Tech info on Virgin Tivo box
I know there have been a few threads with known info and some guesses, but thought this might be a good place to keep it all in one place.
My question might be impossible to answer yet, but throwing it out there just in case (and any PMs from beta testers gratefully and discreetly received!) We've just signed up to Virgin, and so far so good. One crushing bore though is you can't have HDMI and RGB Scart output simultaneously... I'd definitely move to Tivo for that reason alone if it had it!
Thanks in advance...
My question might be impossible to answer yet, but throwing it out there just in case (and any PMs from beta testers gratefully and discreetly received!) We've just signed up to Virgin, and so far so good. One crushing bore though is you can't have HDMI and RGB Scart output simultaneously... I'd definitely move to Tivo for that reason alone if it had it!
Thanks in advance...
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One would hope so - there seems no reason for it not to be, it was a very strange failing of the older boxes.
The VCR scart on the Samsung is always active.
Yeah, but AFAIK no w/s switching and no RGB....
It's daft to suggest that on the Samsung box it is a deliberate ploy to stop people running two TV's off one box. If you really want to do that, and want the best possible quality, just get a 1:2 HDMI splitter and run HDMI to each display.
True enough... but seems equally daft to cripple the box otherwise? What technical reason is there to only have one or the other?
It's mad, I'm actually thinking about cancelling under the 28 day thing over this.
The decoder chip can either output interlaced or progressive but not both. Or it can output RGB or Component, but again not both.
The VCR socket is then driven via a separate low cost scaler chip that only outputs composite.
There is no way it is a deliberate, conscious decision made just to annoy people - I'm sure it will be a side effect of the hardware design.
Actually I was told by a Virgin rep the reason, and it's to stop people using Magic Eyes and taking an additional subscription. Don't quite get it myself, but that's what I was told.
I got as far as speaking to a nice sounding man in the Tivo department, who "couldn't see any reason" why you couldn't have both together. He went off to check in the office to be sure, and was going to ring me back 10 minutes later.
That was 2 days ago.
Sigh...
The fact that the Tivo only has one scrat makes me think that it must be able to output RGB while the HDMi is active, if it does I might even start using my DVDR again.
It's obviously what I want to hear, but I don't follow your logic... could you elaborate a little more?
Ahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha, good question
Except it doesn't achieve that goal does it? You can still use a magic eye and video extenders, it's just that the signal is composite and not RGB.
With the greatest of respect, a VM customer service agent is not going to have any idea about the commercial and technical reasoning behind the VCR SCART only outputting composite video!
Because the current V HD box does this and is built by Cisco.
Edit: Actually I never had a look to see if it ouputs RGB while the HDMI is active.
I've been told by VM March for existing customers at a cost of £149 + £40 installation fee.
I was told by Virgin Customer Services
and the Tivo Team Department that it is £159 for the box,
plus a choice of £20 self-install or £40 for an Engineer Install,
that is what they told me this week, when I phoned 150
to enquire about it, they also told me to phone back
in April to order it
I was also told that to move the current Box
to another room would cost another £99,
on top of the £159 Tivo Box fee
The Tech Sepc is as follows
Three Tuners - with the Third Tuner enabled sometime in 2011,
via a Software Update Patch
Has its own 10MB Broadband connection for Youtube
and other internet uses and apps
Remote Record via the Virgin website
1TB of Hard Drive Space
HD and 3D compatible
Im not sure about the Sockets at the back though,
it definitely has an HDMI Socket, not sure about the rest
Sadly it doesn't - hence my quest for info.
If not then it would be a good feature to have, already TV's, BD players can connect to a dlna server etc and let you watch movies you have backed up.
Just would be nice to have one device that does it all.
Tivos can play content from other tivos in the house, but anything else is subject to rights management (eg. Tivo to PC is possible in the US but unlikely in this country as historically the rights holders have not allowed it).
http://tivo.virginmedia.com/
Click on 'watch demo' for a video (slow to load, keeps pausing - not a good start)
Watching this on my 50mb connection stutters too much so gave up as you say poor work by Virgin Media.
The page has been there for weeks and the video played fine when they first put it up and is still playing fine now on my 10 meg connection. Could have just been a blip? Try again now.