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By (user no longer on site) OP
over a year ago
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no not that sort.
thinking of diching sky tv and useless talk talk for a combo virgin package but have a few questions
has anyone got it and is it any good
also we have multi room with sky, is this poss with virgin.
thanks in advance xx |
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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago
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dont use Talktalk, I'm just about to cancel them as they screwed up the bill for this month and the dumb fukwits seem incapable of correcting the fault which is clearly theres 
see "talktalk" thread posted just a few days back |
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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago
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"no not that sort.
thinking of diching sky tv and useless talk talk for a combo virgin package but have a few questions
has anyone got it and is it any good
also we have multi room with sky, is this poss with virgin.
thanks in advance xx"
Cable can be hit and miss depending on the area. You may find if you tell sky you want to leave they give you a fantastic deal to stay. |
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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago
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We have virgin for b/band and house phone and Sky for TV. Works out to around £60/month for the whole lot.
Virgin are offering their new TiVo box for free at the moment but there's a £50 install charge. Sky will send you their new Sky+HD box (you connect it up yourself) for a £15 shipping cost.
Sky is cheaper than Virgin for TV but I prefer having a non-BT line for b/band. There really is no need to have all three services from the same provider anymore when it's better to mix and match and get what suits you best.
p.s. the TiVo box lets you record 3 channels and watch a fourth (or a previous recording) whereas Sky is record 2, watch a third. |
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By (user no longer on site) OP
over a year ago
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"depends whether your area has fibre optic line or not copper service is pants fibre optic is great for computer but not so good with games consoles hope this helps  "
they have just fitted fibre optic in our area hence me thinking of trying it, also they offer huge internet speed, and mally, agree our contract is about to run out with talk talk, would have ditched them sooner if we could |
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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago
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Were with virgin media on a fibre line, dont think they have multiroom, but you can have 1 other digi box in another room as we have that.
think its an additional £5 a month.
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"depends whether your area has fibre optic line or not copper service is pants fibre optic is great for computer but not so good with games consoles hope this helps
they have just fitted fibre optic in our area hence me thinking of trying it, also they offer huge internet speed, and mally, agree our contract is about to run out with talk talk, would have ditched them sooner if we could"
yeh got 30 meg here and its great on computer for downloading but for my child playing his xbox it suffers lag terrible its to do with virgins interleaf delivery system also be mindful of fair usage policy the speed is cut down if over used in each six hour period but even cut down the speed is above bt lol |
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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago
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Have Virgin, the speed is good, theres no download limit, i play a mmo online, and haven't really noticed any lag, neither on my xb360, maybe it depends on area.
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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago
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Although I hate Murdoch and all his works even I have to admit you can't beat Sky plus. Unless you have a VERY good reason I would stick with it or even upgrade to HD. |
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By (user no longer on site) OP
over a year ago
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"Although I hate Murdoch and all his works even I have to admit you can't beat Sky plus. Unless you have a VERY good reason I would stick with it or even upgrade to HD."
have the hd, i was only thinking of changing as is not cheap and internet needs a change, and virgin are doing a good all in deal atm in my area |
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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago
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"depends whether your area has fibre optic line or not copper service is pants fibre optic is great for computer but not so good with games consoles hope this helps
they have just fitted fibre optic in our area hence me thinking of trying it, also they offer huge internet speed, and mally, agree our contract is about to run out with talk talk, would have ditched them sooner if we could"
With computer speeds beware of the dreaded UP TO claims. I could claim "See me, I'm up to 12"" but I would have to hang a heavy weight on it for a very long time to achieve it. |
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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago
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We played Sky off against Virgin and have got a brill package.
Phone both of them up and get a price from each, tell them their services are of no use to and the competitor has a better offer.
It worked for us  |
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The slower cheaper Virgin Media cable services 10Meg/20Meg do tend to be the more congested ones.
Best experience will be the 50 or 100Meg if available, the extra upload making webcams a lot better.
Lag wise, no specific reason other than congestion in a local area as to why Virgin should be bad. The cheaper products are usually on a smaller network segment.
At all costs avoid the Virgin Media National (ADSL) product, over priced and over congested.
The superhub gives some people grief, but you can now turn it into a modem mode and use your own wireless router if you want.
