New Samsung V+ box on its way!

[BenMcr]

Actually it shouldn't have been posted as it was part of an internal brief. So its not VM 'outing' anything.

There is no definate date/feature set/price/colour choice etc for it.

All an engineering sample means is they are looking into it to see if it is any good.

[Stuart]

Originally Posted by RamJet

er in summary do the posts above mean

1. is there is a new Sansung box V+ box the way ?

Possibly. All we know is (as Ben says) that they have recieved Engineering samples. All this means is that Virgin are looking at boxes other than the current Scientific Atlanta/Cisco (SA are part of Cisco) boxes.

They've always done this sort of thing.

2. when will it arrive

Possibly later this year

3. will is cost any £ for us the subscribers

Unknown.

4. will I be able to call it up remotely and set it to record a program or 2 ?

Unlikely. This is something that (hardware wise at least), Virgin *could* implement on the current boxes, yet haven't. Virgin tend to keep the functionality of their boxes roughly the same (so any new v boxes would have the same functionality as the current v box, and any new v+ boxes would probably have the same functionality as the current v+).

5. what color will it be

Unknown.

[harmanUk]

Hey all, i got a call from virgin media telling me if i wanted the new samsung V+ box for £25, he said its black, going to be installed on thursday so if its true what the person said at virgin media ill take some photos.

They also said that they are removing traffic managment in about 2-3 months as they are brining out a new 50MB service.

I do hope it is the new box like the person who rang me said it was.

[BenMcr]

That would be the existing SA V+ box (which is black) NOT any 'NEW' Samsung V+ box as it doesn't exist!!!!

The launch of 50Mb broadband product would not remove the managment for anyone else at this stage.

[harmanUk]

Originally Posted by BenMcr

That would be the existing SA V+ box (which is black) NOT any 'NEW' Samsung V+ box as it doesn't exist!!!!

The launch of 50Mb broadband product would not remove the managment for anyone else at this stage.

he said it was not the old SA box which i beleive is also black he confirmed to me it was defently a samsung box the new one. And he said somethign to do with the 20MB and 50MB service is going onto a diffrent platform or something which frees up the line for the 4MB and is it 2MB people so thats why they are going to remove it.

I suppose we will see on thursday.

[BenMcr]

You cannot have something that doesn't exist. ALL V+ boxes are currently made by Scientific Atlanta! There ARE NO Samsung V+ boxes!!

Yes the 50Mb service is new technology and yes at somepoint the 20Mb service will be moved to that technology but you are looking at 2009 before that all completes

I would doubt the 50Mb service itself will launch before August/September

[harmanUk]

Originally Posted by BenMcr

You cannot have something that doesn't exist. ALL V+ boxes are currently made by Scientific Atlanta! There ARE NO Samsung V+ boxes!!

Yes the 50Mb service is new technology and yes at somepoint the 20Mb service will be moved to that technology but you are looking at 2009 before that all completes

I would doubt the 50Mb service itself will launch before August/September

Should i ring them and ask to cancel the install then, i only wanted the samsung box as the old SA one is too slow, i had it before, have the improoved it yet?

[BenMcr]

You can if you like, but you won't get it for £25 again

And yes improvments have been made

[harmanUk]

Originally Posted by BenMcr

You can if you like, but you won't get it for £25 again

And yes improvments have been made

Ok, well ill get it installed he said i have a month and if i dont liek it they will refund me.

[scottish_stu]

Originally Posted by RamJet

will I be able to call it up remotely and set it to record a program or 2 ?

Just to be clear, I know nothing about these alleged boxes, but as a current V+ user with the SA box, I wondered what else the exisiting box has to offer that isn't available through VM's choosing at present? Is remote recording technically possible?

I note that in VM's 2007 annual report, they stated "In 2008, we plan to further enhance the functionality of our V+ Box." (p10 of this pdf)

What do you think the possibilities might be? Again, I'm talking about the current box.

[BenMcr]

Yes remote record is technically possible as that has nothing to do with the box, more what software is ON the box

[Morden]

I would like the ability to watch my V+ recordings on another box in the house, but dont know if that would be possible ?

Maybe have a private VOD menu on my ordinary V box.

[BenMcr]

If ntl had had their way, it would have been possible. the PVR they were testing had the ability to act as a Media Server, with the other standard compatible boxes in the house streaming recorded programs from it.

It was scrapped in favour of the current V+ which telewest had already rolled out

[nialli]

Whilst a Media Server sounds great to the more technically minded, I think the success of Sky+ and the V+ is down to it being so easy to use. The rest of my family never mastered setting the VCR or even changing TV inputs for DVD playback, but they use the V+ with little difficulty.
Whilst I'd be surprised if the new Samsung doesn't support MPeg4 (it wouldn't have much of a market outside the UK if it didn't), I would expect a whole plethora of additional functionality over the existing V+. "Late Summer" is what they're discussing at VM, pending successful testing. More here.

Originally Posted by BenMcr

If ntl had had their way, it would have been possible. the PVR they were testing had the ability to act as a Media Server, with the other standard compatible boxes in the house streaming recorded programs from it.

It was scrapped in favour of the current V+ which telewest had already rolled out

The current V+ (aka TVDrive) hardware has this capability - it's just not implemented in the software (like record three channels at once).