There will be more announcements regarding pricing / options in the coming days..... that's all I can say for now....All will be revealed.... We can't say anything, sorry.
Hello Dean,UPDATED: Virgin have just resent the emails with the correct customer names.
Now here’s something you don’t see everyday. You’ve got the chance to be one of the first to order our amazing 1TB TiVo® box before everyone else because you’re a Virgin Media customer and you pre-registered your interest in our TiVo service.
During the week beginning 11th April, we’ll be opening an exclusive pre-sale event just for you, so you can order Virgin Media TV powered by TiVo. We’ll email you the details on the day and you can be one of the first to get your hands on our latest kit before it goes on general sale.
Here’s the deal:
# 1TB TiVo box
# £149.95 one-off activation fee exclusively for existing customers (everyone else pays £199.95)
# £3 additional monthly fee with TV XL
Our exclusive pre-sale event for the 1TB box is only available to you. Think of it as a little ‘thank you’ from us for being a Virgin Media customer and for being one of the very first to register your interest in our TiVo service.
We’ll email you again during the week of 11th April to tell you more. If you’d like to take another look at what our TiVo service can do, head over to our Discover TiVo site for all the details.
Keep your eyes peeled on your inbox
The Virgin Media team
General: £40 installation fee applies. TiVo box remains property of Virgin Media. New 12-month minimum term contract applies. 1TB TiVo box: you must take, or upgrade to, TV XL to be eligible. If you cease to be an XL TV customer, we reserve the right to charge you the then applicable monthly TiVo charge (currently £8 for TV L or M+). TiVo is not available on TV M. Information about your TiVo use: By having the TiVo service and/or by using it you are providing your consent for us to use your viewing information to personalise your experience of the TiVo service (in addition to the other purposes set out in our privacy policy). We may share with third parties information about your use of the TiVo service in an aggregated form which will not personally identify you. This aggregated data may be used by those third parties for their marketing purposes (e.g. to improve their targeting of advertising based on user preferences).
The new service will also gain new functionality over time and supersedes the existing BBC iPlayer service on Virgin Media to provide the most complete TV on Demand service possible.
So far, the Virgin TiVo box is looking good, but we need to spend more time with it before issuing our final verdict. We'll have a full review in the June issue of What Hi-Fi? Sound and Vision, on sale from May 10th.In the meantime, Andy praised the BBC iPlayer app and the Catch-Up EPG, but:
...the biggest improvement is the inclusion of TiVo technology. For those not familiar with it, it's been a big hit in the States but less so (so far) over here.Read the full article at What Hi-Fi.
Essentially TiVo analyses your viewing habits and the box uses smart technology to record automatically shows it thinks you might like. Very nifty. You can help it decide which programmes you like by using the thumbs up/thumbs down button on the remote (see below).
Press the thumbs up button three times and it will record similar genres of programme to the one you've rated highly; give a programme three thumbs down and it will know not to record that type of programming.
While the usability issues are annoying, this is a big improvement on the old box. The menus are slicker, it’s easier to find the shows you want, and the remote is well laid out and simple to use. And the extras, though nice, are far from a deal breaker. The price will be a little high for some, with a £199 one off fee, £26.50 a month for the XL TiVo package of over 160 channels (including a phone line; it’s £32.50 a month without), and a £40 installation fee. It’s a shame, because if the price came down and the basic usability issues were ironed out, this’d really give Sky HD a run for its money.
Will it keep the TiVo fans and television nuts happy? Yes. Is it the most powerful box on the market? Yes. But is it better than Sky's flagship 1TB Sky+ HD box? Not yet. And it won't be until it's given a much needed polish.
We hope that the blips will be quickly wiped out as Virgin Media gathers feedback and improves its product, and we're always impressed by a product that gives you the power to do something seriously cool.
Perhaps the most important point about the TiVo box is that it takes the best points about being on cable – fast internet, instant HD on demand and the capacity to quickly suck in data, and makes them more fun, more usable and more powerful.Read the full review at TechRadar, and compare Virgin Media TiVo to Sky's HD 1TB box in the PVR Comparison Document.
Sky's deep pockets, greater range of context and simpler user interface remain a powerful force in British pay-television, but finally we have a challenger with the power and the hardware to genuinely mount a challenge. And with a bit of polish, The Virgin Media powered by TiVo box will become the finest PVR on the market.