The advice about not bundling everything together is good, you can save money with the bundles, but harder to pick the best elements in a bundle.
WARNING: As of 1st Sept, new Sky phone/BB orders are full LLU, the same as TalkTalk which can make leaving more difficult. |
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By *umourCouple
over a year ago
Rushden |
It’s all very well getting a “great package” from sky IF they were like for like! Sky has nothing like Tivo, which is fookin brill! It’s whishys fault we have it cos he said it was good and was the way TV was going to be delivered in the future. Along with the new Virgin home hub, great for broadband..
Sky? They rely on BT so all this crap about up to 20mb… When pushed, they told us that the max we would get at our house was about 5.5… As long as we had the line from the exchange to ourselves. The reality was 1.75! Our up to 20mb Virgin connection is good at 19.58mb!!! 15 minutes ago.
Phone with Virgin is much like any other and we do not pay for 0845 or 0870 numbers. Totally free landline calls for a small cost or as part of the package and free calls to Virgin mobiles.
They will also do Virgin package customers a deal on mobile phones. Example: A free HTC Wildfire S with 150 minutes, 250 Texts and unlimited calls to Virgin mobiles and ½ gig of internet. Only £10.99 per month. Same with a Blacberry and a Samsung too..
We have a package for phone, broadband and television. XL package and a Tivo box all for £65.
BT are crap although customer service is good (but perhaps that is plenty of practice? Talk Talk as you seem to have found out are also crap. Sky don’t tell the whole truth. (We don’t cut your speed like BT do… No Sky, you let BT do it for you because you use their infrastructure!). That was given to me by a sky sales person who used to be an installer!
But of course, only MY opinion ha ha ha
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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago
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i hate virgin. The service is piss poor, service outages for days on end and the choice of channels is crap compared to sky. If i was able to get sky here, i'd pay the £300 to get out my contract early and change to sky |
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"Sky? They rely on BT so all this crap about up to 20mb… When pushed, they told us that the max we would get at our house was about 5.5… As long as we had the line from the exchange to ourselves. The reality was 1.75! Our up to 20mb Virgin connection is good at 19.58mb!!! 15 minutes ago.
"
Urm every phone line is yours until it reaches the local telephone exchange building. The reason it would estimate at 5.5 Meg is the small matter than the longer the phone line the less broadband signal reaches your home, i.e. simple physics.
If you connected at 5Meg, but only ever got 1.7Meg, then probably heavily congested in your area.
Virgin Cable avoids this by taking fibre to within a few hundred feet of each home, then coax cable to the property.
For heavy downloaders at least with Sky the speeds are not dropped to a lot lower value each day. |
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By *umourCouple
over a year ago
Rushden |
"i hate virgin. The service is piss poor, service outages for days on end and the choice of channels is crap compared to sky. If i was able to get sky here, i'd pay the £300 to get out my contract early and change to sky"
Oh dear, we been with NTL and then Vigin since whatever year Diana died (day before) and in all that time I have had two total outages on the broadband. Never on the tele and phone 100%! I had occasion to call customer service about a bad connection that was making the TV picture bad (well at least it was worse!) Three days later it was fixed and now is fine!
Sorry to hear that the Scottish experience is not so good. 
Signed, Richard 
xx |
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By (user no longer on site) OP
over a year ago
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looks like its worth a go by the response here, will have to ask them about multi room as thats a must for us, daughter has a tv in the attick room, and cant loose that. thanks to you all for your thoughts xxx |
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By *umourCouple
over a year ago
Rushden |
"
Urm every phone line is yours until it reaches the local telephone exchange building. The reason it would estimate at 5.5 Meg is the small matter than the longer the phone line the less broadband signal reaches your home, i.e. simple physics.
If you connected at 5Meg, but only ever got 1.7Meg, then probably heavily congested in your area.
Virgin Cable avoids this by taking fibre to within a few hundred feet of each home, then coax cable to the property.
For heavy downloaders at least with Sky the speeds are not dropped to a lot lower value each day."
My mistake, I did mean to say that it was traffic using the part of the network I was on and did not mean to imply shared cabling.
Having said that, to advertise up to 8mbps and know that I will never get anymore than 5.5mbps is nothing short of robbery! What they should have done (BT) as they know the values at each property or area is advertise at what is achievable!
