New STB for HD TV?
 

Hi Everyone.

I hope your all good.

I recently got a nice HD TV after 15 years of view things on a [j-lo {for those who get that reference}] CRT TV. My eyes hurt a little in the first few days of seeing the awesome quality of the channels. especially stuff like HD content on Freeview.

Well i have the old scart type Samsung STB which i connect up using a scart adapter that came with my TV. The picture quality isn't all that good [lots of pixelation etc, which i assume is due to the STB not having HDMI.

So my question is, if i call up Virgin will they replace my old box and give me a new box that they show on the ad with the HD and Vivo etc? If so how much would i be looking to folk out for having a HD box to go along with my HD TV? Has anyone else come across this kind of situation before?

Re: New STB for HD TV?
 

If you've been with them for 15 years, I'd ring retentions, explain your situation and see what they can offer you. The choice will be a 500gig or 1TB Tivo. I suppose there is the odd chance that they could offer you a V+ box which would give you HD via HDMI, but Tivo is the box to go for IMHO.

Presumably you are out of contract which puts you in a nice position to get a good deal.

Re: New STB for HD TV?
 

Hi passingbat

Cheers for your reply. i guess i will have to have a moan at them and see what they can do for me.

Re: New STB for HD TV?
 

When I ring retentions, I don't moan at them I just explain my situation and ask what they can do for me. I, like you, have been with them for around 15 years and I think they are reluctant to potentially lose long term loyal customers, so I've never had to threaten to leave; often I tell them I have no intentions of leaving.

Re: New STB for HD TV?
 

Agreed, I find the staff very helpful and I have never understood the rather strange interactions described on these forums sometimes.

I certainly think that if anyone is rude, they do not deserve to receive any favours. Some people will never learn that simple rule.

Re: New STB for HD TV?
 

Cheers for your replies.

Its not my intention to leave at all. begin a legacy Blueyouder man and im not a threatening type of individual either.

VM staff have always been good to me. So i hope they will lend a kind ear to my new situation.

Re: New STB for HD TV?
 

You can swap your standard box for a VHD. This can be done as a £20 self-install, so no need for an engineer, & no increase in rental.

You would only need a TiVO if you want to record, & that will push your rental charge up £5 a month & also has to be an engineer install.

Choice is yours

Re: New STB for HD TV?
 

Yep. Because I record everything, I completely forgot about the VHD box!

Re: New STB for HD TV?
 

da_vone it would be useful to know what services you currently have to help you with package / STB options :)

Main reason I ask is that the new collections (http://store.virginmedia.com/bundles...llections.html) come with TiVo as standard and may get you better services for a similar price if you've been a long term customer.

Re: New STB for HD TV?
 

Hi Superblade7. i think i just get the M+ at present. I do also have evening and weekends call package and i have been upgraded to the 60[ish] meg for my broadband.

Re: New STB for HD TV?
 

da_vone, obviously it's your choice depending on what services you require and what price you are willing to pay but I would recommend the Essential Collection (http://store.virginmedia.com/bundles/essential.html) as for £40.99 a month you will get a 500GB TiVo with M+ TV, 30Mb broadband and phone line rental with free weekend calls.

However, if you need the 60Mb bandwidth because you have multiple users online at the same time or you do a lot of streaming/downloading then it should cost you about an extra £5 per month on top of the above.

Similarly if you still need evening and weekend calls, that would cost an extra £4.60 per month.

Also, just bear in mind that there may be a standard installation charge of £49.95 although if you talk nicely to the advisor or go through retentions (call 150 then option 4 then option 6), you may get this waived.

Hope this helps :D

Re: New STB for HD TV?
 

Hi Superblade7 and Everyone.

I found that adding Tivo would increase my bills and at this present time it isn't something that i can cope with. When things look a little better it is something i could consider.

Personally don't watch a lot of TV, its mainly for the household and so i did get a VHD box, so the household can watch a decent picture on the new TV.

They said they could only deliver it by next week but with a little gentle persuasion i got it in 2 days times which i thought was reasonable.

A nice thing was they did provide a HDMI cable, which i was surprised with as i had purchased one just for the new STB, but that is now a handy spare :)

With this VHD box my TV's remote can now control everything where as before on the old STB it was a hit an a miss. So now its just perfect.

Thanks for all your input[s], i really appreciate your time.

Regards

Da