TiVo

[pauldavies83]

Originally Posted by clinteastman

Did you watch the demo on here:

http://tivo.virginmedia.com/

Erm, thats all software and network, not some special £200 hardware wizzardry. Maybe we shouldn't lose sight of that

At £200 I don't see how it offers value for money

[Mr_Moo]

Originally Posted by pauldavies83

Pass

£200 "activation fee" - what is there to activate? Just describe the fee as exactly what it is. We want the customer to pay for our equipment for us, and we will rent it back to them. But its OK, because if it breaks we'll fix it for free :-(

Yes, it looks amazing. Yes, I want it. But my primary objective is to replace the stupid, slow, unreliable piece of black garbage (aka SA V+) currently sitting underneath my telly so I can watch what I pay for without the hassle of waiting for the box to respond to what I ask of it (if indeed, it does actually respond).

Seems as though Virgin refuse to do this, looks like I'll be off to Sky unless there is an existing customer reduction on the "activation fee"

So go to SKY and pay for them to come out when your box breaks, because you own it. Or you drop your remote, or.... Etc.

Call faults and tell them about your box. I had mine replaced this morning due to it being irregularly unresponsive. No questions asked.

[muppetman11]

Someone said there was mention of the TIVO iPad app coming for virgin I can't find any reference to that.

[pauldavies83]

Originally Posted by Mr_Moo

So go to SKY and pay for them to come out when your box breaks, because you own it. Or you drop your remote, or.... Etc.

Call faults and tell them about your box. I had mine replaced this morning due to it being irregularly unresponsive. No questions asked.

I will - I was with Sky before and it broke outside of the 12 month warranty.

They came and fixed it soon enough when I said I was cancelling.

Its all very well saying that's not guaranteed, but who in their right mind is going to pay £60p/m for services you can't use because the supplied equipment fails. It's hardly rocket science that they should repair/replace, because they lose the £60p/m revenue otherwise.

I'm sick of contacting Virgin only for them to say "if it is OK when the engineer comes out you will be charged for the call-out", and "they will only replace it with what the engineer has with him". What's the point in me wasting a day for them to come out and replace with the same equipment, or worse still charge me for the privilege?

[indie1982]

Just noticed it doesn't have an internal power supply, must have a brick outside the box. Easy way to make the box smaller! :P

[clinteastman]

Originally Posted by pauldavies83

Erm, thats all software and network, not some special £200 hardware wizzardry. Maybe we shouldn't lose sight of that

At £200 I don't see how it offers value for money

What? Your paying for the box that runs that software, what else are you expecting from the hardware?

---------- Post added at 14:44 ---------- Previous post was at 14:43 ----------

Originally Posted by muppetman11

Someone said there was mention of the TIVO iPad app coming for virgin I can't find any reference to that.

http://www.techradar.com/news/comput...service-912206

[pauldavies83]

Originally Posted by clinteastman

What? Your paying for the box that runs that software, what else are you expecting from the hardware?

Not to have to pay £200 to have it's functionality "activated"

[jtaylor06]

Now that's some powerful advertising.
I wanted to see more, and it gave me more!

Hoping to get this asap

[clinteastman]

Originally Posted by pauldavies83

Not to have to pay £200 to have it's functionality "activated"

The price has nothing to do with why someone would want this over a Freeview HD box, which is your original question. If you don't like the price that's fine but it doesn't change the fact that nothing else comes close to the functionality. And that is why someone would pay the money for it.

[Perfect Choice]

Originally Posted by pauldavies83

Not to have to pay £200 to have it's functionality "activated"

Like wanting to access the Internet without a router or even PC hardware!

The price is fine with me for the features you gain access to, this is a game changer for VM.

[ShadowTD]

I think it helps if you think of the £200 as being for the 'service'. There's no way VM could provide the 'service' (CPE, backend, infrastructure) for £3 a month. So they offer a low monthly fee and have an upfront charge. Let's look at some numbers. A VM subscriber having TiVO for (hopefully!) two years:

£3 x 24 = £72. Plus the £190 upfront is £262.

Now charge the same upfront as they do for V+. This leaves

£212 / 24 = £8.83, so call it £9 a month.

If VM had mandated a 2 year contract (which wouldn't be a massive surprise, they're already after 18 month contracts) with an extra tenner per month and only £50 upfront I don't think anyone would be complaining. I'm happy to pay the £189.

[Peter_]

Do not forget that this box will have its own dedicated 10Mb broadband connection as well.

[nn012]

Are the prices announced today only for new customers? Any news on prices for existing customers?

[pauldavies83]

Originally Posted by clinteastman

The price has nothing to do with why someone would want this over a Freeview HD box, which is your original question.

Don't remember saying anything about a Freeview HD box?

Originally Posted by clinteastman

If you don't like the price that's fine but it doesn't change the fact that nothing else comes close to the functionality. And that is why someone would pay the money for it.

The core functionality is all available elsewhere. On the same platform and the competing platforms (Sky now, Freeview soon in the Youview guise) PVR, On-Demand, 2/3 tuners, HD, 3D.

It's the bells and whistles that fall into the nothing comes close category. And in my opinion, the bells and whistles just aren't worth the price.

[nashmills]

Originally Posted by Masque

Do not forget that this box will have its own dedicated 10Mb broadband connection as well.

I would have thought that most people on this site already have internet?