Maybe Sky speeds are not dropped for heavy downloaders, but when it starts with the BT infrastructure at 1.75mbps, not a lot of dropping to do really! My neighbour whose Sky is currently at 1.95mbps according to Speedtest, is well pissed off with sky advertising an up to 20mbps service that is plainly undeliverable!
Unless he has it wrong and is not on the up to 20mbps!  |
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By *umourCouple
over a year ago
Rushden |
"looks like its worth a go by the response here, will have to ask them about multi room as thats a must for us, daughter has a tv in the attick room, and cant loose that. thanks to you all for your thoughts xxx"
Multi room is available. Just an extra box in any rooms you want with Virgin. We have a Tivo in the lounge and an ordinary box in the bedroom.  |
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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago
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Or here is a plan, contact Sky, there is a part of their call centre that deals with saving customers, tell them you want to leave and have been offered a better deal from Virgin, they will then offer 6 months at half price! I do this every 6 months hehe |
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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago
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Your only choice really then is virgin then as all the other providers will use the same twisted pair telephone line as Sky which is through a BT line
Or you could stump up to fibre optic which Sky are due to launch soon as its currently in live test stage to trial homes across the UK.
Can i ask what issues you have with Sky, saying it sucks isn't the greatest description lol |
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By *abioMan
over a year ago
Newcastle and Gateshead |
okay.. having done both packages.. i would have suggested doing what most others have done.. play them off...
Television wise... Sky choice of channels is still going to be better than virgins... more HD choice as well if you go in that direction...
internet wise.. virgins may be better as like other have said they use their own fibre optics.. sky still use a BT line, but unless you are doing a lot of downloading the speed isn't that much of an issue....
and why would someone on sky need tivo, when sky has the +box...???
I have always gotten my best deals when I have told either I was leaving... |
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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago
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"talk talk"
In that case i would say there is an equipment issue somewhere as they both run over BT
Its like your gas and electric, comparable service just another name on the bill and different pricing structures. |
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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago
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your friend should contact sky, request a new router, they have launched the new N series, just got one for free myself as told them i was leaving.
Also got a terabyte box for free, so much recording space!
And if you have sky tv and broadband you get sky anytime plus (virgin do something similar if you have both services)
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By *umourCouple
over a year ago
Rushden |
"okay.. having done both packages.. i would have suggested doing what most others have done.. play them off...
Television wise... Sky choice of channels is still going to be better than virgins... more HD choice as well if you go in that direction...
internet wise.. virgins may be better as like other have said they use their own fibre optics.. sky still use a BT line, but unless you are doing a lot of downloading the speed isn't that much of an issue....
and why would someone on sky need tivo, when sky has the +box...???
I have always gotten my best deals when I have told either I was leaving... "
Oh come on Fabio! You are usually fair at least! Why would anyone want a Tivo when sky do the + box? Have you looked at the Tivo? Streets ahead of our neighbours Sky plus box! I have Tivo.. Does all the Sky+ box does and more!
If you really believe that the difference between 19.58mbps and 1.75 mbps wouldn't be noticed, let me sell you an up to 1000 mbps broadband connection!
TV? Yep, they have way more crap that no one watches than Virgin! We have 168 chanels and we maybe watch 10! It's like the all you can eat places, they know you can only eat so much same as TV companies know you can only watch so much! |
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"talk talk
In that case i would say there is an equipment issue somewhere as they both run over BT
Its like your gas and electric, comparable service just another name on the bill and different pricing structures. "
Comedy moment - oh no its not.
Assuming on the TalkTalk and Sky products (i.e not paying a location surcharge) then the only bit of BT involved is the phone line to the exchange.
Things like telephone wiring in the home can have a big effect. It gets a bit geeky now, but the connection stats are hidden away in the routers. |
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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago
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Way more crap? Hmmm I guess you say that as you don't get the Sky Atlantic channel.
And the tivo box is a mere 500gb the same as a standard sky HD box whereas my terabyte box has 1000gb
Do you get 3S on virgin?
As many movie channels?
And as i understand the movies on demand service will charge you at least £1.50 per movie downloaded! Which is free on sky unless its a box office movie.
