Virgin Box - V+ box

[Andeh13]

Just got back from visiting my parents where they have sky with the box that lets you record, rewind, pause live TV etc.

I have been googling the V+ boxes which let you do it and it seems they can be had for quite cheap. Would it just be a matter of buying one of these boxes, plugging it in with my smart card & off I go?

[barker967]

Don`t the V+ boxes use the virgin fibre network to get their signals? If so unless you have a cable TV point in your house then it wouldn`t work. I may be worng.

Similar to if you bought a sky+ box, unless you have a dish on your wall it wont give you any TV signal.

[blueball]

I think the V+ boxes belong to Virgin (you don't buy them) so I'm not sure that it is OK for people to be selling them

[Andeh13]

I am with Virgin currently, cabled up with their full package of TV, phone, internet & crappy support (though they haven't been bad recently *touch wood*.

Plenty going on ebay & most are broken or were lost & found after they paid VM. Most are going pretty cheap so not the end of the day if it doesn't work but before I got my hopes up!

[blueball]

I "think" the V+ service is extra cost beyond normal V (but could be wrong)

[GoNz0]

1st off the card is tied to the mac addy of the box and its an additional service.

ring retentions and tell them the same package with sky costs less with sky+HD after speaking to a guy outside tesco's and see what deal they do you for the box.

[Rave]

V+ doesn't cost any extra on a monthly basis if you have XL TV; they might charge you £50 or something for installation though; the box remains the property of Virgin. They have to be activated by Virgin, I very much doubt you'll be able to get one working without their co-operation.

I have two V+ boxes (an old one and a new one) and they're very nice; the disk is a bit small (only 20 hours of hi-def recording) but it's apparently easy enough to upgrade them so I'll probably bung a 1.5TB in there soon.

[Lucio]

Definitely best to get one from Virgin Media directly, as has already been pointed out you need an extra service sorted to get it to work properly.

Speak to the retentions team, if you're on an expensive enough package, then they'll be able to waive the installation costs, giving you the box for free. Then all you have to worry about is the fiver a month if you're not on the XL package.

[Andeh13]

Urgh, I pay them £42 a month for large TV & internet and small phone and for an extra £12 a month I could have the V+ box, XL TV but would lock me in for another 12 months...which sucks as my contract is up in 2 months and id be interested in what their retentions team could do for me!

[digit]

Your being ripped then imo, I pay less and I get L TV and the V+ HD box.. Though when I signed up I played them against Sky in a similar method to that suggested by Gonzo.

[Hicks12]

we pay around £46 (including line rental) for XL tv, L BB(10Mb) evening/weekend calls (believe thats large aswell).

We also have a V+ box with the hd channels ofc, cost us nothing or like £15 for them to give it to us(haggle like a mad man is the best way!)

[PowerPie5000]

Hardly anyone pays the same price with Virgin as they're always introducing different deals and discounts to new members... My package is the same as my neighbours but i was paying around £10 less each month (he obviously complained and now it's the same price as my package). I paid a one-off fee of £40 to upgrade to a HD box and get it activated.

[Andeh13]

I am stuck with Virgin, the BT land line can offer me a maximum speed of 1Mb, though even the BT guy doubted it would ever reach those speeds. Might try it on with their retentions dept but it wont take a genius there to clock onto the fact it is Virgin or no one for me!

[GoNz0]

wait 2 months and make the phone call, they will check your bt speeds but you can BS them about next door dragging 7mb despite what bt's site says, worked for me

or if you fancy it phone them now (monday form 8 i think) and explain you have been looking at your options and wonder what they can do for you to tie into another 12 months.

are bt planning faster internet in your area ?