my PS3 as its tooooooo laggy, and I get lag in every single FPS style game I play across both PS3 and XBox platforms.

So take from this what you will, this is just one perspective, but If my VM's services were better (quality wise) I would pick them hands down over Sky as both me and the Mrs love On Demand and the V+ functionality etc.

Re: sky vs virgin media
 

Ha Ha sky are doing what sky always do not exactly like for like is it.:erm: I would love to see sky get anywhere near the speeds they compare with here, in my area broadband over a phone line is as follows 1.5 mb ADSL,and 2mb ADSL 2 maximum,sky would not even be able to offer a quarter of the 10mb vm currently does in my area (i am on broadband L). Still at least i could console myself with the marks and spencers vouchers.:D:D;)

On the tv front i get more channels then i could possibly watch now and the picture quality on the v+ is great certainly as good if not better then friends who have sky.:)

Re: sky vs virgin media
 

Virgin pictures are no better or worse than 'Sky',from my experience.

Re: sky vs virgin media
 

I would disagree, Skys HD beats Virginmedias HD. But VM's SD beats Skys SD.

I don't know much but I think satellite is a pretty efficient way of sending the signal. Cable has to many things that could potentially degrade the signal unless all things are working perfectly.

I also believe VM have re-encode MPG4 to MEPG2 before broadcast. Probably very wrong though.

Re: sky vs virgin media
 

All wrong as usual. :rolleyes:

Re: sky vs virgin media
 

Well there ya go. It was just something I think was covered during a TELCO course at Telford college of Arts and TECHNOLOGY.Signal leak and other WRONG things like that.

Re: sky vs virgin media
 

And your facts behind your "all wrong as usual" are........:rolleyes:

Re: sky vs virgin media
 

Why not ask the correct question so you get a answer.;)

Re: sky vs virgin media
 

When it comes to VM staff sometimes it seems there is no correct question. All we need to know is the answer they give is correct and thats that!:D

Re: sky vs virgin media
 

You already know that I will endeavour to give the correct answer even to you.:D

Re: sky vs virgin media
 

To be fair to vm staff there are plenty of other posters who have posted in this thread already all with different points of view not only staff members.:)

Re: sky vs virgin media
 

I did ask the correct question,I asked you to state the facts behind your sarcastic reply,sorry if I wasnt clear I must of slipped into Virgin Media Customer service mode......

Re: sky vs virgin media
 

Not being funny, but once again another thread taken over by VM staff members having a go at someone.. usually marcus125 lol.

Is it something personal? Or is it a status thing?

regards.

Re: sky vs virgin media
 

I think every knows who the dementors are on here, actually. Pay attention... it ain't the VM Staff! ;)

Anyway, I'm not getting involved in a slanging match on here.

Re: sky vs virgin media
 

Ilike Marcus125's posts as they are sometimes amusing and we have given him help in the past.:)

Re: sky vs virgin media
 

.


Potential problems with satellite as a broadcast source.......

Solar activity

Weather ie snow on dish, very heavy rain

Available bandwidth, many on DS forum stating that now Sky are squeezing HD channels (4 per transponder) quality has dropped

The satellite in use is coming to the end of it's life (pass original life) so more at risk for failure with replacement not due till next year

satellite might just wander out of orbit like many before or be hit by space junk etc

Dish on house having problems silty LNB etc





Potential problems with cable

Cable cut by accident etc

Car hits roadside cabinet or vandalism, easier to fix than the satellite :p:





The above ignore headend problems such as fire as I assume they have disaster recovery plans for this.

Re: sky vs virgin media
 

Yeah, we have a back-up Super-headend :)

Re: sky vs virgin media
 

.


Oh forgot to mention if cable is so bad why is most of the worlds phone and Internet traffic on undersea/ocean cable and not via satellite ?


:D

Re: sky vs virgin media
 

Surely cable tv can also be effected by all the satelite problems than? As VM tv is fed via big massive dishes. Although I think the BBC is a fibre feed.