So there are benefits to both its about what's important to you and what you can live without
simples! |
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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago
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"talk talk
In that case i would say there is an equipment issue somewhere as they both run over BT
Its like your gas and electric, comparable service just another name on the bill and different pricing structures.
Comedy moment - oh no its not.
Assuming on the TalkTalk and Sky products (i.e not paying a location surcharge) then the only bit of BT involved is the phone line to the exchange.
Things like telephone wiring in the home can have a big effect. It gets a bit geeky now, but the connection stats are hidden away in the routers."
When you refer to connection stats hidden away in the router what exactly are you referring to?
BT is involved from the Exchange to the little green box or similar and then to your main phone socket after that it depends if you connect through wireless a cat 5e cable or similar etc. It also depends if you then have a slow pc and blame your internet provider because it runs slow etc etc |
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"
When you refer to connection stats hidden away in the router what exactly are you referring to?"
Yes the copper pair of wires will be the same, but beyond that very different, i.e. traffic management, congestion etc
Connection stats eg.
DSL(Sync) Summary
System Uptime 45:20:41
Modem DSL(Sync) uptime 0:11:11
ADSL Mode G.DMT
Interleaving On
Up Down
DSL Line Speed 800 kbps 6432 kbps
Line Attenuation 27.0 dB 49.5 dB
SN Margin 7.0 dB 6.0 dB
Which to most mean nothing, but tells me my phone line is around 4km long. Also for a line that length it is connecting pretty good. Can get another meg or so if I switch to ADSL2+ mode, but can be unstable when dark if I do that. |
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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago
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"
When you refer to connection stats hidden away in the router what exactly are you referring to?
Yes the copper pair of wires will be the same, but beyond that very different, i.e. traffic management, congestion etc
Connection stats eg.
DSL(Sync) Summary
System Uptime 45:20:41
Modem DSL(Sync) uptime 0:11:11
ADSL Mode G.DMT
Interleaving On
Up Down
DSL Line Speed 800 kbps 6432 kbps
Line Attenuation 27.0 dB 49.5 dB
SN Margin 7.0 dB 6.0 dB
Which to most mean nothing, but tells me my phone line is around 4km long. Also for a line that length it is connecting pretty good. Can get another meg or so if I switch to ADSL2+ mode, but can be unstable when dark if I do that."
Ah got you, was about to go break my.router open to see what it was hiding lol. |
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I've had Virgin TV, phone and Broadband since Virgin took over C&W and I've had next to no trouble. The few problems I've had have been sorted very quickly.
You can also get mega mobile phone offers if you're a Virgin customer.
As others have said haggle for a deal, you will be surprised at what you can get discounted. They wanted to charge for installation when i upgraded to V+ until i told them Sky had offered free installation for Sky+ |
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"i hate virgin. The service is piss poor, service outages for days on end and the choice of channels is crap compared to sky. If i was able to get sky here, i'd pay the £300 to get out my contract early and change to sky"
were with virgin again but to get out of it dont pay bill for 3 months and they then your out of the contract just have to pay what you owe after but make sure you are completly before |
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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago
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Haggling is best with most things and most organisations hold something back to persuade a customer.
Also check out Martin Lewis's website so many good money saving tips on there and voucher codes
Enjoy |
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By *umourCouple
over a year ago
Rushden |
"Way more crap? Hmmm I guess you say that as you don't get the Sky Atlantic channel.
And the tivo box is a mere 500gb the same as a standard sky HD box whereas my terabyte box has 1000gb
Do you get 3S on virgin?
As many movie channels?
And as i understand the movies on demand service will charge you at least £1.50 per movie downloaded! Which is free on sky unless its a box office movie.
So there are benefits to both its about what's important to you and what you can live without
simples! "
Well, I'll bet most who have loads of channels only watch a handfull, so hundreds or even thousands will make no difference at all! And yes, most are crap! Either repeats of what they show or duplicating what other channels have! I don't have enough hours in the day now to watch any more!
Sky atlantic? Looks like a good channel, but certainly not worth losing my broadband speed and phone deal! Also, see the above bit!
No idea about S3.. Have no idea what it is!
As above, there is not enough time in a day to watch any more channels..
I have no idea if Virgin charge for films, very likely they do, but as I understand it, Sky charge for the channels anyway! So you do pay!
