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Virgin Tv

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  • 17-05-2020 8:38pm
    #1
    chicorytip
    Registered Users Posts: 4,095 ✭✭✭


    They are offering this 20 euro a month TV only subscription at present, terrestrial British and Irish channels. Is a pre-existing broadband connection required in your home to.avail of this or do they provide an antenna? The information on.their website does not clarify the matter.


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    #2
    icdg
    Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 11,520 Mod ✭✭✭✭icdg


    chicorytip wrote: »
    They are offering this 20 euro a month TV only subscription at present, terrestrial British and Irish channels. Is a pre-existing broadband connection required in your home to.avail of this or do they provide an antenna? The information on.their website does not clarify the matter.

    Virgin don’t do TV through any sort of antenna any more - you need to be passed by (not necessarily already connected to) their cable network. Note that this is a different network to the Openeir network that eir and most other fixed broadband providers use.


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    #3
    chicorytip
    Registered Users Posts: 4,095 ✭✭✭chicorytip


    So I decided to sign up and they are sending me a self-install box which connects to the TV. My home is passed by but not directly connected to their cable network. Should this process turn out to be as straightforward as it sounds?
    Thank you.


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    #4
    icdg
    Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 11,520 Mod ✭✭✭✭icdg


    Self-install won’t work unless you are actually connected - you won’t have anywhere to plug the box into. You’d need a service agent to come out in that case to connect you to the network. You might have been connected to VM or one of its predecessors (UPC/NTL/Cablelink or others) before though.


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    #5
    chicorytip
    Registered Users Posts: 4,095 ✭✭✭chicorytip


    icdg wrote: »
    Self-install won’t work unless you are actually connected - you won’t have anywhere to plug the box into. You’d need a service agent to come out in that case to connect you to the network. You might have been connected to VM or one of its predecessors (UPC/NTL/Cablelink or others) before though.
    No, there was no previous connection to any provider. How exactly would a technician set up a connection in that instance?


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    #6
    icdg
    Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 11,520 Mod ✭✭✭✭icdg


    They physically connect you to the network and install a wall tap. If the house is relatively new sometimes this is done en masse with the builders co-operation so you may be physically connected even if you’ve never been a customer. Look for a white box on the wall with two coaxial outputs. It just strikes me as crazy that they’d identify you as able to self install if you’re not already physically connected.


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    #7
    chicorytip
    Registered Users Posts: 4,095 ✭✭✭chicorytip


    icdg wrote: »
    They physically connect you to the network and install a wall tap. If the house is relatively new sometimes this is done en masse with the builders co-operation so you may be physically connected even if you’ve never been a customer. Look for a white box on the wall with two coaxial outputs. It just strikes me as crazy that they’d identify you as able to self install if you’re not already physically connected.
    It's a twenty year old building. This white box would be located on an exterior or interior wall?


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    #8
    icdg
    Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 11,520 Mod ✭✭✭✭icdg


    Interior wall (or window ledge in the pre-1999 days) and usually in the sitting room. Will usually have the name of the company that installed it on it (this will not usually be Virgin Media - more likely one of it’s predecessors - NTL perhaps given the age).


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    #9
    chicorytip
    Registered Users Posts: 4,095 ✭✭✭chicorytip


    icdg wrote: »
    Interior wall (or window ledge in the pre-1999 days) and usually in the sitting room. Will usually have the name of the company that installed it on it (this will not usually be Virgin Media - more likely one of it’s predecessors - NTL perhaps given the age).
    . No, I don't have one. So one would need to be installed near the living room window area and connected to the broadband system which, I presume, is through the telecommunication cabling already located on the front of the house.


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    #10
    icdg
    Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 11,520 Mod ✭✭✭✭icdg


    Yes.

    It is a completely totally different network to the openeir network that all other fixed broadband providers use, I need to emphasise that - it was a cable television system before they ever got into the broadband business (just as the openeir network was just a telephone network before broadband came along), though the network has of course been upgraded since those days.


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    #11
    Baoithin66
    Registered Users Posts: 185 ✭✭Baoithin66


    Anyone know can you get Virgin Broadband through Fibre to the Home or it it only via SIRO? Looking to get away from eir


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    #12
    Kristopherus
    Registered Users Posts: 11,907 ✭✭✭✭Kristopherus


    Baoithin66 wrote: »
    Anyone know can you get Virgin Broadband through Fibre to the Home or it it only via SIRO? Looking to get away from eir

    Contact VM direct. You can view their plans on virginmedia.ie. There you will have a choice of bb only or bb and tv. Their prices will, no doubt, influence your decision.