Or am I wrong in thinking VMtv is just satelite tv fed to each user via fibre/coax?

Re: sky vs virgin media
 

Not rain/snow as the dishes that VM use are mooosive! On the whole it's a better delivery method as it's a two way return path.

Yes, we get BBC and some others via fibre feeds.

Re: sky vs virgin media
 

Plus Sky rely on just one satellite to broadcast which is vulnerable however there are several satellites that can provide the streams if the one currently used goes down.

If it did it would affect Sky in the same way. However Virgin do as a cable company have an easier task to switch to a fiber only system to receive channels if all satellites are knocked out by our new masters from the planet ZOG :D

Re: sky vs virgin media
 

I think I like this site.

I have always enjoyed a good "debate" and I can see the VM v SKY Debate being as fruitful as some of my XBOX v Playstion debates lol.

Although I will always feel robbed by the Bluray V HD-DVD debate thanks to that getting cut short.

Luckily I have a whole week at home with the kids for halfterm( The mrs has a good job within Holiday inn and earns more money) YES I KNOW MY MAN POINTS JUST FELL THROUGH THE FLOOR!!!!!

So I shall be available for debating most of the time.

Re: sky vs virgin media
 

HD DVD was doomed from the tart with Microsoft being so closely associated with it.

Sony almost guaranteed Blueray would win putting it in playstation, a consul with HD for the same price as an HD DVD player.


Satellite will go the same way for many things in the future due to better radio systems and fibber providing linear and VOD, Sky need to invest now or get left behind once people get used to IPTV and VOD so can watch anything they like when they like anywhere they like.

Also sky have a huge problem with VOD etc in the future as if it really takes off it will cost them a fortune buying bandwidth etc from BT as their only source.

Re: sky vs virgin media
 

HD-DVD Was Toshiba's not Microsofts. Sony paid movie studios upto half a billion dollars to release there films exclusively on bluray. HD-DVD was actually the better format.

I fear you may be one of those people with a little bit of info on a lot of things. A little bit of information is a dangerous thing.

Oh and I would assume once open reach have laid all there fibre sky will just re-sell it under there own brand offering VOD with it.

Re: sky vs virgin media
 

Because sony have such an awesome track record when it comes to new formats, even when they try to force it to market by using it in everything they make.

Betamax
Digital Audio Tape
Sony Dynamic Digital Sound
Multi-Media Compact Disc
MiniDisk
HiFD
Atrac
Memorystick
Super Audio CD
Universal media disc.

The list of sony formats that have failed is far far longer than the list of successful ones (and I'm sure I'm missing a few).

The ONLY reason blu-ray won the HD war was because sony decided they were fed up of losing battles so threw a huge amount of money at anyone they could to use blu-ray.

Re: sky vs virgin media
 

.


As I said , Sony made getting it cheaper as it was in a consu lthat sold by the million.


As to microsoft they were one of HD DVD's supporters and spent a lot themselves on it, that's what I meant by being closely associated with it.



Not saying HD DVD wasn't better, Betamax was better, just ot the winner in the end.

Re: sky vs virgin media
 

Sony got it right in putting a Blue Ray player in their PS3, which being connected to a TV meant their gamers already had a HD DVD player so why buy anything else?

Re: sky vs virgin media
 

Not really.
Their only spend was in the HD-DVD support for the 360. They didn't throw any money at the actual format, just their players.

Betamax wasn't really better from a consumer standpoint though.

Sure on paper the initial picture quality of betamax was better, but that was on a 60minute tape that was pretty useless for what consumer wanted. When they reduced tape speed to allow 2 hour tapes the quality of the two was nearly identical, and the improvements to VHS meant that it actually surpassed betamax.

Re: sky vs virgin media
 

And even that was an afterthought

Re: sky vs virgin media
 

sky may have more power under the bonet !! but virgin media can carry much more of the load !

http://www.cable.co.uk/news/sky-says...ces-800417050/

Re: sky vs virgin media
 

Haha, so Sky can't carry iPlayer content.
What a shame ;) ...

