For the latest news on Virgin Media's TV services, please check out Virgin's own website, Cable Forum and Media Boy's blog.
If you're interested in alternatives to cable TV I recommend Or's Cord Busters site. It's comprehensive and includes the latest information concerning Freeview, alternative/complimentary services like Roku, Now, Netflix and Amazon Prime and plenty of other useful content including hardware reviews and news on forthcoming pricing changes.
Nialli, July 25 2021
It will probably not come as a great surprise to any regular visitors to this site but I've decided to no longer update the VHMD site. After fourteen years and over six million page views, it's time to say goodbye. This will be my last VMHD post.
Fourteen years ago I launched this site to campaign for more HD services on Virgin Media. In 2007 Virgin only carried a few hours of BBC in HD a day. Today, customers have a broad range of HD and 4K services. Mission accomplished.
I'm paying less for better services than I was ten years ago so I imagine I will continue to be a customer for some time. The broadband's very good and the TV is good. To my mind there are still too many services missing from Virgin Media TV (the promised Sky 4k sports, Sky Atlantic, Disney+ all immediately spring to mind) and the migration to 360 looks like it will be painful, but those are for others to write about - I simply don't have the interest or time any more.
Thanks to everyone who has supported VMHD over the years, especially Nigel at VM, Horizon and Media Boy. I'll still be around on Cable Forum, but this is Nialli signing off from VMHD for the last time.
Bye
All BBC games will be broadcast on BBC One or BBC Two, BBC iPlayer and the BBC Sport website and app. The opening weekend offers audiences a first look at all home nations and some of Europe's best players:
Fans can experience the Euros in Ultra HD quality live on BBC iPlayer, as part of a trial from the BBC. Viewers with compatible TVs and a high-speed internet connection will be able to watch 22 of the BBC's games in Ultra-High Definition and High Dynamic Range, including the first games in the competition for Wales, England and Scotland.
Unfortunately, ITV's coverage is likely to be limited to HD. ITV Hub, to my knowledge, doesn't have any 4k content.
From July 15th Boost is up from £3/m to an extortionate £5/m - unclear at the moment if that price rise will be applied to existing Boost customers.
Sky Cinema's price though is dropping from £11.99 to £9.99. Given how few new films of note are on the service these days I'm surprised it's not even lower.
Even though I'm a Now customer I've received nothing yet to inform me of these price changes. The most comprehensive summary I've come across so far is the excellent Cord Busters site
The Radioline app on the V6 appears to be working again. The app is showing version 3.7.1 on my boxes.
Just had this feedback from one unhappy customer who's switched to Virgin's 360 TV experience:
Had an upgrade to my V6 box a few weeks ago and was the worst mistake I have made. AVOID!!! Cannot recover deleted programmes and is so easy to accidentally delete programmes. Can only use one remote per box (ordered a second remote and it worked for about a week but then just stopped and have now been informed only one can pair per box, but how did it work for a week???) Had two V6 remotes before (one upstairs and one downstairs) and both controlled one box with no issue.
The menu system looks great but functions like it's stuck in 1999. Recorded programs are very difficult to find and seem to overwrite each other. Recorded a live sports event which disappeared and was replaced by highlights aired a few days later. Have also used the virtual remote on the app which is a joke. Has buttons that don't do anything and is missing the buttons that do all the work - what's the point!!!
The old V6 Tivo system was amazing and this so called upgrade has put them back years. So many other small things which they had over Sky which have been lost...used to be a telly addict but now I just watch Freeview. Waiting for contract to end so can move to Sky.
Virgin Media is getting ready to launch a new entertainment service. According to the Virgin announcement the new service will eventually bring a variety of top streaming services together into one place. There's a trial underway but it's only open to Broadband-only customers. Not many more details here
It sounds like they're looking to launch a device similar to Sky's Now USB sticks. As always, late to the party, but the rumour is that the new service will include Disney+ and Britbox as well as Netflix et al. Not sure exactly who this will be aimed at but I'll keep an eye out for further news.
Elsewhere, Sky Q may gain Apple's TV+ service at some point. Speculation here
From the BBC:
The proposed £31bn merger between mobile networks Virgin Media and O2 has been provisionally approved by the UK's competition watchdog.
