March 09, 2009

More comments on the New Samsung V+

From this thread over on Cable Forum:
"I have fitted 5 over the last 2 days. We are being instructed by Virgin to make sure all new install get the Samsung so now is the time to order in Notts.
They are great, channel changing is quick, there is nothing between it and my Sky HD box so it looks like that old complaint is over and done with.
PQ is just the same as the SA. No Component, No RF. VCR scart always active with menus.
Overall this box is what we have been waiting for. Now just lets get more HD."
"I noticed it was much sharper straight away on HDMI. Also menu at 1080 looks great. Haven't got any complaints about the box at all."

10 comments:

Alexei said...

Great! How do we get one?

Anonymous said...

Yea, I have 2 old v+ boxes, I want to exchange one for the new samsung box.

Anonymous said...

"Great! How do we get one?"

Be a new customer who is in a certain area and/or lucky.

Alexei said...

I live in Nottingham, does that mean I may have a better chance of asking for a new box?

Anonymous said...

You can always ask I suppose. And threaten to switch to Sky if your contract's up. But that linked thread says...

"But again - just so everyone understands - it cannot be asked for, it will purely be if the installer has been given one"

and

"And they are only being used for new installs, not box swaps. If your Scientific-Atlanta V+ box breaks, you will get another SA to replace it, not a Samsung."

Standard V+ "installation" fee is £150 (or £99 on offer now) so I suppose you'd have to pay that if you did somehow convince them to give you a new model of box?

If you believe that comment from some guy on forums that all news Notts installs will be Samsung then maybe you can try get a new contract in someone else's name or something?

Anonymous said...

I'm in Warwickshire and will be upgrading to V+ in the next few weeks... I called Virgin and asked if I could specify that I would like the new Samsung box, but the chap I spoke with was quite adamant that this was not possible. In other words, I'd get what I was given and be happy with it!

Bit rubbish really, I doubt they're getting that many requests for the new boxes from people who haven't had V+ installed yet, you'd think they'd use it as an incentive for new customers wouldn't you?

Anonymous said...

Not really. The majority of new customers won't even know there's a new box being launched.

If they are asking for V+ it will be 95% likely from Virgin's ads or word of mouth (they've seen a friend or relation with one).

The other 5% may know about the Samsung from people like us.

Anonymous said...

hi getting sky hd installed on the 18th march I had it with my v+ box

Anonymous said...

Why oh why oh why oh why .... do we have to choose either 720p or 1080i resolution?
HD programs are either recorded in 720p or 1080i, so to be forced to choose one means that some programs are displayed in the correct format, while others are not.
Surely it doesn't take much to make the box have an "auto-select" mode so that it chooses the correct resolution display depending on the programs recording format?
What formats do VM broadcast the HD signal to the STBs in? Do they send both 720p and 1080i, and you choose? Or is it one format, and it gets altered in the STB depending on the format you force the STB to output?
I despair sometimes :-(

Anonymous said...

Well I think all the HD is 1080i at the moment, so just pick your native resolution (and let the V+ box downscale if that's 720p). If you have a 1080p screen then you're probably best going for 1080i unless the filter chain to remove the interlacing doesn't work very well.

If your TV has really good down/upscaling (or you have a curiosity like a CRT model that can natively display 1080i or 720p) then I suppose it would make some sense to switch modes depending on the content, but I think most people would see best results just leaving it at 720p or 1080i depending on their TV.

So many HDTVs are bad at displaying SD that I'm glad the V+ box upscales to 720p so well for me.