Virgin TV via wifi - views?

Dinarius

We are thinking of switching to Virgin tv. We are currently with Sky for tv and Virgin for broadband.

Since the modem is in an upstairs office, connected by cable to two computers, the tv downstairs will have to run off wifi.

I’m just wondering if others have experience of this and if the service is reliable?

Thanks.

D.

DopeTech

Do a speed test on your phone where the virgin stream box will be located and see what you get. The recommend 25mbps minimum for 4k viewing

Dinarius

Thanks.

I’m getting about 30mbps.

Will see how it goes.

D.

beachhead

Will be watching here

Dinarius

You’ll be waiting. An error CS1011 appeared while the engineer was installing the tv. He said he contacted base and it would take an hour to connect me. Am still waiting. (Broadband is working fine.) Customer service is closed. So, no tv until at least tomorrow, it seems.

D.

Dinarius

Working now. I turned it on and it spent about five minutes updating software. Then I could watch tv. Sky sports not working, however.

Also, BBC2 and BBC4 not HD, whereas the garbage that is BBC1 is. 😎

D.

beachhead

Would not be eating BBC 3 & 4 that highly over BBC1

Dinarius

On the phone twice this morning regarding no Sky sports. They have no record of me adding it to the package. (I also had three incorrect texts about three engineer call-outs that I had to contact them about and cancel, since last Friday had been the installation date for over a month.)

I decided to take this latest cockup as a sign and scrap the Sky sports add on. So, I’m left with basic tv (to which I will add Netflix), phone and broadband.

Happy with to so far. This is the dongle they gave me.

https://www.virginmedia.ie/virgintv360support/miniwireless/

D.

Dinarius

I changed my mind and added back Sky Sports.

Three days in…

10/10 for neatness. The Virgin 360 box is the size of a packet of cigarettes.

Had buffering problems today for the first time. Rebooted modem (which is in upstairs office, tv is downstairs) and 360 box. Working ok now, but a little concerning. Any speed test I try on my phone, while standing next to the tv, is showing 45-50 Mbps. So, adequate I would have thought.

I presume if it becomes a problem, I could try a booster in the tv room.

We shall see.

D.

Ps. I’m standard HD, not 4K

Dinarius

I just tried to record a program and it seems that to use the cloud recording feature of the 360 streaming box is an upgrade. I would have assumed that recording was included. Not happy.

Will phone them tomorrow to see how much extra it is.

D.

Dinarius

Service support reset my Apollo 360 box remotely. Now, instead of receiving an upgrade message when I try to record a program, I’m getting an error code CS6031. “We can’t locate your hard disk.” If it’s meant to be cloud storage, how could it locate any HD?

So, has to go to the “back office” for review.

I’m told it can be fixed remotely and will take 24 hours. We shall see.

D.

Dinarius

Two week in, my experience with the VM Apollo 360 streaming TV box.

https://www.virginmedia.ie/bundles/broadband-tv-phone/?intcmp=hp-banner

1. My wifi connection (via a speedtest check on my phone) is consistently 45-50 Mbps.
2. This is more than enough to stream tv in the normal HD we have.
3. It is also borne out by flawless Netflix (accessed via the VM 360 streaming box) and flawless Google Dongle streaming.
4. Despite this, we are having constant buffering problems, especially on HD channels.
5. Also, I was told that we would be able to record tv to cloud storage via the Apollo 360 box. It says so on my contract. They now say this isn't possible, but they're working on it. Not good enough, I'm afraid.

In short, I'm not getting what I'm paying for. I have to wonder if a normal tv box connected to the VM router upstairs via a power-line adapter would have been better. But, the VM engineer who installed the Apollo 360 insisted it was the way to go.

A bad experience with Virgin Media.

D.

Dinarius

BBC4, which was only available on standard definition with my Apollo 360 streaming puck, disappeared yesterday. BBC no longer supporting SD broadcast of this channel.

I hope that Virgin arrange to reinstate it in HD soon.

D.

Boots87

Hi All,

I renewed my contract recently. Conicidentally (or maybe not) I had a call from Virgin to upgrade me to fibre connection and initially refused as it was a uk number and call was out of the blue, claiming they were coming the next day to drill into my house. Anyway I refused bit over next week discovered that they were doing this type if work and accepted.

On this new box now and have lost the record functionality. I see above someone has mentioned that its an additional cost. Now I wonder about this whole saga. My new contract says TV Virgin Light. They assured this work that took place was to improve wifi and get latest box but I think it was to remove the record functionaility of my old one. Very sly. I wouldnt be surprised they are a horrendous company. Will call tomorrow.

Dinarius

I presume you’re using the Apollo 360 streaming box? (It’s about the size of a packet of cigarettes.)

If so, they offer 500 hours of cloud recording with this box. However, the inability to record with this box is a common problem. Some customers can record (a friend of mine has had no issues with it) and some can’t record. I’m one of those. Very annoying. They say they’re looking into it, but I’m not sure.

The ability to record is clearly stated in the contract, so they are in breach and can’t hold you to a two week cooling-off period, I think.

Apart from the occasional buffering issues, it’s fine otherwise.

D.

babelfish1990

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122036105#Comment_122036105

VM are forcing customers to migrate to their streaming box in areas where they retire the old coax cable network. All the TV providers are migrating away from legacy hard-disk recording boxes towards streaming, because it gives them better revenue from advertising. All the providers have additional restrictions with recording. Eir TV is the best of the streaming providers - it has unrestricted recording of UK channels including BBC, and Eir uses the Apple TV 4K box, which is also the best of the streaming boxes. Sky, VM, & Vodafone all have major issues with recording of UK channels. BBC is a particular problem, because the BBC iPlayer doesn't work outside of UK. RTE don't appear to allow recording on any of the streaming providers - forcing use of RTE player or catch-up services. If you are less than 14 days into your new contract, you should be able to back out of it.

Dinarius

Good points.

The issue of not being able to record some channels (E.g. BBC) is separate from not being able to record any channels, which is my problem and that of many others. I’d like to be able to record Sky Sports, for example.

D.