Virgin Media TiVo user reviews

Luke Parker 8 June 2012

Good: Wide variety of content at a good price and it does everything form YouTube to

Bad: The TiVo box can be a little slow at times and not that many HD channels

Comment: I think virgin media and TiVo is great i did have the V+HD box before and it was rubbish but the virgin TV service on its own is good but virgin TV and TiVo is great. And the benefits of having cable and not satellite is cable will not get interference from the weather or loss of signal so for me cable for virgin media and the TiVo box is the best all i would change is to have more HD/SD TV channels.

Paul Stevenson 4 June 2012

Good: clear picture

Bad: no link you tube

Comment: good machine

Danoi40 25 May 2012

Good: Nothing

Bad: Everything

Comment: Start with the basics, the controller is uncomfortable to use, the wrong buttons are highlighted and its overly bulky.
The tivo itself is slow to respond, the navigation menus are way too complicated, it can take up to a full minute just to change channels.
The suggestions it supposedly makes to match your own tastes are ridiculous, for instance I gave 'America's Next Top Model' 3 thumbs down and the tivo box suggested pretty much every other model and reality show on the tv.
But by far the most annoying thing about it is the complicated and lengthy menus, I can't stress enough how unnecessary they are, it's just ridiculous.
I really do wish I had stayed with my original v+ box but unfortunately I'm stuck with this rubbish for another 11 months.

lummy_al 15 April 2012

Good: recording tv with multiple tuners, hd

Bad: lagging UI, suggestions for shows you dont recieve, too many button presses to do simple tasks, od is obnoxius to use

Comment: Good but could easily have been much better.

daughterofdust 11 March 2012

Good: larger hard drive

Bad: buggy unresponsive and drawn out menus

Comment: Very disappointed with the Tivo box. The meta data, (thumbs up and thumbs down), does not seem to work efficiently and comes up with totally inappropriate suggestions, even after spending hours putting in thumbs up or down to customise what you like to watch on TV, which is extremely frustrating. Their are 2 Youtube Apps for some reason.The default Youtube App would be great is it did not deep stalling and taking you back to the main home page, after you have tediously typed in a search. The other Youtube App, (found in 'all apps folder' keeps coming up with the same haunting message "you have not yet made any Favs, go to www.youtube and next time you sign in your Favs will show here", but they don't. Believe me I have tried endlessly. `It also states I have no Playlists,(I have about 40!). All in all the interface and menus are still very buggy and I don't advice you pay for this service until it has been properly ironed out.

David Hammersley 3 March 2012

Good: Just a message to cnet, the usb on the back of the box is to plug a keyboard into so you can type faster then you can with the remote control

Comment: Just a message to cnet, the usb on the back of the box is to plug a keyboard into so you can type faster then you can with the remote control

Anonymous 30 January 2012

Good: Not much that stands out

Bad: The fact that it stopped working last night, with every channel there but on on for 40secs before freezing.

Comment: Had to do a Tivo reset last night, which took a while. Even the remote control is badly shaped and slippy, so dropped many times and hard to use with one hand. Getting my V+HD box back end of February. Not much argument from Virgin, as though they are getting many complaints and are going back to the drawing board.

TonyM 23 January 2012

Good: Not had it long enough to judge

Bad: several upto now

Comment: As has been said, no channel indicator on screen, Page down facility on Guide, buttons too small and too many. On the VH+ Box you could watch a programme whilst it was recording i.e. programme starts at 5.15, I get in at 5.25, on the old box I could view it right away instead of waiting for it to finish. The Tivo should have been an upgrade with all the old options and then the Tivo options on top. Hopefull I will get to like the Tivo and manage it's intracasies, otherwise I will send it back.

SparkyBoy 18 January 2012

Good: Only +£3 a month at the moment

Bad: Menu structure annoying

Comment: We have just upgraded to 500mb Tivo box from a basic VM box - free box, free install, £3 a month extra subscription.

Likes:
Considering what we had and what we have now its a marvellous piece of kit. Series link is dead handy - and there is a lot of program info. as well. We now have some HD channels with a couple more channels (HD as well) we did not have with the old box. We have a 46" Samsung and the picture quality with Tivo is good, much better than the old box. TV guide is speedy at scrolling around.

The thumbs up/thumbs down suggestions seems to work reasonably well. I watched FA cup footy the other night gave it some thumbs and low and behold tonight its recording the next match - Idid not know it was on. Recorded BBC Horizon, after giving thumbs to some science doc on Discovery Ch.

Dislikes:
The remote does seem to have one to many buttons - less buttons, and bigger buttons would be better. The menu system has too many levels to it. There are shortcuts into the menu system via buttons on the remote - as I say buttons a bit too small and fiddly.
While watching TV would like a couple of on screen options:
1) Seeing as the Tivo box has 3 or 4 tuners - Picture in picture would be nice!
2) Option to have a small permanent channel indicator in the corner of screen.
3) Maybe some audio options - equaliser etc.

Early days but for £3 extra/month cant really complain.

Clair Ryder 12 January 2012

Good: HD size

Bad: Remote and menus

Comment: I got the Tivo about 6 weeks ago and have returned it free of charge today, and I have installed my old V+ box which I had I kept.

The best thing about it is that it does have a good HD size, but thats it.

I was disppointed not to be able to see on the box which channel I was watching, having used the V+ box for years I really did miss it.

When setting too many programs to record at the one time, I had to flick through 3 screens to figure out what the conflict was then to go back to the planned recording screen to delete the program.

Hiccup screen had every program in the next month that wouldn't record because it had been on within 28days. So there was so many programs there that looking for the conflict I wanted was time consuming. Why change it from the V+ box where it was all on the one screen.

the helpfulness\recommendations were rubbish, recommended things that I would never watch and hadn't watched anything similar. Felt like a channel was paying Virgin to recommend programs.

remote control was cumbersome and difficult to use. to delete a program, use the arrow keys at the top of the remote, then use my other hand to use the delete button.

the driver who collected it, laughed when i asked if many had been returned. Sounds like virgin have made a mistake with this and released it without any testing.