Re: sky vs virgin media
 

The bit that made me laugh so much i have not stopped from the link was sky moaning about "restrictive practices" in regards to the BBC i player.! when they are market leaders in restricitve practices themselves.:D:D:D

Re: sky vs virgin media
 

This post is from a former VM Cable customer, who reluctantly had to give it up to get a placement out in the sticks.

I loved Virgin Media. I loved having a broadband connection that could have 3 students online, with uTorrent active and an iPlayer streaming to boot. I loved the TV service too, On Demand was fab and I thought the V+ box did all I wanted it to.

But I had to let it go, and there was no way my other half would put up with a house without Living, so reluctantly we had to take up Sky, and you know what - later this year I'm not so sure I'm going to drop it when we move back to the city.

When I was with VM I thought we had all the channels we'd actually want - not so, there's a good handful of channels that I regularly use which aren't on VM (notably More4+1, S4/C and the CBS channels). Further to this, VM have actually removed another channel I rather liked - MTV Classic.

Also, our one Sky box happily serves both our main telly downstairs and our bedroom telly with the use of a magic eye. With Virgin, this would involve more equipment and/or reduction of quality (since you can't have HD and RF out).

To all those saying the picture quality breaks up in poor weather - to be honest I haven't seen any evidence of this whatsoever. in fact, we got a lot more random pixelation etc. on Virgin!!

On to the STB itself - obviously, Sky+HD has a significant advantage in terms of storage. Then there's the EPG, and my God, do Sky have the upper hand here; the Sky+HD EPG is simple, clean and speedy. Overall, this makes the V/V+ EPG look seriously neglected, which I guess is true. Before anybody pipes up about Tivo - I'm not interested in paying £149 for equipment I wont own PLUS a £3/month charge - that's not a competitive proposition.

This brings me on to my next point - since I last joined Virgin, they seem to have gone the way of introducing a load of ******** charges. £50 HD activation - wtf is that for? Where does it cost VM to activate HD services on top of SD ones? Total rubbish. Frankly, charging for anything other than the labour involved in installation on a product which you then rent monthly is ridiculous.

Having never had anything other than ntl:/Virgin Media internet, I guess I was a little snobby about it. My modest ~8mbps Plusnet connection seems to do the trick pretty well. I've only been over bandwidth once and that was because I left my torrents open for a week while I was away. I now have them set up to work Midnight-8am and I keep a decent ratio that way.

So, whether I stay with Sky come August when we move back to Sheffield will depend I guess on the offers at the time, but if it were right now I think I'd be minded to stay with them.

Re: sky vs virgin media
 

I just spit my drink out accidentally when I read that. Some Giant Pots and Giant Kettle there I think!! Can we spell HYPOCRITES!!

Re: sky vs virgin media
 

Nah blu ray was and is the better format HD DVD were too small in capacity compared to blu rays.

Only advantage HD DVD had was you didn't need a whole new machine to produce them.

The better format definitely won through.

Re: sky vs virgin media
 

Haha! :D

Re: sky vs virgin media
 

HD DVD was a step forward for consumers (in terms of access to the content they paid for/lack of DRM).

Blu Ray was a retrograde step.

Sony spent an awful lot of money getting exclusivity from distributors in the hope they'd make it up in the long term from licensing. Ironically, they've bought themselves the victory of what will probably be the last physical media format war - the future is in online streaming etc.

Re: sky vs virgin media
 

Could there be any truth in these stories

Only 1 multi room charge with Sky no matter how many boxes

http://forums.digitalspy.co.uk/showthread.php?t=1482436

1TB boxes already confirmed at £49.00 for existing customers taking the HD pack

http://www.sky.com/shop/boxes/1TB

These moves would seem logical as Sky multi room is expensive in comparison to VM however it could well just be forum speculation.

