BF
This thread is NOT! About the dispute between the companies!
Having just watched a report on The Gadget Show, comparing all-in-one services. I want to start a thread putting (just TV) Virgin Media Against Sky having myself now been a customer of both I want to say what I think of both companies. NOT taking the loss of the sky channels from virgin into it I say there is pons & cons of both of them.
Virgin Media (formally NTL/Telewest)
I had a standard Telewest box from them then later a TV Drive (then V+). On the standard telewest box I found no issues at all. I was very happy & satisfied with it. All the channels I needed were there and I was happy. However I felt the package options were a little limited in that you had to take so many unwanted channels just to get the ones you did. No TV provider will ever give a pick-and-choose option I know but sky you can be little more choosy.
Telewest are less messy, the wire comes into your house and everything can be teed off it with not that much fuss, talking about V+ now though I think has some great features the biggest being that unlike sky+ you can record '2' programmes at once AND watch a 3rd, and all down a single cable wire too, however I don't think its a peculiarly brilliant interface and stable system. I found it to be very slow and sluggish and would freeze/crash on quite a regular basis.
The EPG I felt was slow too and different to one used on freeview & sky, they used their own program info which didn't often give information its petty but as I 'collector' *cough nicktoons it didn't specify which episode of Rocko's Modern Life / Real monsters it is each night. (Sky does). Also the range of channels isn't a wide as I felt it could be. Certain channels that appear on freeview are missing such as Sky Three, hey it’s not much I know but as it’s a free-to-air channel having it well it would have been nice to have the option. Also different BBC/ITV regions are not available ok most people wouldn’t care but I like to have that option,. E.g. I like Scottish sitcom Still Game that is still sometimes shown on BBC Scotland before it is in the rest of the country,. So with the BBC Scotland feeds I can watch as it premieres, also T-in-The-Park coverage. (Not shown in England/Wales) Radio stations also are very poor with many radio stations that are supplied free on the freeview absent.
Why they can't put all the free-to-air radio feeds is just a mystery to me.
Quality of picture as with all digital TV could not be faulted also 2 scart cables allowing me to hook up my DVD recorder to the system. You also get free access to VOD but these are mainly just old TV series hardly any of which interested me much. You don't much choice of HD content either (only the BBC HD channel) but as I don't have a HD TV that doesn't really matter to me. Other complain was you couldn’t fag your recorded programmes with a 'keep' either but the 'are you sure you want to keep this' banner came up with everything. Personally I like the 'keep' fag idea better, but that is merely a personal preference. I also found Virgin customer service to be awful as well they were very cocky and took forever to answer the phone.
Overall I didn't rate V+ as much as sky+ it has a couple of pros the biggest being the lack of wires and installation, twice as much storage space (although I never needed all of it anyway) and the ability to record 2 programmes and watch a third but in every other way the box is dragged down by sky+.
In-between
Where both come neck-and-neck is the pausing of and rewinding of live TV, (also the rewind/ff when watching recorded programmes back) both boxes work exactly the same here and neither one is better than the other.
Sky+
This I personally think is the better option. Its interface is fast and quick and harder ever crashes and you do everything really quickly with it,. (I am a fast finger, know-what-i-want) kind of TV viewer though and hate having the wait while the box thinks about it. The EPG is much more detailed and clearer to read (IMO) and the + box itself is much smaller and neat than the huge V+ box.
The sky system does come at a higher cost of installation and with much more fuss of wiring drilling and having a dish on the side of your house, but they can be tucked away out of sight. (If that bothers you), one major issue is sky is the insistence of them having the box connected to a phone line this causes a massive pain with them having to run phone line cables under your carpets and doors and it’s only because they want you to use their active shopping services (which I never will),
Likewise the sky+ box comes with scart sockets so just as easy to plug into my DVD recorder and at least 5 times to amount of free radio stations (including all the ones available on freeview). Also the higher range of channels (generally as mentioned above). One big flaw in sky+ is that you can only record 1 programme and watch other, and if you do record 2 at once. You can mess one the recording by trying to watch a channel. This is impossible to do with virgin.
You get a little better sucture of packages with sky too so you can be a little bit more choosy of what channels you want to have from them, I actually saved money because I could get the channels I watch with smaller package (and get 2 new channels I might now watch thrown in with my sky package (I didn't have before on Virgin). Sky customer is excellent you can straight though most of the time and the staff are always friendly and helpful. Even if you are leaving!!
One factor I have taken out is that lack of the basic sky channels on the virgin media system. This is down to you as a viewer of course although it is a big factor to me as a regular sky one/sky new viewer.
Overall- Overall though having now had BOTH services I can judge and say both have pros & cons, butt I still think SKY+ is the better product.
