Thread: Virgin Media

Any thoughts on them? Would it be better than Sky+BT? I used NTL a few years back and they were pretty good, no complaints. Not too bothered about HD just want a cheap phone/tv/broadband (broadband being the priority). Any info from you guys would be greatly appreciated thanks!

I'm with them. Certainly get more bits through Virgin than you do with Sky. I have what's basically a movie collection whenever I want it. Just choose the movie and start it, pause it or rewind it or just watch it as many times as I want for 24Hrs. Also get free music videos which are on the system and they even have some of th emore obscure musi I listen to. 10Mb broadband and my phone for £40 a month

Dont do it!!! Stick with Sky+HD. Virgin telly sucks.

yeah but Virgin Broadband rocks unlike sky internet that sucks...lol

since internet is your priority, I would go with Virgin

I'm on 10MB and always download at 1.13MB/s

you can go for the fibre optics one too

Dreambox FTW!

I was on Virgin's fibre-optic service in Preston. We had 20Mb internet, and OK during really busy periods, it didn't deliver 20Mb. It only reduced as much as any other provider does at peak, and even if it lost 75% (which it didn't usually), you'd still have a quick connection. During off-peak periods I was leeching at 2.1MB/s. It was luuuuuurvely

The TV service isn't bad, it's knocks spots off Freeview and Freesat, but doesn't quite match Sky (imho (and I work in audience research)) - but unless you're a real telly addict, it's more than good enough. That's reflected in the price anyway - if you want all the extra bits that Sky can offer over VM, it's £££ per year.

And as jojo says, there are some interesting things you can do with VM - if you like 'technical experiments'. Apparently some folks run the most basic TV package but by a stroke of luck (when running a Eurovox or Dreambox set-top box) enjoy an awful lot of content (/channels) from that package.

We've not got fibre optic down here in the sticks, so I'm now with VM for internet only and it comes in over the BT copper. We did it simply because they're quite good value when you compare them to other ADSL services which let you keep the phone with BT (we need friends and family). That throttles pretty harshly between 16:00 and 23:59, but outside those hours we get a steady 6Mb, which isn't bad for the copper around here.

Regards,

Rob.

I was with Virgin for 8 years and had to change a few months ago to Sky due to moving house and no cable cover. In both instances I have had both broadband and HD TV

As for the difference as far as my experience is concerned there is no comparison Sky is crap, as far as the TV goes its largely the same content however the user interface for looking through channels on Sky is awful, recording programmes is no where near as intuitve or as easy nor can you record as many programmes at the same time. With Virgin you carry on looking at your current programme in a window whilst in the channel viewer wheras in Sky you lose this and get that STUPID ANNOYING MUSIC in the background !!! As far as I am conerned Virgins interface is much better.

I have also signed up to the Movie channels which are in the main awful with repeated content continously but I guess to an extent it was the same with Virgin but at least you had a bigger choice of pay per view movies and a greater backlog of previously aired programmes to choose from.

As for internet their is simply no comparison, with BT lines the dreaded contention kicks in meaning at peak times the drop off in spead is very noticeable wheares with fibre I never experienced it. To make matters worse Sky insist that you have to use their crap G rated, in my case Sagem, router which performance wise isnt a par on the latest ADSL 2, N rated, noise filtered routers commercially availalbe. As far as I know they are the only provider that stipulates you cannot use any other equipment (if you do and find out how to replace it the difference is worthwhile by the way!). To me as an IT professional it was like going back to a 56k modem experience wise.

As for the late delivery of kit, missing smartcard, poor response to the intial setup of the line and constant problems during the first 6 weeks I wont comment any further!

I am not a fan of Virgin as an organistion but if they ever lay fibre in my area I will be back like a shot!

Cant get VM down here which is shame as heard the net can be very good.

I've contemplated swapping from BT for years, but given they're the most reliable & best service tbh I cant be arsed, mainly cause I checked all other deals & sky is crap, tiscali is now talk talk with rubbish bangalore customer services, orange uses the ever so unreliable old freeserve network, also I negotiated a better deal with BT so saved me messing about swapping services.

