Wow, this is fantastic! I must ring Virgin and order… oh, wait, I can't get Virgin broadband on my residential street in a densely populated area less than 2.5 miles from Manchester City Centre.
Doesn't really matter how good the platform is if people can't get it…
This is terrible news :( :(
I've been waiting for the return of Tivo for years! I sold my original UK Tivo when I bought a HDTV, but I've missed it; it was the best PVR solution around by far. Features such as predictive recording/tivo suggestions (where it would use spare disk space to record suggested shows that I might like based on my viewing habits) are still way ahead of anything that even Sky+HD can do.
Now they finally come back to the UK, and they sign a pact with Virgin :( A service that I cannot get, and wouldn't particularly want to get even if I could…
Fingers crossed that they decide to opt for a sensible route to market once they have re-established a subscriber base and release an independent system that I can use with freeview or Sky+.
/moan
scaryjim
Wow, this is fantastic! I must ring Virgin and order… oh, wait, I can't get Virgin broadband on my residential street in a densely populated area less than 2.5 miles from Manchester City Centre.
Doesn't really matter how good the platform is if people can't get it…
Similar for me in Glasgow.
All the local streets around me have Virgin (many friends have it too). I live on a corner - the street next to me has Virgin, but, the part of the street I'm on doesn't (a fairly main road). The reason our part of a main street doesn't have it (while the other half does), after asking NTL (as they were then) about this many years ago, is that permission to dig up the pavement at our part of the road was denied by the council as they'd only just put a new pavement down. So everyone else around lands up with Virgin and we don't - genius!
Really wish Virgin was available - far better than Sky and although I've no complaints about BE broadband, I'd prefer Virgin cable too.
There's always issues with the council and digging roads for what is a non essential service (unlike water, gas or electricity), especially around new areas. Unfortunately the beauracracy involved with new estates, laying of roads and cabling doesn't always match up and some services just cannot be supplied :(
IMO, the Virgin network needs a lot of work on the existing setup before more expansion goes ahead anyways, there are some areas in the UK with dreadful service due to over utilisation and degraded cabling that needs looking at.
Anyways, slightly off topic there, but i'm awaiting news that I am on the trial list for this, only 500 of us can get on it and theres lots of people out there with their names on that list, if I get it I will keep you informed of how it is. I applied too late for the new superhub (their terminology, not mine) for 50 meg services, and they are rolling that out soon, but not been overly impressed by the normal 20 meg hub so far.
on the trial, due for install next Tuesday :)
How's it looking? I applied to be one of the 1000 to get it for free but didn't get on. Now they want £150 to ‘activate’ it and £40 to install. Unless I'm much mistaken, screwing one cable into a box is not £40 worth of work. Anyway, with that price in mind, is it that much of a leap over the V+ HD box for me to be able to justify it to 'er indoors?
The thing is we all know if its even a little bit better than Skys HD Box Sky will just throw money at it and bring out a better system in a few months that current sky users can upgrade to for next to nothing.
I see sky as Google and VM as Bing