TiVo

[pauldavies83]

Originally Posted by Masque

As I said in the earlier post "If you want it then you will happily pay the price asked for the kit" if not stick with your 2 tuner SKY box.

Where have I said I have a Sky box? I'd appreciate it if you didn't make rash assumptions. In fact, you know I have V+ has you have directly replied to me in another thread. If you have nothing constructive to say in direct response to what I've suggested, then please don't quote my post.

---------- Post added at 22:49 ---------- Previous post was at 22:47 ----------

Originally Posted by Stuart

Which is actually my point. With VM, you do pay, but repairs are included as long as you are subscribed to the service. With Sky, you have the upfront cost of the box. You also pay a subscription for the service, but you do *not* get free repairs beyond the warranty.

But you have the ability to replace your equipment yourself - Virgin don't allow equipment they have not supplied to receive their service, so since they operate a closed platform you should not be thanking them for repairing their equipment without charge, as there is no other way for you to deal with the situation.

That is my point.

---------- Post added at 22:57 ---------- Previous post was at 22:49 ----------

Originally Posted by ahardie

I don't get your point here at all. Are Sky giving away 1TB boxes? I dont think so and they are the ones charging £10 per month extra for HD.

My point is I don't see the need for a 1TB box other than to record HD (which the provider charges for you at some point). They have already charged you to access the HD (which is driving the need for the large hard drive in my opinion), so maybe it would be goodwill to not charge you a fortune just for a larger hard drive which makes not much difference to them but a hell of a lot to the end user.

Virgin do charge for HD - they charge you an "activation fee" to receive the HD channels, and a monthly subscription for Sky Sports/Movies HD. For once, I didn't actually bring Sky into this point originally For the record, I don't agree with the price they charge for a 1TB Sky box either, so I wouldn't pay that either.

---------- Post added at 23:02 ---------- Previous post was at 22:57 ----------

Originally Posted by Masque

None of this really matters as only Virginmedia have rights to the TiVo in the UK and many people will go for it as £200 is not a great deal for such kit.

I'll be very interested to see the sales figures in 6 months time then - my prediction is the amount of people who have paid the £200 asking price in full will be pretty low, but that's just based on my opinion.

[Peter_]

Originally Posted by pauldavies83

Where have I said I have a Sky box? I'd appreciate it if you didn't make rash assumptions. In fact, you know I have V+ has you have directly replied to me in another thread. If you have nothing constructive to say in direct response to what I've suggested, then please don't quote my post.

You mentioned the 2 tuner SKY box so you may not actually have one but it is immaterial anyway as it will never be a TiVo.

Originally Posted by pauldavies83

But you have the ability to replace your equipment yourself - Virgin don't allow equipment they have not supplied to receive their service, so since they operate a closed platform you should not be thanking them for repairing their equipment without charge, as there is no other way for you to deal with the situation.

That is my point.

At least they will fix and replace any equipment without first checking whether you actually have a valid insurance in place with them.

Originally Posted by pauldavies83

Virgin do charge for HD - they charge you an "activation fee" to receive the HD channels, and a monthly subscription for Sky Sports/Movies HD. For once, I didn't actually bring Sky into this point originally For the record, I don't agree with the price they charge for a 1TB Sky box either, so I wouldn't pay that either.

It is their service and if they choose to charge an activation fee then that is a business decision that works for them.

---------- Post added at 23:06 ---------- Previous post was at 23:05 ----------

Originally Posted by pauldavies83

I'll be very interested to see the sales figures in 6 months time then - my prediction is the amount of people who have paid the £200 asking price in full will be pretty low, but that's just based on my opinion.

The same was said about 50Mb but the sales said differently.

[pauldavies83]

Originally Posted by Andy C

As you've owned a TiVo before do you not think it does so much more than existing Freeview PVRs? Even the UI is better than anything on any current box I've used. I still use my Series 1 TiVo with a Freeview box and although it's only single tuner, the software can compensate for it (providing there's a repeat).

It's a great bit of kit, of course it is. But there hasn't much innovation to justify the high price tag. If people don't push for innovation, then why should anyone bother to make improvements? If people just accept the price tag and come running with open arms to buy (as some on here have suggested people should), then the price will never decrease. But I've already said I don't believe it will shift in the numbers needed to justify the price tag, so I'll shut up on it now.

Originally Posted by Andy C

It also depends on the manufacturer... yes there are cheap Freeview dual-tuner PVRs for under £200, but the FreeviewHD box from Panasonic is £500... which again the VM TiVo will blow away both feature, UI and storage wise (it only has a 250GB HDD).

Jeez, £500 - I'll bet there isn't a massive queue for that

---------- Post added at 23:13 ---------- Previous post was at 23:07 ----------

Originally Posted by Masque

The same was said about 50Mb but the sales said differently.