Re: sky vs virgin media
 

l think it is just pure speculation and anyway it does not matter what box Sky have as the tivo is the superior set top box to anything Sky have.

Re: sky vs virgin media
 

Look at the thread title Den :D I cannot counteract that claim as I haven't used TIVO , then again I'm betting you haven't used Sky+HD seeing as your anti Sky :D

Re: sky vs virgin media
 

Sorry about deviating but some of my friends have Sky boxes and after using them they do not bear comparison to Tivo.

Re: sky vs virgin media
 

You do not have to apologise mate thats the beauty of forums everyone has different opinions :D

Re: sky vs virgin media
 

I've long argued that Virgin should get competitive on Multiroom. Too late for the vanguard I guess.

Re: sky vs virgin media
 

But virgin are competitive on multiroom, £6.50 is much cheaper than sky

Re: sky vs virgin media
 

Are you sure:confused::confused::confused:

And I'am sure that you have said that you have used it when the US and also a store:D:D:D:D

Selective memory comes to mind (I think):p::D:D:D:D:D

Re: sky vs virgin media
 

Selective quoting mate , I've used TIVO in a VM store not at home I can hardly judge it on that. You need to use something for months at home to decide proper on something.

Re: sky vs virgin media
 

i have often said in the past that VM should advertise more for there multiroom boxes. i have 3 in my home and cheaper than what skys multiroom !

Re: sky vs virgin media
 

Whoops I guess it's the naughty step for me then:D

---------- Post added at 17:26 ---------- Previous post was at 17:23 ----------

Very true, But how much to other service providers advertise multi-room. If they all did the prices could get cheaper, But then the subs would go up :confused:

Re: sky vs virgin media
 

i only know virgin and sky do multiroom.....virgin 6.50/ sky.10.50 plus another 10.50 for HD !

Re: sky vs virgin media
 

cant see any chance with that sky only believe in one thing money as there hd charge per box shows that

Re: sky vs virgin media
 

Very very true and VM have the activation charge as if you work it out for the 12/18 month contract. It is really cheap as well:D

Re: sky vs virgin media
 

You are much better off with Virgin on most things then you are with Sky.

Re: sky vs virgin media
 

True apart from one thing at that is the channels:confused: I thought that I would get that in before someone else:D

Re: sky vs virgin media
 

yes it would be nice to have a few more channels most definitely.

Re: sky vs virgin media
 

Yes naughty step it is LOL :D

Re: sky vs virgin media
 

I honestly don't think there's much in it either way, especially if you look at the minimum term.

Re: sky vs virgin media
 

Pretty simple Sky kicks Virgins ass all over the shop TV wise, this is beyond argument. Virgin broadband is however the dogs:)

Re: sky vs virgin media
 

I'll bite :) Go on then. Explain why.

Re: sky vs virgin media
 

He was probably referring to channel range , which of course is 100 % true ;)

Re: sky vs virgin media
 

Click on Henkesghost's name. This will bring up a drop down menu. Select "find more posts by Henkesghost". Read.

Re: sky vs virgin media
 

I don't think there aren't that many channels that Sky has that VM now don't.

I wouldn't describe it as kicking anyone's ass though :)

Re: sky vs virgin media
 

l have to dispute with you as first of all Sky has a few more channels then Virgin which some of us want but then that is equalised by Virgin,s far superior video on demand and then of course there is the far superior tivo box which Virgin have and Sky can never have but the one thing l do agree with you on is Virgin,s Champion,s league broadband compared to Sky,s non league broadband.:nono:

Re: sky vs virgin media
 

Carl I'm not trying to say VM isn't a good offering but there are more than a few missing channels see Jameseh list

http://www.cableforum.co.uk/board/35241425-post65.html

To be fair a lot of the VM missing channels are HD ones not massively important to you with no HDTV.