It will create one of the UK's largest entertainment and telecoms firms, which could become a major rival to BT.The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) launched an investigation into the proposals last December.
More details here.
Details of the rebranding of Sky’s streaming service here.
The good news - no price rises (yet)!
BritBox, which is backed by ITV and the BBC, is already available to BT TV, Freeview and Freesat homes and as Amazon Prime Video Channels are available on Virgin Media (and Sky) it means BritBox will be available on the V6 and 360 boxes too.
BritBox UK will be available to Prime members this spring, for an additional monthly fee, via the Prime Video app.
We signed up to Starzplay on my V6 at 7.30pm to watch Castle Rock and Virgin are still “processing” my order at 10pm! Whole evening wasted. Not exactly “On Demand” is it? More like “When Virgin Get Round To It”. Pathetic
An interesting post from 'Gaz82' on Cable Forum:
I just priced up a package on Sky's website to get it as close to Virgins Ultimate Oomph as possible:
- Sky Signature (Base Package) - £21
- HD & Ultra HD - £5
- Kids - £5
- Multiscreen - £13
- Sky Sports - £22
- BT Sport - £21
- Sky Cinema - £7
- Netflix - £4
- Broadband (Fastest speed available at my address 60mbs, a tenth of the speed!) - £18
- Sky Talk Anytime - £9
- 60GB SIM (Sky don’t offer an unlimited data option) - £30
Total: £155
For comparison:
- Ultimate Oomph - £89
- Netflix - £13.99
Total: £102.99
The extra £6 suddenly doesn't seem such a big deal.
It's official and it's available now - more than 1,500 hours of top shows, box sets and movies in Ultra HD
From today (Thursday 25 February), all Virgin TV customers can add Sky Entertainment and Sky Cinema Ultra HD to their current package.
All new customers that sign up to Virgin Media’s Ultimate Oomph package will be able to watch Sky Entertainment and Sky Cinema Ultra HD at no extra cost.
With the new service, customers will be able to watch more than 1,300 TV episodes and 250 films in Ultra HD. This includes top Sky TV shows such as The Blacklist and Seal Team and Hollywood blockbusters Birds of Prey and Twist. New TV series and films made available by Sky in Ultra HD will also be made available to watch.
All Sky Entertainment and Sky Cinema Ultra HD content will be available via a dedicated section in Box Sets and Movies so customers have the flexibility to watch at a time that suits them.
David Bouchier, Chief Digital Entertainment Officer at Virgin Media, said: “Unmissable telly deserves the ultimate in picture quality and Virgin TV customers can now enjoy top TV shows and films from Sky in Ultra HD. Our powerful Virgin TV 360 and V6 set top boxes allow our customers to watch the widest range of Ultra HD and High Dynamic Range content, all in one place, making us the true home of Ultra HD content.”
Sky Entertainment and Sky Cinema Ultra HD is available for £6 per month. For more information, visit https://www.virginmedia.com/shop/tv/ultra-hd. (If you think this seems steep, remember that Sky customers have to pay an extra £9/m for HD and Ultra HD content)
No news on the promised UHD Sky Sports yet :(
Last week saw Liberty Global's update on 2020 performance and investor news. Go here for details.
What's depressing is what's missing. There was no mention of SkySports or Sky Cinema 4k services, nor anything about Disney+. Instead, Liberty Global presentation to investors focused on the the merger with O2, the rollout of Project Lightning and launch of 5G mobile.
That's not to say they're not happening. It could well be that improvements to the TV service just doesn't push the investors' buttons – there's only one line about the rollout of the 360 service – but it is disappointing.
I wouldn't hold your breath. The easiest way to add the service if your TV isn't Smart enough is to use a NowTV or Amazon HDMI stick. But if you're adding services via a stick you maybe should start questioning why you're shelling out so much for Virgin TV every month. I know I am.
Happy New Year – or maybe not. According to the BBC, Virgin prices are going to rise in 2021
Virgin Media is alerting customers to forthcoming price increases for its broadband, TV and phone services. The average rise would be 4%, it said. That is 13 times higher than the current consumer-price-inflation rate.