Please, come on Mr Virgin.....90k customers at the end of Q3 this year (latest numbers I can find after a quick google) - its a not even a drop in the ocean.

http://www.advanced-television.tv/in...romises-100mb/

You are clearly proud of what your company does, but if you don't want to discuss other than just spouting the company line time and time over then there isn't much point continuing the discussion, so I'll leave it there for now.

[Stuart]

Originally Posted by pauldavies83

But you have the ability to replace your equipment yourself - Virgin don't allow equipment they have not supplied to receive their service, so since they operate a closed platform you should not be thanking them for repairing their equipment without charge, as there is no other way for you to deal with the situation.

That is my point.

Actually, I don't think them for it. It is an advantage over Sky (with Sky, as you say, you can repair or replace the equipment, but you do so at your own cost), but it is part of the service I signed up for. As such, while I did consider it when I was looking at DTV, I expect Virgin to provide the service, in much the same way I expect them to provide Digital TV.

It is, however, in my opinion, an advantage over Sky regardless of whether I feel obliged to thank them for it or not.

As for the £500 for the Panasonic Freeview HD box, well, Freeview HD is still a new technology. Early adopters of most technologies usually do pay through the nose. Generally with new technologies, they charge high prices for the first few months, then the prices fall. Look at DVD. When that was launched, you couldn't get a player for less than £500. Two years after launch and they were almost giving them away with packets of cornflakes.

[Pierre]

Originally Posted by Stuart

You wouldn't. It won't be given a large scale launch until next year.



How do you know it's a Tivo box? Cisco also provide the new V boxes.

I haven't seen the packaging used for the Cisco STBs, but the packaging they use for their professional swtiches, routers and hubs tends to be just brown cardboard boxes with Cisco logos, and no indication of what's inside.

The tivo box arrives in a silver "flight" briefcase.

[hedgie]

Does anyone know when the triple tuner fix will be implemented ? This sounds like a major upgrade to me so I would expect this to be part of the staff based pilot trial to prove reliability etc.

Will the triple tuner be in place before the product is rolled out to "proper" customers.

Does anyone have an inside view on what sort of Apps will be possible.

I am a regular train traveller and to be able to the Virgin Trains website, without booting a laptop would be a real plus for me.

Does anyone know if this is HDMI 1.3 or 1.4 ?

Must admit I am looking forward to this.

[indie1982]

I'm sure I've read here that the 3rd tuner will be activated in Q1 2011, the TiVo software only supported two tuners for the US so I assume they're having to write the code to add a third.

I highly doubt (but could be wrong) that it'll have HDMI 1.4, there are very few devices that support it and it means all new cables as the spec has changed slightly to incorporate higher bandwidth and new features.

Apps is something I'm interested in, can't find any information about who decides which apps get on the platform, if they'll keep this "walled garden" approach or if they'll open it up. Remember that Virgin Media essentially only lease the Virgin brand from Branson and they've got nothing to do with the rest of the group. I don't think a specific Virgin Trains app will be there at release.

Have you got a phone with Internet access? Why not check out the National Rail Enquiries mobile site? http://pda.ojp.nationalrail.co.uk/

[Media Boy UK]

I have been updated with the current information on the cost of TiVo:

• New Customers - £199
• Existing customers - £149

Both with £40 installation price and there is also a monthly fee of £3 per month and customers need to stay on XL TV.

[clinteastman]

Originally Posted by Media Boy

I have been updated with the current information on the cost of TiVo:

• New Customers - £199
• Existing customers - £149

Both with £40 installation price and there is also a monthly fee of £3 per month and customers need to stay on XL TV.

That looks about right to me, I think the other pricing looked a little optimistic.

[jb66]

Originally Posted by Media Boy

I have been updated with the current information on the cost of TiVo:

• New Customers - £199
• Existing customers - £149

Both with £40 installation price and there is also a monthly fee of £3 per month and customers need to stay on XL TV.

Spot on

[whizzard]

Originally Posted by jb66

Spot on

Just to add that those on Mates Rates will also be subject to the same fees as existing customers.

[Peter_]

Originally Posted by whizzard

Just to add that those on Mates Rates will also be subject to the same fees as existing customers.

I would expect the installation charge to stay and would be surprised if we got the TiVo for a much better price than advertised this early into the rollout.

[cupcakes aka dd]

I'll be back to check the pricing mid summer then.

[jb66]

Originally Posted by Masque

I would expect the installation charge to stay and would be surprised if we got the TiVo for a much better price than advertised this early into the rollout.

Your getting confused with myrates and mate rates, my rates is the staff deal and its on the intranet

---------- Post added at 13:28 ---------- Previous post was at 13:28 ----------

Getting my TIVO on the 14th December WHOOP WHOOP

[Joedm45]

Originally Posted by jb66

[/COLOR]Getting my TIVO on the 14th December WHOOP WHOOP

I expect a full review once you're up and running