Virgin v Sky

[Tricky Dicky]

It's bloody brilliant.

Hmmm, most people seem to agree - slightly worried by ELSs' comments, I wonder if other people experience similar problems with Virgin.

Looks like I would save about £20 a month by taking TV/Phone/Broadband from Virgin - I do have Sky Sports and Films in my current package.

 

[eastlondonseagull]

Hmmm, most people seem to agree - slightly worried by ELSs' comments, I wonder if other people experience similar problems with Virgin.

Looks like I would save about £20 a month by taking TV/Phone/Broadband from Virgin - I do have Sky Sports and Films in my current package.

Maybe I'm just really unlucky, because if it works properly, it's really good value. Internet should be fast, but isn't. There are days when we get no internet at all. Engineers come round to sort it eventually, but within a week or so it's playing up again.

Recording frequently misses off the beginning or ending of programmes.

The frustrating thing about the Virgin + facility (apart from it not recording properly, full stop) is it's pretty limited in what it can do.

So, for example, if you start watching a 2hr-long film at the beginning, then use the live pause because of a phone call / crying baby, you have to stay up and watch the remainder of the film from where you paused it once you've finished the call / put kid back to sleep. You can't carry on from where you paused it the next day.

With Sky, you simply press record once you've finished the phone call / put kid to sleep, and it dumps the whole programme (from the beginning) on the hard drive, job done.

But with Virgin, it only permanently records what's left of the LIVE programme. So if you re-join the programme with only 10 minutes of the film remaining in real-time, that's all it will record. The 1hr 50 mins that you've missed on the blower is erased. Which is a bugger. SKY + wins hands down there, for me...

 

[Aldo]

Sky (HD) without a shadow

 

[Tricky Dicky]

Thanks ELS, intersting points. Don't think I've ever used Sky like that, if I use live pause, I tend to carry on, maybe fast-forwarding a bit through boing stuff & ads to catch up, rather than record.

Re the internet, it sounds like you are just unlucky there, that can't be everyones experience, the service wouldn't get taken up if it was that bad generally.

Still undecided, but still swaying towards virgin.

 

[Tricky Dicky]

Sky (HD) without a shadow

But why should I have to pay £10 a month for HD ? I wouldn't mind if it was a one-off payment to get the box, but not ongoing.

 

[Laughing Gravy]

I have had both and Virgin is better. A previous post stated that its all piped to your house via fibre optic cable Which means that broadband speeds are limitless.
I have got the basic 10Mb and its so stable and fast.
They also own evrything that you get, so if it breaks, they replace it for free, no more 60 pounds sky call out for f--k all.

 

[Easy 10]

But why should I have to pay £10 a month for HD ? I wouldn't mind if it was a one-off payment to get the box, but not ongoing.

Isn't it obvious ?
John Utaka's Ferrari isn't going to buy itself you know.

 

[Laughing Gravy]

Have had both. Switched to Virgin a year ago because it was cheaper, but not been a happy boy since. Slow response from remote control, live pause is inferior to SKY's, Virgin + promises so much, but is utter shite. Doesn't record properly, misses off chunks of programmes, system crashes more often. And the Wifi / internet access is god-awful, too. Soooo slow.

So, Virgin is pretty terrible, really. Only good thing is the On Demand facility, when it decides to work reliably.

You might just be unlucky mate

 

[mrhairy]

Just gone over from Sky to Virgin much better. No HD subscription so fantastic if you have several HD TVs and no Insurance needed Catch up and On Demand and better customer services. To stay in England. dial 150 then Option 2 then 2

 

[Husty]

Despite Virgin don't offer their services in my area they still got my vote, having used both extensively elsewhere Virgin is definitely the better service and offering broadband as well is good.

 

[Easy 10]

Sky customer service IS a pain in the arse - but I've never paid a callout charge. As soon as they come out with the old "£60 to have an engineer round", just mention that you'll just cancel and switch to someone else. They always "refer to a supervisor", and then its "ok on this occasion...".

I've had 3 boxes go wrong (in about 10 years) and each time had it sorted for nothing - one repair and two replacements. Mind you, I do subscribe to Movies and Sports, so if you're on a cheapo package they might not fight quite as hard to try to keep hold of you.

 

[Mr Burns]

Those who have slow internet speeds from Virgin, it may be worth checking your modem. If you had it a couple of years, Virgin recently ungraded and some of the oldr modems work really slow. I had this problem and they sent m a replacement, and I'll back up to high speeds again.

 

[stewardxxx]

Virgin Wins easily!

slightly less now they have introduced nagra 3 though

 

[Poyetry In Motion]

virgin for broadband, price and reliability
sky for cust service

 

[surrey jim]

virgin for broadband, price and reliability
sky for cust service

Thats a joke right?

 

[empire]

virgin superb

 

[mcshane in the 79th]

Have had both. Switched to Virgin a year ago because it was cheaper, but not been a happy boy since. Slow response from remote control, live pause is inferior to SKY's, Virgin + promises so much, but is utter shite. Doesn't record properly, misses off chunks of programmes, system crashes more often. And the Wifi / internet access is god-awful, too. Soooo slow.

So, Virgin is pretty terrible, really. Only good thing is the On Demand facility, when it decides to work reliably.

That's my biggest issue with Virgin, everything seems slow and jerky when navigating channels etc. Drives me mad.

With Sky everything is smooth and runs really well.

 

[mcshane in the 79th]

So, for example, if you start watching a 2hr-long film at the beginning, then use the live pause because of a phone call / crying baby, you have to stay up and watch the remainder of the film from where you paused it once you've finished the call / put kid back to sleep. You can't carry on from where you paused it the next day.

With Sky, you simply press record once you've finished the phone call / put kid to sleep, and it dumps the whole programme (from the beginning) on the hard drive, job done.

But with Virgin, it only permanently records what's left of the LIVE programme. So if you re-join the programme with only 10 minutes of the film remaining in real-time, that's all it will record. The 1hr 50 mins that you've missed on the blower is erased. Which is a bugger. SKY + wins hands down there, for me...

That does sound pretty rubbish

 

[brakespear]

Virgin, especially the broadband.

 

[Hiney]

Sky.

The ONLY thing that Virgin does better is the fibre optic broadband but Sky will have that in time anyway.