Having just watched a report on The Gadget Show, comparing all-in-one services. I want to start a thread putting (just TV) Virgin Media Against Sky having myself now been a customer of both I want to say what I think of both companies. NOT taking the loss of the sky channels from virgin into it I say there is pons & cons of both of them.
Virgin Media (formally NTL/Telewest)
I had a standard Telewest box from them then later a TV Drive (then V+). On the standard telewest box I found no issues at all. I was very happy & satisfied with it. All the channels I needed were there and I was happy. However I felt the package options were a little limited in that you had to take so many unwanted channels just to get the ones you did. No TV provider will ever give a pick-and-choose option I know but sky you can be little more choosy.
Telewest are less messy, the wire comes into your house and everything can be teed off it with not that much fuss, talking about V+ now though I think has some great features the biggest being that unlike sky+ you can record '2' programmes at once AND watch a 3rd, and all down a single cable wire too, however I don't think its a peculiarly brilliant interface and stable system. I found it to be very slow and sluggish and would freeze/crash on quite a regular basis.
The EPG I felt was slow too and different to one used on freeview & sky, they used their own program info which didn't often give information its petty but as I 'collector' *cough nicktoons it didn't specify which episode of Rocko's Modern Life / Real monsters it is each night. (Sky does). Also the range of channels isn't a wide as I felt it could be. Certain channels that appear on freeview are missing such as Sky Three, hey it’s not much I know but as it’s a free-to-air channel having it well it would have been nice to have the option. Also different BBC/ITV regions are not available ok most people wouldn’t care but I like to have that option,. E.g. I like Scottish sitcom Still Game that is still sometimes shown on BBC Scotland before it is in the rest of the country,. So with the BBC Scotland feeds I can watch as it premieres, also T-in-The-Park coverage. (Not shown in England/Wales) Radio stations also are very poor with many radio stations that are supplied free on the freeview absent.
Why they can't put all the free-to-air radio feeds is just a mystery to me.
Quality of picture as with all digital TV could not be faulted also 2 scart cables allowing me to hook up my DVD recorder to the system. You also get free access to VOD but these are mainly just old TV series hardly any of which interested me much. You don't much choice of HD content either (only the BBC HD channel) but as I don't have a HD TV that doesn't really matter to me. Other complain was you couldn’t fag your recorded programmes with a 'keep' either but the 'are you sure you want to keep this' banner came up with everything. Personally I like the 'keep' fag idea better, but that is merely a personal preference. I also found Virgin customer service to be awful as well they were very cocky and took forever to answer the phone.
Overall I didn't rate V+ as much as sky+ it has a couple of pros the biggest being the lack of wires and installation, twice as much storage space (although I never needed all of it anyway) and the ability to record 2 programmes and watch a third but in every other way the box is dragged down by sky+.
In-between
Where both come neck-and-neck is the pausing of and rewinding of live TV, (also the rewind/ff when watching recorded programmes back) both boxes work exactly the same here and neither one is better than the other.
Sky+
This I personally think is the better option. Its interface is fast and quick and harder ever crashes and you do everything really quickly with it,. (I am a fast finger, know-what-i-want) kind of TV viewer though and hate having the wait while the box thinks about it. The EPG is much more detailed and clearer to read (IMO) and the + box itself is much smaller and neat than the huge V+ box.
The sky system does come at a higher cost of installation and with much more fuss of wiring drilling and having a dish on the side of your house, but they can be tucked away out of sight. (If that bothers you), one major issue is sky is the insistence of them having the box connected to a phone line
this causes a massive pain with them having to run phone line cables under your carpets and doors and it’s only because they want you to use their active shopping services (which I never will),
Likewise the sky+ box comes with scart sockets so just as easy to plug into my DVD recorder and at least 5 times to amount of free radio stations (including all the ones available on freeview). Also the higher range of channels (generally as mentioned above). One big flaw in sky+ is that you can only record 1 programme and watch other, and if you do record 2 at once. You can mess one the recording by trying to watch a channel. This is impossible to do with virgin.
You get a little better sucture of packages with sky too so you can be a little bit more choosy of what channels you want to have from them, I actually saved money because I could get the channels I watch with smaller package (and get 2 new channels I might now watch thrown in with my sky package (I didn't have before on Virgin). Sky customer is excellent you can straight though most of the time and the staff are always friendly and helpful. Even if you are leaving!!
One factor I have taken out is that lack of the basic sky channels on the virgin media system. This is down to you as a viewer of course although it is a big factor to me as a regular sky one/sky new viewer.
Overall- Overall though having now had BOTH services I can judge and say both have pros & cons, butt I still think SKY+ is the better product.