It plans to invest £1bn in its network this year. Virgin did not raise prices as normal in 2020, citing pandemic-related difficulties for customers.
Other internet providers are expected to announce similar - or larger - inflation-beating increases soon.
More details here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-55529291
Personally, I'm tied to my Ultimate Oomph package until early 2022 so I won't be changing anything this year but I will be paying close attention to what they do with the Virgin 360 rollout before committing again next year.
I'm always a little nervous when Virgin embark upon something as fundamental as upgrading their boxes but the cautious rollout of the new 360 platform appears to be asking customers to take a blind leap of faith and test an entirely new system in the run up to Christmas seems commercially suicidal if you ask me.
Take this feedback from WhatHifi forums:
As one of the unfortunate early users of the Virgin 360 TV box I'd strongly recommend people avoid it. The hardware of the box itself is a mild improvement, more energy efficient, faster start-up, but the remote is a poor replacement for the old V6 one, far fewer dedicated buttons, it didn't even have a stop button, which means you are much more reliant on navigating on-screen. The software however is the real travesty. It has Minimal Viable Product and Public Beta written all over it. Compared to the mature Tivo-style interface of the V6, the new UI has much less functionality, and appalling navigation. If I could revert to the old V6 I would. This box is is so bad I'm considering moving my TV to Sky, even with the higher cost of breaking the bundle.
That was posted about a month ago, but when I ventured onto VM's own Community pages it was just as bad if not worse, with the most frequent questions being asked along the line of 'can I go back to my V6 software'? Have a look at these posts https://community.virginmedia.com/t5/Virgin-TV-360/bd-p/Virgin_TV_360
Having worked in IT for over 30 years I know full well of the pitfalls of trying to put new software on older hardware in a live environment, but the general public has less understanding and shouldn't be used a beta testers and certainly shouldn't be paying for the privilege. I'll be interested to hear if any of this blog's readers have undertaken the 360 upgrade and what their experience has been and will happily post comments here good or bad, but me? I won't be pushing my way to the front of the upgrade queue just yet...
In a post about the glacial roll out of Virgin TV 360 and the Horizon platform there's some news on us finally getting Disney Plus:
One of the most exciting tidbits we managed to get from Virgin Media, though, was the arrival of Disney Plus. The Disney streaming app launched in the UK back in March, and has been noticeably missing from Virgin Media boxes so far.
Virgin Media isn't the only outlier, though – while Disney Plus is available on most home game consoles, Nvidia and Apple TV streaming boxes, Fire TV and Roku streaming sticks, and Samsung / Sony TVs, you still won't find it on Panasonic TVs.
A representative for Virgin Media told us in a briefing that “As of next year I'm very confident we will have [Disney Plus] on the platform”.
Hmmm. I won't be holding my breath but I'd hazard a guess we're looking at March when Sky's first year with the service is up?
For those still using TiVo the Virgin TV 360 is apparently available now for new Virgin Media customers (and those upgrading to the Ultimate Oomph bundle) though it may take until early 2021 for us existing customers to be eligible for the new box. I can wait - it's had a mixed reception during its pilot stage, appears to be less stable than the V6/TiVo and is missing features and apps still.
We are also promised that Alexa integration, while not present at the 360 launch, may well be in the pipeline for 2021 – which would mean you will be able to connect your 360 box to Alexa smart speakers.
There's an interesting thread on Virgin's own Community Board developing about next year's introduction of Horizon software on existing V6 boxes. Around halfway through a Virgin staffer writes:
Pending successful trials, from next year any existing customers with 2 x V6 boxes will be able to upgrade them to 360 over the air and keep the entire 2TB storage across both boxes.
Some ultimate oomph customers are being contacted very soon to join the trials. We would like to contact all of them but far too many people are opting out of marketing these days.
This contradicts earlier reports that Horizon won't be replacing TiVo on existing hardware. Meanwhile, the ever-reliable Spiderplant on Cable Forum has confirmed that:
There are 3 boxes:
Arris boxes: Can run either TiVo or Horizon software
Humax boxes (with or without a hard drive): Can only run Horizon software
I wonder if existing recordings, series links etc on a V6 are preserved during the upgrade to Horizon? I suspect the answer is no but I'd be happy to be wrong on this.
