Sky+ vs Virgin?

taxationistheft

Hi all, we're going to be moving to BT4 in a few months and was wondering about peoples opinions of Virgin media for TV and broadband. We're coming from Sky+ (TV only) and are considering if it's a good move to go for Virgin. We'll be after PVR (digital recording) capabilities and "need" Sky 1. Anyone make the move from Sky+ to Virgin and loving/hating it?

slippyg

Average speeds for DSL v Fibre Optic.

Average speeds for telephone line ADSL in UK for a 8mb line is 3-4mbs.

With V#rginMedia on a 10mb line you get average speeds of 8mb.

If you;re into gaming and need low latency then I'd best advise not to go Cable cos their contention ratios are very high (meaning you share with a lot of people) 50:1 normally. You normally get 20:1 with ADSL and can also ask for FASTPATH instead of normal INTERLEAVE routing which costs them less.

If you only want to browse and the odd download. 10mb from VMedia is more than enough. Fantastic speeds and normally stable.

As for TV -

Do a bit of research on a EUROVOX box.. I know there are people with boxes that are not paying a penny to watch every channel for free. This is of course against the law and I take no responsibility for your actions, I am merely hightlighting this for research purposes only.

cifpower

and you get £150 cashback via Quidco for a sign up. No idea how long this will last though.

KiwiCoop

I got Virgin initially as we had no phone line and it saved having a dish. After the first year I contemplated going back to Sky for a few reasons but stuck with them as they re-negotiated my deal (V+ box, HD, all Premium channels, max broadband and a phone line with free weekend calls for £57).

The negatives for me are not having the red-button interactive facility, only a few token HD channels and the TV Guide response time is sometimes slow.

Positives worth mentioning are the On Demand section (catch-up tv, music videos etc) and I like the fact that you can watch TV while in the guide.

I'd suggest if you're going to have a BT landline in your new house and don't mind a dish on your wall then stick with Sky. Especially if you're out of contract with them as they'll almost certainly improve your deal if you threaten to go to Virgin. And you won't have to learn all the new channel numbers...