# Sky+HD or Virgin Media?



## les s211 (May 27, 2012)

Need a of advise on the above please.

Which is better? I currently have Sky+HD but I'm running out of patience with them.

I have been a loyal customer with Sky for over 10 years, paying around 120.00 a month for the whole caboodle.

Been offered Virgin Media for roughly the same amount with an introductory offer for the first six months.

Pros are that Virgin is offering 152Mb Fibre optic broadband against the 40Mb I get from Sky.

Any opinions on the TiVo box from Virgin? I've heard about issues with navigating around the options as opposed to Sky which is fairly intuitive.

Appreciate any feed back.


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## Saj (Dec 24, 2012)

You will never get the 152Mb broadband, the wireless router they offer can only do aprox. 90mb in perfect conditions, and then in 6 months you will find your connection constantly dropping out.

i will never go back to Virgin even though I would love the extra speed, in 5 months have downloaded 650GB !


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## uruk hai (Apr 5, 2009)

Play one off against the other and see what sort of deal you can get ?


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## suspal (Dec 29, 2011)

My virgin broadband is still spot on,sky can take a jump.


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## Saj (Dec 24, 2012)

suspal said:


> My virgin broadband is still spot on,sky can take a jump.


I wish mine was when I was with virgin !


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## alexharvey (May 16, 2013)

my virgin is great i get 125mb download when im supposed to have 120mb max lol never drops out at all i think its getting even faster for free soon too!!


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## les s211 (May 27, 2012)

What's the TiVo box like compared to Sky HD.


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## Maniac (May 20, 2012)

Ticks me off you have to pay extra for the tivo box...


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## alexharvey (May 16, 2013)

i think tivo is easy to use but i never had sky so cant compare , the broadband speed is miles better thats what i want

i dont think i paid for my tivo box i asked for it free and they gave it as i said i would leave them if not lol


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## SteveyG (Apr 1, 2007)

Saj said:


> You will never get the 152Mb broadband, the wireless router they offer can only do aprox. 90mb in perfect conditions, and then in 6 months you will find your connection constantly dropping out.
> 
> i will never go back to Virgin even though I would love the extra speed, in 5 months have downloaded 650GB !


Don't spout rubbish. I get full speed all day long, never had a drop out in the last 4 years, and only a few outages prior to that during upgrade works.

I was on a 300Mbit/s trial earlier this year and we got 300Mbit/s transfer rates consistently.


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## les s211 (May 27, 2012)

Virgin offering the TiVo box on a free rental for 18 month contract. This includes maintenance and repairs


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## SteveyG (Apr 1, 2007)

les s211 said:


> Virgin offering the TiVo box on a free rental for 18 month contract. This includes maintenance and repairs


Virgin always is free repair or replacement etc. you never own the equipment.


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## Ravinder (Jul 24, 2009)

Have Virgin broadband. Always been reliable and when I've had a couple of problems previously they fixed it quick. And I think it's pretty fast.


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## paralla (Dec 7, 2011)

I have previously had Sky+ and I now have Virgin. I pay for 60mbps broadband and I consistently get 60mbps from Virgin which is great. 

The interface on Sky+ box is a bit more intuitive, took me a while to get used to Tivo, deleting recorded programs seems to be difficult on it, lots of button pressing. Tivo has three tuners where Sky + only has 2 so way less conflicts with Tivo.

One thing I hate about Tivo is the way it automatically records what it thinks you might like to watch. For some reason my Tivo thinks I want to watch Corrie which drives me mad.

My other gripe about Virgin is I can't for the life of me work out how to port forward in the router settings so I can't control my floor heating from my iPhone over a 3G network, I need to be at home on the wi-fi network. Life is tough though right?


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## Ciddy (Apr 7, 2014)

I've been with both and I now get my TV through Sky and my Broadband through Virgin. It costs me a little more but I prefer Sky TV over virgin Tivo by far but no high speed ADSL here so had Virgin dig up my road for a faster speed connection.


