Price rises on the way

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.

Virgin Media 360 - early reports not encouraging

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...

Virgin Media 'adding Disney Plus'?

Same box, new remote. The 360 is on its way

Future's TechRadar is a website with a strong, professional reputation and is a more reliable news source for Virgin Media stories than many, so when they say 'Disney Plus is coming to VM' very soon it's worth your attention.

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.

Horizon IS coming to existing V6 boxes - or is it?

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.

French Open in 4K and HDR

Virgin Media will broadcast Roland-Garros event in 4K with High Dynamic Range (HDR) again when Eurosport’s coverage of the tournament which runs from September 27th until October 11th.
Virgin will utilise Hybrid Log Gamma (HLG) technology to broadcast all matches that feature on the Phillipe Chatrier court in 4K UHD with HDR on its V6 set top box.

Eurosport’s live 4K HDR coverage will be available on each day of the two-week long tournament on all matches that appear on Phillipe Chatrier court.

Sadly, there's still no official word when we will see the promised 4K Sky channels that were supposed to arrive in 2020. These were first announced in July 2019 but since then it's been radio silence from the company, which is extremely disappointing.

New firmware for V6 but still no working Radioline app

There's new firmware being rolled out to Virgin Media's V6 boxes. It's 20.10.1.RC21 and one of the things it is supposed to address is an issue with the sound on some BT Sports channels. There's a thread on the upgrade on the Virgin Media Community Boards.

However, it doesn't resolve the issue with the Radioline app, which has been offline since August. That's a known problem and Virgin say they're working on it. Bad timing though, as Radioline announced on Twitter last month that they've just signed a new deal with Virgin for the app to be on the V6 boxes.

Virgin Media Horizon thread

There's an interesting thread over on Cable Forum started by regular poster Ozsat. He has a Horizon main and mini box and is posting on his experiences. You can find the thread here: https://www.cableforum.uk/board/showthread.php?t=33709333

Confusion over Horizon coming to existing V6 boxes

Mark Jackson on ISP Review has this week suggested that Liberty Global's Horizon software may not be coming to our V6 boxes after all. In a post published this week he says:

"We understand from our sources that Horizon won’t be coming to the v6 boxes after all. Instead Virgin Media appear to be gearing up to introduce two new STBs – a main box with the Horizon software and hard drive inside, and then a mini box with no hard drive (see * below) . 

"Both boxes support 4K video. We assume that the new Mini Box is the same one as Liberty Global recently launched for UPC in Poland while the new Main Box looks a bit like the v6, but on the inside it’s a different piece of hardware. At present it is unclear whether the new kit will be available to all new customers or only specific bundles (e.g. Ultimate Oomph). Likewise, we don’t know if existing v6 customers will have to pay for an upgrade (post-trial) or if it will be free."

All very confusing, especially as Virgin Media confirmed last year that Horizon was definitely coming to the UK and replacing TiVo and most pundits, me included, thought that meant new software on existing boxes. Maybe that's not now the case and there are technical issues that prohibit such a change? I'm confused. I can't imagine Virgin quickly replacing its existing V6 hardware base (too expensive and too inconvenient for customers) nor can I see it running TiVo and Horizon simultaneously across the UK for any prolonged period. Hopefully all will become clear "soon" (to use Virgin's favourite timeline).

* Liberty Global has launched a new internet TV box in Poland and plans to roll this out to other European regions according to this story: https://www.broadbandtvnews.com/2020/08/24/liberty-unveils-4k-mini-tv-box/. 

Price rise question

When was the last price rise from Virgin Media? I haven’t posted about one since August 2018 but may have missed something last year when this blog went into hibernation. I’m normally the first to complain when they raise prices and it feels like a while. Hope I’m not tempting fate here!

UPDATE Royalbeech added this comment: I just found this email I received from Virgin:

“Let’s get to it: after the last four months, and the uncertainty of what’s ahead, there’s no more business as usual. That’s why we aren’t raising your price this year as we normally would.

“This means the price you pay for your current package right now will stay the same for the rest of 2020. There are no catches, and there’s nothing you need to do. In the meantime, we’ll keep investing in our network and doing all we can to make sure you stay connected."

Horizon on a V6 "Mini" box going into field testing

Some Virgin customers have been invited to test the new Horizon software on a V6 "Mini" box. I haven't, but here's the email they've been sent:

We think it’s only right that our customers get their hands on our amazing new TV experience first. Get it at no extra cost today and discover how we bring together all your screens, favourite channels and apps, so you can seamlessly watch and stream the telly you love, at home and on the go. Yep, it’s our best TV experience yet, on the house.

Great power and streamability

Our fastest-ever TV experience, now with new features like super powerful voice search, personal profiles and more.

Entertainment, brought together

The UK’s most popular channels, Catch Up services, movies, TV Box Sets and built-in apps, all in one place. So you won’t need to hop around.

TV that moves with you

Watch in more rooms with a 4K-ready Mini box. Or stream, control and manage your recordings with our free, supercharged, Virgin TV Go app.

Ready to go? We’re making our new TV service available to you early, and you have until 2nd September 2020 to get involved. There’s limited availability, but don’t worry it will be available again soon.

Once you’ve applied, it can take up to 7 working days to receive your confirmation.

Looks like they're entering final testing for a late 2020 launch. If anyone has more information, please email me.