Am I dreaming? Virgin adopts TiVo!

After all this time they're finally back.

Will probably subsribe to Vigin Media next year, this is geat news. It looks pretty legit to me.

 

Great news that they are coming back - I have both boxes and although the V+ is technologically much more advanced than my ancient UK Tivo, the Tivo software is still miles ahead. May finally be able to retire the Thomson box now (can't believe its still working after so many years and a few HDD transplants!).

Seems to be official news as its posted on the Tivo website here

 

Good if you live in a Virgin cable area, but the kiss-of-death for a FreeView or FreeSat version of the TiVo until Virgin have grabbed as much as they can from the deal.

Sky are going to have to improve their hardware significantly to counter the threat from Virgin. A cable company is always going to have an edge when it comes to video-on-demand, and a modern TiVo should have a far greater appeal than a Sky+ box.

 

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Yep, it's official

http://tivo.mediaroom.com/index.php?s=43&item=419

 

Excellent news, I'm glad that hell has finally frozen over and the second coming has arrived!

Slightly tempered by the fact that I don't live in a cabled area

 

good news for some! But I am really disappointed that they went with Virgin. The choice of channels on Virgin is dire compared to sky! Particularly in the HD department! A system that supported several platforms like before would have been better. Freeview and Sky customers have been shut out.

 

Unless Virgin are going to launch a Freeview box then this is just pants if you don't live in an area they serve.

I'm actually more p!ssed off by this announcement than by no announcement.

Andy

 

Come on - cheer up! This is the best we could ever expect for the UK. Tivo was never going to enter the UK again on a free to air platform as their model just doesn't stack up against a non-sub PVR box.

This gives Virgin a truly excellent user interface and gives them a real chance of competing against Sky. (I tried a V+ box before getting Freesat installed and it didn't impress). A few hundred thousand Tivo users in the UK could drive other manufacturers to pay a bit more attention to their own UI's as well.

Break open the bubbly - it's a happy day

 

It's a happy day for you Virgin people, but what about everyone else?

I feel the exact same way as Andy. Its p1ssed me off more aswell. I dont use freeview, but have had sky for many a year along with TiVo. I was going to fire up my TiVo series one to use again with Sky+ hd, but now, i just can't be bothered. Can you imagine how the other sky/freesat/freeview users will feel when they find out, not to mention how they will feel if they decided to discontinue data for the (not so) current series 1's.

They might aswell tell us to poke it. Its like saying hello Sky/free users, thanks for your support over the years, now get lost. We've found better people now.

There no point in anyone non Virgin hoping this will lead to something for Sky/free customers, because it won't. The wait is over. At least we know now.

Cheers TiVo!

 

fantastic news - unplugged my Tivo last week for V+

 

First of all ... Wahey! New TiVo !

This is great for VM as it allows them to differentaite thir V+ product from being just a sky+ clone.
TiVo does so much more, as we all know.
VM are also well placed for TiVo S3 features such as VOD, internet access (netflix etc).
Since the V+ hardware is already supported by TiVo software, the update can be done over the air to existing boxes too.


Do we all now thank Carl for his TiVo to VM petition ?

 

even the americans are about to get their support back for Satellite!
http://www.tivo.com/dvr-products/ti...x.html?WT.ac=mytivonew_directv_directvdet_lnk

 

Virgin DO have a Freeview box already. I was offered one when I subscribed for their ADSL broadband and existing customers can buy one for £40. Perversely it seems the only place I can find any information on it is within their customer only area (see below) so they aren't exactly pushing it.

Clearly that box isn't a Tivo but given Virgin has an ADSL customer base it is possible they might also offer a service based on Tivo's digital terrestrial reference design + broadband TV on demand?

Good news for some, but probably not for me in the time scale I have to update my TV viewing into a multiroom, single source solution.

 

Rock and roll!

Now - I wonder if we can be beta testers for the new box. Carl! Sort it out!

 

Just checked and I'm not in a Virgin cable area

So what's going to happen to the rest of us? Will we still get our guide data?

Maybe we could look at the Oz Tivo and see if it could be hacked to work here.

DAMN, DAMN, DAMN!!! Tivo is the only thing which makes TV tolerable!

 

Me too....

Aaargh, this is so annoying. I hope they don't mess with the 'old' service now it is kind of in competition with itself (i.e. Sky vs VirginMedia). Although I guess Virgin serve up Sky telly anyway on their network.

I doubt very much whether people who live in the boonies (e.g. me) will be able to benefit, in fact it might be a risk. Good news for them there city folks though, bah.

Having a bit of a dark day anyway, grrr

Jimus

 

im not sure. The 'exclusive' contract may mean they have to pull the plug to comply as Virgin dont provide any support or data.

 

Great news ... looks like I made the right call in not getting locked into a V+ subscription then!

 

I can't see it having any impact at all on support for the earlier Tivo S1 product as that was sold under wholly different Terms & Conditions.

In fact what the launch of the new Virgin service does actually do in my opinion is to make it far more likely that our old Tivo S1 machines will now be supported for many more years to come as Tivo could not afford any form of adverse UK publicity with potential UK Virgin customers that could be caused by withdrawing that earlier UK Tivo service.

Of course those using Tivo living in a Virgin cable area may well be given a low cost upgrade path to one of the new Tivo machines. Sadly I am not one of them though.

It remains to be seen if Virgin will find a way of expanding their television service nationwide via ADSL in due course. There obviously won't be a Freeview only box as that does not involve enough revenue to pay the Tivo licensing costs.