TiVo

[jagsman]

I believe if Virgin had offered the TIVO to the pre registered customers for the £149 and free install, the majority of people would have been happy with that. Keeping the £40 install fee was never going to work, because when it is offered to the general public, it will probably come with "Free installation".

[Doz007]

Originally Posted by Joedm45

Just had a look and yes, there is some Sky content on there. Examples being Cougar Town (Sky Living) and Hawaii Five-O (Sky 1)

On another note, if you select one of the shows on the discovery bar and go to set a series link, the set up graphics stay in the HD UI as opposed to the poor looking SD graphics when you set a link up through the EPG.

This annoys me even more now as the code to do this in the HD UI is already written, they just need to transfer it over to the EPG

Thanks for that, I've noticed on the Sky+iPad app only Sky's own programs are recommended in the Discovery bar equivalent. I wondered if Sky had managed to block TiVo recommending their own content in the same way they've blocked the mini tv.

What about suggestions, have you had TiVo also record things from Sky 1 or Movies for example.

[spiderplant]

Originally Posted by Doz007

Well Apple always give dates to when they're launching products. If I see a trailer for a film I like, I know when that's going to be available for me to go see. I remember Sky Atlantic being advertised as coming 1st Feb, so that had a launch date. Call of Duty Black Ops had a set in stone release date almost a year before lauch. Almost every other major game also gets launch dates months and months in advance.

Fair enough. I assume they rely on the increased hype making up for sales they could have made earlier.

However instead of waiting for some pre-set date, VM and most other companies release products as soon as they are ready. That's good for the company (gets return on investment sooner), and good for the customer (gets product sooner).

[Johnlouis]

Originally Posted by jagsman

I believe if Virgin had offered the TIVO to the pre registered customers for the £149 and free install, the majority of people would have been happy with that. Keeping the £40 install fee was never going to work, because when it is offered to the general public, it will probably come with "Free installation".

Same for me. £149 for the box is fair enough, and I don't even mind the £3 a month. But the £40 install was a step too far. It doesnt seem much on the face of it, but I've been with this company (through it's many name changes) for years, and the amount of install fees I've paid must run into hundreds. Didn't even get the free install for upgrading from XL20 to XL30 because of my "Loyalty Discount" , even though it's only worth £1.50 a month less than new customers pay after their initial discount period. Saying that, I probably will be taking up the offer because, as DF said, it will only be available for a short while, and I don't think I could justify paying the full price. Yes, I know I don't HAVE to have it, as cast lists, searching by Director etc don't interest me in the least, but I definitely need the extra recording space as we very rarely watch live TV anymore. Some might say "wait for the £49 box" but as far as I'm aware there's been no official announcement on the price or specs, and by the time it's released it'll be too late to take up the 1tb box offer.

[Peter_]

Has anyone actually bothered to check out the details with regards to installation.

The £40 charge is a standard charge and not specific to TiVo which you all appear to think, also the installation takes 30/40 minutes plus to do so it cannot be a self installation so in reality a rather cheap price to get your service up and running.

If you had checked on the website first and looked for installation charges the first item tells you that all installs are £40.

http://shop.virginmedia.com/help/ins...n-charges.html.

Engineer installation
Free when you buy TV, broadband and phone together in a bundle. £40 otherwise

So unless you are a first time customer buying all 3 services then the installation is £40.

[TheDon]

Originally Posted by Doz007

Well Apple always give dates to when they're launching products. If I see a trailer for a film I like, I know when that's going to be available for me to go see. I remember Sky Atlantic being advertised as coming 1st Feb, so that had a launch date. Call of Duty Black Ops had a set in stone release date almost a year before lauch. Almost every other major game also gets launch dates months and months in advance.

I'm sure there's many more examples also.

I'll see that post, and raise you Duke Nukem Forever.

[passingbat]

Originally Posted by Masque

Has anyone actually bothered to check out the details with regards to installation.

The £40 charge is a standard charge and not specific to TiVo which you all appear to think, also the installation takes 30/40 minutes plus to do so it cannot be a self installation so in reality a rather cheap price to get your service up and running.

If you had checked on the website first and looked for installation charges the first item tells you that all installs are £40.

http://shop.virginmedia.com/help/ins...n-charges.html.

So unless you are a first time customer buying all 3 services then the installation is £40.

You are completly missing the point of the anger towards theis £40 insall charge.

People who have had Tivo installed and paid for it didn't pay the install charge. These were separate to any competition winners.

If they didn't have to pay, why should other pre regs? If VM had charged them, then, this issue wouldn't be causing the fuss it is

It's about fairness and consistent charging, plain and simple.

[Joedm45]

Originally Posted by Doz007

Thanks for that, I've noticed on the Sky+iPad app only Sky's own programs are recommended in the Discovery bar equivalent. I wondered if Sky had managed to block TiVo recommending their own content in the same way they've blocked the mini tv.

What about suggestions, have you had TiVo also record things from Sky 1 or Movies for example.

No probs.

Yeah I've had suggestions from Sky channels too, Hawaii Five-O again, Modern Family, Simpsons and Chuck as examples.

As for movies, I don't sub to Sky Movies so can't comment on that. Having checked my recently deleted folder there are no movies in there at all, however I don't tend to thumb movies, maybe I should start

Most of the movies recorded have been from wishlists as I have put some favourite actors in there.

