Thread: New home, new media package needed!

Hey guys

As some of you might know, i'm (hopefully) soon buying my 1st house, and i already have major plans for the media roo....sorry...."living" room

Already got most of my setup, including a 1080p Samsung projector, 5.1 surround sound, PS3, Wii etc

But, i'm thinking that i will want Sky/Virgin or something in the new home, consisting of speedy broadband, telephone and digital TV

Anyone make any recommendations for what's best? Anyone had any bad experiences with people like Sky, BT or Virgin?

Any advice would be great

They all have their downsides in a way.

Sky TV seems to be a bit better than virgin, having used both, theres simply more on Sky.
Sky Broadband is next to hopeless.

Virgin Broadband is hit and miss. Some areas it goes like a rocket, others it dribbles along just as bad as Sky. Virgin also have a mildly annoying throttling system, whereby they dont have a download limit, but if you download over a certain amount each day during peak times, they will temporarily throttle your connection back to a slower speed for a period of time (5 hours iirc) Its largely irrelevant for browsing etc, but if you download things it can be a right pain in the arse.

I currently have Sky HD, on a relatively basic package as i dont watch sky movies or sports, and the one feature i find invaluable is the pause/rewind/recording features.

I have broadband from Be (www.bethere.co.uk) which is positively blistering, but relies on your local exchange being enabled.

Phoneline is just a basic BT setup.

Yes, i'd have got a better deal having got everything thru Sky, but a decent internet connection is really important to me, so i simply wasnt prepared to compromise there, and i dont use the phone enough to benefit from any of the talk plans etc.

So you reckon it's worth getting things separately?

I can't use Virgin (private road) but i know they are rolling out 100mb speeds in the coming year and they will be the only UK provider to do so as the max the phone lines can take is i think 25 or 50mb but virgin is Fibre Optic.

When you buy your amp try to get one with USB, Blue tooth, at least 2 opticals and HDMI, everything else is going that way and it will help you stay compatible in the future.

TV - LG, USB and Blue tooth.

Definately buy your amp and surround from a good HI-FI Dealer, get the sat from SKy or Virgin, don't make the mistake of going to Currys or similar for the whole lot as those guys don't know their arse from their elbow.