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    #13
    colm_mcm
    Registered Users Posts: 73,387 ✭✭✭✭colm_mcm


    chicorytip wrote: »
    So I decided to sign up and they are sending me a self-install box which connects to the TV. My home is passed by but not directly connected to their cable network. Should this process turn out to be as straightforward as it sounds?
    Thank you.
    €20 a month for mostly free to air channels is shocking value.


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    #14
    chicorytip
    Registered Users Posts: 4,095 ✭✭✭chicorytip


    colm_mcm wrote: »
    €20 a month for mostly free to air channels is shocking value.
    It seems pretty attractive to me. A new Saorview installation would cost me almost 300 and this Freedom TV, as they call it, is a monthly contract unlike Sky, for example, where you are bound by the terms and conditions of a twelve month deal. My impression of Virgin's customer service so far is poor however. They have been promising to send an installation technician to my home for the past three days now but no show and no convincing excuses.


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    #15
    decor58
    Registered Users Posts: 831 ✭✭✭decor58


    chicorytip wrote: »
    It seems pretty attractive to me. A new Saorview installation would cost me almost 300 and this Freedom TV, as they call it, is a monthly contract unlike Sky, for example, where you are bound by the terms and conditions of a twelve month deal. My impression of Virgin's customer service so far is poor however. They have been promising to send an installation technician to my home for the past three days now but no show and no convincing excuses.

    Saorview installation for 300€ sounds excessive, is that just for Irish channels, (RTÉ, VM TG4), or is it for Saorview and UK TV, then you won't have any bills after that.


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    #16
    chicorytip
    Registered Users Posts: 4,095 ✭✭✭chicorytip


    decor58 wrote: »
    Saorview installation for 300€ sounds excessive, is that just for Irish channels, (RTÉ, VM TG4), or is it for Saorview and UK TV, then you won't have any bills after that.
    Saorview content consists of all the free to air terrestrial British and Irish channels, as I understand it. I was quoted a figure of 295€ by a reputable installer. The main attraction of Saorview is that, as you say, there are no bills to worry about once it's installed but it's too large an amount for me to pay in one go.


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    #17
    icdg
    Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 11,520 Mod ✭✭✭✭icdg


    It does not. Saorview is terrestrial and is only Irish channels.

    You can team it with a satellite dish to receive British free to air channels but Saorview/2rn have no responsibility for the provision of those channels.


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    #18
    decor58
    Registered Users Posts: 831 ✭✭✭decor58


    chicorytip wrote: »
    Saorview content consists of all the free to air terrestrial British and Irish channels, as I understand it. I was quoted a figure of 295€ by a reputable installer. The main attraction of Saorview is that, as you say, there are no bills to worry about once it's installed but it's too large an amount for me to pay in one go.

    Saorview consists of 11 Irish broadcast TV channels from RTÉ, VM and TG4, there are no British channels on Saorview. There are a number of names, Saorview, free view, freesat, free to air, just check what you are getting for your money.


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    #19
    icdg
    Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 11,520 Mod ✭✭✭✭icdg


    Baoithin66 wrote: »
    Anyone know can you get Virgin Broadband through Fibre to the Home or it it only via SIRO? Looking to get away from eir

    Virgin have nothing to do with Siro. They were considering a partnership at one point, but I don’t think anything came of it and it would only have applied in non cable areas anyway.

    They have their own standalone network, it is the old cable TV network and was hybrid fibre coax (but with their Project Lightening to upgrade to fibre to the home ongoing).


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    #20
    chicorytip
    Registered Users Posts: 4,095 ✭✭✭chicorytip


    icdg wrote: »
    It does not. Saorview is terrestrial and is only Irish channels.

    You can team it with a satellite dish to receive British free to air channels but Saorview/2rn have no responsibility for the provision of those channels.
    Well, yes, that's what I was referring to - free to air Irish and British channels requiring the installation of a dish. "Saorview" is a kind of generic term some people tend to use to describe it.


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    #21
    icdg
    Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 11,520 Mod ✭✭✭✭icdg


    It’s not. We need to be careful about that.

    Saorview is not a generic term. It’s a trademark and business name of 2rn, a wholly owned subsidiary of RTE that operates a terrestrial (ground based transmitter) network that provides free to air television stations from RTE, Virgin Media TV, TG4, and the Oireachtas Channel. It is not responsible for the broadcasting of any U.K. stations. Nor does it require a satellite dish.

    The dish is required for UK based stations transmitted from the Astra and Eutelsat satellites. These are not part of and have nothing to do with Saorview.


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