On a side note, the discovery bar also shows actors and movies as well as TV shows. I must say it comes in handy and have made a couple of movie recordings from it. I would have probably missed out on them as I'm not really one to spend ages flicking through the EPG finding things to watch/record

[Johnlouis]

Originally Posted by Masque

Has anyone actually bothered to check out the details with regards to installation.

The £40 charge is a standard charge and not specific to TiVo which you all appear to think, also the installation takes 30/40 minutes plus to do so it cannot be a self installation so in reality a rather cheap price to get your service up and running.

If you had checked on the website first and looked for installation charges the first item tells you that all installs are £40.

So unless you are a first time customer buying all 3 services then the installation is £40.

Yes, I think most of us realise this. What I was trying to get at was that in the interest of good customer service, and to acknowledge customer loyalty in the face of the lack-lustre TV service, the install fee should have been waived. You make a valid point, but this is only MY opinion about it. Others may feel differently, and I'm sure they will post their opinions if they feel strongly enough about it. Don't take it personally Masque, I'm sure the £40 wouldn't come out of your wages.

[Joedm45]

Originally Posted by Masque

Has anyone actually bothered to check out the details with regards to installation.

The £40 charge is a standard charge and not specific to TiVo which you all appear to think, also the installation takes 30/40 minutes plus to do so it cannot be a self installation so in reality a rather cheap price to get your service up and running.

If you had checked on the website first and looked for installation charges the first item tells you that all installs are £40.

http://shop.virginmedia.com/help/ins...n-charges.html.

So unless you are a first time customer buying all 3 services then the installation is £40.

By stating this can I please ask you to confirm:

If Joe bloggs wants TiVo and is dropping Sky triple services to do so, will they only pay £199 (+ Free Install) to have TiVo, BB and phone installed?

If correct then this is only £10 more than an existing customer is being asked to pay for TiVo install.

I really hope you havn't opened a can of worms

[muppetman11]

Originally Posted by Joedm45

By stating this can I please ask you to confirm:

If Joe bloggs wants TiVo and is dropping Sky triple services to do so, will they only pay £199 (+ Free Install) to have TiVo, BB and phone installed?

If correct then this is only £10 more than an existing customer is being asked to pay for TiVo install.

I really hope you havn't opened a can of worms

Why are we expecting a mass switch from Sky to VM ?

[oliver1948uk]

What I write is pure speculation (as indeed is what just about everybody else writes in this thread).

We are told 50 thousand or so people have expressed an interest in Tivo. But perhaps VM have initially only ordered 10 thousand boxes. As a business, they would be foolish not to get as much as they can for these boxes (especially after the publicity stunt of giving away so many).

Thus a sensible firm will try to price it so that the number of genuine customers having Tivo matches the number they have available. On the thread asking for people to vote in the light of the recent email, approximately one-fifth (at the time of writing) say they will go ahead with Tivo. One-fifth of 50000 is 10000.

I have taken these figures from the top of my head, but any decent business would surely be working along those lines. They are a business, not a charity.

[Joedm45]

Originally Posted by muppetman11

Why are we expecting a mass switch from Sky to VM ?

Just a for instance Muppetman

[Rjs37]

Originally Posted by HDFootyMan

Don't Sky charge less for the 500Gb version of Sky + HD? (by less, I mean nothing when taken with the HD pack). The price difference between that and the 1TB version is a mere £249, with the same functionality on both versions.

I wasn't aware of that but that's bleeding rediculous. A 1TB hard drive wouldnt cost them anywhere near £250 extra than a 500gb one. Considering they're already absorbing the cost for the 500GB hard drive the 1TB could have only been like £30 difference, £50 at most really.

I could understand the difference in Sky's boxes (and Tivo's when their lower tier hard drive arrives) if there was a different number of tuners, etc i.e. an actual lesser spec. But the price difference isn't justified by the hard drive differences. With HD bigger hard drives are becoming more of a neccesity. If they think that should cost an extra £250 I'd rather they give me the opportunity to plug my own external hard drive in.

[muppetman11]

Originally Posted by Rjs37

I wasn't aware of that but that's bleeding rediculous. A 1TB hard drive wouldnt cost them anywhere near £250 extra than a 500gb one. Considering they're already absorbing the cost for the 500GB hard drive the 1TB could have only been like £30 difference, £50 at most really.

I could understand the difference in Sky's boxes (and Tivo's when their lower tier hard drive arrives) if there was a different number of tuners, etc i.e. an actual lesser spec. But the price difference isn't justified by the hard drive differences. With HD bigger hard drives are becoming more of a neccesity. If they think that should cost an extra £250 I'd rather they give me the opportunity to plug my own external hard drive in.

Probably not that many need 1TB with Mpeg 4 as the normal Sky+HD will record upto 60 hrs HD. These drive sizes people quote are not all strictly correct , although I agree £250 is expensive.

The standard Sky+HD box is 500gb with 250gb personal space recording upto 60 hrs HD and 250gb for Anytime downloads.

The Sky 1TB is actually 1.5 TB with 1TB personal space recording upto 240 hrs HD and 500gb for Anytime Downloads.