Virgin Media Set top boxes

David_Aston

Hello There
For reasons with which I won't bore you, we are going onto our third box upgrade in not much over a year.
As previously, the how do we keep, "precious" recordings from the current box has occurred to me, and as usual I presume I'll fail!
We have a 3 tuner 500 gig box, and will be moving to a 7 tuner 1 Terabyte one. The current box has two usb ports on the back, and an ethernet port. Yesterday I unplugged it, brought it up to where my PC resides, and tried an ethernet connection. (I don't seem to have a usb to usb cable at the mo').
I think, "My computer" was seeing something. Vista operating system. However, it was only 1.83k so certainly wasn't a glimpse of the hard drive in the box.
If anybody has any ideas, I will be most grateful.

AndyPix

I dont think this is possible ..


Have you asked Virgin ?

hans_2

Can I still use my old TiVo box?
You can! Put it in another room, and you can watch Virgin Media TV in another part of the house. It'll work pretty much as before - just be aware that the speed of the new box will make this one seem like a slog in comparison.

You can even watch your old recordings through your new box. You'll have to connect the old TiVo box to your router directly via Ethernet cable to do so, but it means you won't lose any of those precious episodes of Planet Earth you've been hoarding.

https://www.broadbandchoices.co.uk/ask-our-expert/how-do-i-upgrade-to-the-new-virgin-media-tv-v6-box

David_Aston

Thanks Guys
Just got off the phone, following a chat with "Rob", at the Virgin Media helpline. I did first ask him, how come the VR6 box is a self install, provided the hub is within 3 metres of the box, but requires an engineer if it isn't. My hub is upstairs in with my PC. Rather alarmingly he appeared to suggest actual wiring from box to hub, but when I explained the logistics of our house, he considered a splitter box and some kind of wireless connection should cover that.
With regards to keeping the saved material he first said that a "Stick", was the only option. I told him that I had indeed placed a Sandisk usb flash drive into one of the ports. It's little light had glowed which seemed to imply some sort of enthusiasm on it's, or possibly the Virgin Boxes part. However, our ancient Panny telly, could not show any potential action via it's various inputs. I did think "PC" would be the best bet, but no. Following a consultation with his mates, he said that the stuff could be transferred to the new box, and that the engineer could do that during the install! If he does have to lay miles of cable, plus doing that, we may need to put him up for the night.
If you are interested, I could let you know how I go on?

Pikeyp

I've looked into getting stuff off the VM box before, and as AndyPix said above, I don't think it's possible ... there was something called 'TIVO Desktop' software around at one time though, but I never tested it!

https://support.tivo.com/articles/Installation_Setup_Configuration/TiVo-Desktop-Desktop-Plus-for-PC-Installation-and-Use

I'd be interested in how you get on David ... just curious

[Deleted User]

Any recordings made on one Virgin media decoder are not transferable to another, even for the same account.

It's also certainly against Virgin's terms and conditions to attempt transferring them to a computer etc, so such actions cannot be discussed on this forum!

Note that PVRs are designed as short term recording devices, they aren't supposed to provide a permanent recording archive.

Physical media like DVD and Blu-ray are the options of choice for people wanting a permanent collection of recordings.

David_Aston

Right Money, so you are saying that the VM technical bod, on their 151 helpline was misinformed, or lying to me?
I love "not to be discussed on this forum"! Are you Richard Branson, head of offcom, God!
Ok, so how to I copy the material onto a Blu-ray disc then?

RumRat

A CS agent who was misinformed or lying?....... Of course they are/do, that's the way of all CS agents.
You won't be able to transfer the recorded programmes only the settings i.e. series links etc.
Best to just keep the old box until you've watched the recordings then send it back.
Not sure what you mean by 'Precious' recordings. If you have recordings you wish to keep for years/ever, for some strange reason, you need a blueray/dvd recorder, as Moneyineptitude suggests.

[Deleted User]

RumRat wrote: »

Best to just keep the old box until you've watched the recordings then send it back.

The best and indeed only answer.

Enterprise_1701C

If you find you do need a cable connection you could try a powerline unit. Of course, that required that the two sockets you use for it are on the same power circuit, sounds like that could be a challenge in your house?

David_Aston

I have the installation date. I was told that it isn't possible to transfer the data from my old box to the new one. However, that it would be possible to watch whatever would be lost, via catch up on the vr6.
Truthfully, I'm losing interest anyway!