Re: sky vs virgin media
 

Why are you using commas instead of apostrophies? :confused: Have you gone off them for some reason? :D

---------- Post added at 10:10 ---------- Previous post was at 10:07 ----------

And how many of those require a Sky subscription? Not that many, from what I can tell.

So FTA satellite has more channels than VM? Yes, but then anyone can launch a channel on satellite.

Sky has more channels than VM? Again, yes, but not that many.

Re: sky vs virgin media
 

What does FTA have to do with it , they are still available with a Sky receiver :confused: and not on VM networkn, and plenty of them require a Sky sub.

Re: sky vs virgin media
 

Because we're comparing the pay channels on Sky with the pay channels on VM.

To do anything else would be comparing apples with oranges.

Re: sky vs virgin media
 

I like sky atlantic...so prefer sky for that..and the football red button..otherwise I'd be happy with virgin

Re: sky vs virgin media
 

I've got a tivo with a hard drive showing 54%. Then I've got loads of tivo suggestions to go through and watch. If all else fails I've got the main channels on catch up. I'm going to have to double my tv viewing just to scratch the surface. Why should I worry if a channel showing repeats from the 60's is missing? And why has this old thread been re-opened. Somebody bored perhaps?

Re: sky vs virgin media
 

No names mentioned but l think it was one of the others Sir.:p::D

Re: sky vs virgin media
 

Channels what require a Sky sub not on VM

Itv 2 HD
Itv 3 HD
Itv 4 HD
Universal HD
Sky Movies Classic HD
MTV Classic
ESPNA HD
Sky Sports 3 HD
Sky Sports 4 HD
Sky Sports News HD
Sky News HD
Crime and Investigation Network HD
Nat Geo Wild HD
Eden HD
Bio HD
MGM HD
Premier Sports
Good Food HD
History HD
Disney Cine HD
Disney XD HD
Nickelodeon HD

And there are many more.

I'm sorry Carl normally your spot on with facts, but on this occasion your wrong.

---------- Post added at 10:28 ---------- Previous post was at 10:26 ----------

Agreed mate , VM has a good range of channels , I'm just merely stating Carls wrong when he says there's only a few missing , I agree it's the individual who knows what channels are of interest to him. What's this channel showing repeats from the 60's :-)

Re: sky vs virgin media
 

Not good enough. If you don't give me a name the whole class is on detention.

Re: sky vs virgin media
 

Fair enough. There's more than I thought. Though, to also be fair to me, they seem mostly to only be HD versions of channels that VM already has.

Re: sky vs virgin media
 

Somebodys name with a A in it Sir.:D;);):D

Re: sky vs virgin media
 

Yes I agree , the SD version is available on a lot of them , I'll give you that. This is the reason VM have gone with TIVO to offer something different seems a good idea.

A decent TIVO review Carl.
http://www.virginmediainfo.co.uk/tivo.shtml

Re: sky vs virgin media
 

Why are you using commas instead of apostrophies? :confused: Have you gone off them for some reason? :D

Sorry teacher l will use my apostrophies next time.;)

Re: sky vs virgin media
 

The OTHERS wasn't that off Lost :D

Re: sky vs virgin media
 

You sure about that.:D;):D

Re: sky vs virgin media
 

Virgin Media and sky starting to do deals on HD !

Re: sky vs virgin media
 

I don't see how anyone would dispute that Sky beat VM hands down with channel selection.

You can still admit that, but still dedcide that VM is an overall better choice for you personally.

The biggie for me is Sky Atlantic, particularly as we don't know what new show aquisitions they will put on there rather than Sky one. And for people who like good US drama, Atlantic is a big omission from VM.

But the HD channels are also important, especially with Tivo where the SD picture isn't quite as good as the V+ was (I know a fix is in the works).

Re: sky vs virgin media
 

Yes I agree there is no argument channel wise Sky wins hands down in much the same way VM do with their superior BB. You are also right in that these missing channels are only an issue if they contain content you want to watch , VM have launched TIVO as something different to other platforms and who knows the streaming market could pay massive dividends for them.