Go take a look at TiVo... Then you will be able to come back and you tell me what the difference is! |
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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago
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I have never had a problem with virgin and never experienced any cut in my services re reception. I also dont have a problem when phoning them either.
And i had it when it was NTL ...now that was crap. |
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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago
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i have multi room with virgin on the XL package on a HD V plus box for an extra fiver a month. Got broadband and phone too with them. Never any probs. Going for tivo box, as i like the chance of recording 3 progs at the same time. M formula one gets in the way of other programmes sometimes. |
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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago
|
"Way more crap? Hmmm I guess you say that as you don't get the Sky Atlantic channel.
And the tivo box is a mere 500gb the same as a standard sky HD box whereas my terabyte box has 1000gb
Do you get 3S on virgin?
As many movie channels?
And as i understand the movies on demand service will charge you at least £1.50 per movie downloaded! Which is free on sky unless its a box office movie.
So there are benefits to both its about what's important to you and what you can live without
simples!
Well, I'll bet most who have loads of channels only watch a handfull, so hundreds or even thousands will make no difference at all! And yes, most are crap! Either repeats of what they show or duplicating what other channels have! I don't have enough hours in the day now to watch any more!
Sky atlantic? Looks like a good channel, but certainly not worth losing my broadband speed and phone deal! Also, see the above bit!
No idea about S3.. Have no idea what it is!
As above, there is not enough time in a day to watch any more channels..
I have no idea if Virgin charge for films, very likely they do, but as I understand it, Sky charge for the channels anyway! So you do pay!
Go take a look at TiVo... Then you will be able to come back and you tell me what the difference is!"
And that brings me back to my comment that you choose what is right for you!
You want 3D you have sky
You want to record 3 programmes then you need a Tivo box
You want more storage space you need a Sky Terabyte box
There are lots of things one has over the other so choose what gives you most of what you want.
Oh and you don't pay for downloading the movies on Sky, its a free service for those with sky tv and broadband called sky anytime plus! So you misunderstood that bit |
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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago
|
"
Oh and you don't pay for downloading the movies on Sky, its a free service for those with sky tv and broadband called sky anytime plus! So you misunderstood that bit "
And with sky go can watch films/sport etc on laptop as long as you subscribe to those channels |
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By *umourCouple
over a year ago
Rushden |
"
You want more storage space you need a Sky Terabyte box
Oh and you don't pay for downloading the movies on Sky, its a free service for those with sky tv and broadband called sky anytime plus! So you misunderstood that bit "
My Tivo is a terabyte as well. Something like 500hrs of TV
No matey. On the movies, what I meant was you have to pay for the movie channels not the films.
I would suggest you read the Daily Mirror review on the TiVo box. Evidently knocks the Sky+ off the board!
Couple of other things it does to (just found em!) Search for programs by actor or director! I am not going to look for anything else, I DON'T HAVE THE TIME!!!!  |
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By *DSRMan
over a year ago
leicester |
if you download stuff to watch... you'll get a speed increase, so even if the TV is missing one or two channels (It used to, not sure if it still does) the internet is easily fast enough to make up for it
xx |
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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago
|
"
You want more storage space you need a Sky Terabyte box
Oh and you don't pay for downloading the movies on Sky, its a free service for those with sky tv and broadband called sky anytime plus! So you misunderstood that bit
My Tivo is a terabyte as well. Something like 500hrs of TV
No matey. On the movies, what I meant was you have to pay for the movie channels not the films.
I would suggest you read the Daily Mirror review on the TiVo box. Evidently knocks the Sky+ off the board!
Couple of other things it does to (just found em!) Search for programs by actor or director! I am not going to look for anything else, I DON'T HAVE THE TIME!!!! "
As long as you have the Terabyte version
How is it for 3D programs on Virgin?
Again, horses for courses |
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By *umourCouple
over a year ago
Rushden |
"
How is it for 3D programs on Virgin?
"
Does anyone really want to sit at home with 3D glasses on? Friends round and you have to have enough for all? I get a headache at the cinema with 3D so wouldn't have it anyway..
According to all I have heard, 3D has just not taken off, so a mute point really!
One thing is for sure... I think we confused everyone else and they have all left....
Hellooo... hellooo... hellooo...
Echo... echo... echo... |
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