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## les s211 (May 27, 2012)

Ciddy said:


> I've been with both and I now get my TV through Sky and my Broadband through Virgin. It costs me a little more but I prefer Sky TV over virgin Tivo by far but no high speed ADSL here so had Virgin dig up my road for a faster speed connection.


Do you still get On Demand?


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## V3nom (Oct 31, 2012)

We have both. Virgin Broadband is ridiculously good...I can easily hit 125MBps and it very rarely drops out...in fact, I couldn't tell you the last time it did.

The TV is Sky though...we're just not fans of the Virgin TV setup to be honest. 

Best of both worlds...


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## Ciddy (Apr 7, 2014)

les s211 said:


> Do you still get On Demand?


Yes we do mate. I think Sky changed their rules on this some time ago. I believe you used to have to be on Sky BB to get it but now you don't. Don't quote me on that but I'm sure I changed a few years ago now. Either way we definitely get access to it all.


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## SteveyG (Apr 1, 2007)

paralla said:


> The interface on Sky+ box is a bit more intuitive, took me a while to get used to Tivo, deleting recorded programs seems to be difficult on it, lots of button pressing. Tivo has three tuners where Sky + only has 2 so way less conflicts with Tivo.
> 
> One thing I hate about Tivo is the way it automatically records what it thinks you might like to watch. For some reason my Tivo thinks I want to watch Corrie which drives me mad.


Press the Clear button on the remote to delete whatever you have highlighted - no need to go into any menus.

Press the thumbs down button on Corrie and it won't record anymore. You can also just turn off suggestions so it only records what you have planned.


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## bluenose62 (Apr 10, 2013)

I can probably offer you a fair comparison after having just switched from Virgin to Sky after about 8 years with Virgin. The TIVO box is ace, and i feel the menu is easier to use on Virgin, but it might be me just getting used to Sky. I still have the Virgin phone and broadband. The broadband is so good and so reliable. The box sets on Sky are good though.
So why did I switch if its so good. I work for an F1 team and Sky recently made us an unbelievable offer, that I couldn't not take.


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## les s211 (May 27, 2012)

bluenose62 said:


> I can probably offer you a fair comparison after having just switched from Virgin to Sky after about 8 years with Virgin. The TIVO box is ace, and i feel the menu is easier to use on Virgin, but it might be me just getting used to Sky. I still have the Virgin phone and broadband. The broadband is so good and so reliable. The box sets on Sky are good though.
> So why did I switch if its so good. I work for an F1 team and Sky recently made us an unbelievable offer, that I couldn't not take.


The offer apart, what would you choose Sky+ HD or Virgin? 
What would you say are the pros and cons over the boxes?

Many thanks


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## les s211 (May 27, 2012)

Ciddy said:


> Yes we do mate. I think Sky changed their rules on this some time ago. I believe you used to have to be on Sky BB to get it but now you don't. Don't quote me on that but I'm sure I changed a few years ago now. Either way we definitely get access to it all.


Thanks mate.
Judging by the responses on here I'm almost convinced to at least try the broadband out.

I earlier spoke to Sky customer services about the issue I have been having and to be honest they really don't seem that bothered.

I promised myself that I always give someone a second chance, so will hold out until the end of the month before deciding.


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## nandug23 (Aug 16, 2014)

I have had numerous issues with Sky before. Was offered sky unlimited free for 6 months earlier and full price later. Was promised 18-20MB, but ended up having only 7-8MB after 3 months. No satisfying response after all the calls I made except for the fact that keep changing my WiFi band everytime without any use. Just out of the contracy now and looking to switch to Virgin.


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## hardyd44 (Mar 31, 2014)

been with Virgin since blueyonder days (10+ years), broadband can not fault , TV now got TiVo - yes and no but, not had sky since over 10 years ago so things have moved on - priced them both up - not much difference (surprise, surprise).

but at the end of the day, would I change - no, why because unless BT was offering fibre ( don't forget that sky. talk talk, etc use BT infrastructure) you are stuck with old copper wire and that can never compete for speed or capacity

for paralla try :http://help.virginmedia.com/system/...&LANGUAGE=en&COUNTY=us&VM_CUSTOMER_TYPE=Cable


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