TBH its all a bit of a rip off, the future will bring free net & I have an idea ads will subsidise this somehow eventually.

Originally Posted by heli_madken

I was with Virgin for 8 years and had to change a few months ago to Sky due to moving house and no cable cover. In both instances I have had both broadband and HD TV

As for the difference as far as my experience is concerned there is no comparison Sky is crap, as far as the TV goes its largely the same content however the user interface for looking through channels on Sky is awful, recording programmes is no where near as intuitve or as easy nor can you record as many programmes at the same time. With Virgin you carry on looking at your current programme in a window whilst in the channel viewer wheras in Sky you lose this and get that STUPID ANNOYING MUSIC in the background !!! As far as I am conerned Virgins interface is much better.

I have also signed up to the Movie channels which are in the main awful with repeated content continously but I guess to an extent it was the same with Virgin but at least you had a bigger choice of pay per view movies and a greater backlog of previously aired programmes to choose from.

As for internet their is simply no comparison, with BT lines the dreaded contention kicks in meaning at peak times the drop off in spead is very noticeable wheares with fibre I never experienced it. To make matters worse Sky insist that you have to use their crap G rated, in my case Sagem, router which performance wise isnt a par on the latest ADSL 2, N rated, noise filtered routers commercially availalbe. As far as I know they are the only provider that stipulates you cannot use any other equipment (if you do and find out how to replace it the difference is worthwhile by the way!). To me as an IT professional it was like going back to a 56k modem experience wise.

As for the late delivery of kit, missing smartcard, poor response to the intial setup of the line and constant problems during the first 6 weeks I wont comment any further!

I am not a fan of Virgin as an organistion but if they ever lay fibre in my area I will be back like a shot!

I assume you're skyhd box is samsung then as these are the ones that havnt had the new epg added as yet which apparently makes it more like the virgin interface you're used to, force an update mate & see if it adds new epg, worth a try once a week cause its due anyday now for samsung & any brands leftover, thomson was 1st & pure luck they swapped my box for new samsung because of 3 boxes with faults, then I get to back of queue for epg upgrade, fecking typical.

Also my uncle has sky net, he had the older netgear version of the sky adsl wifi router, at least with this I got the hack to read the sky username & password & switched him over to his much better belkin router.

Give this a try to get your logon info from the Sagem box as someone said it works on netgear & Sagem:

http://www.skyuser.co.uk/forum/extra...-safe-way.html

They've just bumped my VM broadband speed upto 10meg from 4 meg on the base package.

Is it noticeable though, I'm supposed to be on 6-8meg but as with contention ratios certainly doesnt seem alot quicker than my old faithful 2 meg

Originally Posted by abdus

yeah but Virgin Broadband rocks unlike sky internet that sucks...lol

since internet is your priority, I would go with Virgin

I'm on 10MB and always download at 1.13MB/s

you can go for the fibre optics one too

I have virgin broadband and phone service, but declined the tv package, choosing to stick with SkyHD.

Virgin actually phoned me last month and offered me the tv package for free (large package). I accepted it with the intention of sticking it in my bedroom, but have since changed my mind cos its pants.

Ive phoned them back informing them that i no longer want it, but despite three phone calls they still havent bothered to come and pick up the box etc. Shows how much they rate it themselves if they cant even be @rsed picking it up. If they dont turn up by next week im sticking it on eBay.

Originally posted by NHN-
Give this a try to get your logon info from the Sagem box as someone said it works on netgear & Sagem:

http://www.skyuser.co.uk/forum/extra...-safe-way.html

Cheers mate already done that one been using a high end cisco router now, much better but still not as good as fibre, will try your suggestion on the HD box

Quick update:

Got a VM Package, TV is ok but nothing amazing (I do have the cheapest package tho), really happy with the internet though, its miles better than what my Orange Broadband was came with a Netgear wireless router but Im happy using a really long ethernet cable. Did a couple of speed tests earlier and the average speed was coming up as 17mbit so overall, very happy!