Ok people just got off the phone with a helpfel cs bloke after experiencing this issue. I was advised, after firstly waiting 30 minutes initially for the box to sort itself out with nothing happening, to firstly take out viewing card from front of box, then unplug the power cable from back of box & wait 20 secs. After 20 secs plug power lead back in, wait for picture to come back up on tv, the virgin media one with that annoying message then put your card back in the slot at the front. He advised not to change channel for at leats 2 minutes.
Hope this helps others as it did the trick for me.
