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Improvements in the pipeline?
Red Wimp
Posts: 4,978 Forum Member
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Interesting interview with VM CEO today, says amongst other things
VM need to update its neglected set-top box...will change beginning this week...menus slicker and more picture based..
Series of updates to deliver new features, including series link plus
At the turn of the year will launch a new stb to rival Sky Q, with ultra HD, ability to sling
Major overhaul of "plumbing" to enable use of Horizon
VM need to update its neglected set-top box...will change beginning this week...menus slicker and more picture based..
Series of updates to deliver new features, including series link plus
At the turn of the year will launch a new stb to rival Sky Q, with ultra HD, ability to sling
Major overhaul of "plumbing" to enable use of Horizon
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Here's the full article: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2016/04/24/virgin-media-turns-up-the-television-volume-to-transform-its-neg/
It's fair to say he's correct that Virgin's TV service has been neglected in recent years and a new STB is long overdue.
There is a single mention of the current TiVo boxes getting software updates this year, but then it goes on to mention Horizon which is the TV system they use in Ireland and other countries. It makes me wonder what (if any) long term future TiVo has. Will they even bother with a new TiVo box?
"... there will be a major overhaul of the ageing plumbing that powers Virgin Media’s broadcasting, to allow it to shift to Liberty Global’s next generation distribution system, Horizon, which is already in use elsewhere in Europe."
Didn't VM sign a new (three year?) deal with Tivo only last year? Can't remember, to be honest.
I don't like the idea of a not-Tivo unless it has exactly the same functionality and meta-data-rich EPG.
trust me Horizon aint all that, I find its menu's pretty bland.
Hardware is very good, but dont see whats wrong with the tivo.
it has a lot of bashing to be honest.
Remember, there is no Tivo 'box' in the UK, only software. My guess is that the hardware will be a new pan-european Liberty Global set top box that will ship with Tivo software in the UK initially, but at some point in the future, once VM's "plumbing" has been overhauled, will be switched over to the Horizon platform.
TiVo Bolt is where its at.
the platform for horizon is good, just crap interface. They have been having problems with it. it does support Mocca that cable ethernet thing.
TiVo would have to add DVB support to the US code before bringing it over. It'd also depend of course on if Virgin are prepared to pay for that to be done, instead of moving to Liberty's system
Is there any other European country Horizon isn't used in?
It was originally called TV Drive when Telewest launched it.
Other than the UK, they all use Horizon. In Belgium the product is called 'Yelo' but is just Horizon under a different name.
Yes indeed. And I'm almost certain I was one of the first to review it, back in the day.
When the Virgin rebrand happened they decided it would be easier to call it 'V+' as a competitor to Sky+, and what do you know, Freeview followed suit by rebranding their PVR line as Freeview+.
It was just easier to have a uniform naming scheme to signify that 'this is a PVR'.
What is MRS?
I too would Like to know
it's just ATSC.
swap the tuner and be done with it.
Multi-room Streaming
https://my.virginmedia.com/content/virgoBrowse/en_gb/home/staticPages/discover/tv/ways-to-watch/multi-room-streaming/intro
Arguably others have taken over in all these areas, they need to reverse this, and stay competitive with sky and other channel providers, I had virgin tv for years, now i've moved back to sky it would take me a lot to move back... I compared deals yesterday on TV, and sky offered me £19 for the family pack plus a £50 credit, virgin were willing to offer me some short team deals on Xl, but nothing anywhere good enough to make me stay.
Given the 'cutting the cable generation' affecting all pay TV providers, and the change to amazon, netflix, nowTV and other IPTV providers, virgin need to offer something distinct.
Before the 3 tuners brigade turn up, in 2016 with VOD/IPTV and SkyQ, etc having 3 turners for 1 tv set is not going to sway listeners.
I am interested to see what the horizon box will bring.
So your only criteria was saving money not actually anything to do with "new tech VOD, Exclusive Channels, better picture quality" then.
Sky would have to pay me before I leave VM and my Tivo.
Or even viewers
However, I'll take the Tivo interface and functionality over anything else. I can get a Roku box for any streaming I want to do.
I'm not unless it's a Tivo.
What is so good about the Tivo Carl?
Not really, ATSC is pretty much exclusively used by terrestrial TV as Digital cable and satellite (DVB-S is used) is older and already used Quadrature amplitude modulation. Its closer to DVB-C if anything and uses used part of the DVB standard.
ATSC on the other hand uses Vestigial sideband modulation with 8VSB but cable companies don’t have need as high sound to noise ratio as over the air TV so this is waste full bandwidth wise so they choose to use 256-QAM. Although there is 16VSB there is/was compatibly issues and 256-QAM was already in use QAM is what is used.
Are you sure it a proprietary mess as US cable companies are required to allow freedom to use your own hardware via the CableCARD standard?
Unless you referring to the on demand part.
Programme 1 2000 to 2100 +
Programme 2 2000 to 2100 according to Tivo this requires 3 Tuners so recording at 2100 requires a non existent 4th tuner.
Now before somebody mentions Overlap Protection or padding these are turned off!
I still say that even with padding making it 1959 to 2104 this should only involve 1 Tuner so 2 programmes from 1959 to 2104 shouldn't clash with 2059 to 2204 but it does!
We're getting so fed up with this we're thinking of switching to Sky Q for our Tv service.
You did that on purpose
Sorry but that's nonsense. With O-LP and auto-padding off then the Tivo will stick to EPG timings only. I have never had any problems recording three things at once. There should certainly be no issues recording two things at once.
There is something you're not telling us.
No it doesn't three tuners should easily take care of all three of those recordings just fine.
And yet with O-LP and auto-padding off I have never had any of these issues. That said, I rarely add padding myself so my Tivo generally sticks to the EPG timings.